Abstract
In this article I suggest a different view on Sophiatown’s existence, both in terms of it standing as mythical icon and as a suburb. Instead of continuing the look ‘from afar’ (Hannerz 1994), which positions Sophiatown within the category of desirable ‘global icons’, I turn my gaze deeper into Sophiatown, both as a suburb and an icon. I use the lens of transnationalism to zoom into three scenes in Sophiatown in order to examine what has been ignored and overlooked in previous nar-ratives. Where the global icon stays and focuses on the surface, the transnational perspective focuses on the everyday lives within the icon. Through a series of vignettes, looking at women in
Sophiatown’s history, at coffee making with a Greek immigrant, and tales of home with Senegalese businessmen, through a consideration of Bloke Modisane’s post-Sophiatown career, I examine how the time established by focusing on these transnational lives is a time of presence which spans mul-tiple locations. I conclude the article with a final point about the ‘unrepresentability’ of a diverse history in the current ways of narrating history in Sophiatown; and the necessity of extending spaces of representation for other, alternative perspectives.