Lindokuhle SobekwaCandle Light, 2013
Nyaope. Everything You Give Me My Boss, Will Do
This series grew out of Poor Living Condition. While photographing in his community Lindokuhle was invited by a group of young men to come to their shed. Some of these men were old friends from school days and from daily life in the community. They were smoking nyaope, a drug made up of a mixture of low-grade heroin, antiretroviral medication (ARVs) and various other potentially harmful ingredients such as rat poison or soap powder. Users either smoke it inside a joint of dagga (marijuana) or inject the drug. In her book Hijack!, journalist Hazel Friedman (writing under a pseudonym) describes nyaope as “all the rage with the youngsters in Soweto,
Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Atteridgeville,” black settlements surrounding central Johannesburg and Pretoria. It is all the rage in Thokoza as well. Sobekwa was deeply affected when witnessing people he once looked up to doing drugs. They invited him to photograph them, to take their portraits, so he turned his camera onto the drug users and their environment. The response of the subjects was very positive, so he continued.
