Playing fast and Lus-aka

In 2015 Banksy’s amusement park Dismaland opened its rusty gates for a limited season. Dubbed a ‘bemusement park’ unsuitable for children, this anti-theme park was complete with a dilapidated fairy caste housing the aftermath of Cinderella’s coach post-MVA.

On a sunny Saturday morning, we headed out for a family morning at Lusaka’s local amusement park. While there were no car crash scenes at the Lusaka amusement park, nor deliberate art installations; an injection of irony and hipsters may well have made the experience not dissimilar to a walk-through Banksy exhibition.

Despite the disrepair, the grass was green, the jumping castle empty and there was a steady flow of young Lusakians at least 10-15 years older than Frankie. It is likely that the ferris wheel and concrete statues of non-African animals were not the drawcard for the youth. It was rather the plentiful shade, braai, boom-boxes and importantly, a lack of parents.

As none of us were needing to enter the dating pool we may not have been the target customers of Lusaka’s ‘dreamworld in a land-locked country’. But we made the most of both the Saturday morning fun and the brief glimpse into Zambian teenage life. 








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