A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town - Softcover

Ramphele, Mamphela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821410636 ISBN 13: 9780821410639

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 1993

Synopsis

In the last three years the migrant labor hostels of South Africa, particularly those in the Transvaal, have gained international notoriety as theaters of violence. For many years they were hidden from public view and neglected by the white authorities. Now, it seems, hostel dwellers may have chosen physical violence to draw attention to the structural violence of their appalling conditions of life. Yet we should not lose sight of the fact that the majority of hostel dwellers are peace-loving people who have over the years developed creative strategies to cope with their impoverished and degrading environment.

In this challenging study, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele documents the life of the hostel dwellers of Cape Town, for whom a bed is literally a home for both themselves and their families. Elaborating the concept of space in its many dimensions—not just physical, but political, ideological, social, and economic as well—she emphasizes the constraints exerted on hostel dwellers by the limited spaces they inhabit. At the same time, she argues that within these constraints people have managed to find room for manoeuvre, and in her book explores the emancipatory possibilities of their environment.

The text is illustrated with a number of black-and-white photographs taken by Roger Meintjes in the townships and hostels.

About this title

About the Author:

Mamphela Ramphele is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

From Library Journal:

South Africa's hostels were designed to house temporarily those Africans allowed to work in "white-only" areas. Based on the author's Ph.D. thesis, this study not only documents the appalling conditions found in the hostels, which have become permanent fixtures of the South African landscape, but also pays special attention to the idea of "space" as a social, political, and physical component in hostel life and in the larger context of South Africa as well. We are thereby provided with crucial insight into the lives of these migrant laborers. A blending of both anthropology and psychology (Ramphele originally trained as a medical doctor), this study is recommended for academic collections on South Africa.
- Paul H. Thomas, Hoover Inst. Lib., Stanford, Cal.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0821410636
• ISBN 13: 9780821410639
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 159