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“Style is a big thing in the township. If you look good you feel good. You forget about poverty and find pleasure in the things that you own. It has always been there. I think warriors themselves had a competition about whose spear shined the most,” says Monwabizi Mfobo, resident in the township of Langa.

The townships of Cape Town burst with creativity. They are the place where traditional African culture meets global youth cultures. Hip-hop has reached South Africa and is reinterpreted according to local conditions. Styles in fashion, dance and music are a way out of poverty. For the first time this fascinating street culture is presented outside South Africa. Tomorrow’s global subcultures are born in the big cities of the Third World.

Photographer Per Englund offers a brand new image of South Africa. In The Beautiful Struggle, the reader will meet youths talking about their lives and dreams. But life is still a struggle in a society in which the Apartheid structure is still evident.

The texts are written by Per Englund, Mlamli Figlan, born and raised in the township Guguletu and the Danish anthropologist Karen Waltorp. Foreword by Marika Griesehl, Swedish Television’s former Africa correspondent.

Author: Englund & Figlan & Griesehl & Waltorp, English, Monograph.

Specifications: Hard Cover, 205mm x 265mm, 143 pages, colour photographs
, ISBN: 9789197398152 .

Price (ZA) R260.00

Keywords: Bookstore, Culture, Karen-Waltorp, Marika-Griesehl, Mlamli-Figlan, Per-Englund, Photography, South-African, struggle, townships