Rosebank's African market

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We have visited a number of the shopping malls here in Jo’burg, some quite large. Rosebank Mall had the usual shops and boutiques, but it also had a crowded collection of small booths that are called the African Market, and one Sunday a month a much larger African Market takes over the entire top level of a large parking garage. Here we found some wonderful arts and crafts objects. There was the usual tourist stuff, but there was also a lot of remarkable wood and stone carving, beadwork, metalwork and textiles from all over Africa. Many of the artists and craftsman who had made these objects had very little to work with. As an example, we saw some wonderful baskets that were made of electrical wire and others that had been woven out of plastic shopping bags. It is common for the woodcarvings to be polished with shoe polish. We began wondering what our Christian friends and family might like for Christmas. Bob has already had a friend ask for some African combs for her comb collection - no problem. Maybe we’re supposed to begin an African art exporting business. Not only could we find fabulous handcrafted items that were traditional but contemporary as well. It is a place that should be visited on an empty stomach, as there are delicacies from all over the continent.

We took Leyla out to dinner at a Thai restaurant in a large shopping complex called Sandton City. At one end of a large courtyard is a huge bronze statue of Nelson Mandela. We had seen photos of this massive sculpture before, and it was a treat to see it in person. It’s about 2 ½ stories tall and we can’t begin to imagine how much it weighs.

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