Hillbrow, Gauteng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hillbrow is the inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty and crime. In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-designated 'whites only' area but gradually became a cosmopolitan area of mixed races. Many whites left Hillbrow and the central business district after poorly controlled and restriced political uprisings and demonstrations in the late days of Apartheid, taking along with them their wealth and places of employment - accelerating the pace of urban decay . Now it is overwhelmingly populated by black migrants from the townships, rural areas and the rest of Africa. It is a common perception of many South Africans that there are many illegal immigrants from Northern and Western Africa living there.
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[edit] In the Media
In 2000, Michael Hammon and Jacqueline Görgen directed a documentary named Hillbrow Kids, depicting the struggles of a group of street children in post-apartheid urban South Africa. The 2001 novel Welcome to Our Hillbrow (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press) by Phaswane Mpe deals with life in the district in the years after apartheid, focusing on a large number of issues ranging from poverty, HIV/AIDS, and xenophobia. Hillbrow has also been a setting used by other South African writers: in the 2001 novel, The Restless Supermarket (David Philip Publishers), Ivan Vladislavic comically portrays South Africa's transition to democracy, endowing his narrator, Aubrey Tearle, with the perpective of a conservative white pensioner. Through this lens, Hillbrow becomes representative for the larger post-apartheid nation.
[edit] Landmarks
[edit] Constitution Hill
The Constitution Hill precinct, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, is located on the western edge of Hillbrow, and is part of a major government and private initiative to revitalize the area and the rest of the CBD.
[edit] Hillbrow Tower
The Hillbrow Tower, a telecommunications tower, dominates the Johannesburg city skyline, features in many picture postcard views of the city. It has become a symbol of the city and appears in the city seal. Completed in 1971, it rises to a height of 270 metres, thus making it the tallest man-made structure with an elevator in Africa. Initially named the JG Strijdom Tower, it became popularly known simply as the Hillbrow tower, and in May 2005 it was renamed to Telkom Joburg Tower, with its new name displayed prominently in lights. It once featured a luxury rotating restaurant, but that was closed in 1981 due to security fears and is unlikely to be reopened.
[edit] Suggested Reading
- Alan Morris, Bleakness and Light: Inner City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (Johannesburg, University of Witwatersrand Press, 1999)
- Glynn Griffith and Paddy Clay, Hillbrow (Cape Town, Don Nelson, 1982)
