JACKET NOTES | Nickolaus Bauer on ‘Great Johannesburg’

The truth is I’ve had this book in me for quite some time. Having been born, bred, buttered and corrupted in the city of gold, I have a lot to say about the place. 

It absolutely destroys my soul to see Joburg in the state it’s in. But in the midst of despair there is hope. That is why I wrote Great Johannesburg. As there is nothing wrong with the city that can’t be fixed with what is right. 

From the proliferation of zama zamas to the incessant political instability to the bubbling xenophobia and rampant crime — there is in each of these seemingly intractable problems a glimmer of a golden opportunity to turn Joburg around. 

To adequately trace this route to salvation I went all the way back to the beginning. To how Joburg came to be in order to contextualise how the current state of the city is not completely without precedent. Joburg is a deeply unnatural place that draws people together out of chance and necessity, rather than design.

What do you expect from a place bereft of the most basic of life's necessity: water? Yet, this is the biggest city ever built without a river running through it or on a coastline.

Driven by the glittering allure of gold and attracting people of all shapes, classes and hues as 40% of all the precious metal ever mined in the history of the world was pulled out of the ground in Joburg. All the gold operations may be gone, but the city still has a precious resource in its people. Examples of Joburgers pushing against the tide are all around us if you just bother to look.

My book is filled with the stories of these Joburgers that refuse to go quietly into the dark night. Politicians won't save the city of gold, but Joburgers just might. 

Great Johannesburg by Nickolaus Bauer is published by Tafelberg