What is brash yellow, six metres tall, weighs 125 tonnes and is symbolic of a certain muscular, extractive capitalism?
It’s an object that marks the place where Johannesburg started 137 years ago.
Placed in downtown Jo’burg, it’s supposed to be at the place where one of the early gold prospectors, Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, pitched his tent in the open veld in 1886.
In this second episode of ‘This is Jo’burg’ an unconventional historian takes Charles Leonard to that spot where the city of gold was supposedly born. He’s a cool, tattooed former DJ who’s obsessed with Jo’burg, the city where he was born and has lived all his life. This is the story of how this amateur historian is passionately chronicling Jo’burg, suburb by suburb.
Host: Charles Leonard
Guest: Marc Latilla
Photograph: Charles Leonard
Credits:
Compiled, produced, hosted & engineered by Charles Leonard.
Recorded in March 2023 for the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS).
Songs:
- Basil “Mannenberg” Coetzee & Lionel Pillay – Cherry
- Spokes H – Warra Warra
- Africa Negra – Qua Na Bua Nega Fa
- Thundercat – Them Changes
- Kid Koala & Money Mark – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Makhona Zonke Band – The Webb
Basil “Mannenberg” Coetzee & Lionel Pillay – Cherry
Spokes H – Warra Warra
Africa Negra – Qua Na Bua Nega Fa
Thundercat – Them Changes
Kid Koala & Money Mark – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Makhona Zonke Band – The Webb