A former gang member in Cape Town, South Africa, shows off his tattoos.
Courtesy Dariusz Dziewanski
More than being the social problem they are often made out to be, gangs are an indication of larger problems present in their societies.
Album artwork for Mount Ninji And Da Nice Time Kid.
Zef Recordz/Die Antwoord
Controversial South African band Die Antwoord illustrates the power relations that make cultural appropriation and blackface so damaging.
A housing project in a Cape Town gang area.
Dariusz Dziewanski
Hard as it is, some gangsters do leave gangs. A new book, based on a 5-year study, tracks the lives of 24 former gang members.
Dariusz Dziewanski
A study shows that some Cape Town gangsters choose to stand alone, preferring their independence to taking orders from a gang boss.
Dariusz Dziewanski
Even after becoming an ‘ex’, former gang members must still negotiate gang associations and activities in the communities they remain in.
The drug trade is the main source of income for gangs in Cape Town.
EPA/NIC BOTHMA
At present South Africa is simply placing a potentially dangerous market into the hands of criminal syndicates and international traffickers.
Today’s gang violence on the Cape Flats can’t be divorced from Cape Town’s history of forced removals.
EQRoy/Shutterstock/Editorial use only
Given the framework within which removals under the Group Areas Act took place in Cape Town, a social disaster was inevitable.