Township take-aways

I was going through some older photos of mine and came across this one I took in New Brighton a while back.  This lady sells roosterkoek and vetkoek from a container near the Red Location Museum (which is currently still closed) and when I worked for Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and got to go to the museum often I always stopped here from either.  About 5 years back she used to sell the roosterkoek for R1.50 plain and R1.80 buttered.  The mini verkoek was only 20c each and the local kids would come with R1 or R2 and walk away with a hand full.  Writing this my mouth is actually watering and I'm wondering if she's still there.

Liberation Struggle Heritage Tour - Nelson Mandela Bay

Township tours are very popular with international tourist visiting our beautiful city but its not really something many locals go on.  I've had the opportunity to explore the townships on a few occations in the past and with a variety of guides and I have to say that it is something every South African should do at least once.  Especially white South Africans.  One of the local guides offering township tours is Sithembiso Geoff Foster of Ezethu Tours.  Sithembiso grew up and worked in the townships all his life and will give first hand information of what goes on there.  One of his tours is the Liberation Struggle Heritage Tour which covers a lot of the sites and important events took place in Port Elizabeth in the early years as well as in the build up to South Africa's democracy.  Today's video is one I found that was shot during one of his tours.

Garden services at rest

With the Walmer Township so close to the airport it's nothing strange to see cattle or goats grazing in the area around 3rd Avenue and Allister Miller Drive.  Normally, in between people complaining about it, there are jokes about the garden services at work.  Natural garden services that is often more effective than the municipality when it comes to maintaining some open spaces.  Last week I had to drop something off at the airport and found the goats taking a break from their verge maintenance duties.

Preparing smileys

Smileys is a delicacy in the townships and visiting Njoli Square in Zwide you get to see vendors prepare this sheep head meal for the lunch time and after work rush coming past.

Buying meat at Chilleks Place

Chilleks Place in Walmer Township won the Nando's Shisa Nyama Championship in October last year with some exceptional braai'ing and flavouring.  It's maybe not as well known as the big Shisa Nyamas in Cape Town or Soweto, but the quality of their braai is right up there.  Before manager Coach and braai master Scott or any braaiers braai your meat, you actually get to choose it from the butchery on the premises (unless you order one of their mouth watering baskets).  In the butchery Pabalwa and Siphosethu will help you select your meat, chicken and wors and while its being braai'd you can head next door and order a quarts beer so long to wash it down with.

Shisa Nyama at Chilleks

The word shisa nyama means burned meat in Zulu and a Shisa Nyama refers to a township restaurant or tavern where they serve mainly braaivleis (barbequed meat for those who don't know what a braai is).  In most case the Shisa Nyama will have a butchery attached to it so you have a choice of ordering whatever off the menu or choose your meat from the fridge before it gets braai'd by the establishment's braaimaster for you. Everybody knows Shisa Nyamas like Mzoli's Place in Cape Town, Panyaza in Soweto and Max's in Durban, but at the recent Nando's Shisa Nyama Championship a Port Elizabeth establishment kicked dust in all the big boys eyes, walking away with the honours.  I've been to Chilleks in Walmer Township a couple of times before and I can vouch for their food.  These guys know how to braai.  They may not be as big or busy as Mzoli's but you are assured of getting good shisa nyama.  My last visit was with a group of travel bloggers and on our menu was lamb and pork chops with their magic basting, chicken wings, tomato boerewors (sausage), pap, chakalaka (a South African vegetable relish, usually spicy) and chips, washed down with a couple of quarts beer.  I will be back soon.

Walkie Talkies

Chicken heads and feet, better known as Walkie Talkies, at a township marketplace in Njoli Square.

Liver, onions and roosterkoek

I feel like a typical township lunch of liver, onions and roosterkoek today and decided to go and dig out this picture I have posted previously on The Firefly Photo Files.  A couple of us ventured to a township eatery a little while ago under the guidance of one of my black colleagues.  He knows all the best spots and took us for a scrumptious lunch of beef stew followed by liver and onions served with roosterkoek and ice cold Coca-Cola.  I wish I could get more white South Africans to go and experience a township lunch because I'm sure a lot of them will really enjoy the experience.  Read about our lunch.

Butcher at work

You get to see the most interesting and unusual sights when visiting the townships.  Well interesting and unusual sights for those of us who don't live in the township because for the inhabitants its everyday sights.  Like this sight of an informal butcher working from an roadside shack hacking open a cow skull with an axe.  I took this picture on a trip with an Argentinean journalist a little while ago and posted it on The Firefly Photo Files, but would like to share it with you as well.  We were both amazed at the sight and snapped away, with bone shards flying all around us, as he worked.

Traditional medicines

Tourists visiting the Port Elizabeth townships are always amazed at the ladies selling traditional medicines and remedies in Njoli Square.  They items they sell covers everything from cures for common ailments to little bundles of what is commonly known as Bushman's bedding which is burned to chase evil spirits away.  There is even a drink to strengthen your ... Lets just call it a natural Viagra drink.

Township Shack

I spotted this little square township shack with its washing hanging outside in Red Location, New Brighton on a recent township tour through Port Elizabeth's townships.  I just found it a bit different because it wasn't surrounded by other shacks nor did it have a fence built around it.

The Red Locations Lodge ladies

The Red Location (Backpacker) Lodge in New Brighton has a special story to it.  I don't know all the details so I will give you the short version of it.  The building that the Lodge is situated in used to be a beer hall back in the days.  Beer halls led to many men drinking away all their money and getting violent towards women and children and was also the source of a lot of crime in the townships.  The women had had enough and burned the beer hall down after which it stood as an burned out shell for many years.  A group of women, most who was involved in the burning of the beer hall, wanted to create a better future for themselves and approached the municipality for funding to turn the building into an useful place.  With the development of the Red Location Museum and surrounding precinct next door the municipality agreed and the women formed themselves into a co-op and started working.  At this stage the Lodge accommodates mostly school groups but they hope that in future they would become a popular spot for international backpacker travellers as well.

New Brighton Station

As the main railway station in the townships, the New Brighton Station saw a lot of action during the apartheid years.  Visiting the station today you can still see the railing that divided the bridge across the rail into "Europeans Only" and "Blacks Only" sections. 

 

On 26 June 1952, the volunteers for the Defiance Campaign which was due to start the next day, camped at the New Brighton Civic Centre and proceeded in the wee hours of morning to the station where they arrived at 5am.  On their arrival they found the police waiting for them but still proceeded to enter the “Europeans Only” section of the station.  This provoked the police to arrest them and by 6:30am they were all in police vans on their way to prison.

Preparing smileys

Today's post follows on yesterday's one of the sheep head smileys.  It shows the chef, cook, dude in overalls pants smoking a cigarette busy burning hair off the sheep head with a piece of hot metal. 

Sheep heads also known as Smileys

*Not for sensitive viewers*



Believe it or not, but sheep heads, known as smileys, is a township delicacy.  The heads are thrown in the fire where all the hair are burned off.  The "cook" then uses white hot irons and blades that are pushed into the fire to burn and cut off the remaining hair and unwanted parts.  There after the heads get split open with an axe, all the unwanted inside bits cleaned and then get cooked. The reason for the name smiley is the fact that after the heads come out the fire the lips roll back and the teeth becomes visible, making it look like the head is smiling.  Not everybody's cup of tea I know, but very much sought after and in the township.

Red Location Museum tour

A group being taken on a guided tour of the Red Location Museum in New Brighton.  The museum represents the struggle years specifically in Nelson Mandela Bay with exhibits remembering people, places and activities in the townships.

Township tour

Township tours are very popular with international visitors to South Africa.  Often locals can't really understand why the tourists would like to go and see the townships.  A few weeks ago we (we being me and my colleagues) took about 50 locals on a township tour with a difference and afterwards they couldn't stop talking about it.  They got to meet and interact with the people, see the sights, hear the sounds, eat (some of) what the locals eat, visit the local market and take aways and has a traditional township tshisa njama (braai).  Afterwards they all realised that its a whole different culture that begs to be shared and understood why tourists wanted to go there.

 

PS, Happy anniversary to my dearest Damselfly.  12 years and still going strong 

Container hairdresser

Hair salons in the township is a dime a dozen yet its apparently a very good business to be in and they all make a decent living.  I took a peek into one of the containers (and with containers I really mean most of them operate from shipping containers) in New Brighton the other day and was pleasantly surprised to see how well it was kitted out.  One wouldn't think its housed inside a container.  The hair dresser was busy putting extensions into the customer's hair and were still going to braid her hair later on.

Township fast food outlet

I seem to be getting to know more and more township spots to go and grab something for lunch (see Tsisha Nyama and Beef stew and liver).  There are also a number of places I've been shown where you can stop for a snack like vetkoek or roosterkoek, amongst them the container near Red Location Museum where this lady works.  They make the most divine roosterkoek (bread rolls made on the coals) - R1.50 plain and R1.80 buttered - and mini verkoek (dough that gets deep fried) - 20c each.  We've stopped there a couple of times while out and about for work and I have never been there where there wasn't other people buying from her at the same time.  In the pic she was cutting chips to serve with deep fried fish.  Some people will probably pull up their noses at the thought of buying food from places like this, but I promise you it tastes just as good and you get it at a fraction of the price.   

Olof Palme Road

Swedish visitors to the Red Location Museum in New Brighton always stand in amazement at the fact that the street in front of the museum is called Olof Palme Road.  Olof Palme was the Prime Minister of Sweden until his assassination on 28 February 1986 and a big supporter of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.  The Swedish government has also made a number of investments in upliftment projects in the New Brighton area since the dawn of democracy.