December 2018

Mbabane may not be the hub of Eswatini but it’s definitely the place where social culture, street fashion and a whole lot of urban eclectics meet. It’s caught between decades and boasting of a landscape dotted with colonial architecture, a lively market and restaurants filled with mouth-watering experiences. I’m a very outdoorsy person. I’m forever out and about being my inquisitive self, exploring places. They metaphorically call cities concrete jungles and because I live in one, I understand why. Jungles are open. Tricky. Dense. Jungles are synonymous with colour. Nocturnal creatures. Adventure. Call me strange but I love the CBD. It has an element. A rhythm of some sort. There’s a vibrant culture in constant motion there. Intersections of every kind. Strangers meeting and passing. Laughter. Noise. There’s a fusion of stories, hurried conversations and flurry. It’s a type of busyness that engulfs you. There’re photographers capturing images. Cars trekking through rivers of junctions. Kombies swimming out. Its chaotic commotion that flows as one. Not a sound off beat, not a hello too soon. There’re suits grabbing lunch at that café that’s a jump. Cuba Nora, right? There’re teenagers out on school holidays adding to the already chaotic transitions in a small little city. There are the women on the side walk selling a rainbow of fresh fruit. An interstate corner where Mozambican Shapaa sleeps waiting and right on the other side, taxi’s to Johannesburg. I try not to make the habit of staying in the CBD too long. I…