Masiphumelele, South Africa

In November 2017 we spent time helping at a school in Cape Town, and most of the children came from Masiphumelele. Arrangements were made for us to visit their community. It sits on the Cape Peninsula south of the city, between Noordhoek and Kommetjie, with the mountains close behind it. The name is Xhosa for "let us succeed." Most of what I photographed was on its main streets: hand-painted signs, small businesses run out of shipping containers and corrugated-iron shacks, and neighbors stopping to talk at the corners.

What's in the gallery

Kids walking past a yellow refrigeration-repair shack and a corner stop under a Coca-Cola sign. A poultry stand advertising leg and thigh, fridges lined up for sale outside a TV repair shop, a driving school sign, laundry drying outside a yellow house. A man cycling past with flowers in his basket, women talking in the road, and the welcome wall at the turnoff from Pokela Road.

More from the trip in Cape Town, South Africa and a day trip to Buffelsfontein Game Reserve.

Boys walking past a hand-painted teal and yellow refrigeration-repair shack in Masiphumelele
People waiting at the Four Way Stop corner under a Coca-Cola sign on Ntantala Avenue
Shoppers walking past clothing stalls and a shipping-container shop on a township street near Cape Town
Man cycling with flowers in his basket past colorful houses, mountains in the distance
Women talking on a residential street lined with corrugated-iron homes in Masiphumelele
Two men walking past a blue shack with a driving school sign and a parked white car
Hand-painted Pepe Poultry and Lizzy's chicken signs beside a pickup on a Masiphumelele street
Neighbors gathered around a ladder outside a corner shop on a busy township street
Pickup truck driving down Masiphumelele's main street toward the mountains, a Coca-Cola sign on the left
Family walking past fridges for sale outside a TV repair shop in Masiphumelele
Masiphumelele welcome wall and a road sign at the turnoff from Pokela Road
Laundry hanging outside a yellow house as a rooster crosses a quiet street, mountains behind
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