Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard

Life Among the Stowaways

Sean Christie

 

Synopsis

Part memoir, part ethnography, Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard is journalist Sean Hunter Christie's account of time spent amongst the Tanzanian stowaways who live rough under the Nelson Mandela Boulevard flyover, at the foot of Cape Town. After a year living in South Africa's most unequal city, the young Zimbabwean is introduced to serial stowaway Adam Bashili, through the photographer David Southwood. This encounter changes everything. Adam introduces Christie to the extraordinary world of the "beachboys," a multi-port, fourth generation sub-culture of young men from the slums of Dar es Salaam, who came to South Africa with the aim of stowing away on ships bound for other continents.

Review

A genre-busting book, Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard does a rare thing - it is non-fiction that breaks the mould of works that look in on the continent from the outside. It shows the ancient and complex connections that exist within and beyond African borders in emotional, historical, cultural and metaphysical ways that others shirk from. Billy Kahora

Author

Sean Christie is a Zimbabwean born award winning writer and journalist based in South Africa.