My name is Sarita Pillay and I am a Masters graduate in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota, and a former student of Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. While at Rhodes University in 2012, I completed my joint Honours in Political Studies and Human Geography. With the help of members of the Unemployed People’s Movement in Grahamstown, I decided to embark on an Honours research project focused on understanding eThembeni, a shack settlement in Grahamstown, from the eyes of its residents. This was inspired by my interests in social movements and space, and the misconceptions about shack (informal) settlements and their residents in academic and popular writing. Embarking on this project, I was assisted greatly by a local social movement, the Unemployed People’s Movement, particularly two of its members, Asanda Ncwadi and Siyanda Centwa. This became less of a university project, and more of a journey. I met a great deal of people in eThembeni: young, old, resolute, unemployed, holding many jobs, full of hope, lacking hope, educated, uneducated, politically apathetic, politically active – but all frustrated. I was welcomed into homes and conducted over twenty interviews, spending many hours in the informal settlement between May & September 2012. I’ve written two papers on the interviews and my findings, a research project in the Rhodes University Geography Department entitled “Behind the corrugated iron and mud walls: A Grahamstown informal settlement from the eyes of its residents” and a paper in the Politics Department (that I’m hoping to get published) entitled: “Spatial reorganisation, decentralisation and dignity: Applying a Fanonian lens to a Grahamstown shack settlement”.
This blog was born after a meeting with community members of eThembeni in November, where we discussed the findings of the interviews and research, and the continued struggles in eThembeni. Residents asked if I would would share their words and pictures with the world via the internet. The truth, they said, needs to be seen. So here it is, as per the wishes of eThembeni’s residents. I hope to share their experiences as best I can and have mainly used direct quotes and photos. A luta continua.
eThembeni 