Ever tried being a tourist in your own town? Heather Mason, the curious mind behind 2Summers – a blog that unearths Joburg’s best kept secrets – did. And she found so much to love about this city.
We have to get one thing straight. Heather isn’t a born and bred Joburger. But then, as she points out, how many of us are? That’s actually one of the things she loves about this city … almost everyone who has made a home here hails from somewhere else, and because of that, they all have a story that gets woven in with the tales of others to create a truly unique social fabric.
Heather’s ‘somewhere else’ is the States, where she admits that, far from the adventure seeker intent on finding, say, the best boxing gym in Hillbrow or trying out koeksusters made by a Fietas tannie, she was content in her Washington D.C life. So, what changed? “The NGO I worked for at the time sent me on an assignment to Tanzania, where I met a South African photographer – and, after that, everything changed. I went back to Washington D.C, sold my house and everything else I owned, and moved to Joburg.”
The Joburg Heather read about online wasn’t too enticing, she admits. Apart from a few warnings about how scary the streets can be, there was very little about what to do and where to go. “I reasoned that I couldn’t be the only expat wanting to know more about this city,” she says. And that’s how 2Summers was born.
Heather says that her intention was to record her outings rather than publicise them, and was surprised when she started gaining readers outside of her immediate circle. It probably helped that many of the places she found herself visiting were those well beyond the usual malls and strips. She found herself accompanying her photographer boyfriend to places in the CBD or other areas most Jo’burgers would consider, well, edgy – but which filled her with excitement. “That was back in the 2010s, when places like Maboneng was just starting up, so it was all very dynamic,” she says. A bug had bitten. Curious to learn even more about her new city, she seized on names she hadn’t heard before – Hillbrow is a case in point – signing up for events like photo walks to get a different view.
After a year-and-a-half in Joburg, her circumstances had changed. Sadly, the boyfriend who had been a big reason for her move to South Africa, passed away. But moving back to America was not an option. “By now, I had grown this circle of fellow bloggers, expats and photographers.” She had become a photographer, too, and a lover of all things creative, essentially gaining a new lease on life thanks to how Joburg captured her imagination in a way the States didn’t. “I think that when you grow up somewhere, you tend to live in a bubble. Because I came here with fresh eyes, I was free of those constraints. I could see the openness and creativity of the area. I think that because democracy is still new here, and many people are still living with the trauma of Apartheid, South Africans have developed a very different sense of humour, and I love that. And, because I’m not from here, people love sharing their stories with me.”
Thirteen years on, Heather remains in love with her adopted city. “People come here to make a life for themselves. There is a hugely diverse population – Ethiopians, Jews, Portuguese and everything in between – and I love exploring these cultures.” That said, Heather admits that she is not as readily impressed as when she first settled back in Joburg, when the discovery of something like a Jungle Energy Bar was enough to thrill her. Now, she explores the city “in a more nuanced way” – but she still makes plenty of exciting finds. Her latest favourite discoveries include the Vredefort Dome (“I can’t believe I haven’t been here before; it’s beautiful”) and a bakery in the new Chinatown (really a hodgepodge of everything Asian, including Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese) that has sprouted in Rivonia.
It’s not as if she plans her outings, though – she’s actually more of a homebody (or as she calls it, lazy), than people realise. “The list of things I want to see grows kind of organically. There’s always something around the edges of my awareness, and I just look around to see what inspires me.”
Her favourite places in the city? If we’re talking food, Breezeblock in her home suburb of Brixton is her old faithful … it’s a real intersection of classes, races, age groups and nationalities – a kind of microcosm of the suburb itself. She’s also a fan of Mayfair and Fordsburg, because these areas are always evolving … the earliest Indian and Pakistani immigrants have been joined by a wave of people from Syria, Turkey, and Somalia, so it’s always interesting. And then there’s the giant city within a city that is Soweto, where there is always something to explore. The Rand Club gets a mention, too … from a formerly ‘whites only’ institution (and white men at that), it is now a bastion of the multi-everything that makes Johannesburg what it is.
“I still can’t believe that I didn’t have the same curiosity about my hometown. I feel like when I moved here, this tourist persona was handed to me, and I took it and I loved it,” Heather concludes.
Details: www.2summers.net, follow @2summers on Instagram.
Heather’s tips for becoming a tourist in your own town
- Sign up for the Johannesburg in Your Pocket or 2Summers so that you know what’s happening, where.
- Start small, by exploring your own area, then work your way outwards. “Remember that you don’t have to go clubbing in Braam to explore Johannesburg. Just find somewhere you haven’t been before, that looks interesting.”
- Safety first! Heather has found herself in some spaces that would make many a native Joburger feel nervous, but she follows the basic rules for keeping safe: be aware of your surroundings, don’t flaunt your valuables, and acknowledge the people around you. “It’s hard to feel scared of someone if they’re greeting you,” she points out.
- Go with a friend. It means double the fun.
Text: LISA WITEPSKI • Photo: MEGAN BRETT. • Outfit: Dress from Wizard’s Vintage, follow @wizards.vintage on Insta. Earrings made by Tamzyn Botha, www.limbthing.com • Location: BREEZEBLOCK, www.breezeblock.co.za
