Photography Life

Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Karate style is the way to pose for a photo

I’d heard that it was Cape Town’s Soweto, only these days, more dangerous. This was the information fresh in my head as we approached Khayelitsha, the infamous township of Cape Town, with our tour guide on a Sunday, ready to find more Soccer in South Africa photographs.

As usual I was taking the advice of the South African locals with a grain of salt and felt ok about our tour. We had told our tour guide Jenny or ‘Nomvoyu’ as she had been unofficially named by a Xhosa friend, that we were specifically looking to photograph people playing soccer in Khayelitsha, which she had assured us was fine.  However as we approached the township she casually mentioned that as it was a Sunday, she wasn’t sure how we’d go with the men doing the Sunday drinking thing, she then launched into telling various stories of close encounters she’d had while doing tours.

It was the first time our friend’s stories were starting to feel like they might ring true and I felt quite nervous as we drove through the informal settlements within the township.

There are approx 2 million people living in Khayelitsha, a township or location set in and behind the sandhills of the southern beach of Cape Town. It consists of formal and informal living areas, formal and informal business districts. The formal side has everything residents need from banks, shops and supermarkets. The informal CBD sells ready to assemble shacks and anything that can be sold, Jenny tells us that the shipping containers make great shops because there are no windows, owners can just lock up the front entrance and it’s totally secure.

Get the soccer ball in the crate!

Unfortunately the soccer fields were empty, it was still holiday time, residents explained. Finally though, as we’d hoped, we spotted some boys kicking round a soccer ball in the middle of a dirt side-street. In a semi-circle the game was to get the ball into the up-turned crate – all the better if it could be done via a trick. Walking over we asked the boys if we could take some photos, which they were happy for us to do and the interest of onlookers was sparked and friendly greetings exchanged. Still wary buy my nerves now quelled, we ensured we could get copies of the photos back to the boys via our tour guide and moved on.

Not far along we came across some younger boys playing on a small sandy field, the top of the soccer goal posts formed by small thin planks nailed together. Again we asked to take photos and we were warmly welcomed. Suddenly the unofficial game came to penalty shoot-out before group photos ensued. I think these children would have been happy to be photographed all day! But our tour time was coming to an end and we said our goodbyes.

Wooden plank goals and a sandy field

Soccer in the sandhills

In a side street

Again photographing soccer in South Africa had been successful, it again seemed to break down barriers and unite us all!  (or was that the cameras and promise of photographs?)

cheers

Keturah de klerk - Photography Life