A Jozi Love Letter

“Johannesburg Central At Sunrise” by Paul Saad under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

This city welcomes

Streets watch and wait
New arrivals take the bait
Gilded perdition
Jostling for position
With the skollies
And the recalcitrant
Unemployment rate

This city shines

Off the bonnet of a Beemer
Money creates and stymies
For the sheltered
Rejecting and accepting
Glittering fearful hope
Always space for one more
On the tightrope

This city jives

Buildings boom and sway
Heavy with prospect
Affluence and gunshots
Twinkling and twisted
Affectionate tepid nights
Rhythmic jazz
Wistful in the neon-light

My city of gold

I love you, I do

Published by Brandon Hamber, Botsotso Magazine, 24 March 2022

Invitation: Book Launch and Discussion

Manifestations of Woundedness - Violence and Xenophobia

The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, War Trauma Foundation (Netherlands), The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) and the African Centre for Migration & Society cordially invite you to a book launch and public discussion coinciding with the hosting of an international conference titled ‘Healing communities, transforming society: Exploring the interconnectedness between psycho-social needs, practice and peacebuilding’.

This book - Healing and Change in the City of Gold: Case Studies of Coping and Support in Johannesburg-edited by Ingrid Palmary, Brandon Hamber and Lorena Nunez - offers radically new ways of thinking about precarious life in the city of Johannesburg particularly for migrants. Using case studies as varied as Pentecostal and Zionist churches, brothels, shelters, political movements for change in Zimbabwe, ex-soldiers groups, counselling services and art projects, this volume grapples with the way its predominantly migrant residents navigate the opportunities, challenges, moral orders and relationships in this iconic and complex city.

Given the recent xenophobic violence in South Africa, the volume has a deep resonance, as it traces through in-depth case studies how migrant residents seek support, to cope and to heal, going beyond what mental health professionals traditionally consider support mechanisms or interventions for those in distress. The book will be launched as part of a public panel discussion focused on the current context for migrants in South Africa and abroad.

SPEAKERS

Professor Brandon Hamber
Director, International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University, Northern Ireland

Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
University of the Free State, South Africa

Dr Ingrid Palmary
Director and Associate Professor African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand

DATE: 7 May 2015
TIME: 6 for 6:30pm
VENUE: Sunnyside Park Hotel, Parktown, Johannesburg

TO RSVP please send an email to justiceandreconciliation@gmail.com

Healing and Change in the City of Gold

I am delighted to announce that my new book, edited with Ingrid Palmary and Lorena Nunez is now out. It is entitled Healing and Change in the City of Gold: Case Studies of Coping and Support in Johannesburg.

This book offers radically new ways of thinking about precarious life in the city of Johannesburg. Using case studies as varied as Pentecostal and Zionist churches, brothels, shelters, political movements for change in Zimbabwe, ex-soldiers groups, counseling services and art projects, this volume grapples with the way its predominantly migrant residents navigate the opportunities, challenges, moral orders and relationships in this iconic and complex city.

Taking seriously how context shapes meaning the authors use participatory and ethnographic techniques to understand people’s everyday responses to the violence, insecurity and possibilities for change that they face in contemporary Johannesburg. Read together, the case studies give us new insights into what it means to seek support, to cope and to heal, going beyond what mental health professionals traditionally consider support mechanisms or interventions for those in distress. They develop a notion of healing that sees it as a process and an outcome that is rooted in the world-view of those who live in the city.

Throughout the chapters in this book is a sense of everyday insecurity alongside an equally strong sense of optimism, care and a striving for change. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that this book deals very centrally with themes of the struggle for progress, mobility (geographic, material and spiritual), and the sense of possibility and change associated with the City of Gold. Ultimately, the volume demonstrates that coping and healing are both a collective and individual achievement, as well as a economic, psychological, spiritual and material phenomenon shaped by context.

Interested in a copy, you can buy from Amazon, or directly from Springer.

You can also get updates on the book by visiting the Facebook Page.