Another world is possible — Bob Nameng, the Soul Rebel of Kliptown

“The father of Kliptown”, Soweto, Bob Nameng (1 July 1970-19 April 2025), is no more. Bob died at his home, on the rutted, potholed street opposite the unguarded railway line and a few minutes’ walk from the dilapidated house that was once the home of Charlotte Maxeke.

Bob Nameng was a giant, perhaps the true inheritor of the spirit and values that had animated the gathering in Kliptown Square in 1955 that drew up the Freedom Charter. Bob’s full history must be recovered by a historian, and I’m sorry it didn’t happen when he was alive. The little I know is that his adoptive mother was Auntie Eva Mokoka, the famous people’s nurse and “lady of the lamp” of Kliptown, and that Bob attributed his ethics and values to her presence in his life.

Read more: Bob Nameng and the children of the SKY

His other ever-present inspiration was Bob Marley, who he constantly quoted and whose life and practices he emulated, although for health reasons he stopped smoking the weed two years ago.

The last time I spoke to Bob was on Marley’s 80th birthday on 6 February to discuss recording a podcast about how Marley’s songs of freedom had influenced a generation of activists. I was thinking of bringing together Bob, Charles Leonard, Robert McBride and Andrew Kasrils. 

Sadly, it was not to be. 

Rat race

I got to know Bob properly in 2024. We were introduced because of his lifetime of community activism, particularly inspiring and uplifting children, and our shared love of Bob Marley. The first time I entered his house, on Union Avenue, it was like entering a magical grotto, adorned with murals, Bob Marley regalia, rastafarian colours and the bric-a-brac of everyday life. Bob’s garage-cum-living room was an open community space, where elders and children always gathered to eat, to talk and for his weekly Sunday school.

Bob’s memorial on 24 April was held at the Kliptown Youth Programme (KYP), an offshoot of Soweto Kliptown Youth (SKY), the organisation Bob had created many years ago. It was packed to the rafters with community members. 

KYP is itself a wonder. A compact educational campus, situated in the middle of the informal settlement, providing daily after-school lessons to nearly a thousand children from the surrounding community. 

It also doubles up as a food kitchen, computer centre, library and community venue. The people who run it are alumni of the school of Nameng. 

Under a banner with a picture of Bob and a slogan proclaiming “in an abundance of water the fool is thirsty”, part of the lyrics of