How many ways from here to there

People familiar with Africa, or who have seen any kind of documentary about urban Sub-Saharan Africa would recognize a single ubiquitous element in the backdrop - the white mini-bus taxi. They were old Ford Transit vans during my 70s-80s childhood in Nigeria. Now they are solidly represented by the Japanese motor industry. As expected these mini-buses are the backbone for transportation across the Jo'burg metro area. They evolved due to apartheid era policies for creating race based townships outside the city without providing and public transit connecting the workers to their workplaces. Public buses were out of bounds for colored folks. So they improvised and organically developed the mini-bus transportation network that now serves a majority of the population's transportation needs. Minibus Taxi atmosphere Post-Apartheid, these mini-vans were organised into associations that were given specific routes form them to ply on. This was primarily done to avoid the ...

Johannesburg, Jo'burg, Jozi.... the largest city, commercial capital and the place to be in South Africa. I was on assignment as an independent consultant in a suburb of Johannesburg for a three month stint. I was very excited to get the opportunity to have an extended stay in the this beating heart of Southern Africa. As with any new place visit, I started reading about Jo'burg and got a varied picture that was exciting, intimidating and confusing at the same time. Exciting - I was going to back Africa after 29 years. I spent my childhood in a small university town in Zaria, Nigeria. A lot of fond memories had me all nostalgic. I also was going to the haloed ground of two of the greatest leaders of the 20th century - Mahatma Gandhi and (Mahatma) Nelson Mandela. All the songs, skits, plays I participated in my middle school (Blue Bells International) showing Indian solidarity for the Apartheid struggles of South Africans, had me pumped up. and, of course the wild life ha...