/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Amogelang-Bodibe2.jpg "This is where I dream. (Photo: Amogelang Bodibe)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Basetsana-Diretse.jpg "Swazi Shabalala. (Photo: Basetsana Diretse)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Basetsana-Diretse1.jpg "The street is our barbershop, and the shadow is our mirror. (Photo: Basetsana Diretse)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bothlale-Monnakgotlajpg.jpg "This is home! (Photo: Bothlale Monnakgotla)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Buhle-Dlamini1.jpg "Khethelo Sibanyoni, \"Church is my home too\". (Photo: Buhle Dlamini)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Buhle-Dlamini.jpg "I carry my faith in my hand. (Photo: Buhle Dlamini)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Lethiwe-Ntuli2.jpg "Our stories are copied here. (Photo: Lethiwe Ntuli)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Mbalentle-Mqatu5.jpg "Sisi has her world in her hands. (Photo: Mbalentle Mqatu)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Noluvo-Shangase2.jpg "Sometimes the daily routine is home. (Photo: Noluvo Shangase)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Noluvo-Shangase3.jpg "Group Exercise. (Photo: Noluvo Shangase)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Nolwazi-Hadebe.jpg "This is me, Sivuyile Msibi - simple, bright and unbothered! (Photo: Nolwazi Hadebe)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Nontobeko-Mkhonza.jpg "Small business keeps things going. (Photo: Nontobeko Mkhonza)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Phethelo-Mjolijpg.jpg "The walls see everything. (Photo: Phethelo Mjoli)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sisanda-Mbatha2.jpg "The men used to leave the hostels. (Photo: Sisanda Mbatha)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sivuyile.jpg "This room is still feeding us. (Photo: Sivuyile Msibi).DM")
PHOTO ESSAY
This Is Home: Young photographers challenge stereotypes, capture community
Over recent months, more than 30 young people from Thokoza and Soweto’s Merafe Hostel have taken part in an intensive series of workshops run by the Of Soul and Joy photography programme. Led by women photographers and supported by programme alumni, the participants used the camera as a tool to explore questions of identity, belonging, and self-expression. The result is a body of work that defies stereotype, offering vivid and deeply personal portraits of what “home” and community mean today.
We grow up here. (Photo: Mbalentle Mqatu)