Mayfair’s train station lies behind a wall, a fence and a spiral of razor wire. It’s not like Somalis in the area use it, anyway. Some have been attacked on the train, or at the station or around it. The neighbourhood empties or fills up depending on the xenophobic tides. Ibrahim: "But nothing happens in Mayfair; here we are just too many". Another young entrepreneur adds: "I had never seen what I have seen in South Africa. I’ve passed through Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But I have never seen people attacked because they own a shop". He just wants to move on. After all, he says, Jo’burg is just a transit point, yet another station. Electric fences and high walls are a common view in Johannesburg, a city where public and private space can be violently demarcated by physical boundaries that only make more apparent the social and racial divides of the post-apartheid city.

Stories circulate amongst Somalis in East Africa about the prosperous life to be found in South Africa. However, after arriving in the country, Somali refugees find educational opportunities are expensive and often inaccessible and the only jobs they can find are working for other Somalis or Ethiopians, providing barely enough to survive. Many of them end up living in shared rooms in Mayfair.

The photograph could have been taken at a wedding. Or at the end of Ramadan. Or perhaps after Juma’h on a Friday afternoon. "When we leave Somalia relatives and friends give us photos to take with us", she says. There are other things: jewellery, a dress, sometimes a copy of the Quran, gold. On rare occasions those items make it all the way to South Africa. Things get lost or stolen by the mukhalas. "But they don’t take our photos". Memories. Pieces of Somalia wrapped in the cellophane sleeves of a pocket photo album.

Mohamed Ali Abdallah, a communications officer under the government of Mohamed Siad Barre, spent several years in jail after the president’s overthrow in 1991. He was accused of being a spy, tortured and sentenced to death. After escaping from prison, he left Somalia and lived in Nairobi for five years before making the journey to South Africa with his family.

Snapping at the wedding.

Wedding party.

Bride.

Muna covers her head with a scarf and we all know it is her turn to dance. She stomps her feet, claps her hands, threatens to collide against the other women in the human circle around her singing buraanburs. The poems sang at the todoba ceremony are about the recently married woman, Barlin. About her clan, her youth, her future.

Only three women in Mayfair are capable of singing buraanburs. "But I am the only one who sings original songs, and I improvise all of them at the todobas", says Shamso.

The Ethiopian man says: "Most people living in Mayfair are part of the Somali or Oromo community. You see, in Minnesota there are big streets that have been renamed Somali Street and Oromo Street. Even outside Africa they mention our name. So we are asking the South African government to rename Mayfair to Somalia City or Oromo City. And that’s what I want to say". He laughs.

Mayfair used to be a white suburb under the apartheid regime. South African Indians moved to the area in the late 1980s, and Somalis started moving to Mayfair in the early 1990s. A civil war that would plunge the country into decades of political instability had just erupted in their country, while South Africa was transitioning into the democratic era.

Commercial activity in Mayfair is centred around Amal, a busy shopping centre at the heart of the neighbourhood, where shops are mainly run and owned by Somali women who buy some of their products, many imported from Nairobi and Dubai, from Chinese-owned malls in the city.

Commercial activity in Mayfair is centred around Amal, a busy shopping centre at the heart of the neighbourhood, where shops are mainly run and owned by Somali women who buy some of their products, many imported from Nairobi and Dubai, from Chinese-owned malls in the city.

Commercial activity in Mayfair is centred around Amal, a busy shopping centre at the heart of the neighbourhood, where shops are mainly run and owned by Somali women who buy some of their products, many imported from Nairobi and Dubai, from Chinese-owned malls in the city.

Most Somalis living in Mayfair have transited or lived in the Kenyan capital, creating connections between communities in Nairobi and Johannesburg. A dozen travel agencies cater for Somali travellers, migrants and businesspeople moving back and forth between Johannesburg and East African cities.

His Majesty Boqor Burhan Boqor Muuse, Puntland royalty, visits Mayfair.

Busy Saturday afternoon in Hell Street.

Mayfair nightlife.

Business activity and everyday life in Mayfair have been deeply affected by the waves of xenophobic violence against foreign migrants in South Africa, during which hundreds of Somalis move to the area, perceived by many as a home away of home, an island of peace or a protective nest. Shortly after the xenophobic attacks of January 2015 the neighbourhood started to empty, as dozens of Somalis left the country in search of a better life somewhere else. Many headed to Brazil hoping to reach the United States.

Indoors. Many Somalis save for many months to be able to continue the migration route towards Europe or the United States via South America. Dozens of Somalis leave Mayfair and head to Western countries in the weeks following xenophobic waves.

Mosque and community hall. Mayfair.

Eid Mubarak. Hundreds of Somalis gather at a park in Mayfair during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the end of the month of Ramadan.