Few journalists working at the Mail & Guardian will easily forget the last week in May 2008. As a weekly paper, it seemed strange that on a Monday, only a few staff members on the sub-editors and newdesk were around. A muted somberness hung in the air. Most of the staff were fanned out in different parts of Gauteng trying to "capture" a huge breaking story of mob-styled violence engulfing the province.
As colleagues slowly made their way back to the office later the afternoon, a spontaneous group collected outside the editor, Ferial Haffajee's office. An abiding image was, one of her on the floor, typing notes vigorously, while journalists relayed their experiences. One word encapsulates the "story behind the story" of the paper that week: teamwork.
Later that week, the task from a presentation view, was to package and depict the network of violence and anger that emerged: using a range of perspectives gathered by the writers and photographers. These ranged from official sources (Absent Mbeki critised over violence, SA knew of xenophobia threat:Kasrils) to exploring the theories of how the violence started (No third-force: Manuel, Caught in the hostel trap) to outlining the first-hand experiences of both "victims" (Tell them we're from here, ‘You can't image the pain) and "perpetrators" (Inside the mob) of the violence as well as the humanitarian crisis that ensued and those who sought to deal with it (Where to from here, An angel who started cooking).
The editor gave us a brief to utilise photographs as boldly as possible, which in itself became a story-telling method. We used thicker borders than usual around the photographs, with a slight drop-shadow, which created depth to each page. The strap at the top of each page, made by our graphic artist John McCann, was used as a unifying element for the section. "Inside the mob" seemed more appropriate than the initial blanket "xenophobia" title, especially when the diverse nature of the violence emerged, without reinforcing the "us" and "them" dynamic.
