The bizarre, the poignant, and the beer

"To live in Africa you must learn three things: how to live with the rich, how to live with the poor, and how to live with the very poor"

These were the words of our driver-friend as we started our Sunday afternoon who had invited us to have braai (South African barbecue) lunch in a nearby township. Townships, are the shantytowns or slums of South Africa. During apartheid, non-whites (three designations: Blacks, Colored, and Indians) were pushed out of urban areas and forced to live in these settlements in the outskirts. As you can imagine,  townships are extremely poor communities where most families live in one room tin shacks and lack basic plumbing or electricity. The development, politics, and threats to township communities are vast and I could never give them full justice in a blogpost.


I was looking forward to finally seeing this part of South Africa after having been in such luxury for the first few days. As we turned away from Tygerberg towards the townships, I wasn't surprised, I've seen slums, I've lived in them, it was what I expected,  including the heaviness and guilt you carry as you drive past in a comfortable car. (I don't take pictures of communities I don't know someone in to ask permission, especially if I'm just driving past, but I found some other people's pictures of Gugulethu where I was to give an idea)

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There are shacks, happy people, and some nicer areas with buildings. There are businesses and obvious development, a general pride of the community, there were people wearing a selling Gugulethu t-shirts and hoodies. We entered Mzoli's, the place we were to eat, it is basically a butcher shop, you order your meats and take them back to the grills to be cooked. Once we had done that, we went in search of something to drink.


Our guide took us to a house that was selling beer, we explained that it was too early to drink (11am Sunday) and we didn't want any. He was disappointed and explained that the beer is customary with braai, therefore we agreed to purchase some to take part in the full braai experience. Since there was only 5 of us, we thought a 6-pack was fine, but he insisted we needed two. Despite our disagreement and awkwardness he returned to purchase a second. When we get back to Mzoli's for our meat, there was a group of Americans playing an ice breaker game, some White South Africans in the corner dressed strangely and smoking, we thought it was rather random, but that was only the beginning of the craziness.

The meat is, hands down, the most incredible meat I have ever had (and I have had a lot of meat). There is no utensils, just a pile of meat and your hands. We enjoyed our meat and beers as we continued to see more and more people arrive.

The crowd was so bizarre, there were extremely rich, tons of foreigners, Black & White South African Hipsters, Indians, and people came dressed in armani, some in thrift store fashion, all kinds of languages being spoken around. Huge speakers were pulled out and house/techno music started playing (???). We were so confused as to how this lunch was turning into this bizarre party-like atmosphere in the middle of such immense poverty. With our single beer each we watched as our friends and the people kept drinking and eating meat, smoking, a hooka came out in another group, more tourists, lots of tourists, from all over the world. There were Mercedes Bens parking in front of tin shacks, it's owner (a Black man) speaking Xhosa with his friends with similar luxurious cars, as nearby Afrikaans, Spanish, English, French, was all being spoken. People of all walks of life kept arriving, by the time we left a couple of hours later the crowd was at around 800-1,000 (no exaggeration), it was insane. Apparently it's common to come there after church.

 How? How can so many different kinds of people come together to celebrate in a country with so much segregation? In the middle of a slum? Not quite sure whether to shake the uncomfortableness, join the party as we supported the township economy, or just be totally bizarred out. I ended up in a weird half-way point. As I asked why it was that this place was so popular with so many different kinds of people? I was simply responded with "there is something about Mzoli's..." or "they're all here for the meat".


Both are true, Mzoli's has the best meat in South Africa, and the business has become so popular and big, it has become a major tourist attraction. Townships are dangerous places (Gugulethu were we were had 700 murders between 2005-2010) and this safe spot has become a must for the many "township tours" of tourist packages, it offers a safe 'township experience'. Of course one cannot shake the thought of whether such a tourist attraction is really authentic, but after discussing this with coworkers and other South Africans, it actually is.



"A South Africans gathering needs braai, beer and music". The townships have great braai, while there is no spot as famous as Mzoli's, I have since heard there are braai spots like that all over, playing different musics, all located in the middle of the shacks, one which apparently has live jazz, has a balcony. A balcony! Overlooking the township!


I struggled for so long trying to come up with words to explain the Mzoli's experience, but I realize I simply did not have them. It was simply one of the craziest weirdest things ever, I can't analyze it or explain it, I can only share what I lived and let it be. For now, I'm just a little concerned, if that if that was lunch, what the heck is dinner like??