Award of Excellence
Krisanne Johnson
Freelance

"Izikhothane Battle"

Sibusiso Mgoduka, 16 (far right), watches his friend battle another Izikhothane group in a park near their home in Katlehong, near Johannesburg. Izikhothane is a new subculture among South African youth, in which groups of teen-age boys battle each other in dissing, dancing, and wearing the best designer clothing. "Izikhothane is like being a famous guy in Katlehong," says Mgoduka. "It's about bragging."

Nineteen years after the beginning of multiracial democracy in South Africa, the Born Frees-the first generation of the so-called rainbow nation-have come of age. These young South Africans, whose parents lived through the transition from a brutal system of white-led racial segregation, under apartheid, to a country that sought to become a democracy with twelve national languages and one of the world's most progressive constitutions, have developed a voice and identity of their own.