AFRIKABURN is rightly famous for gathering people to enter an otherworldly experience – without money or cell phones – where they build art, burn it, and celebrate music and life in the Tankwa Karoo. This year, 2025, my daughter Julia, an artist based in London, built a huge sculpture of an ancient beast that once ruled the food chain in those waters 285 million years ago.
At AfrikaBurn, Julia also met Nelson Nganisa, who sparked her interest in his art club in Diepsloot. On Saturday, I was cajoled into visiting it.
It was an extraordinary experience that made me want to tell everybody about it. Located at the edge of one of Johannesburg’s most dangerous townships, this remarkable young man simply started an art club “to keep the children off the streets and away from the drunken fighters and drug users.”
We witnessed a delightful scramble of children bringing tiny chairs, clearly excited and waiting for Nelson to distribute the “art materials.” These couldn’t be simpler: one crayon or pen per child and a single sheet of A4 paper. Children aged five to thirteen kept arriving, grabbing chairs and approaching Nelson for their supplies. They then sat anywhere and started drawing. This is the Happy Souls Art Club.
No names, no formalities. You arrive, find a chair, get your paper, and start drawing – or not. No lessons, no directives, just draw.
Eventually, the simple chairs run out, so children sit on the concrete floor. Some are fortunate enough to find a folding table to draw on.
I asked my daughter what Nelson needs most. “Tables,” she replied. When I asked Nelson directly, “Tables or chairs?” he thought for a moment, then said, “Chairs. We have 80 children at a time and only 60 chairs.” He receives no sponsorship and buys crayons and reams of paper himself to distribute each week. “I do it to keep the children off the streets for a few hours on Saturday mornings,” he explains.
The atmosphere is infectious. The children clearly love this rule-free art club. We brought snacks, which disappeared quickly, but they weren’t there for the food. The children eagerly shared their drawings with each other, with Nelson, my daughter, and me. Everyone offered appreciation – there’s no criticism here.
We bought Nelson some plastic chairs from Makro. He still needs tables, crayons, and paper each week.
- Peter Sullivan is a former Editor of The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa.
