It takes a village

Oxford Street, East London. Friday afternoon. This place is alight with people running to catch taxis, gogos selling fruit and vegetables in small packets-perfect for the target market of busy moms while changing from one mode of transport to the next, she can quickly pick up a R5 bag of fresh produce or a filled polony + cheese magwinya (vetkoek). Or the shisanyama that’s luring the shoppers from the formal trade sector around the corner to the irresistible smell of a braai and an impromptu game of urban soccer.

I was recently reminded about the richness of our country’s people again. If you’ve ever been in the Main Road of any South African city on a Friday afternoon (particularly towards the end of the month…) you will know that there is a vibe, a buzz and a particular flavour and scent of hustling that hangs around this area.

After listening to Kasinomics: African Informal Economies and the People Who Inhabit Them (Book by GG Alcock) it just dawned on me again that… this country of ours is
made up of incredible informal systems of ‘being’ and a certain ‘knowing amongst our people’ which is sometimes quite unfathomable for others.

Informal trading does not mean underdeveloped. And is MOST CERTAINLY not the opposite of ‘formal’ trading. I think… , no, I know, after observing the unwritten rules, undocumented systems of ‘informal’ commerce, the ‘formal’ sector has MUCH to learn from the informal trade systems and ways of meeting needs: human to human. Deep speaks to deep. Need speaks to need.

Nobody is the victim of soul-destroying marketing. Or corporate greed. Or impersonal branding selling you stuff you don’t need. These folks are meeting needs, PERSON TO PERSON.