CharlesShoemaker

A group of teenagers belonging to the gang the ‘Oka Boys’ smoke hookah pipes in "The Valley", a small shack behind one of their grandparents homes. The boys say that they feel safe in there as opposed to outside on the streets where different gangs move freely. In the past year, two members of the 'Oka Boys' have been killed and another was shot in the back on an attempt on his life. 

Boys prepare a BBQ for a birthday party at the house next to the Nicolas family. Facreton is a small suburb in the Cape Flats, an infertile area of land outside of Cape Town. This region has been plagued by a complex web of issues rooted in segregationist Apartheid-era laws.

Members of the Oka Boys and Garo Boys visit Mansoer Odendaal's grave site in Observatory for his 18th birthday. Ryan, (red jacket) who was also stabbed, was with Mansoer the night he was killed on the bus.

Ryan Nicolas and members of the Oka Boys celebrate the end of Eid by making a rare trip the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town city to smoke their hooka pipes.

Children born after 27 April 1994 have been nicknamed 'Born Free's', children born free from oppression and segregation, free from apartheids brutal laws. The truth though is far less optimistic. Many young teenage South Africans still face a daily economic struggle to survive and high levels violence. A boy lays in the grass while his friends dance to music at a party next door to the Nicolas' family.