SeaM SECURITY AT THE MARGINS Edited by Elsa Oliveira, S. J. Cooper-Knock, and Jo Vearey
SeaM SECURITY AT THE MARGINS Edited by Elsa Oliveira, S. J. Cooper-Knock, and Jo Vearey
Published in South Africa 2020 by: Security at the Margins (SeaM) African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland Published edition © 2020 by The SeaM Project ISBN 978-0-9946707-7-9 Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND
Compilation © 2020 by Elsa Oliveira, S. J. Cooper-Knock, and Jo Vearey Introduction and conclusion chapters © 2020 by S. J. Cooper-Knock and Jo Vearey Project summaries and reflections © 2020 by individual contributors Security at the Margins (SeaM) must be credited when shared. The work cannot be changed in any way, and it cannot be used commercially. First printed in Johannesburg, South Africa, 2020 Production manager: Elsa Oliveira Copy editors: Karabo Kgoleng and Greta Schuler Proofreader: Greta Schuler Cover and book design: Quinten Williams Cover artwork: Madoda Mkhobeni
SeaM Security at the Margins (SeaM) is a collaboration between Wits University and the University of Edinburgh, jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). The partnership is led by Principal Investigator Barbara Bompani, University of Edinburgh, and Co-Investigators S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh, and Jo Vearey, Wits University. When Barbara Bompani started maternity leave in May 2018, S. J. Cooper-Knock assumed the role of Principle Investigator. Ethics Each project featured in this publication received ethics approval from Wits University and/or the University of Edinburgh.
CONTENTS Foreword Geci Karuri-Sebina
11
Introducing Security at the Margins S. J. Cooper-Knock & Jo Vearey
15
A Note on Images Elsa Oliveira
21
Photographing the Everyday in Joburg Madoda Mkhobeni
25
PILOT PROJECTS About the Pilot Projects
37
Locked Out: Access to Student Accommodation in Braamfontein Richard Ballard, S. J. Cooper-Knock, Samkelisiwe Khanyile, Sandiswa Sondzaba, & Alex Wafer
40
Digital Platforms and Localisation in the Informal Economy Angus Bancroft, Alex Wafer, & Kirstin Lardy
44
60+: Queer, Old Joburg Jonathan Cane, NoĂŤleen Murray, Barbara Bompani, & Andrea Hayes
50
People at the Margins: Mining and Social Justice in South Africa 60 Zaheera Jinnah & Sam Spiegel Sound and the City S. J. Cooper-Knock & Duduzile Ndlovu
66
Sexual Health at the Margins: Exploring Mobility in the South African Rollout of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Amongst Men Who Have Sex With Men John Marnell, Jo Vearey, Ingrid Young, & Barbara Bompani Understanding Difference in Orange Farm Emma Monama & S. J. Cooper-Knock Change That Counts? Data, Voice, and the Pursuit of Police Accountability and Reform in Kenya and South Africa Kamau Wairuri & S. J. Cooper-Knock Mwangaza Mama: A Participatory Arts-Based Project With Migrant Women in Johannesburg Rebecca Walker & Elsa Oliveira
70
74
78
82
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS About the Early Career Researcher Projects
93
Know My Story Susann Huschke
96
Seeking Sanctuary: Mobility, Religion, and Political Authority in Johannesburg, South Africa Stephanie Maher
100
The Paradox of Impermanence: Africanist Political Imaginations and Rights Claiming in Johannesburg Claire McDonald
102
Everyday Urbanisms of Fear in Johannesburg’s Periphery: The Case of Sol Plaatje Settlement Khangelani Moyo
104
Exploring Women’s Voices on the Gukurahundi in Johannesburg Duduzile Ndlovu
108
Exploring Visual Languages of Marginality Duduzile Ndlovu
110
Everyday Mayfair Nereida Ripero-Muñiz & Elsa Oliveira
112
Motherhood, Health, and Migration Tackson Makandwa
116
Migrant Mothers Who Sell Sex: Exploring Experiences of Selling Sex, Motherhood, and Identity in Inner-City Johannesburg Rebecca Walker
118
REFLECTIONS About the Reflections
125
Precarity and Possibility Revisited B Camminga
128
GALA Reflections on the SeaM Project Keval Harie
130
A Reflection on the Technical Development of 60+: Queer, Old Joburg Andrea Hayes
134
Reflections on the Mwangaza Mama Book Launch Karabo Kgoleng
136
A Great Way to Challenge My Sense of “Normal”: Reflections on an Academic Exchange Alison Koslowski
140
Negotiating Two Roles: Being Both the Project Translator and a Participant Patience Okenge
142
SeaM as an Urban Transformations Interdisciplinary and Multi-Method Research Enterprise Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos
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Focus on Developing Early Career Researchers Is SeaM’s Biggest Strength Kamau Wairuri
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CONCLUSION Final Thoughts S. J. Cooper-Knock & Jo Vearey
153
ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE Organisations and People
161
Project Partners
162
Project Funders
166
Advisory Board
171
Biographies: Seam Team and Contributors
172
The resultant work is beautiful, rich, and humble. It demonstrates a raw reflexivity, warts and all, exposing the scholars as well as the participants.
Š Lety, Working the City, 2010
FOREWORD Geci Karuri-Sebina, South African Cities Network
The project presented in this book confronts the invisibility, blame, victimisation, exclusion, and occlusion of communities in the constructed margins of society. It does this by exploring themes of physical, political, economic, social, spatial, and cultural marginality in a participatory learning voyage that is both imaginative and incredibly selfaware. Standing on the backdrop of the city, Security at the Margins (SeaM) focuses on the stories and faces hidden by skylines and common urban representations.
research and an evolution in the research questions and methods of both established and emerging scholars. This book is true to the project team’s indication that their study treated marginality as “both a methodological question and a political commitment.� Descriptions of the nine pilot projects show that the research carefully recognises and negotiates its themes as well as the power relations between researchers and participants, cultivating new researcher-researched relationships that are both open and empowering. The research becomes a co-learning process between the researchers and communities that they invite into their process. The early career researchers take the same sensitive approach.
The researchers in this project dig up the colours, sounds, textures, and words that are not rendered legible on the thin surface. In this book, we see the SeaM researchers struggle with how to define and study these margins, how to locate their own roles within the endeavour, and how to represent their work. We see reflexivity in the practice of
A reader finds the exploration of different methods and modes of rendering research 11
FOREWORD
outputs in the SeaM projects to be organic and creative. The vast scope of themes covered immerses the reader in many dimensions of marginality to deepen and enrich an understanding of the city. Furthermore, every actor in the project is called upon to be visible and vocal in the study output—the researchers, the participants, the visualisers, the partners, the funders. It is an ethnographic tapestry that is less concerned with resolving itself than with inviting attention to its weaving, methods, and crafters.
exclusion? What are the roles of various urban actors—including development practitioners—in enabling marginality? How sensitive is our calibration to othering and difference—to the politics of people and places in our complex and diverse cities? The scholarship does not pretend to answer these questions, but it bothers to ask and pursue them. And it tries to consider the methods and interactions that might be useful in seeking understanding and responding to the challenges and strategies in these margins. SeaM is effectively making the case that everyone matters and can be heard and involved if only we are brave enough to open up our methods and positions through reflexive social learning practices.
The resultant work is beautiful, rich, and humble. It demonstrates a raw reflexivity, warts and all, exposing the scholars as well as the participants. The representation of the projects as short articles, accessible and concise, rather than the usual tomes of research reports also reflects SeaM’s commitment to activism—to not only produce conventional research and its usual distribution means but also to intentionally pursue dissemination approaches that can communicate to real-world stakeholders.
Organisations such as my own, which are often overly focused on conventional development epistemologies, can benefit greatly from enquiries such as this that offer alternative insights into what cities are about and that begin to demonstrate methods for engagement in what might otherwise seem to be impossibly fragmented realities that defy the standardising preferences of bureaucracies. Reading the chapters in this book gives a real sense that the organic strategies, tactics, and sensibilities found in the margins may very well hold the seeds for the transformative and inclusive change so desperately sought after in urban policy and practice today.
Through all of these creative means, the SeaM project helps us to better understand cities and marginality by inviting us to see both in their own complex terms and to consider our own positionality. What does it mean for a city to be an active participant in marginality and not just a stage or backdrop? How exactly do our cities produce and reproduce this inversion and 12
Johannesburg South Africa’s biggest city and capital of the Gauteng province, Johannesburg began as a 19th-century gold mining settlement.
13
FOREWORD
Throughout the project, we strove to create opportunities for equal and inclusive partnerships, working to support researchers at different stages of their career and in different locations. We have done so, however, as flawed humans situated within (and sometimes benefiting from) the structural inequalities and hierarchies that exist within, between, and beyond our institutions. Š Zyanda, Izwi Lethu, 2017
INTRODUCING SECURITY AT THE MARGINS S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh Jo Vearey, Wits University
Across the globe, urban areas are variously viewed with great optimism and deep suspicion. In reality, both visions hold some traction. In South Africa, urban living has offered opportunities for some to better their economic standing, strengthen their capabilities, and expand their freedoms. However, given the persistence of structural oppression, the rapid pace of urban growth, and the limitations of urban governance, urban areas have also been spaces in which connections fracture and injustices intensify.
a relationship of power. It might be that those who are marginalised are considered peripheral to society. Alternatively, marginalisation can be a form of exploitation upon which society rests. Positive urban transformation relies upon our collective capacity to understand how multiple marginalities intersect in people’s everyday lives. This, in turn, demands that we find ways to do research and build partnerships— between residents, civil society groups, state officials, and researchers—more effectively.
The challenges of urban life are particularly stark for those who live on the urban margins. When we speak of “the margins,” we deliberately talk in the plural to capture the varied types of marginality that exist, be they physical, political, economic, social, or cultural. To speak of a group or individual being marginalised is to talk about
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the South Africa National Research Foundation (NRF), Security at the Margins (SeaM) is a partnership that brings together the University of Edinburgh, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), and an advisory panel of local government and civil society partners. Our aim is to explore 15
INTRODUCING SECURITY AT THE MARGINS
new research agendas, research methods, and partnerships to better understand marginality in urban South Africa. Our hope is also to create the foundation for a long-lasting, international, inter-institutional partnership.
have maintained an active social media presence and involved a broader audience in our methods discussions through the #methodsmatter blog series, an arts-based methods workshop, and exhibitions that engage the public.
We kicked off the SeaM project in Edinburgh in February 2015 with a scoping workshop, creating the basis for connections across the initial group of researchers. Since then we have run nine pilot projects that brought together a range of different partners, including researchers from both universities and our civil society advisors. Through the pilot projects, we have been able to share and develop expertise in varied research tools, including sound diaries, quantitative surveys, photo elicitation, in-depth interviews, quilting, WhatsApp interviews, workshop dialogues, digital archives, and others. SeaM funded twelve exchange visits between Wits University and the University of Edinburgh, funded five presentations at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), and supported five international workshops and symposia across both institutions. Funding from the NRF provided ten project grants to early career researchers and postgraduate students at Wits University. With support from more established researchers and NRF funding, these early career researchers were able to participate in training workshops, conduct fieldwork, and gain experience in project management. Throughout the project, we
We started with the idea that to understand the urban margins we must listen to those who have experienced exclusion and oppression on their own terms. This is both a methodological question and a political commitment. It stretches from the research questions that we ask through the methods that we use to the ways in which we write. Ultimately, whilst our focus is on marginality, listening to the realities of people’s lives also means listening to the fullness and complexity of those lives and reflecting this in our writing. Before the SeaM partnership, there were some pre-existing links across this group of researchers, but this grant has allowed us to deepen relationships and collaborations. Throughout the project, we arranged visiting exchanges and workshops (such as an early-career workshop and the final full-team workshop) to facilitate sharing and connection. Excitingly, some of the connections and collaborations emerging from the project have already led to successful funding applications. With the University of Edinburgh and Wits University signing a Memorandum of Understanding this year, we hope that this is just the beginning. 16
Š Modise, Volume 44, 2014
Informal Livelihoods A reclaimer pulls their trolley in inner-city Johannesburg. Many residents are involved in informal work, including reclaiming recyclable materials that are then sold to recycling companies.
17
INTRODUCING SECURITY AT THE MARGINS
© Confidence, Working the City, 2010
Working the City Eleven migrant sex workers participated in a photo-documentary project in partnership with the Market Photo Workshop and the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement. The women photographed spaces in the city that reflected their daily experiences of insecurity, including unsafe and dangerous work spaces and neglected inner-city infrastructure. Their images respond to the marginalisation that people working in the informal labour market often experience.
© Ana, Working the City, 2010
© Shorty, Working the City, 2010
18
The patterns of the partnerships and collaborations also reflect the realities of life in the academy. Postgraduate students, early career researchers, and our civil society partners have—in many cases—made use of opportunities associated with the pilot projects to initiate conversations and collaborations and to undertake research together. Early career researchers, however, also felt the pressure of precarity within the academy, and there has been a high turnover of students and staff amongst this segment of the network. Partnership grants are ultimately limited by what they can do in the face of structural precarity. Meanwhile, more established scholars in longer-term contracts faced other pressures: teaching, publication, and the acquisition of large-scale grants. All of these factors squeeze the space for smaller, “slower,” and collaborative scholarship. Whilst there is much to celebrate, our experiences highlight how messy meaningful partnerships can be. Throughout the project, we strove to create opportunities for equal and inclusive partnerships, working to support researchers at different stages of their career and in different locations. We have done so, however, as flawed humans situated within (and sometimes benefiting from) the structural inequalities and hierarchies that exist within, between, and beyond our institutions. As we move forward, we are equally committed to building on our successes and learning from our mistakes, sharing our insights and attending to our blinkers.
Ultimately, equal and inclusive global partnerships can only exist within an equal and inclusive world. Therefore, to strive for such partnerships is to strive for change within and beyond the academy. We need to determine what we can do better as individuals and as institutions. We need to better understand, engage, and challenge the structural realities of the global academy and the multiple forms of marginalisation embedded within it. And to do this, we need to develop respectful practices that support international exchange and joint learning. The chapters that follow provide insights into some of the fruits of this partnership. We begin with summaries written by the researchers who received funding for pilot projects, which sought to forge new collaborations, approaches, and insights into lives on the margins. Summaries of early career research projects come next, followed by a section of reflections by various individuals involved in the partnership, who provide thoughts on the past four years and the road ahead. Our hope is that this book gives readers a sense of the engaging analytical conversations that SeaM has fostered and that will continue to grow into the future. *When talking about marginality and oppression the language we use is always political. Within this book we allowed authors to use the terminology that they, and their participants, preferred. 19
INTRODUCING SECURITY AT THE MARGINS
Interlacing different forms of representation offers an opportunity to highlight the multidimensional nature of people’s lives and movements and the spaces that they negotiate and traverse daily.
A NOTE ON IMAGES Elsa Oliveira, Wits University
The use of images in this book reflects the collaborative nature of the project itself. SeaM stakeholders sought to investigate “security at the margins” while also fostering partnerships across organisations and institutions. Collaboration brings people together, blending ideas, concepts, and experimentation. This book, including its images, represents multiple layers of collaboration and diverse ways of doing and disseminating research.
to offer a more layered understanding of a complex city. All of the pictures included in this publication depict Johannesburg, the main research site for many of the SeaM projects. These images are not meant to illustrate the text but complement it, enhancing the reader’s understanding of a diverse urban context. As Elliot Eisner (2008) explains, emotional and symbolic aspects of place and lived experiences are not easily conveyed through written or oral language alone. Interlacing different forms of representation offers an opportunity to highlight the multi-dimensional nature of people’s lives and movements and the spaces that they negotiate and traverse daily.
At various stages, SeaM partners had to work together on projects and negotiate different ways of seeing, representing, and exploring life in the urban margins. Contributors to this book wrote their summaries of and reflections on these projects. They also reviewed their work with their peers and the editors. Their words presented in the following pages are juxtaposed with images
Some SeaM researchers used visual approaches in their studies. Images from these projects accompany their summaries. Other images included in this book were 21
A NOTE ON IMAGES
taken by people who were either directly involved in a SeaM project or are connected to the University of Edinburgh or Wits University. Some images come from past projects conducted by the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) in collaboration with partner civil society organisations and artists. Several SeaM projects build on this work, which includes the participatory photo projects Volume 44 and Working the City, and the Izwi Lethu: Our Voice newsletter project. Images used from these projects are accompanied by copyright information, and the biographies of the photographers are included at the end of the book. The following images presented in this publication is a photo-essay by Madoda Mkhobeni, a street photographer who is currently completing an artist fellowship with the Migration and Health Project Southern Africa (maHp) at the ACMS. While he is not part of SeaM, his photographic work focuses on the people and streets of Johannesburg, South Africa. From Soweto, a township bordering one of the city’s principal mining belts, Madoda shows the reader life on the urban margins through his local lens.
References Eisner, E. (2008). Art and knowledge. In G. Knowles & A. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples & issues (pp. 3-12). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Some of Jozi’s residents were born here, but most made their way to the “city of gold” from other parts of South Africa or even further away.
PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG Madoda Mkhobeni
Johannesburg is a complicated place. It is a divided city, a place where everyday life rotates around the spaces one occupies, or the spaces one is able to occupy. Some areas of Joburg are occupied entirely by foreign nationals and other areas entirely by South Africans. Sometimes there is disharmony in the inner-city living and working spaces in which South Africans and people from outside the country interact. This can be (and has been) the cause of many tensions.
changed in Joburg over the years, poverty and security still remain significant issues. This city is the primary place of my photographic work. I have been walking the streets of the city (and its surrounding areas) my entire life. For more than a decade, I have drawn inspiration from the pavement and the moments that I witness and experience. Sometimes these situations are planned, but mostly they are of unexpected encounters or objects that I see while walking around. In many ways, Johannesburg has been the source of my projects, a space from which I have created work about trolley pullers, daily life, street fashion, and landscape.
Some South Africans feel that there is little room for them in the city, often blaming non-nationals, most of whom are from other African countries, for occupying the spaces they want to use.
When I look back at my pictures, I see clearly how much the city has changed, both for the better and the worse. Some of the dilapidated buildings that were abandoned
Many foreign nationals struggle to feel safe, especially in spaces where they feel (or know) they are unwanted. While things have certainly 25
PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG
before the end of apartheid have recently been refurbished, and a shopping mall has been erected on what was once undeveloped land. These renovations have improved certain aspects of the city, but they have also meant higher rents and, at times, the forcible removal of people who lived in those spaces. Much of my photographic work focuses on documenting the daily life struggles of those who live in (and around) inner-city Johannesburg: street traders who work from dawn to dusk selling vegetables, blankets, or snacks and informal recyclers who pull their trolleys filled with cardboard and plastic through busy streets. Some of Joburg’s residents were born here, but most made their way to the “city of gold” from other parts of South Africa or even further away. I want my pictures to be understood by anyone on the street. This is why I tell stories that are close to people’s lives—stories that are not often represented in the media or by researchers because they are too difficult to access, but are nonetheless critical to understanding the fabric of Johannesburg and the needs and experiences of its citizenry. A Place of Transition Once occupied solely by whites during apartheid, the city of Johannesburg is now home to people from all parts of the world.
The photographs and captions shared in this book form part of my ongoing work. They offer a glimpse into a vibrant, chaotic, and sometimes violent city and into the lives of hard-working people who help shape and define it every day. 26
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PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG
Changing Landscapes The building in the background was once used as a taxi rank. Now it is being refurbished.
28
Making a Living When walking around the streets of the city, you will see informal traders at every corner. 29
PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG
Mobility Johannesburg is all about movement, people working hard to make a living and the transport systems they use to get them from one place to another. 30
Breaking Boundaries The city is not only a place where people come to escape poverty but also a place where new hopes and dreams are imagined and sometimes realised.
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PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG
32
Women and the City Women migrants are often the primary breadwinners of their families, supporting children, parents, and other extended family members. They are also the targets of much gender-based violence.
33
PHOTOGRAPHING THE EVERYDAY IN JOBURG
PILOT PROJECTS The challenges of urban life are particularly stark for those who live on the urban margins. When we speak of “the margins,” we deliberately talk in the plural to capture the varied types of marginality that exist, be they physical, political, economic, social, or cultural. To speak of a group or individual being marginalised is to talk about a relationship of power. It might be that those who are marginalised are considered peripheral to society. Alternatively, marginalisation can be a form of exploitation upon which society rests. Positive urban transformation relies upon our collective capacity to understand how multiple marginalities intersect in people’s everyday lives. This, in turn, demands that we find ways to do research and build partnerships—between residents, civil society groups, state officials, and researchers—more effectively. S. J. Cooper-Knock and Jo Vearey, Introducing Security at the Margins
Š Chantel, Volume 44, 2014
ABOUT THE PILOT PROJECTS
At the core of the SeaM project are nine pilot projects that explore different approaches to studying “the margins.” This section provides summaries of these projects. The pilot projects represent the main focus of SeaM’s funding and highlights the partnerships created between Wits University and the University of Edinburgh and beyond the academy with civil society advisors. The proposals for these projects underwent a competitive process and committee review before receiving funding. The resulting work is expansive, crossing borders, and pushing the boundaries of traditional ways of conducting research. Not only are some of the projects ongoing, but also the researchers continue to analyse the rich data, write about their findings, publish articles about this work, and strengthen partnerships and connections established through this process.
From stories about the perils of informal mining on the edges of Johannesburg to those of temporary lockouts of students in the city, this work amplifies voices of those who are not often heard. These projects also show how researchers used innovative ways of conducting research. In 60+: Queer, Old Joburg, researchers experimented with using “cruising” as an archival method, as digital practice, and as process. Some of these projects resulted in not only scholarly work but also innovative ways of presenting the research to the broader public, such as an interactive website. One project used recordings of city soundscapes to prompt discussions about participants, recordings of which are now being turned into a podcast. Another project used photographs of places to open up interviews and focus on space. One project looked into the use of digital platforms in marginalised areas 37
ABOUT THE PILOT PROJECTS
while another used WhatsApp as a means to conduct interviews. Participants were active in the research process, defining “difference� for researchers in one project and deciding to tell their stories through textiles in another. Some projects subverted traditional power roles, letting participants moderate workshops and lead discussions. The researchers behind these projects considered issues of power not only as abstract ideas in their work but also in the very process of doing their research. The following summaries show how the resulting work not only furthers our understanding of life on the margins but also ways of bringing those from the margins to actively participate in and contribute to research about them.
Š Skara, Volume 44, 2014
Locked Out: Access to Student Accommodation in Braamfontein Richard Ballard, Wits University S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh Samkelisiwe Khanyile, Wits University Sandiswa Sondzaba, Wits University Alex Wafer, Wits University Walk into any block of flats in Johannesburg and you are likely to encounter some form of door, gate, or turnstile. In part, this security exists to make those who live in the flats feel protected, but it is also there to help those who own the flats to manage their property. The gates and turnstiles at the entrance to a block give management the power to enforce “lockouts” on residents, particularly when they are behind on rental payments.
rental stock in the city have been widespread, there is a concern that this property investment will prioritise economic returns over the provision of genuinely affordable accommodation. This, in turn, raises the concern that access control—security guards, keys, codes, cards, tags, remotes, and biometric scanners—will as likely be used to protect capital investments as to protect tenants.
In other words, access control systems can serve a range of different purposes. Their significance is only likely to increase as the re-commodification of inner-city spaces continues. Many buildings in the city were “lost” to the formal market in the 1990s as unauthorised occupation increased and the living conditions within these buildings deteriorated. Since the early 2000s, the city has sought to partner with corporate developers to renovate these “bad buildings.” This is part of a broader attempt by the state to attract property investment in the city. Whilst calls to improve and expand affordable
At present, however, there is no systematic study of how lockouts happen, their frequency, and their impact upon people’s lives. Whilst the mass eviction of residents in “hijacked buildings” has received some academic attention, the same cannot be said of individual residents who are temporarily or permanently excluded from their flats. Our research addresses that gap, focusing on blocks of student accommodation in Braamfontein along with the experiences of non-student tenants in the inner city. In the past, student accommodation was not a particularly popular area for investment 40
in South Africa. In recent years, however, efforts have been made to encourage private investors to shift their attention towards this direction. Furthermore, increases in the numbers of students and state funding mechanisms for students have produced a major opportunity for developers. Advocates have argued that private investment in student accommodation is mutually beneficial: Students can access affordable, quality accommodation, and private investors can secure a strong return on their investment. The City of Johannesburg is both actively encouraging such projects and acting as a private investor itself as part of a broader ZAR 20 billion investment in property across the city.
residents as a place of shelter and community and the value that it has to its owners as an investment. Although there has been some preliminary research mapping investment in large-scale student accommodation in Braamfontein, little attention has been paid to how these accommodation blocks are managed and the impact of these management strategies on people’s everyday lives. Our research focused on a small but significant part of that overall picture: the role that security architecture plays in excluding tenants from blocks of flats, both temporarily and permanently. Our aim was to undertake a scoping exercise, gathering a data set on lockouts from below. To do so, we created a quantitative survey, promoting it amongst students, both on and off campus. Subsequently, we collected accounts of how lockouts affected the relative power of landlords, managers, and tenants in negotiations over access and tenure. After all, the introduction of technology rarely
There may indeed be advantages to private investment in student accommodation, but we also need to be aware of how market shifts can create new forms of marginality in the city. Whilst investors and residents may share interests, tensions can also emerge between the value that a block of flats has to its 41
LOCKED OUT
displaces interactions between humans altogether. Instead, it often mediates relationships between people in new ways. We also explored whether lockouts were being used to enforce legal eviction processes or whether they were being used as a means of enforcing illegal de facto evictions and exclusions instead.
it intolerable for someone to occupy their apartment, for example, by turning off their electricity or water, could also constitute a form of constructive eviction. Disgruntled tenants explain that landlords are extremely efficient at instituting a lockout if someone is late on payment but are far less responsive on maintenance issues such as a lack of hot water or a lack of security. For example, one woman said that she approached her building manager to request a short extension as she had not been paid in full by her employer. No extension was granted, and she and her child were locked out of their apartment for several days. “I don’t know where will I go tonight,” she stated. Another tenant stated that after more than a year of paying rent on time, she was wrong-footed by a change of due date in the rental payment. Her lights were switched off, and she was locked out a few days later. She explained, “I had to live without food and clothes for 15 days, depending on borrowing clothes to attend interviews.”
Our research suggested that there was cause for concern. In one instance, for example, a student stepped out of her flat to visit a neighbouring flat only to discover upon her return that the locks had been changed on her apartment door. She had received no warning that this action would take place. The reason given was that the student’s flatmate had not paid her rent. In fact, both the residents had paid their rent on time, but these payments were not reflecting on the building’s accounting system as a result of an administrative glitch. They only regained access to their flat some time later. South African law provides people with protection against eviction. For an eviction to be legal, a court order must be secured, which will then be served by a sheriff, police officer, or private security guard. If we think of an eviction as an action that intentionally prevents a person from accessing their home, then preventing tenants from accessing their apartments by changing the locks on a door or by disabling access codes, cards, tags, or fingerprint readers could constitute a kind of constructive eviction. Furthermore, making
Our research demonstrated that the ability to lock out tenants gives a landlord, management company, or security company substantial power. Many tenants felt that the use of these practices was not lawful or reasonable. Yet, at present, there has been little legal action or academic attention paid to these practices. Our pilot project was a small but significant step towards understanding these practices. 42
Digital Platforms and Localisation in the Informal Economy Angus Bancroft, University of Edinburgh Alex Wafer, Wits University Kirstin Lardy, University of Edinburgh The project began as an attempt to examine the ways in which the rise of digital and mobile platforms affects local, informal, and semi-formal economies in Johannesburg, particularly to the extent that these platforms take the place of more traditional infrastructures for the distribution of work opportunities and financial payments.
remittance payments simpler in ways that traditional financing institutions have been unable or unwilling to do. Digital labour distribution platforms can provide access to livelihood opportunities for people on the urban margins. However, they can also involve the displacement of activities that are hard to formalise in this way and reconfigure existing labour and social relations in ways that undermine informal protections, reciprocity, and social control. They may embed systems of valuation that work against existing culturally and socially normative ways of assessing economic value and opportunity. Their effect may be to disrupt some forms economic exchange and drive unexpected changes in community power relations towards those with access to digital platforms. These can have the effect of squeezing economic opportunities for marginalised populations and shifting resources towards those in a position to broker relations with the formal economy.
We were driven to contribute to an emerging literature on the ways in which digital platforms are not only transforming so-called “formal� economies but also impacting on informal and precarious livelihood practices. Much of the literature has celebrated the rise of digital platforms for providing unprecedented access for many millions of citizens to banking and finance, while others have viewed this rise more sceptically as the increasing incursion of state and corporate institutions into existing informal networks of finance. Still others have focused on the forms of inequality that the digital landscape may produce and reproduce. Digitally mediated financialisations can help formalise the assets that marginalised populations have control over and make
We aimed to examine these themes with two critical cases. We began the project with two potential areas of exploration 44
in mind. The first was to trace the use of e-hailing apps (e.g., Uber and other ride-sharing schemes, which also include delivery services). Impressionistic evidence and indicative research from a Wits University post-graduate research thesis have suggested that these apps have had a significant impact. They have improved the mobility of people, especially young people, in Johannesburg, which has a notable history of urban fragmentation and very poor public transport. Furthermore, due largely to the precarious contracts and low barriers to entry, these apps have created new avenues of access into the urban economy, especially, though not exclusively, for immigrant groups. The immediate methodological constraint is, of course, access to the field. The distribution of these apps is geographically diffuse, and individual use is atomised. The second area of exploration was then to trace the use of a wider range of apps among a more identifiable sample group. The benefit of this approach is that we would be able to geographically limit the
study, but the shortcoming is that we could be far less specific about the individual platforms, hoping to see some emerging trends that could potentially lead to further investigation. Because the principal researchers were already embedded in the informal settlement of Site One* on the urban periphery of Johannesburg, it was thought that this would make an appropriate case study site. The settlement represents a highly transient and diverse community in which the majority of livelihoods are sustained through informal and precarious economic practices. The location therefore seemed like the ideal test site to explore assumptions about mobile and digital take-up within the informal economy. For these reasons, it was decided to focus exclusively on the geographically contained Site One and to use the initial findings to inform a more networked research process into specific platforms going forward. In fact, we have secured a larger grant in order to explore the use of particular platforms. Reasons for this choice of focus in the SeaM research included the scope of the project
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and the nature of the SeaM funding. Field research was largely undertaken by one researcher working in the field with local research assistants. We decided that, given the rapidity with which digital landscapes can shift, the specific platforms that we explore would have to come from the field rather than assumptions about which platforms were making the largest impact on everyday lives and livelihoods.
open to engagement were the unemployed youth in Site One (and subsequently also the neighbouring community, Site Two). But as we discuss below, their usage of digital platforms seems quite specific and geographically localised and did not seem to corroborate claims about the potentially transformational capacity of digital platforms—at least not in expected ways. The research team is in the process of working with that data with the intention of writing a journal article. In addition, we have been granted a larger research grant on the basis of some of our initial research findings. We have yet to complete our final analysis, but we have made significant early findings from the data thus far that seem to challenge some our initial assumptions.
Research in Site One was primarily qualitative, comprising interviews with a range of community members, observations and corroborations of different practices, and some informal group conversations. This work took place over six weeks in February and March 2019. As with any such field work, there are some contingencies that direct the research findings to some degree: Access to Site One was not practically possible (at least not over this short research period) without an interlocutor, which both opened access to the community but also framed that access in particular ways. Among the community groups that we would have liked to get more access to were those who sell airtime and data coupons. Due to the high costs of mobile telephony in South Africa and the fact that many people have intermittent income, data and airtime bundles can be bought in denominations as little as ZAR 5 (about 30 British pence). But coupon sales are dominated by specific immigrant groups, many of whom were reluctant to talk openly with our research team. More
The first finding is that although digital adoption is almost ubiquitous in the informal and marginal economies of the city—a fact by now well established in the literature, notwithstanding inequalities and uneven distributions of access—this adoption is place and context specific. For example, in both sites, almost all young people have some kind of access to digital devices, and there are some predictable patterns in their use of various platforms. WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram are all commonly used, but their geographical reach is often limited to the local context. In other words, people may communicate via WhatsApp, but their contacts are mostly 46
their friends who live locally and may include some family members and friends from further afield. In addition, employment opportunities through personal networks are often in the foreground of a majority of their conversations. Messaging platforms are used to arrange to meet up locally, talk to potential and existing sexual partners, and gossip. However, mobile phones, specifically smart phones, do have some effect on accessing jobs outside of personal networks. In this case, being able to go online and look at job postings and email through a smart phone enhances informal residents’ connection to central Johannesburg. Yet, this access does not seem to shift existing power relations as applications to online jobs do not often lead to success. In general, behaviours regarding job searching differ vastly between Site One and Two residents. It is unclear whether the differences are based solely on location or generational gaps, but both seem to have some impact on behaviour. In Site One, residents tend to go door to door to find jobs. This is due to the proximity of Site One to factories. Residents sit outside factories looking for work rather than using online options. On a typical weekday, one can see groups of three to five men sitting outside factories in the shade waiting for opportunities. This option requires no financial input (transportation, phone data) with little social cost (they often wait in groups close to the settlement). In Site Two,
young residents prefer online searching as opposed to door to door as firms are not as accessible for a low financial or social cost. There is a sense among young Site Two residents that going door to door, or “CV dropping,” is a waste of time. Too many times employers are too busy to take the résumé or do not seem interested. Digitally sending CVs does not require leaving the settlement or their group of friends. Access to digitally mediated financial services differs depending on nationality, location, and employment status. In general, migrants have a harder time accessing digital financial services without proper paperwork (work permit or South African ID). Migrants opt for personal networks within their own nationality in order to send money. In some cases, this might mean sending money with cargo trucks at high rates (ZAR 20 for every ZAR 100 sent) or (if a car is available) driving to the border and meeting a friend. At the same time, migrants’ mistrust of formal banking also impacts their uptake of digital mediated services. Some Nigerian participants had access to local banking structures yet continued to use personal networks to bank money due to their mistrust of formal institutions. Location also impacts access to financial services for both South Africans and migrants. For transient South Africans in Site One, paperwork such as proof of residency is hard to come by. While community leaders are responsible for providing such documents,
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they sometimes charge high rates (about ZAR 150), are impossible to find, or give expired documents. Site One in particular has an issue with flagrant corruption with their community leaders, which exacerbates precarity in this informal space. Site Two is part informal and part formal Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) housing, which allows for proof of residency to be more accessible. Here, community leaders are more organised and accessible. Employment status also impacts the use of digital financial services. In general, the use of these services increased if the resident was employed, but the services became unnecessary for the unemployed. Of course, this differed depending on the location. In Site Two, many of the participants had grown up there and had no financial responsibilities outside of their local groups. This meant that sending and receiving money did not require long distance transfers. In Site One, lack of participation in digital services was not based on employment status but nationality, documentation status and a lack of trust. *All locations are anonymised for participant safety.
Digital Landscapes Mobile platforms are extending the ways people communicate, work, and receive/send money. 48
60+: Queer, Old Joburg Jonathan Cane, Wits University Noëleen Murray, Wits University Barbara Bompani, University of Edinburgh Andrea Hayes, Wits University 60+: Queer, Old Joburg is an ongoing collaborative project with the aim to collect and map the life histories of older LGBTIQ+ residents of Johannesburg. It is a collaboration between Jonathan Cane, Noëleen Murray, Barbara Bompani, designer Andrea Hayes, and a group of queer informants from the city. The core of the research project is a set of ten in-depth queer oral histories. From 2017 to 2019, the life histories of gay and lesbian Joburgers who are older than 60 years were recorded, transcribed, edited, and deposited in the GALA Archive. Methodologically, during this research, the relation between the researcher and the “narrator” was grounded in women’s oral history, which includes a validation of queer experiences. The intergenerational quality of this queer work requires a “mutual responsibility for elders to sit, reflect, and recall while younger generations commit to recording, processing, and analysing the previous generations’ historical knowledge” (Boyd & Ramírez, 2012, p. 5).
Ronnie Oelofsen Host and owner of the Dungeon, in fetish gear. Photographer and date unknown. Dungeon Collection (AM 302)
On the one hand, the oral history narratives are about time, aging, and queer temporality 50
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The Dungeon Designed by Carter & McIntosh architects for the Acme Cigarette Company, the cigarette factory on the corner of Marshall and Goud Streets was officially opened in 1899 by Paul Kruger. Essentially an advertising exercise that mimicked the design of the Three Castles Cigarette logo, the “castle” is a good example of minor Victorian Gothic revival. At a later stage the factory was converted into the United Tobacco Companies offices and from 1953 it was a corsetry factory for Naomi Beauty Form. In 1970, entrepreneur Ronnie Oelofsen opened the Dungeon, also known as the “Big D”. Closing around 1995, it was followed by a dance club called Tchaikovsky’s and another one called ICON. In the late-90s the building was gutted by fire. Ronnie Oelofsen was an avid archivist of his own life, the Dungeon, and the city of Joburg. His extensive collection of photographs, menus, maps, ephemera, accounts, letters, and clippings is housed at GALA Queer Archive in the Dungeon Collection (AM 302).
The Three Castles Buildings Corner of Marshall and Goud Streets, bricked-up, spray-painted, and surrounded by barbed wire. Photo: Jonathan Cane (2017) 53
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Miss Gay South Africa Winner, 1992 Photographer unknown. Dungeon Collection (AM 302)
Miss Gay Hillbrow Competitor, 1989 Photographer unknown. Dungeon Collection (AM 302)
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Mr Gay Scants Winners, 1992 Photographer unknown. Dungeon Collection (AM 302)
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Rio Carnival Event Hosted by the Dungeon in 1991 Photographer unknown. Dungeon Collection (AM 302)
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with a focus on LGBTIQ+ lives before 1994 when same-sex relations were considered illegal and persecuted. On the other hand, the project is implicitly locational: It is located in Joburg and about the spaces, homes, bars, clubs, cruising grounds, churches, architecture, and urban zones in which the narrators lived and moved before the end of apartheid. Complementing this method were sets of data based on (a) spatial work, such as site visits, drives, transect walks, photography, collaborative mapmaking, map reading, and Google-Earthing; (b) archival research, including the examination of the current holdings of GALA’s archive (Dungeon Collection, Simon Nkoli, Exit Magazine, GALA Queer Tours, Pride Collection, Gevisser Collection), data from blogs, online comments, feature films, maps, and government records like the testimony from the 1968 Report of the Select Committee on the Immorality Amendment Bill; and (c) architectural investigation, examining architecture plans and elevations, building renovations, photographs, and drawings of buildings. The approach to data is indebted to José Esteban Muñoz’s notion of “ephemera as evidence” (1996), which is useful for thinking about scraps of data that might be collaged together, scraps that might, in fact, be quite queer forms of data in any case. The key output of 60+ has been the publication of a digital archive in the creative practice peer reviewed Wits journal [ . . . ] Ellipses. This queer archive allowed us 57
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to experiment with “cruising” as an archival method, as digital practice, and as process, exploring the use of the digital in order to collect, manage, process, analyse, share, protect, disseminate, store, access, and organise. While cruising generally refers to public forms of sexual engagement, the term has been taken up by some scholars to think about forms of queer research. For instance, Muñoz’s (2019) notion of “cruising utopia” orients us towards queer possibility. That is to say, it points us towards a kind of queer research that is concerned with the formal and intellectual shape of possible other ways of being, writing, and researching. 60+ attempts an experiment in structure, selection, and presentation of archival material and analysis. We did not judge the veracity or representativity of the data. In fact, many of the scraps collected were extremely personal, subjective, and selected because of their affective pull rather than their generalisablility.
may not, in the end, be analytically useful for thinking about anyone but white people now and especially before 1994. The second limitation of the project relates to the concept of nostalgia and the dangers of romanticising a time period that was not only racially unjust but in which homosexuality was criminalised and gay people were often in real physical danger. To be sure, illegality and danger were part of the thrill of cruising and are also necessary components of the clandestine mode of encounter. Be that as it may, it is necessary to work carefully and critically with queer nostalgia, which cannot be simply dismissed as reactionary in the first instance. Finally, the project has come up against the limits of relevance with regard to the broader city making of LGBTIQ+ people. The question is: To what degree is cruising limited to a predominately cis-male gay modality of space making? Essentially, how queer is cruising, actually? This project allowed us to test and engage with multiple methodologies in order to collect and preserve memories of identity, public subjectivities, space, pleasure, and (in-)security in apartheid Johannesburg. Multilayered, personal, sensitive, and precious data pushed the research team to think more creatively about collection, presentation, and conservation of data.
The notion of “cruising” is essentially anachronistic; while it is a productive mode of investigation, it has limitations. The first limitation relates to race and the degree to which and in what ways a theory of urban movement is applicable to Black people whose mobility was and continues to be curtailed in numerous ways (Cane, 2019). It is not at all clear whether the idea of pleasure “merely circulating” through the city reflects the movement of non-white gays and lesbians. The notion of non-linear exploration 58
References Boyd, N. A., & Ramírez, H. N. R. (2012). Bodies of evidence: The practice of queer oral history. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cane, J. E. (2018). 60+: Queer, old Joburg. [ . . . ] Ellipses, 2. Retrieved from http://www.ellipses.org.za/ project/60-queer-old-joburg/ Cane, J. E. (forthcoming). Cruising queer, old Joburg. Anthropology Southern Africa. Muñoz, J. E. (1996). Ephemera as evidence: Introductory notes to queer acts. Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 8(2), 5–16. Muñoz, J. E. (2019). Cruising utopia: The then and there of queer futurity. New York: New York University Press.
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People at the Margins: Mining and Social Justice in South Africa Zaheera Jinnah, Wits University Sam Spiegel, University of Edinburgh Researching Social Struggles in Mining Worlds Diverse struggles in South Africa’s mineral economy are often connected in underappreciated ways, necessitating research from various vantage points. These include struggles faced by migrant workers and others engaged in informal artisanal mining and struggles faced by labourers for large mines and in related occupations. Social security challenges within and around gold mining townships and operations are often conceptualised as material, as they are often characterised by severe economic inequalities and physical health challenges. These struggles are also, however, constituted by constantly changing social experiences, relationships, and power dynamics on a myriad of scales, dynamics that can at times disproportionately affect migrants and have particular negative gendered implications that often go under-recognised.
gold mining. The first component included an ethnographic approach in Johannesburg with artisanal gold miners. The second component included interviews and analysis of databases with the Department of Health to examine challenges around social protection and compensation for lung disease acquired in large South African mines and to explore challenges facing migrant ex-mineworkers and their families, particularly migrant workers who came from other countries. Urban Artisanal Miners Through an Ethnographic Lens Informal artisanal gold mining (ASM) in Johannesburg occurs at the edge of the city, in material, physical, and legal ways, rooted in the city’s history and a product of its contemporary socio-economic complexities. This study provided an in-depth discussion of ASM in Johannesburg. Three months of ethnographic research was conducted in Johannesburg in 2016, involving dozens of interviews with miners, their families, and mining communities. This work builds on research conducted in 2013 by the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) and led to three main sets of findings. First, ASM
Below we reflect on two components of this SeaM project, drawing on different methods that we used to explore specific experiences of social insecurity and relationships around 60
is an important—but high-risk—livelihood strategy of the urban poor, especially crossborder migrants, and is wrought with legal and social restrictions that further compound the physical dangers that miners face in their work. Second, there are significant health, safety, and well-being-related outcomes and conditions associated with ASM that are poorly understood. The rise of informal settlements in mining communities, the lack of adequate protection for workers in the sector, the criminalisation of ASM, and the disregard of environmental rehabilitation of mines collude to create a risky and dangerous environment for those living and working in and around the sector. Third, ASM is rooted in long-held beliefs and rituals that bring into question the ownership of natural resources, the structure of work teams and the organisation of labour. This anthropological aspect of ASM is poorly understood in both popular and academic discourses.
below comprises excerpts of interviews with various individuals who form part of the informal mining community. The narratives weave together a sense of daily life in the community and provide an insightful glance into the intricate economy and society of informal mining.
In ethnographic research of informal artisanal mining on the periphery of Johannesburg, we found a complex and interconnected community of networks and power laced with multiple forms of insecurity. The text
Ah, the miners—they have money! Ah, they have money these miners, but they bring too much crime! If they get monies, they get drunk and they start fighting, especially Zimbabweans Ndebele people.
At our research site, we met a man from KwaZulu Natal, an eastern province of South Africa and one of the labour providing regions for the mining sector. He was unemployed. Perched on an upturned can overlooking the informal mining compound, he said: Here there is a Xhosa landlord who claims to have 17 back houses including 5 rooms and 12 mkhukhus—he enjoys renting them to Zimbabweans, Malawians, and Mozambicans because every month they pay their rent.
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Paid and Unpaid Claims
Figure 1: Claims From Miners to the Commission of Compensation for Occupational Disease in South Africa by Country of Origin Until End of 2017 There are 132,488 claims where the country is known; a further 85,399 claims were excluded from this map as the country was not listed on the file; and 225 claims (0.2% of total) from miners in other countries in Africa not shown above (see Kistnasamy et al., 2018, for details on data collection).
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The other day I heard them near my gate and robbing an old father who they removed his clothes and left him naked— after the old man begged for them for his life, for them not to kill him—finally they left him naked—but one of the 3 guys who robbed the old man was shot dead the next day after trying to rob others. Ah, they are trouble!
So when I come in 2008 here in South Africa, I started to be at Magogo site—it is different to see mines from here. In Zimbabwe mines are supported with timber pillars for safety. Here the mines were supported with stones mountain, which used to be mined . . . now as people continue to mine gold, they end up mining the pillar of stones.
Here in Mathole, we don’t have xenophobia—and we like people from outside. We are earning a living because of them. So if they don’t get inside the shafts, it will be too bad because who will pay rent? Right now per month I got 10,000 to 15, 000 rand rental. We are the richest mastands [landlords] in Gauteng. We have also extended our yards and we are living well because of these miners!
These narratives begin to unravel the complex intersections of informal urban livelihoods, power dynamics, and experiences of social insecurity. The miners’ stories and our observations in informal communities show a part of the city that is obscured from public discourse and policy makers. Mapping Injustices Around Uncompensated Migrant Workers at Large Mines The above narratives form part of wider debates unfolding now on social struggles around mining. The second component of this SeaM project work on marginalisation around mining in South Africa entailed collaborative research with a civil servant from the Department of Health to interrogate the struggles experienced by former workers at large mines—particularly migrant workers and their families (in some cases, widows)—in accessing social protection and compensation for occupational lung disease acquired in mines. Interviews with former miners as well as analysis of large databases resulted in a mapping of uncompensated cases involving
We also heard from a Zimbabwean underground miner who revealed the intricacies of mining and the dangers associated with it: I started mining but in Felabus Bulawayo—there is gold mining and I use stamp and stamper to grind stones from mining—we use stamping machines to stamp stones to break into pieces or to become fine. Here there is a place where we buy metal pipes and use them to make stamping stamps, also used chisels but they weld metal balls on chisels so that we are able to break gold mine stones. 63
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people who came from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and other countries from across Africa as well as domestically (Figure 1).
accommodation, and you are restricted to that.” It’s very disempowering. Furthermore, health insurance and services are limited, and the public health system is not adequately involved in the migrant labour system.
An informant interviewed for the SeaM project (by student Jessica Yu) described the process of authorisation from a traditional authority for a beneficiary in Lesotho:
People connected to mining—whether artisanal mining or large-scale mining—do not experience marginalisation in a constant way. Life experiences change. Power relationships change. In some cases, those who have lost jobs in large mines take up livelihoods informally, moving from one set of challenges to another. These examples of ethnographic methods, database methods, and mappings of injustice illustrate only some of the tools needed as future researchers grapple with changing realities.
Before the widow obtains the documents, first of all, they have to deal with family. The family has to witness to say, “We know this woman is the wife of the son.” . . . Five family members have to sign the letter and then refer to the area chief to confirm where they are coming from. And the area chief will refer the widow to the district chief. And then . . . to the district administrator. And then . . . to the master of courts who will provide the letter. That’s where the second wife will suffer to get the letter because the family will not give the letter. Most beneficiaries will suffer from this because the mineworker is deceased.
Acknowledgements The ethnography of informal artisanal mining was undertaken by Zaheera Jinnah with support from Sam Spiegel, Janet Munakamwe, Ethel Musonza, Craig Nyoni, and the late Kenneth Tafira.
The migrant labour system strains social networks, and the nature of contracts are quite disempowering. One interviewee noted:
*The work examining barriers to the compensation of ex-workers at large mines was undertaken in part by Sam Spiegel in collaboration with other researchers (Kistnasamy et al., 2018).
If you get recruited for the migrant labour system, you are tied down in the contracts. I can’t stand this working condition—you must see out the contract. It also removes the power to negotiate the worth of one’s value. . . . “We recruit you, we pay you so much, and we give you these types of 64
References Hiralal, K., & Jinnah, Z. (Eds.). (2018). Gender and mobility in Africa: Borders, bodies and boundaries. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Kistnasamy, B., Yassi, A., Yu, J., Spiegel, S. J., Fourie, A., Barker, S., & Spiegel, J. M. (2018). Tackling injustices of occupational lung disease acquired in South African mines: Recent developments and ongoing challenges. Globalization and Health, 14(1), 60. Ngwato, T. P., & Jinnah, Z. (2013). Migrants and mobilisation around socio-economic rights. In M. Langford, B. Cousins, J. Dugard, & T. Madlingozi (Eds.), Socio-economic rights in South Africa: Symbols or substance (pp. 389-420). New York: Cambridge University Press. Oliveira, E., & Vearey, J. (2018). Making research and building knowledge with communities: Examining three participatory visual and narrative projects with migrants who sell sex in South Africa. In M. Capous-Desyllas & K. Morgaine (Eds.), Creating social change through creativity (pp. 265-287). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Sound and the City S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh Duduzile Ndlovu, Wits University Sound is a part of our everyday lives, shaping how we think about ourselves and the world around us. Our project explored the different sounds that people hear as they travel around the city and what this can tell us about urban life in all its diversity.
sought to draw participants from different areas of the city, with varied experiences of city life. That said, as this was a pilot research project, this sample was not intended to be representative of either city, spatially or demographically. Sounds were shared over WhatsApp or AroundSound. Participants were then invited to take part in a group discussion with other participants about sound and the city. Using these discussions, we are creating podcasts that share some of the sounds in the study and people’s reflections on them.
In doing so, we had the opportunity to test different ways of communicating through sound in research. We were also able to reflect on whether sound was a new way to initiate discussions on difference, inclusion, exclusion, and safety that might be more powerful or disruptive than conversations initiated through text or pictures. We also had the opportunity to explore sound as an output of research: an opportunity for people to experience the sensory “event” under discussion, mediated through technology rather than text.
The sounds that people captured and discussed revealed a lot about their own trajectories around the city and beyond. Most people had fairly routine movements around Manchester or Johannesburg. It was the stitching together of the neighbourhoods, streets, or houses on their daily routes that created their unique city soundscapes. No two soundscapes that we heard were the same. Sometimes, though, the areas that participants described as being very different could have similar soundscapes and vice versa. From one perspective, this shows the limits of sound as a research tool: similarity seems to disguise difference. In practice, though, our conversations about what was not captured in audio clips proved incredibly
Our project focused on Johannesburg and Manchester, two diverse, prominent cities with long histories of substantial migration. Like all urban areas, their soundscapes are rich, diverse, and constantly changing. For the pilot, we recruited 10 volunteers from each city to share sound snippets from their everyday lives over the course of a week and tell us what those sounds meant to them. We 66
interesting. When sound is treated as an entry point into discussions and not the sum total of discussions themselves, it proves to be a versatile and incisive research tool.
when you were standing at a bus stop but could be terrifying for cyclists on the road in Manchester. The emotions that sounds evoked, however, were not always focused on the present. Certain sounds that the groups heard unlocked powerful memories and associations. The first time you heard a noise, participants reflected, could fix an association between sound and place that stuck, no matter where you travelled. Rahim, for example, had first heard trams in the city of Manchester. When he returned to his birthplace in Tehran, he thought of Manchester every time he heard the sound of braking in Tehran’s Metro. For Don, the trams were still a nostalgic sound, a throwback to the first trams that had travelled Manchester until the 1940s.
Our discussions also highlighted that when two people listen to the same soundscape, they often concentrate on different sounds within it. Even when they hear the same sound, the meaning that they infer from that sound can vary. Bell chimes on a clock, for example, made some people think of the secular bureaucracy of city administration whilst it made others imagine a church ordering time. When we spoke about music in our Johannesburg group, Miriam Makeba was one of the few musicians that meant something to everyone. But where, when, and how they had engaged with her music differed greatly. Discussing these differences allowed us to make good use of sound as a means of comparison. By unearthing and exploring the meanings that different sounds carried, we had an opportunity to compare the diverse histories and realities that existed within and between our two sites of study.
As the reference to transport sounds suggests, much of being in the city is experiencing and managing sounds that are not of your own making. In these busy cities that are constantly trying to find their place amidst deindustrialisation and global capital, much of the background to everyday life was construction noise and traffic. These were not typically sought-after sounds. But sometimes people did actively seek out sound they could not control, from birdsong in the park
Of course, the way people understood sound also differed as they travelled around the city. Buses braking was a comforting sound 67
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to the “church carriage” on Johannesburg’s trains. At other times, people sought silence or peace, from the Juskei River in Alexandra, Johannesburg, to Mam Tor in the Peak District, Derbyshire.
fascinating entry point to discussions of the city. There were, however, some limitations. In certain contexts where sight, smell, taste, or touch may be far more important, we did sometimes wish we had encouraged people to capture these for discussion. Moreover, at times, recorders struggled to give weight to the sounds that were being selected by the human ear, which was picking out a particular sound that resonated.
All of this—the intended and the unintended, the controlled and the imposed—come together in the city’s soundscape. And, ultimately, the lines blur. Other people’s sounds can become our own: part of the tapestry of our city. From the sounds of the Call to Prayer in Alexandra, Johannesburg, to the sounds of multiple languages on the buses of Manchester, these diverse sounds did not just exist at home, they were home.
Structuring the sound diary over a week also had limits. Sometimes, the sounds that are most evocative are not regular; they cannot be captured in a one-week setting. This may be because they are associated with a celebration, such as Divali, Eid, or Christmas. Alternatively, they may be nostalgic sounds. Fumani spoke of a track that her husband played in the house. She did not know its name. After he passed away, she did not know it to play it, but it was incredibly emotional to hear.
But even amongst this familiarity, people sometimes strove to create distance. One way to do this was through headphones, which divided opinion in our focus groups. Headphones allowed people in public spaces to create a sense of privacy. Sometimes, this came with a sense of safety. Standing at the bus stop in Manchester with headphones on as a woman, for example, was sometimes seen as a good strategy for warding off unwanted conversations and attention. At other times, headphones were seen as a dangerous choice, shutting pedestrians off from the sounds of would-be attackers or cyclists from the sounds of other traffic. Moreover, the proliferation of headphones, along with the proliferation of mobile phones, had also closed down public interaction in the city in ways that people mourned. Overall, sound proved to be a
Finally, sound is interesting precisely because it tends to play such a subconscious role in our everyday lives. Undoubtedly, the sounds we hear shift the ways in which we understand our cities. But there is, ultimately, no way of understanding the sub-conscious without bringing it into the conscious and therefore transforming it. Becoming more aware of sound and the city proved to be one of the appeals and the methodological challenges of our project.
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Sexual Health at the Margins: Exploring Mobility in the South African Rollout of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Amongst Men Who Have Sex With Men John Marnell, Wits University Jo Vearey, Wits University Ingrid Young, University of Edinburgh Barbara Bompani, University of Edinburgh Urban health in the Global South remains under-researched and poorly understood. In the South African context, cities are associated with multiple migration flows, a high incidence and prevalence of communicable diseases, and a range of social justice issues (physical and sexual violence, economic disadvantage, social exclusion, and so on). Those living and working on the periphery of social welfare provision often struggle to access basic services or exercise their legal rights. These “hidden” populations are frequently overlooked by policymakers, healthcare providers, and state agencies, and their experiences remain inadequately documented. There is, therefore, a pressing need to add voices from the Global South to theoretical and conceptual approaches towards understanding and improving urban health. Part of this involves rethinking how and why we reach out to population groups that face multiple, often intersecting forms of marginalisation.
Our project seeks to explore different ways of collecting data in complex urban health contexts. It takes as its case study the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) rollout in South Africa, a multi-year, multistage initiative that seeks to reduce HIV transmission among “key populations”— namely, sex workers, gay men, serodiscordant couples, and adolescent girls and young women. Many individuals within these populations are highly mobile—be it crossing national borders, relocating within South Africa, or moving in and around urban spaces—and this mobility often complicates access to health messaging and/or services. Our study aims to investigate how, if at all, issues of mobility are being addressed within the PrEP rollout, but it also poses a broader question: Are there different ways in which we can include highly mobile, hard-to-reach individuals within health research? 70
In order to address this question, the project is experimenting with the use of WhatsApp as a data collection tool. WhatsApp is the most widely used social media platform in the Global South and is particularly popular here in South Africa. It is cheaper to use than standard SMS messaging, can be used over free Wi-Fi networks, and has back-to-back encryption, making it appealing to those concerned about state surveillance.
while on the move. The decision to focus on gay men rather than other populations was motivated by three factors: first, we want to target a group that has been the focus of significant HIV messaging to assess how, if at all, mobility is being positioned and considered; second, we want to work with a group that faces considerable social stigma and may therefore be reluctant to participate in face-to-face interviews, or who may be excluded from traditional research networks; third, we want to harness existing partnerships with LGBTIQ+ organisations to see how that might influence use of the data collection tool.
The project has decided to focus on one specific population being targeted by the PrEP rollout: gay men. However, in order to keep the mobility focus, it is restricted to participants who have moved in or out of the greater Johannesburg region in the last twelve months. This way we can get a sense of how their movement patterns have or have not been included in discussions about treatment plans as well as how they may have managed their treatment regime
While mobile devices have been widely used in health promotion—for example, to disseminate health warnings or remind people about medication adherence—they have rarely been used for data collection. Where they have been used, they have simply 71
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provided access to online surveys. This study is attempting to see whether other aspects of mobile communication—for example, the sharing of images, voice notes, or location information—can be harnessed to capture different types of information. Participants in the study will not only respond to simple survey questions but will also be invited to share visual and/or oral reflections on their experience with the PrEP rollout. Our primary interest in piloting this project is to assess the potential benefits and limitations of using WhatsApp at different stages of the research process. As well as helping to recruit participants, WhatsApp will be used to collect data and circulate findings. It is, first and foremost, an experiment, one that seeks to explore new ways of engaging “hidden” populations in health research. Although very small in its scope and reach, the study will provide important insights into the use of mobile technologies to support research. At its heart are questions that are relevant to all researchers. What constitutes “research”? What does it mean to meaningfully engage marginalised persons in research? How do we reach people who are often on the move, or who are not in contact with traditional health/justice/research institutions? Are there different ways of sourcing, organising, and disseminating data? What can we consider as data?
A Luta Continua The Struggle Continues; sign in the South African Constitutional Court. 72
Understanding Difference in Orange Farm Emma Monama, University of Hamburg S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh We conducted our research in Orange Farm, a township that lies on the southern end of the city of Johannesburg’s municipal boundaries, about 45 km from Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD). Home to approximately 77,0001 people, it is part of the most densely populated area in the Gauteng City Region. Whilst many residents have affection for different aspects of Orange Farm, they are also economically and politically marginalised.
it risks solidifying categories like “South African” and “migrant,” overlooking their diverse and shifting meanings, in the past and present. Finally, the focus on nationality alone as the important marker of difference ignores how other forms of difference might shape people’s sense of belonging. Our project sought to think about the question of “difference” more broadly. Thus, instead of defining difference, we left it to the respondents to speak about what it means to them. How do people see themselves and their place in society? How, when, and where do they think of themselves as similar or different to others? When are these differences seen as positive? When are differences seen as troubling and rejected? When are those who embody specific differences attacked? How do these differences (and their negotiation) relate to ideas of belonging?
The township was in the news several times in the last decade when xenophobic violence broke out against foreign nationals who owned or operated shops in the area. The attacks echoed a much broader trend in xenophobic violence across South Africa. Many studies that have tried to analyse xenophobia in recent years have started from and focused on these more visible acts of violence. This is understandable given the devastating impact that such violence has. There are, however, several limitations with this approach. First, it encourages us to focus on public violence, overlooking other subtle forms of discrimination and violence that people experience in their daily lives. Second,
We found that the idea of “difference” was a more useful starting point than “marginality” because it was not an inherently hierarchical concept nor was a particular difference always significant in people’s lives.
1. This is an estimation from the South African National Census of 2011. 74
Eyethu Mall Orange Farm Emma Monama (2017)
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Take the question of ethnicity, for example. People acknowledged ethnicity as a form of difference, but it did not have a fixed significance to people. “We call ourselves names,” explained one resident. But what these names meant varied over time and space; they could be forms of endearment, recognition, or resentment. At some moments—particularly during struggles over land and housing—the lines between ethnicity and autochthony were blurred. A Sotho resident in her forties, for example, had lived in Orange Farm for 17 years. Whilst she felt settled in the area, she noted the resentment that was sometimes vocalised. “Some say they were born in Soweto so they belong here in Gauteng,” she explained. “They just fail to see that I am a South African. Never mind that I was born in the Free State, I belong here.”
proved extremely difficult to do in practice: How do you ask about difference without framing people’s ideas about difference or what it means? Furthermore, how do we move beyond simply identifying black suffering (McKittrick, 2011) towards writing and researching in ways that do not lose sight of the wholeness of people’s lives? How do we talk about being and black joy as part of the broader lived experience? Methodologically, it was to our benefit that some of the researchers involved in the project already had contacts in the area, making the process of building rapport and gaining access less strenuous. In an initial round of biographical interviews, we spoke to residents of Orange Farm about their lives prior to and after moving to Orange Farm. From these interviews, we chose a series of different spaces to photograph and use in subsequent interviews with the same people. Discussing people’s opinions about different spaces and their relations to them proved to be a fruitful way to understand people’s sense of belonging and how difference is spatially constructed.
Using difference as a research approach also gives us room to explore multiple and intersecting marginalities. We are able to hear stories of solidarity, indifference, and exploitation in which victimisation is not based only on your nationality but also your gender, class, migrant status, sexuality, and race. For example, the undocumented Zimbabwean shop worker we spoke to expressed that one of her struggles was the low wage she received and the long hours she worked in a migrant-owned shop.
Another advantage of this approach was that it allowed us to bring space to the fore of our discussions. In many studies of xenophobia (and marginality more broadly) space is treated like a backdrop to events. Our approach meant that we were able to see how people’s sense of self and sense of belonging shifted in relation to different spaces.
To leave the question of “difference” open was thus critical to our research but it also 76
Take Eyethu Mall for example, which stands on the eastern border of Orange Farm. Over the years, the significance of the mall rests simultaneously on its various meanings as a contested symbol of development, a site of protest, a transport hub, a site of grant administration, a space for socialising, and a place of consumption. As a contested site of employment, Eyethu Mall constantly challenges and shifts what it means to be “local,” re-shaping people’s identities, their lives, and their relationships with other people.
References Gregory, S. (1999). Black Corona: Race and the politics of place in an urban community. Princeton: Princeton University Press. McKittrick, K. (2011). On plantations, prisons, and a black sense of place. Social and Cultural Geography, 12(8), 947-963.
These kinds of shifts are important to recognise but difficult to research and write about. One challenge that remains for us is how to research and write about the ways in which different identities, privileges, or forms of oppression come together in people’s lives. Taking geography seriously is one way in which we can start to understand and tell the complexity of black urban experience (Gregory, 1999; McKittrick, 2011). *We would like to thank Mercy Mupavayenda for her involvement and contribution to this research project.
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Change That Counts? Data, Voice, and the Pursuit of Police Accountability and Reform in Kenya and South Africa Kamau Wairuri, University of Edinburgh S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh Commentators across the globe have long linked access to data on government services with accountability and reform. To take this position is to argue that whilst the voices of those affected might be ignored, data that systematically highlights government shortcomings can secure both censure and change. By extension, the argument goes, it is vital that civil society can access data on government services. Where this data does not exist, it must be generated from the ground up. The problem of police violence has been no exception to this trend. In fact, these expectations have only expanded as the technology available has proliferated. From police body cameras to cell phone videos, hope is growing that greater data on police violence will lead to greater accountability and, ultimately, a decline in police brutality.
on police accountability in both countries. To supplement these discussions, we conducted a systematic literature review of literature on police violence and accountability by academics and civil society organisations in Kenya and South Africa. Finally, we returned to Nairobi to explore accountability-inaction further with emergent civil society organisations as they fought for justice in ongoing cases. Kenya and South Africa lend themselves to this comparison for several reasons. Firstly, both state police organisations are attempting to overcome historical legacies of colonial and militarised policing. Secondly, both countries have established mechanisms of pursuing police accountability. Both countries have state agencies for civilian oversight of policing, Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) in Kenya and Independent Police Investigative Department (IPID) in South Africa. Both countries also have vibrant civil society organisations pursuing police accountability. Thirdly, despite these efforts, police brutality remains
Our project explored these aspirations, focusing on Kenya and South Africa. We held two dialogue workshops in Nairobi (Kenya) and Johannesburg (South Africa) in May 2019 with a diverse range of organisations working 78
widespread. In 2016, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit reported that Kenya’s state police execute more than 200 people annually while South Africa’s Independent Police Investigative Directorate Annual Report 2017/18 stated that 558 people had died as a result of police action in 436 instances. That said, the countries also differ in several important respects. One key difference is in legislation that criminalises certain practices in one country but not another. Unlike in South Africa, same-sex relations remain criminalised in Kenya, weakening the capacity of victims to seek recourse. Another difference is the crime and violence profile that shape policing trends, with South Africa facing regular outbreaks of xenophobic violence while Kenya struggles with terrorist attacks.
manifested, where meaningful, through some form of legal, institutional, or social sanction. Further, we understood reform as change in personal and institutional behaviour and attitudes regarding the use of violence; reform is often imagined as the inevitable outcome when police take responsibility for violence. However, our study indicated that the pursuit of accountability does not always result in reform. As such, responsibility and reform should be understood as distinct. Our dialogues were highly productive. As opposed to a focus group discussion in which the facilitator constantly moderates discussion, the workshop model allowed us to decentre ourselves as researchers and allow participants to moderate one another. The day-long format of the discussions facilitated both specific insights into the diverse work of these organisations and an overarching analysis of the police as an institution. Moreover, the dialogues were an opportunity for activists to interact, identify common struggles, and build solidarity.
Our key concern was whether the use of data—ranging from statistics to videos—had strengthened civil society’s capacity to gain police accountability and/or reform. We understood accountability as the acceptance of responsibility for the violence in question 79
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As one participant noted, “I thought that only the shack dwellers were under attack but now I can see that we are not the only ones under attack.” It also offered an opportunity for accountability within civil society. In South Africa, civic groups were challenged, for example, to admit that many had overlooked the rights of drug users and failed to act in solidarity with them. Similarly, groups working with LGBTIQ+ people in Kenya highlighted that many local groups fighting against police violence were silent in the face of the abuse they faced.
(e.g., protesters) amongst other factors. Furthermore, the same stigma and oppression make it possible for their voices to be ignored when they speak out about the violence they face. If advocates of data are correct, data should be able to fix the challenge of police violence by increasing levels of accountability. Our dialogues, however, demonstrated that this is not the case. In both countries, civic data collection and curation—including relatively new forms of digitalised data— have been quite successful in recording police violence. Despite the difficulties of collecting information on vulnerable population groups, the limitation of data formats, and the continued fragmentation of data sets, instances of police violence are being captured in increasingly detailed and systematic ways. This has not, however, had a uniform impact on accountability or reform.
Conversations at both workshops started from the premise that whilst some victims of police violence are breaking the law, this violence is not systematically linked to law breaking. If it were, lawyers and bankers committing so-called “white-collar” crimes would be equally in fear for their lives. Nor is it linked to violent crime. If it were, many of those facing disproportionate amounts of police violence would not be targeted. Rather, police violence is linked to the dehumanisation of certain population groups who are systematically stigmatised and oppressed. Consequently, certain groups become particularly exposed to police violence because of their work (e.g., sex workers, street vendors), their race, or their gender or sexual identity or because of where they live (e.g., residents of informal urban settlements), where they come from (e.g., refugees, migrants), or how they express themselves politically
In practice, the same dehumanisation that facilitates police violence also limits the effectiveness of data in securing censure or change. After all, it is not enough to know that violence is happening. If it is accountability that we seek, those in power must see violence as a problem worth tackling (either from a personal conviction or because people with power over them see it as such). When people are dehumanised, they (and not the injustices they face) come to be seen as the problem. Ultimately, counting people or violent acts 80
in data is not enough to make them count politically. In reality, data is only a tool in the hands of those doing the political work of accountability and change. At every step, people face serious challenges in bringing attention to data on police violence just as victims face serious challenges in getting their voices heard. That said, the avoidance of censure is never a certainty. As soon as police officers step outside the law, the possibility of accountability exists however small. Sometimes, data can create the leverage needed at critical moments to push for accountability and change. Currently, we are developing case studies of civic success, demonstrating the practices and political strategies that have proved effective in different contexts. *We would like to thank Julia Hornberger for her support in this project.
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Mwangaza Mama: A Participatory Arts-Based Project With Migrant Women in Johannesburg Rebecca Walker, Wits University Elsa Oliveira, Wits University Mwangaza Mama is a creative storytelling project that was undertaken in collaboration with a small group of cross-border migrant women living in Johannesburg. It took place from February 2017 to February 2019 and involved a partnership between the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University and the Sophiatown Community Psychological Services (SCPS), a local non-profit organisation that provides assistance to many people in the greater Johannesburg area. Forming part of a larger body of work being conducted at the ACMS that is exploring ways of doing research differently (see Oliveira & Vearey, 2018), Mwangaza Mama aimed to learn more about migrant women’s everyday experiences of the city by including them in the production of knowledge about issues that affect them. Telling Stories Through Art Forms Participatory arts-based methods in social science research are fast becoming accepted as viable and credible means for better understanding population groups that are politically, socially, and economically marginalised. Arts-based approaches, such as those used in this study, allow
Title Quilt Mixed-media on fabric 115 cm x 112 cm 82
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Collective Quilt I Mixed-media on fabric 292 cm x 164 cm
Collective Quilt II Mixed-media on fabric 283 cm x 160 cm 84
research participants to control the ways they are represented, and they provide new ways of “seeing” population groups that are often hidden from view.
This is when the group decided to work towards making a quilt that would be shared with public audiences. Each of the seven participants (including the two of us) created one or two individual quilt pieces, approximately A2 in size.
We purposefully designed the Mwangaza Mama project to allow room for different kinds of stories to emerge and be reflected upon, from those we keep inside ourselves to those we want to share with public audiences. Rather than selecting the specific art form we would use before beginning the project, we felt it was important to offer the women an opportunity to experiment with different art forms and expressions. Our desire to nurture a collaborative workshop space that positioned the participants as experts of their own lives came from the understanding that migrant women produce knowledge through their own lived experiences. This recognition of women’s agency coupled with our slow approach to research gave everyone involved in the project time to get to know one another and time to build trust and confidence.
The Mwangaza Mamas The project initially began with six women, all of whom were referred to us by the SCPS. Eight months into the project, one participant dropped out and two other women were invited to participate. All of the women who participated had fled their birth countries—Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—due to war, persecution, and other forms of extreme human insecurity. Five of the women are also mothers, and each is parenting alone. The fathers of the children were either killed during conflict in their home countries, are in hiding, or have disappeared. Despite the fact that all of the Mwangaza Mamas arrived in South Africa as asylum seekers and have lived in the country for a significant number of years, only one has refugee status. The other six are still waiting for decisions to be made on their asylum applications or are appealing rejections.
Workshop Design Project workshops typically took place twice a month on Friday mornings while the participant’s children were at school. The group engaged in various creative activities including multi-media collaging, painting, drawing, narrative writing, and simple bodymapping exercises. About halfway through the project, however, we learned that the women really enjoyed working with textiles.
The participants selected the title of the project about halfway through our time together. “Mwangaza” is a Swahili word that translates to “light” although the women 85
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also described it as meaning “joy,” “love,” and “caring.” They also told us that the word “mama” is a term of respect that is commonly used in South Africa and in other countries on the continent to refer to all women regardless of whether or not one is a parent. The title—Mwangaza Mama—encapsulates much of what took place during our time together: the friendships built, the tears and laughter shared, and the caring and support offered during difficult times. During workshops, the women spoke of their journeys to South Africa and the longing they feel for people and places. Their narrations shed light on the multiple physical, social, and imagined borders they encounter and negotiate. Most described intense struggles of rejection, disrespect, and abuse, such as being refused free public
health care services, experiencing genderbased violence, and facing difficulties in getting their children a place in school due to xenophobic discrimination, lack of documentation, or lack of money to pay school fees. These and other experiences, we found, illustrate what it means to survive in Johannesburg, a place that is at once vibrant and brutal, hopeful and hostile. Migrant women in Johannesburg often experience their lives in a prism of hyper-visibility and invisibility. The Mwangaza Mamas’ narratives, artworks, and stories clearly reveal a tricky balance between needing to remain visible enough to gain a footing in the city and invisible enough to elude persecution and harassment. Indeed, it is their agency, defiance, and tenacity that define the Mwangaza Mama project. 86
Talking Back Three visual artefacts were produced for public consumption: two large quilts that feature all of the visual stories created and one smaller quilt that features the project title and project logo (Walker, 2018). Each participant also wrote one or two narrative stories about an experience or topic of her choosing that she wanted to share with public audiences.
Thinking Through Feeling and Making Most of the women completed their individual quilt pieces during project workshops, but a few also took them home to work on during their own time.
Holding Space Working alongside the women has re-affirmed our commitment to an engaged, reflexive scholarship. Yet, at the same time, we continue to grapple with how best to conceptualise this type of research practice, including how best to support participants in moments of acute distress. 87
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According to Beltrán and Begun (2014), the process of public witnessing to pain and suffering can be transformative and healing for all involved. It is perhaps not surprising then that the bonds the women share with one another came after intense narrations of deep suffering and pain. During the workshops, the women often spoke of the importance of having spaces they can go to for support and comfort.
Some may find this level of engagement problematic not only because we are empathetic, but also because it raises questions of unequal power dynamics in the research process. As feminist researchers working in contexts of extreme poverty, however, we argue that it is neither possible nor ethical to remain neutral or “distant.” Ignoring the women’s very real experiences of hunger, homelessness, and/or sickness is unconscionable to us. To view the research process as uni-directional, where researchers have all the power and participants have none, is patronising to the people with whom we work. It also simplifies notions of power and discounts the dynamic ways that power-balances shift at different points in all relationships.
Although the fluidity and openness of the project allowed the women to speak about difficult moments, there were also times we wondered if we were out of our depth, particularly when stories of past and present trauma surfaced. What has continued to amaze us, however, is a group’s capacity to offer support and understanding during difficult and trying times. How we collectively responded to trauma by listening empathetically and being present with the narrator is something we have also found reassuring in this and other projects.
When participants were facing extreme hardship, we worked closely with the SCPS to find a possible solution. Although there certainly were moments that we each made a conscious decision to step beyond our “traditional” researcher role, we also believe that rigid research boundaries are inadequate to deal with precarious contexts, lives, and realities. The idea that the production of knowledge should be neutral or detached is strewn in layers of privilege, colonialism, and imperialism. Social science research needs to re-evaluate what it means to conduct ethical research in contexts of extreme uncertainty. It also needs to recognise the importance of reciprocity as both an idea and practice.
Reciprocity It is impossible to speak of the process of Mwangaza Mama without also reflecting on the importance of reciprocity, a practice that challenged our thinking and political practice in fundamental and unanticipated ways. Reciprocity took many forms: accepting calls from participants in the evenings or on weekends, sharing stories about our own lives, and even providing material assistance in times of acute duress. 88
Speaking With Public Audiences Most of the women stated that they wanted their stories to be shared “with the world.” Their visual and narrative artefacts made visible the complexities of survival, and they show us how individuals simultaneously live, love, and strive even in the face of great hardship. The Mwangaza Mamas’ words and visuals also offer us an opportunity to reflect on the ways that stories are told, how different ways of telling allow for different kinds of narratives to emerge, and how these can create new forms of resistance, awareness, and activism.
References
We invite you to engage with the visual and narrative artefacts the women produced for public audiences by checking out the project eBook. Take time to reflect on the rawness and detail of their stories; look, read, interpret, and consider the messages they wanted to share “with the world.”
Walker, R. (2018). Mothering in the city [Blog]. Retrieved
Beltrán, R., & Begun. S. (2014). ‘It is Medicine’: Narratives of healing from the Aotearoa Digital Storytelling as Indigenous Media Project (ADSIMP). Psychology and Developing Societies, 26(2), 155-179. Oliveira, E., & Vearey, J. (2018). Making research and building knowledge with communities: Examining three participatory visual and narrative projects with migrants who sell sex in South Africa. In M. Capous-Desyllas & K. Morgaine (Eds.), Creating social change through creativity: Anti-oppressive arts-based research methodologies (pp. 265-287). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
from https://motheringinthecityblog.wordpress.com/
In addition to funding from Security at the Margins (SeaM), this project was also supported by the Migration and Health Project Southern Africa (maHp) at the ACMS, the Wellcome Trust, and Life in the City, an initiative at the Wits School of Governance. *A free copy of the Mwanagza Mama eBook is available at: https://www.mahpsa.org/ mwangaza-mama-2019/
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EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS The vast scope of themes covered immerses the reader in many dimensions of marginality to deepen and enrich an understanding of the city. Furthermore, every actor in the project is called upon to be visible and vocal in the study output—the researchers, the participants, the visualisers, the partners, the funders. It is an ethnographic tapestry that is less concerned with resolving itself than with inviting attention to its weaving, methods, and crafters.
Geci Karuri-Sebina, Foreword
© Primrose, Volume 44, 2014
ABOUT THE EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER PROJECTS In addition to funding the Pilot Projects, SeaM also supported early career researchers with their studies of life on the urban margins. The South African National Research Foundation (NRF) provided the funding for these researchers to pursue their projects. Early career researchers from within Wits University responded to calls for this competitive funding. The successful candidates report back on their projects in the following summaries.
outskirts of Johannesburg in places like Sol Plaatjie, and metaphorically, on the fringes of society where people like migrants face stigma and xenophobia. Researchers looked at how migrant women, sex workers, refugees, and asylum seekers negotiate access to healthcare and other services. One researcher investigated how migrants and refugees in Johannesburg often turn to faithbased organisations rather than the state for basic services.
Like the Pilot Projects, the Early Career Researcher Projects challenged traditional power dynamics between researchers and participants and explored new ways of conducting research to gain a better understanding of the challenges and lived experiences of those on the urban margins in South Africa. These researchers looked at life on the margins physically, on the
Some of these summaries address the challenges of working with marginalised populations. One researcher struggled with trying to bring the experiences of the participants to a wider audience while also protecting their identities because of their criminalised and stigmatised status as sex workers. Another researcher investigating how migrants organise in Johannesburg had 93 ABOUT THE EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER PROJECTS
to pivot from her original premise during her research and, building on themes from participants’ narratives, developed a theory around “the paradox of impermanence.” Following up on previous work, another researcher translated her doctoral thesis into poetry to present to her research participants. As in other SeaM projects, here the researcher questioned the notion that she is the “expert” and held workshops so that the participants could critique her representations of them. A participant from one of these projects said of the experience: “These days I have felt very happy because my story has been heard.” The sentiment seems shared with other participants who worked with these early career researchers. The Know My Story project was named by sex worker participants who, during a group discussion, declared: “Before you judge me, know my story!” The following summaries provide more details of the work by early career researchers for SeaM.
Know My Story Susann Huschke, Wits University Know My Story was an arts-based participatory project with sex workers in Soweto, South Africa. It formed part of a larger ethnographic study on the experiences, health practices, and wellbeing of sex workers. The project design grew out of my frustration with the limits of more traditional research approaches. As a white European researcher working with Black women in a township, I felt that the interviews I was conducting reinforced unequal power dynamics between the researcher and the interviewees. Interviews are hierarchical by nature with the focus, questions, and direction of the conversation largely determined by the interviewer. The arts-based participatory approach of the Know My Story project was an attempt to challenge these power dynamics and hierarchies and to involve sex workers more directly in the production of knowledge about issues that affect them. The aim of Know My Story was to create a space in which sex workers collect/tell/ share their own stories. Our work included participatory storytelling sessions prompted by photographs taken by participants with their cell phones, photo portraits taken by a professional photographer, the production of a five-minute film trailer, and a creative
Artwork Details Mixed media collage by Shakypay & Julia Sestier. 96
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Chanique in a Club Sex workers in South Africa and the UK demand decriminalisation and access to basic rights. Photo: Julia Sestier 2016
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arts workshop. The project ran between June 2016 and March 2017 in Soweto.
Reflecting on this project, I would do things differently. I now see that participatory research with marginalised people absolutely requires a commitment to long-term work in the community (in other words, more than a two-year postdoctoral job abroad); careful reflection on and discussion of hopes and expectations and the limitations of what can(not) be done; and the humble acknowledgement that one project will not be able to achieve profound and lasting changes (whatever these may be). Rather, it is our contribution to larger, long-term struggles, our integration into work that has come before and will come after, and our commitment to stick around that will, in the long run, make a difference.
Participants chose the project name—Know My Story—during a group discussion about the aims of the project. They wanted their audiences to listen to what they had to say about themselves, their lives, their struggles, and their reasons for selling sex. All of the participants narrated experiences of rejection, disrespect, and violence from family members and from their communities because of their status as sex workers. Through this project, they wanted to proclaim, “Before you judge me, know my story!” In their visual artwork and written texts, the participants created portraits of themselves and shared their life stories. They focused on a range of themes, including stigmatisation, financial pressure, educational aspirations, and motherhood. One of the biggest challenges in the Know My Story project was the tension of using visual research methodologies with individuals who are both criminalised and stigmatised due to their livelihood activity. In the end, some of the visual outputs co-created by the sex workers, such as photo portraits and the film trailer, were not released to the public due to ethical concerns raised by the supervising team regarding the protection of participants and the unintended consequences that could result in the use of non-anonymised public images.
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Seeking Sanctuary: Mobility, Religion, and Political Authority in Johannesburg, South Africa Stephanie Maher, Wits University This project explored the intersection of mobility, religion, and political authority in Johannesburg. It asked how immigrants and refugees in Johannesburg use religious affiliations to access, negotiate, and construct novel social and political networks in socially and politically volatile contexts. Recent scholarship suggests that refugees and immigrants alike often count on the assistance of religious organisations and welfare societies to secure jobs and access social services in many urban settings in South Africa. In Johannesburg, where many immigrants and refugees reside, life is defined by competition for limited resources, such as space for housing, basic services, and employment. In addition to providing access to needed resources, religious affiliations can also provide a sense of fraternity for people on the move who face many discontinuities as a result of migration and displacement. Importantly, many South African nationals perceive these “new arrivals” as claiming the lion’s share when it comes to service delivery, which further exacerbates xenophobic violence. How immigrants and refugees negotiate safety on the margins of the city was the focus of this project.
I began my project by undertaking a thorough literature review, focusing on theoretical discussions on the nature of African urbanities and the tensions between decentralised municipal governance and centralising state powers in South Africa. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 immigrants, most of whom had been seeking asylum status in South Africa for up to 10 years. I also interviewed seven representatives working in faith-based organisations as well as four members of local and national NGOs devoted to protecting migrants’ rights. Personal testimonies revealed the extent to which immigrants and refugees are marginalised in Johannesburg. In countless conversations, people described the fear, xenophobia, and insecurity in everyday encounters with both urban nationals and state officials. Crime and corruption at the hands of law enforcement officials were common, as were complaints of extortion by state employees. Community Policing Forums (CPF) as well as South African Police Service (SAPS) officers frequently harassed those who were unwilling or unable to pay a bribe. In addition, officials 100
at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) often extorted extra-legal payment from asylum seekers. Such interactions directly influenced how people sought safety and security in Johannesburg’s margins. Importantly, in such a hostile climate, participants would often turn to faith-based organisations to secure basic services such as access to housing, food, and legal advice. As Sister Maria de Lurdes Lodi Rissini, director of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees in Johannesburg, put it, because immigrants and refugees cannot trust the South African state to act transparently and honestly, faith-based organisations are obliged to step in and fill the gap. As such, organisations like Pastoral Care are tasked with “doing the job of the state” by providing constitutionally mandated access to education, employment, housing, healthcare, and protection from violence for immigrants and asylum seekers in Johannesburg’s margins.
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The Paradox of Impermanence: Africanist Political Imaginations and Rights Claiming in Johannesburg Claire McDonald, Wits University New ways of conceptualising patterns of human mobility and the political, economic, and social effects of these movements are driving current migration research. Furthermore, there is a call to develop a greater understanding of both the spatial and temporal aspects of migration. This includes understanding how these aspects affect the experiences of migrants in claiming rights and establishing a sense of belonging in a host state. My research report sought to respond to this call by developing a theory around “the paradox of impermanence,” which I constructed from empirical research conducted with migrants living in Johannesburg, South Africa. This paradox identifies two distinct forms of impermanence that are caused by the following factors: insufficient access to state immigration documentation that regularises a migrant’s stay in South Africa (state-imposed impermanence) and the personally expressed desires of migrants to return to their home countries (self-imposed impermanence).
causes certain groups of people to organise as a group (or not). More specifically, I was initially interested in assessing whether or not and how formal migrant organisations— specifically the African Diaspora Forum (ADF) and the Somali Association of South Africa (SASA)—assist individual migrants in gaining access to rights. I was interested in gaining insight into why people pursue associations with formal migrant organisations and whether or not membership of such an organisation results in noticeable improvements in access to rights. My questionnaire was structured broadly around questions relating to why participants had joined a given organisation, what benefits they extracted from such membership, and their experiences around rights access in South Africa. My original hypothesis centred around the idea that joining formal migrant organisations may be one strategy used by migrant individuals to negotiate their access to rights in the urban context. I conducted 19 interviews with crossborder migrant individuals who originate from nine different African countries and who—at the time—resided in Johannesburg. Interviews took the form of semi-structured,
The project started with a different question, initially aiming to dig deeper into the question of social mobilisation and what 102
in-depth interviews and took place in the neighbourhoods of Yeoville and Mayfair.
When it came to the analysis phase of the project, I gradually became convinced that I needed to change the direction of the question I sought to answer. The themes of impermanence resonated strongly through all the interviews. During the analysis, I started to construct my theory around the “paradox of impermanence.”
However, during the process of conducting field research, I realised that my original question was going to be difficult to answer in my project for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was apparent that within the organisations that I conducted my research, people were not organising in a way that I had expected to see. There did not appear to be much formal organisation in terms of membership, regular meetings, or stated organisational goals. Furthermore, the bureaucratic nature of these organisations—something I had been aware of before starting—made it very difficult to find willing participants who were not directly linked to management. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, during the interviews, I started to notice that the conversations I was having were revealing many other interesting and perhaps more important themes that I wanted to explore further.
My biggest takeaway from this project was learning that the field research in a qualitative project will not necessarily provide you with a given answer. As the researcher, you have to learn when it is appropriate to make a pivot and construct something of value with the data you have collected.
The type of interviews that I conducted— in-depth, semi-structured, conversational interviews—allowed for the collection of a set of rich narratives from participants. 103
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Everyday Urbanisms of Fear in Johannesburg’s Periphery: The Case of Sol Plaatje Settlement Khangelani Moyo, Wits University This project focused on the intersections between vulnerability, fear, and anxiety in the Sol Plaatje settlement, a quasi-formal area that is located between Roodepoort and Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa. I used data from conversations with the residents of Sol Plaatje, field observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions to explore the anxieties of people in the settlement and their lived realities. I concluded that due to its location on former gold mining land, Sol Plaatje is beset by two major concerns: the anxiety regarding the suitability of the land for human habitation and the fear of crime due to the presence of informal artisanal miners in the area.
in Johannesburg. The first contingent came from Maraisburg and settled in 1999, and the second were from Wilgespruit in Honeydew (Corruption Watch, 2012). The third and perhaps the largest group of approximately 1,500 families settled in 2002, having been evicted by court order from Mandelaville informal settlement in Diepkloof, Soweto, at the instigation of the City of Johannesburg (Wilson, 2005). Media reports at the time noted that the city sought an eviction order to pave the way for a multi-million rand business development and the court ordered the city to find alternative accommodation for the evictees (see Ndaba 2002a, 2002b). Present day Sol Plaatje is a growing Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)1 settlement; however, part of the original informal settlement still exists in the vicinity and is home to many people without access to RDP housing, including foreign migrants. The people of Sol Plaatje are ethnically diverse.
Sol Plaatje in Context Established in 1999 (in its current form), Sol Plaatje is located south of Roodeport on former mining land. According to the 2011 census figures, the population stands at 9,141 residents consisting of three groups evicted from different informal settlements
1. RDP refers to the Reconstruction and Development Programme initiated by the first democratic government of South Africa in 1994. The houses are “developed by government and allocated to beneficiaries with a household income of less than R3,500. Beneficiaries of this subsidy receive a once off grant for land, basic services (water and sanitation) and the house (top structure)� (Landman & Napier, 2010, p. 302). 104
By their own understanding, all the major South African ethnic groups2 are represented, but there is a particularly large contingent of Xhosa language speakers. A Reflective Note on Methods I drew from observations and historical memory as I have been part of research studies in Sol Plaatje intermittently since 2008 (Vearey, Núñez, & Palmary, 2009; Vearey, Richter, Núñez, & Moyo, 2011). For the purposes of this work, I did key informant interviews with the local clinic manager, the former sister in charge of the clinic, the local NGO representatives, and two focus group discussions with the residents of the settlement. The idea behind the interviews with the clinic manager emanated from an interest in the health and well-being of the residents of Sol Plaatje and an aim to understand the main health concerns within the settlement, such as the main ailments for which people sought treatment. In addition to the key informant interviews and the focus group discussions, I also held informal
conversations with the local residents on each of my field visits to the settlement 12 months from 2017 to 2018. The informal conversations were unstructured and included instances of ad hoc conversation with residents on the streets concerning their lives in Sol Plaatje and how the settlement has changed over time as well as the problems that they face in their everyday lives. Research Findings The initial focus of the research was on vulnerability in the periphery as well as the health and well-being of the residents of Sol Plaatje in the context of previous studies that had documented a high incidence of ill health, especially the high prevalence of HIV/ AIDS and TB (see Decoteau, 2008). From the interviews with the health personnel in Sol Plaatje, the study found that the prevalence of HIV is still high in the settlement. For example, out of 4,000 individuals tested for HIV over a period of 12 months in 2016 at the local NGO, 20% tested positive for HIV,3 which is higher
2. South Africa has nine major African ethnic groups: Zulu, Xhosa, Venda, Tsonga, Tswana, Sotho, Pedi, Ndebele, and Swati. 3. Data shared by representatives of the Mandelaville Crisis Centre, a local NGO in Sol Plaatje that is responsible for HIV counselling and testing among other activities. EVERYDAY URBANISMS OF FEAR IN JOHANNESBURG’S PERIPHERY
than the South African national prevalence of 12.57% (Statistics South Africa, 2017). The clinic manager and the residents also highlighted that there were high incidences of respiratory infections in the settlement, which they attributed to the dust from the mine dumps. The residents also highlighted a worry over the activities of the informal miners, whom they blamed for environmental degradation and rising levels of crime. They noted that informal miners carry firearms while guarding their shafts, which contributes to fear amongst residents who are unable to walk freely in some sections where mining activities take place.
Mine Dump A typical mine dump in Sol Plaatje, which residents blame for dust storms during winter months. RDP House A typical Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) house in the Sol Plaatje settlement.
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References Corruption Watch. (2012, May 9). Informal settlers
Vearey, J., Richter, M., Núñez, L., & Moyo, K. (2011).
homeless as housing dept stalls. Corruption Watch.
South African HIV/AIDS programming overlooks
Retrieved from https://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/
migration, urban livelihoods, and informal workplaces.
informal-settlers-homeless-as-housing-dept-stalls/
African Journal of AIDS Research, 10(sup1), 381-391.
Decoteau, C. L. (2008). The bio-politics of HIV/AIDS in
Wilson, S. (2005). Relocation and access to schools
post-apartheid South Africa (Doctoral dissertation).
in Sol Plaatje (Research Report). Johannesburg:
Retrieved from Deep Blue, University of Michigan.
Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand.
Landman, K., & Napier, M. (2010). Waiting for a house or building your own? Reconsidering state provision, aided and unaided self-help in South Africa. Habitat International, 34, 299-305. Ndaba, B. (2002a). Mandelaville squatters begin forced move. IOL. Retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/ mandelaville-squatters-begin-forced-move-80269 Ndaba, B. (2002b). Residents cheer squatters’ eviction. IOL. Retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/news/ south-africa/residents-cheer-squatters-eviction-80357 Statistics South Africa. (2017). Mid-year population estimates (Statistical release P0302). Statistics South Africa. Retrieved from https://www.statssa.gov.za/ publications/P0302/P03022017.pdf Vearey, J., Núñez, L., & Palmary, I. (2009). HIV, migration and urban food security: Exploring the linkages (South Africa Report). Johannesburg: Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods and Food Security (RENEWAL).
EVERYDAY URBANISMS OF FEAR IN JOHANNESBURG’S PERIPHERY
Exploring Women’s Voices on the Gukurahundi in Johannesburg Duduzile Ndlovu, Wits University Feeding research/eating my words/research transactions Failed attempts to get women to participate Men readily volunteered Turned up for interview appointments Men sat down to tell Well crafted nationalist narratives about Gukurahundi, Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi,
So we sat down and talked About our children, mine? hers? I asked if I could record Let’s finish our tea Then we will talk My clock is ticking I should have known I was never going to leave I ask for more scones to take away It is only polite We switch on the recorder So tell me what you have not already told me
Women switched off their phones, Texted to say akusayenzi Offered to refer a friend So I wondered What am I missing? Change the question? What does it mean to be a woman in Johannesburg? How do you mother? Are you a wife, a sister or a friend? That was the missing piece.
Blurred lines So much in common Even more we never have to say There is a lot more that she says Shall I remind her? I am a researcher Yet she knows and I too know It is these blurred lines That will come back to haunt us
I remembered you were coming I baked you some scones Would you like some tea, Coffee? How many sugars?
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This project is a follow-up to my PhD research that explored the memorialisation of the Gukurahundi in Johannesburg by Zimbabwean migrants. During fieldwork for my PhD, I sought out women for interviews; however, women mostly did not agree to be part of the research or did not honour our appointment if they had agreed to meet. I looked at other research that has focused on women and faced similar challenges. Mudavanhu (2015) in her PhD thesis details accessing women for her research by embedding herself in their daily activities and conducting interviews as the women went about their daily tasks in their rural homes. I decided to visit women in their homes when possible and to conduct open ended narrative interviews about their lives in Johannesburg. Women more readily agreed to participate in these interviews and shared stories about their lives as migrants. When the women agreed, I asked for their thoughts on the Gukurahundi. While some shared their views on the Gukurahundi, others shared the reasons why they were not willing or not able to talk about the Gukurahundi. The poem on the opposite page summarises my experience of engaging women to talk about the Gukurahundi in contrast to conducting interviews with men.
Reference Mudavanhu, S. L. (2015). A study of Radio Zimbabwe’s messages and audiences in a time of crisis (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Town).
Sharing Tea and Scones I took this photograph at one of my participant’s homes. She was the inspiration for the poem I wrote on the previous page.
EXPLORING WOMEN’S VOICES ON THE GUKURAHUNDI IN JOHANNESBURG
Exploring Visual Languages of Marginality Duduzile Ndlovu, Wits University This project aimed to disrupt the unequal power distribution in knowledge production processes by inviting participants to engage with and comment on what I had written about their lives.
the participants. I also asked participants to reflect on how the poems made them feel, what they liked, what they did not like, and whether or not they felt that I had represented them accurately. Participants engaged with the poetry and articulated whether or not I had represented them accurately and whether or not they agreed with the content I had produced. In some of their critiques, participants made comments about who they thought had said particular things to explain why they did not agree with my representation. These discussions allowed for participants who had expected the research to only represent their views to see what went into the writing aimed at producing a text that represented the array of narratives by all participants.
I translated my PhD thesis into seven poems crafted through poetic transcription. Some speak to the themes that arose out of the data analysis, and others I had written prior to the research. This translation created a version of the thesis that participants could engage with in more meaningful ways. This is because the style of writing contrasted to traditional texts that are written in academic language. At the same time, however, the poetry also presented me, the researcher and the writer of text, more visibly. Workshops I organised several workshops with the people who had participated in my research. Participants received printed copies of the poems with their invitations to attend these workshops. During workshops, participants were given a chance to comment and ask questions. Some even asked if they could clarify the meaning of the words I used or change the words I used. The poems are written in English and the meanings of some words were not always apparent to
There are several lessons I have drawn from the exercise of presenting my research outcomes in poetry form. It is very uncomfortable to occupy this place as a researcher. The discomfort came from two primary places: firstly, the poetry made me visible within the text and, secondly, I was giving up the role of “expert� researcher. When I say that the poetry made me visible within the text, I mean that the thesis represents my life alongside the participants’ 110
lives (i.e., the thesis reader will also read about me). The discomfort of having my life, albeit a version of it that I crafted for other people to read in the thesis, made me feel vulnerable. This space of discomfort was important because it triggered a personal reflection about what it means to write about people. What does it mean to ask people to tell you about their lives knowing that you will write about them? Inviting participants to critique what I had written was also uncomfortable because I gave up the role of “expert” researcher and the power that this position endows. The university training I received and my location as a PhD student granted me the status of an “expert” in the research context. As such, I defined the purpose of our engagement through the research questions I had posed and was attempting to answer with the data that was generated from my engagements with the participants. I also had the upper hand role of asking questions and probing for clarification of the stories people were telling. Lastly, as a supposed “expert,” I had the skills and tools to analyse and make sense of other people’s lives and represent them for various audiences in publications, in the thesis, and in conferences: all of these are spaces to which the participants did not have access. The discomfort of opening up what I
had written for participants’ critique showed the power researchers have in writing about others who are not given the opportunity to challenge what has been written about them. This is important because research continues to replicate a colonial gaze on many individuals and communities who are represented in reports, publications, and conference proceedings. Researchers engage with communities that have forms of knowledge production that may not be recognised by the academy. As supposed experts, researchers create representations of communities refracted through their gaze. This tends to happen without giving the represented an opportunity to critique or otherwise engage with the representations. The above discussion has shown how allowing the supposed “non-experts” to engage and critique research outcomes creates opportunities for the disruption of this power imbalance and moves towards a more just research relationship.
EXPLORING VISUAL LANGUAGES OF MARGINALITY
Everyday Mayfair Nereida Ripero-Muñiz, Wits University Elsa Oliveira, Wits University Everyday Mayfair is a participatory arts-based project that was conducted with Somali migrants living in Johannesburg. It used mapping, photography, and storytelling to learn more about the participants’ migration journeys to South Africa, their relationships with the city, and their hopes and dreams of resettlement in other parts of the world. Building on previous work by the MoVE (method:visual:explore) Project at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) and research conducted by Nereida Ripero-Muñiz (Ripero-Muñiz, 2017; Ripero-Muñiz & Fayad, 2016), the project took place in February 2017. It consisted of a four-day workshop that was held in Mayfair, an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg and a popular destination for many Somali migrants. The main aims of the project were to offer Somali migrants an opportunity to reflect on their experiences of migration and their everyday lives in Mayfair and to showcase aspects of themselves that they wanted to share with public audiences.
of the countries they had passed through during their journey to South Africa, the places they would like to travel to and/ or reside in one day, and the destinations of other family members; and (4) a map of Mayfair that reflected their relationship with the neighbourhood. Each map, albeit to varying degrees, reflects a layering of multiple forms of knowledge that highlight different experiences of migration and the global mobility of the Somali diaspora. The life-line and conceptual maps helped participants think about important events in their lives and how they relate to their migration experiences. The conceptual maps of their journeys from Somalia to South Africa revealed movements across the eastern and southern regions of the continent by land, air, and sea. The world maps provided rich insight into the multiple migration experiences of the participants and their families.
Mapping Migration Each participant created four maps: (1) a life-line highlighting important events in their lives; (2) a conceptual map that represented the route they took from Somalia to South Africa; (3) a world map
Seeing Space In addition to mapping exercises, the participants were also invited to take photographs using their cell phones. This methodology complemented the maps by 112
Photographing Everyday Life The images taken by participants offered a way for us to speak about issues and places that had not previously surfaced during the workshop. In this way, their photographs served as a medium for selfreflection and dialogue. They also offered us visual insights into the everyday spaces that Somali migrants negotiate in Johannesburg. 113
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Mapping Journey’s and Dreams Participants created maps to explain the different places they lived, their routes to Johannesburg, where their family and friends lived, and the places they want to travel someday.
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offering visual snapshots of the participants’ everyday public and private lives. One interesting observation we made was that gender seemed to influence the types of photographs that participants captured. For example, male participants often took images of public spaces, such as restaurants, parks, and bars, whereas women focused on private aspects of their lives, such as the objects they use at home or their living and work spaces.
but the participants also learned from one another. Equally, if not more importantly, the participants were given the power and freedom to express and represent themselves in the ways they wanted to be seen and perceived.
References Ripero-Muñiz, N. (Ed.) (2017). Metropolitan nomads: A journey through Jo’burg’s little Mogadishu. Johannesburg: MoVE.
Experiences and Impressions Participatory arts-based methods offer new ways of understanding complex phenomena. The artefacts produced by the participants offered us visual insights into their migration journeys, everyday experiences, and impressions. Less traditional research methodologies, such as those we used in this project, offer the potential for researchers to collect different types of information with which to explore and expand understandings of underrepresented and/or mis-represented groups of people such as Somali migrants. Participatory methods also offer researchers more inclusive ways to explore people’s subjectivities and experiences, which, in turn, open up practical and intellectual spaces for thinking and making. As Rio, one of our participants, explained on the final day of the workshop: “These days I have felt very happy because my story has been heard.” Not only did we, as researchers, gain new insights into the complex lives, hopes, and dreams of Somali migrants living in Johannesburg,
Ripero-Muñiz, N., & Fayad, S. (2016). Metropolitan nomads: A journey through Jo’burg’s “little Mogadishu.” Anthropology Southern Africa, 39(3), 232-240.
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Motherhood, Health, and Migration Tackson Makandwa, Wits University There is a growing number of urban poor in Johannesburg, South Africa, which includes both internal and cross-border migrants without medical aid, relying on the public healthcare system. This study forms part of my doctoral research and strategically feeds into the SeaM objective as it explored the nexus between migration and urban health in the context of urban inequality, health inequity, xenophobia, and anti-foreigner sentiments in South Africa and Johannesburg in particular. In my ongoing work, I view public healthcare facilities as spaces where security in terms of access to healthcare is negotiated.
primarily related to their reproductive health (Almeida et al., 2013; Dias, Gama, & Rocha, 2010). I collected primary data from public healthcare facilities (clinics and hospitals) in inner-city Johannesburg under the Mother, Child & Women’s Health Services section. I interviewed migrant women and key informants in selected inner-city Johannesburg Region F facilities, covering the suburbs of Hillbrow, Yeoville, Berea, Jeppestown, Rosettenville, and Turfontein. These neighbourhoods have a higher concentration of heterogeneous migrant populations (Vearey, 2013) who are ethnically and socioeconomically diverse.
In this SeaM study, I focused on how the inner-city urban space influences maternal healthcare experiences of migrant Zimbabwean and South African women during pregnancy and childbirth in Johannesburg. All the women in my study were relying on the public healthcare system, were without medical aid, and were unemployed or employed informally.
The main findings of this study highlight that migrant women face various challenges when trying to access maternal healthcare in public healthcare facilities in the city. However, migrant women engage multiple help and health seeking strategies from within and beyond the biomedical system. Through the maternal lens, the city presents multiple faces and contradictions. Lastly, the findings highlight how failures in service delivery can be blamed on the presence of non-nationals or “foreign nationals� (Vearey, Modisenyane, & Hunter-Adams, 2017).
These factors placed them on the urban margins, healthcare margins, and social margins because of their migrant and reproductive status. More importantly, women have special health needs, which are 116
The main lesson I drew from this work was that conducting health research without a medical health background placed me on the margins as a researcher. Conducting interdisciplinary health research has its own fair share of procedures to gain access. When venturing into the zone of protocol, there is need to negotiate and renegotiate the various layers of access (Madushani, 2016). I had to work with various letters of access. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from different ethical clearance boards: the Wits Human Research Ethics Committee (non-medical) R14/49, under protocol number H16/03/15 at the University of the Witwatersrand; the City of Johannesburg Health District; and the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health. With the letters and various layers of access, I realised that negotiating access is not a once off process, it is continuous. I also learnt that safety and physical security compromise access to some inner-city spaces hence limiting healthcare provision and access.
References Almeida, L. M., Caldas, J., Ayres-de-Campos, D., Salcedo-Barrientos, D., & Dias, S. (2013). Maternal healthcare in migrants: A systematic review. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17(8), 1346–1354. Dias, S., Gama, A., & Rocha, C. (2010). Immigrant women’s perceptions and experience of health care services: Insights from a focus group study. Journal of Public Health, 18(5), 489–496. Madushani, H. D. P. (2016). Ethical issues in social science research: A review. Journal of Social Statistics, 3(1), 26-33. Vearey, J. (2013). Unpacking urban health, migration and HIV in Johannesburg: Towards pro-poor policy responses. Discussion Paper. Vearey, J., Modisenyane, M., & Hunter-Adams, J. (2017). Towards a migration-aware health system in South Africa: A strategic opportunity to address health inequity. South African Health Review, (1), 89–98.
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Migrant Mothers Who Sell Sex: Exploring Experiences of Selling Sex, Motherhood, and Identity in Inner-City Johannesburg Rebecca Walker, Wits University This research project explored the relationship between being a mother, being a migrant, and selling sex. In particular, it looked at two interrelated issues—the significance of labelling and not being called a “sex worker” and the impact of managing a series of identities and roles including, crucially, that of a migrant mother who sells sex. The project evolved out of an earlier project exploring the “double vulnerability” faced by migrant sex workers in South Africa through which women faced increased risks as non-nationals (often undocumented) and as participants in the criminalised industry of sex work.
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), two from Zimbabwe, and one from Mozambique. During this time, I would meet with the participants—either one-on-one or in groups—twice a month in central areas of Johannesburg and hold informal interviews or focus group discussions. We would often meet in the grounds of a central government clinic and sit under a tree as their children played around us. Having previously worked together with the participants, we had already built up a level of trust and understanding. This made it much easier for the women to talk openly and for us to explore issues that were often sensitive.
The project drew on two key findings from the earlier study, which showed that many women who sold sex were mothers to young children, often single parents, and did not call themselves “sex workers.” Over a period of 10 months, I worked with a group of 10 women who were mothers and who sold sex; I sought to find out more about their everyday lives, how they negotiated their various roles in the city, and the challenges they faced. Seven of the women were from
Making Life Work in the City All of the women who participated stayed in and around the inner city of Johannesburg, an area associated with a highly mobile population, high levels of crime, barriers to accessing basic services including healthcare and education, and xenophobia directed at non-nationals. The women found they had to negotiate around many of these challenges. They needed to remain below the parapet—avoiding being too visible to the 118
Being a Mother, Being a Migrant, and Selling Sex While the women sold sex on a regular basis, they did not see themselves as “sex workers.” Instead, they described selling sex as a temporary strategy. Amy, one of the participants, noted, “I have to pay rent so I have to get the money . . . later I will do something else. . . . If this isn’t for my children who is it for?” For the women, the responsibility of providing and caring for children in the face of stigmatisation and discrimination posed some of the greatest challenges. The women identified the need to care for children and to be “good mothers” as a primary reason for selling sex. Yet their integrity as mothers often came into question as they were often labelled “bad mothers” by the police, by healthcare professionals, and by their local communities. Not only did this intensify the structural violence that they already faced, but also the grappling with their own identities as migrants, as mothers, and as individuals who sell sex.
police, immigration authorities, and others who may pose a threat to them—while also providing for themselves and their children. A lack of childcare and support networks meant that caring for their children was particularly tough and woven with fears for their futures as well as isolation and exhaustion. While the women engaged in a number of livelihood strategies to make money, including selling second-hand clothes and doing domestic work, selling sex often was the most viable option. Selling sex did not require documentation or qualifications, and they could also work flexible hours and earn money immediately rather than wait for an end-of-the-month paycheck. However, it also meant that they faced a number of risks— many associated with the criminalisation of sex work in South Africa, which has meant that exploitation and violence from clients and police go unchecked. Although they faced violence as well as stigma and discrimination from those around them, the women could also provide for their children in ways that were not otherwise open to them.
Research in Marginalised Contexts The significance of this study lies not only 119
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in the findings but also in what we can learn about research in these contexts. Building on earlier studies with migrant women and sex workers, it shows the entanglements of opportunity, risk, hope, and despair and also raises a number of key questions about doing this kind of research. In particular, we must question notions of relationships, power, and responsibility while working with women who face high levels of violence, who are marginalised, and who are often desperate. These are questions that should frame the entire research project and should challenge and problematise the research at all stages. Where we engage in other women’s lives, often in deeply personal and intense ways and often for short periods of time, we should query where our responsibilities lie not only as researchers but also as human beings. In cities like Johannesburg where inequalities are so stark and where women who are migrants, who are mothers, and who sell sex face some of the greatest risks, these kinds of questions must be central to our research and must push us to consider not only different ways of doing research but also different ideas of reciprocity and relationships.
REFLECTIONS It is quite strange to have to work in an environment where the very core of both my work and existence was seemingly debatable. Entering into this kind of academic environment requires that significant support and care be made available particularly to those who are most at risk or might find this space most adversarial. I was fortunate as a SeaM fellow to feel that kind of support was always readily available to me. This is not something I think programs, particularly academic programs, fellowships, or projects readily know or see as their responsibility given the uniqueness of this current political moment. Projects or groups such as SeaM that are able to adjust and respond with a sense or ethics of care indicate much about the work and commitments of the projects themselves.
B Camminga, Precarity and Possibility Revisited
Š Shorty, Working the City, 2010
Š Meme, Working the City, 2010
ABOUT THE REFLECTIONS
With its emphasis on collaboration, SeaM brought together people from various backgrounds inside and outside of the academy. Not only researchers contributed to this work, but also participants, civil society advisors, and experts in various fields who brought their skills to expand ways of conducting and presenting research. This section contains reflections from some of the people who were involved in these SeaM projects.
improvise while teaching in Johannesburg during an unexpected power outage. Partnerships beyond the academy were important to SeaM projects. Keval Harie shares how SeaM has strengthened the relationship between GALA and the ACMS, encouraging ongoing and future collaboration. This partnership highlights how research coming from the ACMS can reach a broader audience through partnerships like the one with GALA.
Academic exchanges were part of SeaM, which strengthened ties between Wits University and the University of Edinburgh. B Camminga reflects on unexpected challenges of presenting work as a trans person and scholar in another country and the responsibility of creating a safe intellectual space. Alison Koslowski reflects on an academic exchange and having to
SeaM projects also brought in experts from fields outside of academia. Website developer Andrea Hayes shares insights on the difference between working on a SeaMrelated website versus a commercial website. Instead of a website designed to increase efficiency and profit, this “experimental archival system� challenged the user to click 125
ABOUT THE REFLECTIONS
through intrusions to the content to learn more about what life was like for LGBTIQ+ people in Johannesburg in the 1950s and 1960s. Journalist Karabo Kgoleng captures the words of participants at the launch for the Mwangaza Mama project book and reflects on her role as a reporter covering migration. Patience Okenge contributes to these reflections as both a participant and as a translator for the Mwangaza Mama project. She writes of the challenges of balancing these two roles and also how meaningful the project was to her. She writes: “We learned that everyone is the same, and this is so important because there is too much nonsense in the world that is dividing people and nations.” These reflections provide a more personal look at SeaM’s work.
© Sbu, Working the City, 2010
Precarity and Possibility Revisited B Camminga, Wits University Perhaps naively I had not anticipated the intellectual environment I encountered when I came to Edinburgh as a SeaM fellow in 2019. As a trans person and scholar, I found that the politics around trans rights and research in the UK presently is volatile. While at the University of Edinburgh, I launched my book Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa: Bodies Over Borders and Borders Over Bodies (Palgrave, 2019) and organised a workshop entitled Transgender Refugees: Possibilities and Precarities that I co-hosted with Suma Abdelsamie, a trans refugee from Egypt, living in Greece. I also presented a paper entitled Digital Borders, Diasporic Flows and the Nigerian Transgender Beauty Queen Who Would not Be Denied at the Transgender: Intersectional/International Conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh.
required that we engage in a conversation prior to the event about the possibility of interruption, protest, or outright challenge. This potential challenge would not be so much about content but the very validity of the subject matter and, by extension, both Suma’s existence and mine. More critically, we had to consider what safety in an academic space would look like or mean for each of us and who was responsible for providing that safety. At the same time, this was a negotiation of our own power and care for each other. For me, this meant not wanting to take away from Suma’s own ability to defend and protect herself while also recognising my responsibility, a question really of at what point would it be my place to intercede on Suma’s behalf. These are, of course, issues not unique to me but a broader problem across the UK and in some spaces in the US presently. It is quite strange to have to work in an environment where the very core of both my work and existence was seemingly debatable. Entering into this kind of academic environment requires that significant support and care be made available particularly to those who are most at risk or might find this space most adversarial. I was fortunate as a SeaM fellow to feel that kind of support was always
Though all these events were well attended and I found all the of the engagement extremely enjoyable and rigorous, I experienced the build-up to and aftermath of each event as extremely draining. Living in Johannesburg as a trans person, I consider my physical safety on a daily basis. While I was in Edinburgh, those considerations shifted to concern over intellectual (and, by extension, emotional) safety. Organising a workshop with a trans refugee, for instance, 128
readily available to me. This is not something I think programs, particularly academic programs, fellowships, or projects readily know or see as their responsibility given the uniqueness of this current political moment. Projects or groups such as SeaM that are able to adjust and respond with a sense or ethics of care indicate much about the work and commitments of the projects themselves.
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GALA Reflections on the SeaM Project Keval Harie, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) GALA is the keeper of a uniquely African archival collection documenting the history, culture, and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) people. GALA’s mission is to be a catalyst for the production, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge on the history and contemporary narratives of LGBTIQ+ people. It is impossible to consider issues affecting LGBTIQ+ people in South Africa without considering issues of movement, mobility, and migration.
GALA was introduced to the SeaM project through our long-standing partnership with the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) at Wits University, which began in 2013. Recognising the need to increase public awareness of the lives and experiences of LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers, GALA and the ACMS partnered on a one-day seminar that brought together—for the first time in South Africa—LGBTIQ+ migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees with academics, activists, and organisations working on broader migration issues. This event underlined the importance of civil society working collaboratively if we are to succeed in ending the violence, harassment, and discrimination experienced by LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers.
GALA was pleased to collaborate as a partner on the SeaM project, engaged in protection and assistance to refugees, asylees, and vulnerable local South African communities. There is a long history of migration in the Southern African context that is often reduced to narratives about labour. However, LGBTIQ+ people have also been on the move for a variety of reasons including safety, study, community, work opportunities, et cetera. GALA wants to support efforts to recognise intersections of mobility, sexual orientation, and gender identity and, in doing so, provoke more nuanced conversation about the experiences, needs, and realities of LGBTIQ+ people in contemporary South Africa.
Following the success of this event, GALA invited the ACMS to partner on a visual arts and narrative writing workshop with members of this community in late 2014, and the ACMS led an innovative poetry workshop with the participants the following year. The intention behind these workshops was to create a safe space for the participants to tell their stories and to receive support in making their voices heard. This project became known as the Queer Crossings project, which involved arts-based writing and poetry 130
Bodymaps During the Queer Crossings project, participants drew and wrote stories about aspects of their lives they wanted to explore. The life size body maps and the narrative stories each participant selected to share with public audiences were first displayed at the Newtown Workers’ Museum in 2016, innercity Johannesburg.
Poetry Nine of the original eleven Queer Crossings participants took part in a week-long poetry workshop that was facilitated by LeConte Dill, from New York University (NYU), and Makhosazana Xaba, renowned South African poet. 131
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workshops and resulted in an exhibition and publication of narratives based on the lived experiences of LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers and migrants. The Queer Crossings collection in the GALA archives includes a rich trove of materials from the Queer Crossings workshops, including body maps, smaller artworks, publicity material, and a copy of the Queer Crossings publication.
The narratives that emerge will form the basis of an edited volume of life stories. All the interviews for this project have been completed, and John Marnell from the ACMS has turned these interviews into compelling narratives. It is critical that we build on the emerging body of work documenting the lived experiences of LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers. This is vital if we are going to develop effective, evidence-based interventions in support of LGBTIQ+ migrant rights.
In 2017, GALA and the ACMS began working on a collaborative writing project called Seeking Sanctuary. Seeking Sanctuary is a project that documents the work of the LGBTIQ+ ministry at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Braamfontein. Holy Trinity’s commitment to providing pastoral care to people on the margins—particularly those facing violence because of their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and/or documentation status—marks it as a unique site in South Africa’s religious landscape. Seeking Sanctuary aims to celebrate Holy Trinity’s contribution to human rights by preserving the memories and reflections of those involved with the LGBTIQ+ ministry (including group members, the organising committee, the parish leadership, and the broader church community). As well as charting the evolution of the LGBTIQ+ ministry, the project seeks to document the lived experiences of LGBTIQ+ migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and to better understand how these individuals navigate state structures, develop livelihood strategies, and form solidarity networks.
The ACMS relationship is one that is particularly important for GALA for many reasons, namely: • producing innovative and inclusive forms of knowledge, such as the Queer Crossings Project; • maintaining an important connection between the academy and the archive; • developing alternative methods in which to disseminate outputs, research, and knowledge, particularly outside of academic spaces, making the material/ space accessible to vulnerable groups; • supporting communities through advocacy and education, ensuring that there is a critical understanding of what it means to do research on/with/through particular communities. Access to healthcare for LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers and migrants remains critical. 132
GALA is thus excited to also be supporting another ACMS project that offers an important opportunity to rethink both health needs and choices. Essential to this rethinking is understanding how questions of mobility might undermine an individual’s opportunity to make informed and meaningful decisions in relation to their sexual health and practices.
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A Reflection on the Technical Development of 60+: Queer, Old Joburg Andrea Hayes, Wits University 60+: Queer, Old Joburg is a research and digital art project that focuses on the side-lined lives of LGBTIQ+ people in Johannesburg during the 1950s and the 1960s. It acts as a digital archive that aims to preserve interviews and life experiences of various LGBTIQ+ individuals during the era of apartheid in Johannesburg, South Africa.
As a website and game developer, I found this to be a very interesting moment of interaction on the project. It was a way to encourage the user to click through and explore the project in a very unconventional way—typical, commercial websites would not do this to their users. The user interface of a typical website would want the user to engage with a product or service as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to gain financial profit. In the 60+ project, however, we nudge the user to slowly wade through various images and text that reflect the LGBTIQ+ people, atmosphere, and time of the 1950s and 1960s.
My role in the project was to develop the website that would host one of the first interviews that was conducted by Jonathan Cane. Using basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript programming languages as well as Jonathan Cane and Mishka Naidoo’s design guides, I made an interactive experience for the user as they read through the interview with the first candidate.
After the user clicks on the first interviewee’s initials on the home page, they are taken to the first interview of the project. The user is met with a bombardment of images and videos blocking them from reading the interview in the background. In order to read the interview’s content, the user must drag the images and videos out of the way. It is a fascinating conundrum for a user of the website because although these images and videos are blocking the view, they are also adding to the experience of the website and reflecting the content of the interview.
On the home page of the project, the user is met with the initials of the LGBTIQ+ candidates at the top of the page and, on the right-hand side, a list of various LGBTIQ+ friendly places during the 1950s and 1960s. After three seconds, images begin to fade over the home page, obstructing the user’s view. In order to engage further with the website, the user must click on these images to make them fade away. 134
As a developer for commercial websites that typically promote services, products, and various companies, I thought working on this project was very interesting. Throughout the development, there were a lot of typical website conventions that I had to go against, which initially felt wrong to me but actually enhanced the experience of the user interaction and content of the project. I realised, once the project was finished, that this was more than just a website—it was an artistic expression of that period in South Africa as well as an experimental archiving system. As a young person who is part of the LGBTIQ+ community in Johannesburg, I found this project to be a very fascinating learning experience. As I developed the website, I learnt so much about the history of LGBTIQ+ people in Johannesburg—where they would go and what their lives were like in that time. So not only was this project a history lesson of sorts, but it also taught me to not always rely on conventions when developing a web-based project.
A REFLECTION ON THE TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF 60+: QUEER, OLD JOBURG
Reflections on the Mwangaza Mama Book Launch Karabo Kgoleng, Wits University On a slightly beaten-looking street in an old suburb of Johannesburg that has seen wealthier days sits a haven for women who have known tragedy and are committed to rebuilding their lives. Sophiatown Community Psychological Services (SCPS) is an organisation in Johannesburg that helps migrants who have fled conflicts in their countries of birth to pursue a better life for themselves and their families. As many have documented and discussed before, this is not an easy journey. Migrants who were forced to flee their countries of origin due to armed conflict and war are vulnerable and highly exposed to physical and sexual violence, extortion, and abuse by police and immigration officials. Due to their social status, women are especially vulnerable to human rights violations.
documents and the church secured good private schools for my sister and me. The women who participated in the Mwangaza Mama project did not experience the same level of access to or guarantees of safety, healthcare, and education for their children in their host country. On the other hand, we also associated with refugees who had left South Africa under much less pleasant circumstances and were reliant on the church and the host community for clothing, shelter, and assistance with healthcare. Another source of discomfort for me was the life of our nanny, Brenda, who came from Zimbabwe but was undocumented and, as such, had very little freedom of movement or time off. The practice of using and exploiting undocumented domestic labour is widespread in both South Africa and Botswana. Having personally benefited from this in my childhood, I read about the circumstances that lead so many women to take up this precarious and exploitative form of employment and cannot help but feel guilty. I was highly aware of how the women present at the Mwangaza Mama book launch represent the inequality even within the broader community of women migrants— from documented American researchers, the research participants (some of whom remain undocumented), and myself, an arts journalist with a growing passion for social
My role in the Mwangaza Mama book project was to assist in tying up loose ends regarding the production of the publication. As I read about the experiences of the participants in the project, memories of my own experiences growing up in different countries due to my father’s political life tugged at me. Although there were security threats in the late 1980s that led to my family fleeing to Botswana, ours was a relatively comfortable life; due to my father’s social status, we had valid 136
justice especially around issues related to marginalised women from across our borders.
have my sisters they can translate and tell what is the meaning.
It was an early winter afternoon. My colleague Elena Olivieri and I were given a warm reception in a well-lit house that makes up the main part of the SCPS centre. We were then directed to the back of the yard where there was another building in which the participants and researchers worked on the Mwangaza Mama project for the latter half of its duration. Inside the large room, festivities were already under way. The central table was decked with snacks and beverages, and the celebratory chocolate cake and copies of the Mwangaza Mama book were on a side table. On the walls hung the quilts that the mamas and the facilitators, Rebecca (Becky) Walker and Elsa Oliveira, had made.
It was not easy because we found different people, different behaviours. It was a bit tough. But at the end I come to notice that this is also about me, Kabibi in the sense that outside we are failing to tell people our stories because the moment I finish speaking to Jolie, I will find my story all over the place on WhatsApp or whatever—you find that they write your story in a different way and your name is spoiled. This group helped me find a way to express my mind. [Before] I was beating my children every day. They were saying, “Mama is beating us but we didn’t do anything!” I didn’t know that the more I was excusing myself it was because there was no one to talk [to], no one to share [with] and the main decision in the group was that anything we have to say, it must not go out of the group.
One of the participants, Kabibi, started off the proceedings by sharing her thoughts regarding her role and what the project means to her. So, everything that you are going to see inside the book some are true stories, some are stories of our friends some were other people’s experience. In the beginning this group was like a joke—we were not sure what is the meaning of this group and I
Kabibi is from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and her artwork is titled “Woman is the Heart of Africa.” Her story is “A Child of Rape.” Jolie reflects on living without blood family in Johannesburg. She is also from the DRC.
REFLECTIONS ON THE MWANGAZA MAMA BOOK LAUNCH
My name is Jolie and I’m very proud of myself by seeing this book in front of me. I know that it is going all over the world and my name is mentioned in here and people will be seeing it. So coming to this book it was very nice. This group teach us how to use our hands.
Here you can bring out your problems, how you feel, things deep inside—things you cannot share with your husband or your best friend. Today I’m very happy, very grateful—I can just say that I’m overwhelmed. Thank you very much! Prisca’s art and reflections focus on children with disabilities. She is the mother of Miracle, a toddler living with disabilities. Her husband abandoned her, and Miracle was labelled a monster with a contagious condition. Miracle was present at the launch, and he is a gentle, friendly, and humorous child. His older brother Leonard joined later when his school day was over.
Jolie’s artwork is titled “Who Should I trust with my Children,” and in it she writes about the anxiety she feels for the safety of her children. Prisca was another participant who spoke. Hello everyone, my name is Prisca. What I can say is right now I’m overwhelmed because I didn’t believe that a dream or imagination could become real. I remember the day that I was told by Johanna that we would start this book, I thought, “what am I going to do here, how is it going to be?” and in my mind I had this thinking of my problems and my story and I just wanted to separate myself. But it hit me that this place [Sophiatown] is going to be good for my health. It brought more than what I expected. Another thing that brings me courage is that I was in another women’s group at the church where we were sharing our problems at home, our problems with our husbands but when you go out you find all the full story—this is how her husband used to treat her! So when I get here I find that when you share your story it doesn’t go outside.
Mary also addressed the audience. My name is Mary. In my life I never believed in women’s gathering. Even where I stay I have more male friends than women. So by coming to this place it has proved that I could find friends and sisters. I learned a lot and that they can give us more in the future. Mary’s simple but striking work speaks to the continuing stigma that surrounds people living with HIV and tuberculosis. Elsa gave a touching vote of thanks to the women for their courage in telling their stories and to Becky for inviting her to co-facilitate. Becky expressed her appreciation for how the art and the book enables her to think back 138
over the two years with the group and how the quilts represent so many memories and stories.
paper—take it to Home Affairs! They can pay it forward. We all have a name, we all have a story, and this is proof of it. You can never be nobody. As long as you breathe, you are a very special person.
Johanna Kisnter, the Executive Director of SCPS, closed the event with these words: We often get emails from researchers saying, “we want to find out what migrants feel or do or what problems migrants are facing. Can you let us into your organisation?” And usually I say “no.” If you want to find people, find them on the markets because usually what happens is that people come in, they ask you questions, they write a paper, and they are gone. We never see the paper. So when I got this email from Becky, I only allowed the conversation to happen because I know Becky and our agreement was we only do this if it is going to help people. Not just for you to get information but for the whole thing to help people and for people to get something from it. For me it has been amazing to watch the whole project from the sides, seeing how sometimes I would stick my head in and people would be tense; sometimes everybody is happy, sometimes people would cry, but all of that has given you [the participants] this: you have a name, you have a story, you have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. You are not nobody. Just because you don’t have a paper or because Home Affairs says your paper is rubbish, it does not mean that you are not you. This [the book] is your
One recurring theme throughout the launch was that for all the participants, the Mwangaza Mama project reinforced a sense of being someone who matters despite her status as a refugee woman or undocumented migrant. In a city that often criminalises and erases migrant women, such a project is a welcome intervention even if it is at an individual or group level. It also gave me pause to reflect on how I could use my own access to give a more prominent public life to these stories. Covering migration is proving to present challenges for journalists as it can be a polarising topic. When reporting on the lived experiences of marginalised migrants, we must be aware of showing that migration is a global phenomenon that presents not only challenges but also opportunities. Being a witness to the outcomes of Mwangaza Mama project has also prompted me to be more mindful of some of the erroneous assumptions that exist and that we are at risk of perpetuating as media professionals about the lack of agency of women who live under precarious conditions in our metropolis. Reflecting on this launch has also reinforced the importance of partnerships between journalists, researchers, and migrants in order to improve the quality of reporting on migration.
REFLECTIONS ON THE MWANGAZA MAMA BOOK LAUNCH
A Great Way to Challenge My Sense of “Normal”: Reflections on an Academic Exchange Alison Koslowski, University of Edinburgh I am tremendously grateful to have been able to join colleagues and students at Wits University in August 2018. The visit was extremely rich in first impressions for me. Not least, I was happy to see the Southern Cross in the sky and to experience the joy of the beginning of spring at the end of summer for the first time.
I am one of the editors of the annual International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research, which covers policies such as maternity and paternity leave in more than 40 countries. I have long been exploring the world by comparing social policy systems across countries, but I knew little about South Africa. As part of this academic exchange, I was able to meet up with the South African country note author. As well as the intellectual exchange in my area of research, he was able to take me on a tour of some of the other (richer) districts in Johannesburg, which I do not think I would have otherwise seen.
As well as attending the very stimulating interdisciplinary SeaM workshop, I was able to contribute to some research methods teaching, deliver a seminar on basic income, contribute to a PhD progression seminar, and attend a really excellent film event about migrant workers, complete with the film’s director.
It is an obvious thing to state, but the legacy of apartheid was overwhelming. A trip to Constitution Hill was simultaneously horrifying, humbling, and inspiring. From colleagues, I learnt about the concept of “grey” (mixture of black and white), which was new to me and which I was happy to know about.
I was impressed by the energy of the students that I met and their desire to apply their studies to bring about positive social change. It was fun to explore the state of research ethics with them. I also applaud their open mindedness at my slightly unusual didactic tools, which were in part a reaction to our losing electricity. I do not think many of them had been asked to “draw” their research process before, but most engaged with gusto.
In part linked to my limited mobility, we had made the decision that I should best stay in the Parktonian, a hotel in Braamfontein. (I get about on crutches as I have lost a leg 140
and do not use a prosthesis, so it is a clearly visible disability.) Whilst I felt very safe, I did feel somewhat shut up in my turret at times. However, also in my turret, there was much newness to soak up and enjoy. The local Johannesburg-based soap operas were fun to watch, complete with subtitles, and it was even better to find out that some of the students also were watching them. The dynamics at the breakfast buffet were a bit tricky to work out but amusing. Chatting to taxi and Uber drivers was an education, as it is everywhere. I did come across some amount of disablism on my trip, but I experience it most places. The value of such exchange is difficult to reduce to just a few discrete points, but this does not in any way diminish its value. Academic exchange is always worth it. Such exchange challenges our “normal,” and if there is a better route to reducing presumption and prejudice in our thinking, I do not know of it.
A GREAT WAY TO CHALLENGE MY SENSE OF “NORMAL”
Negotiating Two Roles: Being Both the Project Translator and a Participant Patience Okenge, Sophiatown Psychological Community Services When I was first invited to help Elsa Oliveira and Rebecca (Becky) Walker facilitate the Mwangaza Mama project, I found myself wondering how I would manage being both the project translator and a participant.
Moving between individual and group work was good, but, at the same time, it was also tricky and sometimes difficult. During the workshops, I needed to be present—meaning I had to really listen to what everyone was saying in case I needed to translate. This meant that I had to listen while also finding the space to think and talk about my own life and the feelings I wanted to share.
I am an employee at the Sophiatown Psychological Community Services (SPCS), where I run children’s groups and also translate. I speak five languages: Kitetela, French, Swahili, Lingala, and English. So, I translate for many people who visit the SPCS. Some of these people include the Mwangaza Mama participants during their weekely one-on-one therapy sessions. As a translator, I am expected to respect and honour very strict boundaries. For example, I am not supposed to spend personal time with clients outside of work or share personal information about my life. The expectations of my professional role were different in the Mwangaza Mama project because I was also a participant. I was free to talk about my own lived experiences and share my opinions and thoughts about the things that were discussed. I was also encouraged to offer Elsa and Becky suggestions about what we could do to help participants feel more comfortable and free.
From the start of the project, it was important that everyone felt safe and that workshops were experienced as places of comfort and healing. I always felt cared for by Elsa and Becky and by the other participants. Sometimes they would check in with me on the weekends to see how I was doing. They understood that balancing my two roles (translator and participant) was not easy. I learned a lot during my time in the project. For me, the most positive thing was bringing women together. Like the other participants, I am sad the project ended, but I also know that I will keep seeing the women, and Elsa and Becky. It will not be the same though. For many of us, especially the women who do 142
not have many opportunities to get involved in other projects, the time we spent together was really meaningful and special. Everyone counted the days until we would see each other again. The project gave many of the participants an opportunity to get out of their rooms and do something different with their hands and minds.
heart because the group was more than just therapy—we made art and shared space. During our time together, some of the women spoke about losing hope, but I have seen everyone become stronger by coming to the workshops. Really, this group brought life back to many people. For example, I remember when we started, some of the women did not look after themselves. They would arrive at workshops looking so tired and sometimes wearing dirty clothes. Now they look amazing! Some wore their best clothes and even put on makeup. They did this because they are prouder of who they are and because this group really helped everyone feel like they are special and valued. If the women were sick or too tired to participate in workshop activities and still came, they would go lie down in a bed that was available in the same room in which we met. This way they could still participate and be part of the group. This was really special. Everyone would take turns checking on the person, bringing them tea or coffee and fruit and biscuits.
The group spent about two to three hours together when we met: eating, talking, and sharing so many things. Over time, I noticed how many of the women became less afraid to speak. Even the children who came to project workshops with their mothers are more confident now. They do not try to hide in their mamas’ laps or run away like they used to. Instead, they hug and greet, and some even make art now. All of the women, too. When we see one another, it is like family; we hug and smile and ask how everyone is doing. I can say that the group made it possible for everyone to grow. This is because everyone felt safe and free. We all know that we can reach out to Elsa, Becky, or anyone else, if we need help, support, or just someone to talk to. That way of being comes from the
When I think back, I feel so proud of the work we did. I also feel proud of myself for being 143
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able to move between my two roles. I wish there were more projects like Mwangaza Mama, more projects that bring women together so we can gain strength and learn from one another. Many people in the world are from different countries, and some of these countries are/ were in war with one another. This was the case in our project. Many of the women are also from different ethnic groups. We would not have had the opportunity to learn about one another and build friendships if it were not for the project. We learned that everyone is the same, and this is so important because there is too much nonsense in the world that is dividing people and nations. I will never forget the Mwangaza Mamas. Never in all of my life. *This reflection was originally published in the Mwangaza Mama E-Book. The version presented here reflects additional edits Patience made, mostly small grammatical corrections.
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Patience Quilt I Mixed-media on fabric 61 cm x 34 cm
Patience Quilt II Mixed-media on fabric 55 cm x 52 cm 145
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SeaM as an Urban Transformations Interdisciplinary and Multi-Method Research Enterprise Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos, University of Oxford What Does It Mean to Live on the Margins? “Being marginal,” “marginalised,” or “living on the margins” are common terms to refer to poverty, exclusion, crime, and grime. SeaM tried to understand not only what marginality is but also how those at the margins make sense of and negotiate such positions in South Africa, the UK, and Kenya.
The Urban Transformations Portfolio is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) cluster that brings together urban research across different areas of the world. One key aspect of the portfolio is that its projects must have an interdisciplinary prism when looking at urban problems. For example, how can research address precarious healthcare in the Brazilian Amazon region without looking at issues such as transportation given the remoteness of the majority of municipalities in the area? Health is then connected to climate and transportation changes. In addition, is there a universal understanding of illness and cure across different cultures? Research about health and wellbeing may require a team of geographers, sociologists, and anthropologists and a variety of methods, ranging from oral history to GIS mapping. With that in mind, projects in the portfolio have been innovative in the use of methods, concepts, and theories across disciplines. SeaM—Security at the Margins—is a great example of such innovative scholarship. The project mainly focused on two groups who are especially vulnerable to prejudice and hate crime—migrant and LGBTIQ+ populations.
SeaM is a great example of research that looks at the issue of marginality and the violence that comes with it from the perspective of informants and considers how they make sense of their own trajectories. Analysing life stories required different methodologies, such as oral stories, mind maps, and classic ethnography. The result is a mesh of strategies to negotiate security amongst those on the margins, whether margins is understood horizontally across city maps or vertically in relation to a hierarchy of economic means in an unequal society. Without challenging the existence of marginality and inequality amongst migrants or queer people, SeaM could see beyond entrenched poverty to look at innovative strategies.
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The findings of “People at the Margins” show that Zimbabwean, Malawian, and Mozambican mining migrants remain geographically on the margins because even though money buys them houses, electricity, and water, they remain spatially distant from central Johannesburg. In Everyday Mayfair, Somali migrants, on the other hand, epitomised the centrality of their daily lives in two-dimensional plans, where mosques occupy a central place. Through mind maps, participants felt less marginalised, and SeaM could intertwine research methods with research impact in unique ways. The project 60+: Queer, Old Joburg again shows how methods and results can blend together. Collecting data on queer groups during and after apartheid and making that data available is in itself a contribution when it creates a queer way of data representation. SeaM methods and findings have not only improved knowledge on the difficulties experienced by marginalised groups but also shown these groups’ capacity for response. SeaM is a prime example of the interdisciplinary and multi-method research enterprise of Urban Transformations.
SEAM AS AN URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS INTERDISCIPLINARY AND MULTI-METHOD RESEARCH ENTERPRISE
Focus on Developing Early Career Researchers Is SeaM’s Biggest Strength Kamau Wairuri, University of Edinburgh Engaging with the SeaM project has been tremendously helpful to me as an early career researcher. The project organisers have proven to be truly committed to the development of early career researchers (ECRs), and I have personally benefited greatly from it through training, networking opportunities, and funding of research projects. My own experiences with SeaM demonstrate the value of research projects that are intentionally designed to develop international partnerships between young researchers and to support them in their careers.
particularly illuminating as the experienced researchers shared their experiences and the challenges they had encountered in their journeys. Even though the idea of #TerrificTuesdays for sharing our small wins in our work fizzled out after a few weeks, it entrenched the need for us as young scholars to recognise that the work we do is difficult and that celebrating the small wins on a regular basis is important. The conversations about mental health challenges in the academy served to contexualise the importance of self-care and of building meaningful relationships with others who understand the challenges we encounter on a regular basis.
My first encounter with SeaM was through the Connections Workshop held at the University of Edinburgh in May 2018. This was an amazing opportunity for me to meet other young researchers and be introduced to their work that was within my own areas of interest. It was my first time to come faceto-face with researchers from the African continent who were working on issues relating to marginalised groups such as sex workers and migrants and to learn from their experiences. This was an illuminating workshop. The Early Career Hustle discussion held at the end of that workshop was
Several months after the workshop, I was invited to attend and facilitate the final SeaM workshop held at Wits University. Again, this invitation demonstrated a serious commitment to providing ECRs with opportunities for growth. Sharing my early ideas from my PhD research and receiving feedback from peers and experienced researchers was a great opportunity for me. The workshop also provided me with the opportunity to learn from my contemporaries in South Africa about their work. 148
Most important to me, however, was the opportunity to meet more ECRs from South Africa and expand my network of researchers in Africa. The opportunity to meet with researchers from Wits and other people involved in the SeaM project opened up spaces of research for me. The South African workshop exposed me to various methodological approaches adopted by scholars in their examination of life at the margins of society. This has had the impact of expanding the repertoire of methodological tools at my disposal for engaging with the subjects of my research in Kenya’s urban margins.
developed with South African researchers proved tremendously useful in organising the South African workshop. Additionally, this research project has also provided me the opportunity to go through a journal publication process and learn how this critical part of an academic career works.
Finally, I was one of the recipients of the grants for pilot projects to host workshops in Nairobi and Johannesburg, examining how civil society organisations use data in the pursuit of police accountability in Kenya and South Africa. I do not think that the impact this has had on my understanding of how to design and execute a research project can be overstated. The two workshops were successful, and I am now in the process of working on the publication from the project with S. J. Cooper-Knock, one of the SeaM researchers. Most critically, the contacts I had FOCUS ON DEVELOPING EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS IS SEAM’S BIGGEST STRENGTH
CONCLUSION The value of such exchange is difficult to reduce to just a few discrete points, but this does not in any way diminish its value. Academic exchange is always worth it. Such exchange challenges our “normal,” and if there is a better route to reducing presumption and prejudice in our thinking, I do not know of it.
Alison Koslowski, A Great Way to Challenge My Sense of “Normal”: Reflections on an Academic Exchange
© Modise, Volume 44, 2014
The innovation in method explored in SeaM is crucial to the academy—including in furthering our understanding of “the margins” and exploring how we produce knowledge. Also important are the ways in which the work generated builds on trends in the existing literature, taking established findings into new contexts.
FINAL THOUGHTS S. J. Cooper-Knock, University of Edinburgh Jo Vearey, Wits University
A conclusion to this work is impossible to write. On one level, the wealth of pilot projects, early career research, exchange visits, seminars, conferences, and workshops seems to defy summary. On a more substantive level, summaries seem impossible because the work of Security at the Margins (SeaM) is not finished. The material artefacts of this research—photographs, quilts, articles, papers—surround us as we write (not to mention the receipts, reports, and accounts, which are the bureaucratic testimony to any international partnership). The relationships and collaborations established during this project continue between groups and individuals, including those in civil society, the academy, and government.
urban life, pushing us to invent new ways to explore oppression, liberation, and life, which allow for both clarity and complexity. Methodologically, we have sought to combine and use methods in new ways, particularly when it comes to arts-based methods, storytelling, and methods in and through digital technologies. Empirically, we have sought to bring into discussions on urban marginality those who have not always been found in such literature. In some cases, this absence is due to new realities in the city creating different forms of marginality. Digital platforms, for example, have shaped some of the jobs available in urban areas and access to them. In other cases, certain forms of marginality have been historically ignored. For example, despite the fact that many students are politically vocal in calling out the oppressions that they face,
Conceptually, our work has developed new thinking around approaches to examining 153
CONCLUSION
the challenges they experience are rarely discussed in academic work on marginality in the city. The SeaM-funded project Locked Out sought to fill this gap.
our pilot project teams worked hard to hold simultaneously. From investigating motherhood in the city to discussing police accountability, our projects sought to nurture spaces in which people could define and share their experiences of and insights about the communities that they are part of, in all their varieties and contradictions.
The innovation in methods explored in SeaM is crucial to the academy—including in furthering our understanding of “the margins” and exploring how we produce knowledge. Also important are the ways in which the work generated builds on trends in the existing literature, taking established findings into new contexts. Below, we highlight some of the key findings and insights gained during the SeaM project.
Intersecting forms of structural oppression continue to stamp on people’s hopes for a more inclusive and equitable city, wherever in the world they may be. The impacts of structural oppression can be devastating in social, political, economic, and psychological terms as people face institutions, individuals, and processes that deny their basic humanity and dignity. Offering space in which people can testify to the devastating consequences and the deep injustice of this oppression is vital. However, people’s lives are never purely defined in terms of rejection or pain.
Cities contain multitudes. These urban hubs continue to be shaped by an entanglement of international, national, and local forces that are shaping the social, political, and economic possibilities of urban space as well as the relationships that exist within them. Cities remain, as they always were, spaces of connection and disconnection, hope and fear, safety and insecurity, liberation and oppression: both surprising and predictable in equal measure.
As we see in SeaM projects such as the study of difference in Orange Farm, that of the struggle for maternal healthcare in the city, and the project using poetry about Zimbabwean migrants, research needs to be able to encourage spaces where people feel comfortable to identify their needs and concerns and share their varied identities and experiences on their own terms. Sometimes, this means creating conscious space for narratives beyond pain in accounts of structural injustice. Equally important is for researchers to offer people who fight
Communities are as heterogeneous as ever, capable of being both sources of great solidarity and sacrifice as well as being sources of distrust and jealousy. Our approaches as researchers must recognise the complexity of communities and allow for multiple facets to be held alongside one another. These were tensions that 154
intersecting forms of structural oppression the opportunity to speak about issues that matter to them, whatever the topic, and to acknowledge the weight and worth of those stories.
Reflecting honestly on our limitations as well as our successes is something that we have sought to do throughout the SeaM project with regard to the relationships we built as well as the projects we undertook. The SeaM partnership grew out of existing institutional and interpersonal relationships between the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Edinburgh, but this project has been invaluable in broadening and deepening hundreds of relationships within and beyond our two institutions.
Good intentions when studying life in the margins are never enough. The blinkers of well-intentioned people can be as deadly and damaging as the most ill-intentioned acts. Time and again we have seen the devastation wrought by global initiatives, city policies, and civil society interventions that were done in the name of population groups but without an understanding of their needs, hopes, and desires. This, too, is a salutary lesson for researchers. In our pilot projects, workshops, and events on research methods, we constantly reflected on our individual and collective blinkers as researchers, the damage these blinkers are capable of causing, and the ways in which we might better prevent these blinkers from emerging.
There is always more that we can do—and must do—to strengthen our relationships with and extend space to individuals and institutions, civil society partners, and government. This is especially important when it comes to enabling those whose voices will be heard in the research to set the terms of that research. We hope that some of the initiatives within the SeaM project—such as paying for advocacy organisations to write research scoping briefs on the work they need researchers to do and attempting to build partnerships on the basis of those briefs—are initiatives that we can build on in the future.
Perhaps most crucially is how we explored ways of supporting spaces that encourage people to highlight these blinkers and help us to collectively engage in a constructive manner. Working in such collaborative environments, however, is a continuous process; it can present challenging yet constructive feedback about our research praxis in ways we may not expect. We hope such spaces will continue to be built and used by those involved and engaged in SeaM beyond the end of the grant.
We also welcome the recognition by grant-making bodies and universities that institutional demands and administrative processes fundamentally shape the possibilities of partnership. We support efforts to make these processes increasingly attuned to the complexities of international collaboration. 155
CONCLUSION
Our work, as it continues now, is to build on the successes of the project, learn from its limitations, and work towards an academy in which equal, international, ethical research is possible. Our hope is to continue to build an innovative approach to studying life on the urban margins, building on the emerging work on urban peripheries, to think through how we conceptualise and understand those margins and the relationship that they have to people’s everyday lives and aspirations.
Š Sku, Working the City, 2010
ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE SeaM is a great example of research that looks at the issue of marginality and the violence that comes with it from the perspective of informants and considers how they make sense of their own trajectories. Analysing life stories required different methodologies, such as oral stories, mind maps, and classic ethnography. The result is a mesh of strategies to negotiate security amongst those on the margins, whether margins is understood horizontally across city maps or vertically in relation to a hierarchy of economic means in an unequal society. Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos, SeaM as an Urban Transformations Interdisciplinary and Multi-Method Research Enterprise
Š Chidhawazo, Izwi Lethu, Issue 14, 2017
ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE
SeaM’s dedication to collaboration is reflected in the number of organisations and people who have made this project possible. This section provides information about SeaM’s supporting and partner organisations and a list of short biographies of some of the people involved in SeaM projects and those who contributed to this book, including writers, editors, and photographers.
and brings together the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Centre of African Studies (CAS) at the University of Edinburgh. Twelve members from across the world comprise SeaM’s advisory board. The leadership team (in alphabetical order) was made up of Barbara Bompani, S. J. CooperKnock, and Jo Vearey.
Some of the images used in this book were captured by participants who took part in previous projects on which SeaM builds. We would like to thank everyone who helped to make SeaM a success. While we cannot list all of them in this publication, their impact is immeasurable. SeaM was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the South Africa National Research Foundation (NRF) 161
ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE
Project Partners University of the Witwatersrand www.wits.ac.za
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is internationally distinguished for its research, high academic standards, and commitment to social justice. Located in Johannesburg, the economic and industrial heartland of the African continent, Wits has sent its graduates on to become global leaders in every field. Through civic engagement, they have built cultural institutions, fought injustice, and worked to make their communities better places. With more than 85% of research published in accredited international journals, Wits encourages cross-disciplinary research and collaborates with researchers and institutions across the globe. Whether telling the story of life, finding solutions to deep level mining problems, or understanding the complexities of human interactions, Wits is at the forefront.
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African Centre for Migration & Society www.migration.org.za
The African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) is Africa’s leading scholarly institution for research and teaching on human mobility. Established in 1993, the ACMS is an independent, interdisciplinary, and internationally engaged institution focusing on the relationship among human development, politics, poverty, and social transformation. While orientated towards southern Africa, the ACMS conducts collaborative scholarly and policy-orientated work across sub-Saharan Africa and has partnerships in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It offers Africa’s only postgraduate degrees in migration and displacement studies and provides training to students and professionals on a number of topics, including the sociology of migration, mobility and health, human rights, and research methods. While maintaining its scholarly independence, the ACMS regularly partners with organisations in government and civil society in identifying data needs, conducting research, and shaping policy.
ACMS staff are also regularly called on to provide expert advice and commentary to international organisations, governments, and the media. As part of Wits University’s School of Social Sciences, the ACMS offers masters and doctoral degrees in migration and displacement studies. Select students are encouraged to critically engage with social theory and empirical challenges by conducting independent research. Graduates find success in government, international agencies, civil society organisations, and the academy. ACMS research on international and domestic migration critically analyses how human mobility reshapes institutions, attitudes, economies, and policies. Through its work, the ACMS influences global and regional academic research agendas, policy deliberations, and civil society mobilisation.
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PROJECT PARTNERS
University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk
Founded in 1583, the University of Edinburgh (UoE) is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Britain and Ireland’s seven ancient universities. UoE was ranked 18th in the world by the 2019 QS World University Rankings. It was ranked as the sixth best university in Europe by the U.S. News Best Global Universities Ranking and seventh best in Europe by the Times Higher Education Ranking. It is made up of three colleges: Humanities and Social Science, Science and Engineering, and Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. With around 35,000 students, UoE is an internationally focused university and welcomes students from all corners of the globe. A total of 20 Nobel laureates are affiliated with the University of Edinburgh. These include winners of Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Peace, Literature, and the Memorial Prize in Economic Science. Alumni include Charles Darwin, David Hume, Alexander Graham Bell, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among many others.
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Centre of African Studies www.cas.ed.ac.uk
The Centre of African Studies (CAS) acts as a focal point for research and teaching in African Studies across the University of Edinburgh. Our interdisciplinary centre undertakes cutting-edge research across the continent. CAS scholars are committed to the critical study of a diverse range of topics as well as the pursuit of inclusive, ethical and equitable partnerships. As the largest Centre for African Studies in Europe, we are at the forefront of theoretical, empirical and methodological innovation. Our rigorous research also shapes local, national and international debates and policy-making, as recognised by our ‘outstanding’ impact rating in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework. We are also proud to host a range of excellent undergraduate courses, on-campus and on-line masters, and doctoral programmes. Our students continue into careers both inside and outside the academy, including careers within government, international organisations and the third sector.
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Project Funders Economic and Social Research Council www.esrc.ukri.org
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new organisation that brings together the UK’s seven research councils, Innovate UK, and Research England to maximise the contribution of each council and create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish. The vision is to ensure that the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.
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National Research Foundation www.nrf.ac.za
The National Research Foundation (NRF) was established as an independent government agency through the National Research Foundation Act (Act No. 23 of 1998). The mandate of the NRF is to promote and support research through funding, human resource development, and the provision of the necessary research facilities in order to facilitate the creation of knowledge, innovation, and development in all fields of science and technology, including indigenous knowledge, and thereby contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of all South Africans.
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PROJECT FUNDERS
Urban Transformations www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk
Urban Transformations (UT ) is an ESRC network, coordinated from the University of Oxford, showcasing research on cities. UT is coordinated by Professor Michael Keith, Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, and is run by a small team of staff seconded to run the website, events, and knowledge exchange activities. The UT portfolio represents more than 80 research projects that engage with the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly urban world.
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Migration and Health Project Southern Africa (maHp) www.mahpsa.org
The Migration and Health Project Southern Africa (maHp) is housed at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University and is supported by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award that was granted to Jo Vearey. It involves a series of unique research and public engagement projects and explores ways to generate and communicate knowledge to improve responses to migration, health, and wellbeing in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Multiple disciplinary perspectives, mixed methods, and the involvement of various stakeholders—including migrants—are considered central to exploring the production of knowledge and its application.
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PROJECT FUNDERS
Wellcome Trust www.wellcome.ac.uk
The Wellcome Trust is dedicated to improving health. We believe this can only be achieved if advances in biomedical research are accompanied by advances in our understanding of the social, cultural, and historical contexts of medicine, health, and wellbeing. Only with an understanding of those contexts can we address the practical, political, and ethical challenges that are raised by the global burden of illness, disease, and health disparity. A Wellcome Trust Investigator Award held by Jo Vearey supported various aspects of the SeaM project.
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Advisory Board Richard Ballard, Specialist Researcher, Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), Johannesburg, South Africa
Isayvani Naicker, Chief Director of International Resources, Department of Science and Technology, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa
Michael Battock, Governance Director, Civil Society Department for International Development (DFID), Glasgow City, United Kingdom
Rob Procter, Professor, Social Informatics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
Lisa Chamberlain, Deputy Director, Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa
Marlise Richter, Manager, Policy, Development and Advocacy Unit (PDA), Sonke Gender Justice, Cape Town, South Africa
ChandrĂŠ Gould, Senior Research Fellow, Justice and Violence Prevention Programme, Institute for Security Studies, Cape Town, South Africa
Lauren Royston, Senior Associate, SocioEconomic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), Johannesburg, South Africa
Keval Harie, Director, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), Johannesburg, South Africa
Robinson Sekgathe, Head of Migration Sub-Unit, City of Johannesburg, South Africa Gail Super, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Canada
Geci Karuri-Sebina, Associate, South African Cities Network, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Biographies: Seam Team and Contributors The following pages provide brief biographies of those who wrote project summaries and reflections for this book as well as individuals who played important roles at various stages of the SeaM project. We also include biographies of photographers whose images we used in this publication. Many more individuals who are not listed here contributed to SeaM’s success. We are grateful for the countless hours that SeaM participants, researchers, and partners gave to the project. While we cannot name everyone here, some of the participants have been quoted in the summaries and reflections; in these cases, they have been acknowledged in the text. SeaM would not have been possible without the input and generosity of everyone involved.
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Ana participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-City Johannesburg. Richard Ballard is a principal researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, a research unit jointly located at Wits University and the University of Johannesburg. He has published on the dynamics of race and urban desegregation, gated communities, social movements, participatory processes, local democracy, cross-border migrants, urban developers, megaprojects in the human settlement sector, the middle class and development, cash transfers, governance and development, and industrial restructuring. Angus Bancroft is a senior lecturer at the School for Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include drug and alcohol use, addiction, drug trafficking, and migration. He is currently researching cyber-security, illicit markets, and views of darknet users. Barbara Bompani is a reader in African and International Development at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work primarily focuses on the analysis of religion in the African public sphere. In the past 20 years, she has been working on South African Christian organisations and their socio-political action after the end of apartheid. More recently, since 2012, she also became interested in the role played by Pentecostal-charismatic churches in framing public and political discourses around issues of morality, sexuality, and nationhood in Uganda. B Camminga is a postdoctoral fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. Their first monograph Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa: Bodies Over Borders and Borders Over Bodies was published by Palgrave in 2019. Their research interests include: transgender rights, migration, asylum, and diasporas; the bureaucratisation of sex/gender; and the history of “trans phenomena” in South Africa. In 2018, they were runner up in the Africa Spectrum: Young African Scholars Award. Their current book project, Beyond the Mountain: Queer Life in Africa’s “Gay Capital” (Unisa, 2019) with Dr. Zethu Matebeni, explores the conflicting iterations of race, gender, and sexuality that mark Cape Town. Johnathan Cane is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wits University. He completed his PhD in art history at Wits University in 2017. His dissertation, “Civilising Grass: The Art of the Lawn on the South African Highveld,” is a queer postcolonial study of the “domesticated” landscape that has been published by Wits University Press. He is currently working on building an archive of the Rand Mines Properties plan for Ormonde in the late 1960s for the Wits City Institute’s NRF-funded project The New “South”: The Rand Mine Properties Project. 173
BIOGRAPHIES
Chantel participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place from 2013 to 2014 and is entitled Volume 44. Chidhawazo was a reporter for the Izwi Lethu: Our Voice newsletter, a collaborative project involving partnership between Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. Confidence participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-city Johannesburg. S. J. Cooper-Knock is a lecturer in International Development, jointly appointed by the Centre of African Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She is also an Associate Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. S. J.’s research falls within socio-legal studies and urban politics. She is currently researching how disputes move through Magistrates Courts in Uganda and South Africa and the politics of informal settlement fires within eThekwini and the City of Cape Town. Jamie Cross’s research and teaching brings social anthropology to bear on problems, projects, and technologies of “development” with a regional specialisation in South Asia. Jamie is a Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Development Academy. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork in India, Papua New Guinea, and Scotland with support from the Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Scottish Government among others. Graham Crow is a co-investigator of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, where he encourages people to enhance the contents of their “methodological toolboxes.” As part of this, he edits a series of “What Is?” books for Bloomsbury Academic that introduce different methods to readers who may have no prior knowledge of those methods but who are interested to find out more about them. He is a Professor of Sociology and Methodology at the University of Edinburgh and uses that position to promote methodological pluralism and dialogue between users of different research methods. Thea de Gruchy is a postdoctoral researcher with the Migration and Health Project (maHp) at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. Her research centres on questions of governance, decision making, and sustainability. To explore these questions, she uses the development and implementation of policy and programmatic interventions by both state and non-state actors to improve the access that migrant farm workers 174
have to healthcare along the South African-Zimbabwean border. In 2019, Thea spent three months with the International Organisation for Migration’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok and writing for International Health Policies Network as their South African correspondent. Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos is the director of the Brazilian Studies Programme and departmental lecturer at the Latin American Centre at University of Oxford. Her work focuses on urban ethnography, incorporating themes of cultural heritage, participatory city planning, and mining economies. She is the author of The Politics of Memory: Urban Cultural Heritage in Brazil. Maggie Dwyer is a lecturer in the Centre of African Studies at University of Edinburgh. She is co-author of the Social Media and Security in Africa project, which explores the role social media plays in documenting and driving (in)security in Africa. Her role builds on over a decade of research on security issues in West Africa. Her PhD research examined military indiscipline in the form of mutinies, in both historic and contemporary contexts. The findings revealed that these revolts were often linked to similar unrest in wider society. She is also a member of the core research team for a project based at the Peace Research Institute Oslo titled “Security Force Assistance.” Jamie Furniss is a lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral work (Oxford) looked at Cairo’s informal waste collectors and recyclers as a case study of how concepts of development and projects for its promotion change through time and across different actors. He continues to work on topics related to waste in order to study the challenges and dilemmas of development from below, be it by problematising contemporary “North”/“South” relations and their reconfigurations through transnational waste flows, examining informality, urban space, and the right to the city through waste collectors’ land encroachments since the Egyptian revolution, or reflecting on questions like how cleanliness, pollution, and waste are conceptualised in Egypt. Andrea Hayes is a twenty-something-year-old who is currently doing her MA in digital arts at Wits University. Between part-time lecturing on digital arts and studying the representation of women in video games, Andrea does freelance web design work for all types of clients. Alexandra Hiropolous is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at California State University, Stanislaus. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Wits University in 2017. Her research focuses on contextual effects on the occurrence of anti-foreigner violence in South Africa through the use of causal and geospatial analyses, and her current work examines the South African Police Service’s present and potential role in preventing xenophobic violence and the policing of diverse urban areas.
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Keval Harie is the executive director of the GALA Queer Archives. Keval is an activist and qualified attorney who has always sought to find new ways to promote social justice and human rights. Keval joined GALA in 2017 from the University of Cape Town’s Research Contracts and Innovation department. There, Keval focused on developing a stronger culture of activism and advocacy for social justice in South Africa’s higher education sector, particularly regarding the application of university policy on transformation. At GALA, Keval is most excited about the opportunity to connect the archives to new intersections of activism, particularly around gender identity and sexuality. Susann Huschke is an anthropologist who researches the interconnected fields of migration, health, and sexuality/ gender. In her PhD research, she investigated undocumented migrants’ access to healthcare in Berlin, Germany. As a postdoctoral research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, she led a team of researchers in a government funded study on the Northern Irish sex industry. Susann then spent two years at Wits University, conducting a participatory arts-based project on the health and well-being of sex workers in Soweto. She is currently a research fellow at the University of Limerick, researching women’s experiences of perinatal mental health and well-being in Ireland. Zaheera Jinnah is an anthropologist and researcher at Wits University. Chisomo Kalinga is a Wellcome-funded researcher in the medical humanities at the Centre of African Studies and is a maHp associate. Her project aims to determine how storytelling and narrative representation can be used to improve the delivery of healthcare services through a better understanding of the interplay between African indigenous literature and structures of thought surrounding health. She is collaborating with the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi to mobilise the first medical humanities network for Malawiana studies. She completed her PhD at King’s College London (2014), in which she offered a comparative study of Malawian and American AIDS fiction. Geci Karuri-Sebina is an associate with South African Cities Network, a peer-based learning network of South Africa’s largest cities, and a visiting research fellow at the Wits School of Governance. Her experience and interests particularly relate to cities, socio-technical systems, and the future. Geci holds a PhD in planning and innovation systems (Wits University, Johannesburg), master’s degrees in architecture and in urban planning (UCLA, California), and undergraduate degrees in computer science and sociology. Geci has worked with various government and science council programmes in South Africa over the past two decades, including National Treasury, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Karabo Kgoleng is a broadcaster and facilitator who works with writers and academics in the humanities to give their work a public life. She believes that engagement in social and cultural issues contribute significantly to the transformation of individuals and communities. A recipient of the South African Literary Award for Journalism, 176
Karabo currently works in research communications at the African Centre for Migration & Society and contributed the foreword to the book I Want to Go Home Forever, published by Wits University Press in 2018. She also sits on the editorial advisory board of the Johannesburg Review of Books. Samkelisiwe Khanyile joined the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) as an intern in 2016 and became a junior researcher in 2017. She holds an MSc in geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing from Wits University and is a member of the Wits Digital Mine Project group and Women in Mining South Africa. Her research interests include investigating the impact of mining legacies on natural and human communities, access to miningrelated geospatial and attribute information, geospatial data quality, and the applications of GIS for informing urban development and sustainability-related issues. Samkelisiwe also has a keen interest in storytelling through mapping, spatial analysis, geovisual analytics, and other data visualisation techniques. Alison Koslowski is Professor of Social Policy and Research Methods and co-director of the Centre for Statistics at the University of Edinburgh. She is co-editor of Families, Relationships and Societies and a member of the organising committee of the International Network on Leave Policies and Research, and she has been working with the European Institute for Gender Equality to develop leave indicators. Alison chairs the Research Ethics Committee for the Big Lottery funded Disability Research into Independent Living and Learning programme and has a longstanding interest in social research methods and data collection techniques, working both with big data sets and qualitative data. Loren Landau is the South African Research Chair in Human Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. Widely published in the academic and popular press, his work explores human mobility, citizenship, development, and political authority, particularly in highly transient spaces within cities of the South. He has served as the chair of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) and as a member of the South African Immigration Advisory Board, and he is on the editorial boards of International Migration Review, Migration Studies, and the Journal of Refugee Studies. Kirsten Lardy is an International Development post-graduate from the University of Edinburgh, based in Dubai. Her research focuses on how low-income, marginalised, or invisible groups use platform technology to access the digital economy while navigating socio-economic precarity. She is currently exploring precarity among Uber drivers in Johannesburg and working with blue-collar workers in the UAE. Lety participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-city Johannesburg. 177
BIOGRAPHIES
Stephanie Maher joined the African Centre for Migration & Society as a postdoctoral researcher in 2017. She previously conducted ethnographic research on clandestine migration, religious aspiration, and forced repatriation in Senegal (2008-2014) and received her PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Washington in 2015. Her research project at the ACMS examined the extent to which immigrants and refugees in Johannesburg use their religious affiliations to access resources such as housing and employment and how faith-based organisations constitute a new form of political authority in urban South Africa. She has published in Anti-Trafficking Review and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Tackson Makandwa is a Life in the City Doctoral Fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, where he has been working since the start of his MA in 2013. His interests are in migration and health, gender and urban health, maternal and reproductive health, religion and health, HIV and AIDS, social determinants of health, human rights, and social justice issues. Madoda Makhobeni is a Sowetan-born street photographer who has been involved in various projects with international and national photographers, researchers, and community-based organisations. He studied at the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ), a Johannesburg-based photography school, and is currently completing an artist fellowship with the maHp project at the ACMS. Thomas Maloney is a senior lecturer and director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His geographic focus is East Africa, especially Tanzania. He has conducted research on informal economies, mobile phones, elections, and bioenergy. He has published on research methods in Africa and is the author of a book on Julius Nyerere’s life prior to his formal political life. He is a principal investigator on the ESRC-DFID-funded Social Media and Security in Africa (SMS Africa), which aims to provide a timely understanding of the role social media plays in documenting and driving (in)security in East and West Africa. John Marnell is a PhD candidate at the African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University. Mimi participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-City Johannesburg. Claire McDonald graduated with her MA in migration and displacement from the African Centre for Migration & Society in 2018. She is currently working in digital marketing for an ecommerce start-up in New York and has ambitions to merge her knowledge of business with the research and development sector, focusing on ethical consumerism and supply chains.
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Jean Pierre Misago is a researcher with the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, with a background in education sciences, psychology, migration and displacement, and humanitarianism. His research interests include the exploration of the effects of migration and displacement on identity and belonging, understanding xenophobia and violent outsider exclusion, and the management of migration and mobility at the local authority level. Modise participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place from 2013 to 2014 and is entitled Volume 44. Emma Monama holds an MA degree in geography from Wits University. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Hamburg where she teaches development and postcolonial studies. Her research interests include but are not limited to understanding black geographies and the production (and governance) of space in South Africa and beyond. Her SeaM research seeks to interrogate and understand how difference is constructed and negotiated in everyday life in post-apartheid South Africa. Khangelani Moyo is a researcher at the Global Change Institute at Wits University. His research interests include migration, migrant spatial identity in the urban environment, and social vulnerability in urban peripheries. He completed his PhD at Wits University, focusing on migrants’ mobilities in urban spaces and how their spatial identities are negotiated in the city of Johannesburg. Mercy Mupavayenda is a researcher, trainer, and consultant on development and gender issues. Her work focuses on the analysis and tackling of inequality and systemic exclusion based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, and other markers of exclusion. Mercy has worked in the NGO sector for more than seven years with a focus on “priority populations.” She is currently pursuing a PhD in development studies at Wits University. Mercy led SeaM researchers in collecting data at Orange Farm by leveraging her relationships with community leaders and members. She runs an annual workshop for media managers and journalists at the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Management at Rhodes University. Noëleen Murray is the director of the Wits City Institute at Wits University. She holds the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Critical Architecture and Urbanism. Her architectural degrees and her PhD in African studies are from the University of Cape Town. Her key academic books include Desire Lines—Space, Memory and Identity in the Postapartheid City and Becoming UWC, Reflections, Pathways and the Unmaking of Apartheid’s Legacy. Her most recent book, Hostels, Homes, Museum: Memorializing Migrant Labour Pasts in Lwandle, South Africa, co-authored with Leslie Witz, was awarded the Michael M. Ames Award for Innovative Museum Anthropology by the Council for Museum Anthropology of the American Association of Anthropologists.
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Duduzile Ndlovu is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Center for Migration & Society at Wits University. She holds a Newton Advanced Fellowship at the Center of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where she is exploring women’s mobility in Johannesburg using poetry. Noor Nieftagodien is the South African Research Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities and is the head of the History Workshop at Wits University. He is the co-author of books on the histories of major townships around Johannesburg. He co-edited a book on the history of the ANC and on student politics. In addition, he has published articles and book chapters on aspects of popular insurgent struggles, public history, youth politics, and local history. He is currently researching the relationship between local popular movements and the local state in the Vaal. Noor sits of the boards of various academic centres and journals. Paul Nugent is a professor of comparative African history, divided equally between CAS and the History Subject Area at the University of Edinburgh. He is also the principal investigator on a European Research Council Advanced Grant, African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition. The project explores the way spaces and governance practices are being reshaped by tensions between regional integration agendas, which seek to facilitate the flow of people and goods across borders, and a securitization agenda that prioritises surveillance and control in West, West-Central, East, and Southern Africa. Patience Okenge works at the Sophiatown Psychological Support Services (SPCS), a non-profit organisation that provides assistance to many people in and around the greater Johannesburg area. She speaks four languages (French, Lingala, Swahili, and English) and provides critical support to her colleagues and peers. Elsa Oliveira is a postdoctoral researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, where she is also the co-coordinator of the MoVE (method:visual:explore) project. Since 2010, Elsa has been involved in a wide range of participatory arts-based research projects with diverse migrant groups in both rural and urban areas of South Africa. She has a PhD in migration and displacement and is interested in exploring collaborative forms of knowledge production and the ways research can be used to support social justice, including engagement beyond academia. Primrose participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place from 2013 to 2014 and is entitled Volume 44. Nereida Ripero-Muùiz is a lecturer in the School of Literature, Language and Media at Wits University. Her research focuses on the transnational connections among the Somali diaspora. In 2017, she edited the book Metropolitan Nomads, based on a photographic exhibition under the same name that documented the daily life of Somali migrants 180
residing in Johannesburg. She is currently working on a monograph based on her PhD thesis that explores the identity constructions Somali migrants undergo in the two African urban hubs of Nairobi and Johannesburg. Sbu participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-city Johannesburg. Greta Schuler is conducting research with migrant sex workers and pursuing her PhD in creative writing at Wits University. She also works as a freelance writer and editor. She has an MA in forced migration from Wits University, an MFA in creative writing from American University, and a BA from Claremont McKenna College. Shorty participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-city Johannesburg. Sku participated in an arts-based project involving the Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop (MPW ) in Johannesburg, and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. The project took place in 2010 and is entitled Working the City: Experiences of Migrant Women in Inner-city Johannesburg. James Smith was appointed vice principal international on 1 November 2014, having held a personal chair of African and Development Studies since 2010. He has previously served as director of the Centre of African Studies, the Innogen Centre, and the Global Development Academy (where he was also assistant principal between 2011-2014). He has previously held academic appointments at Wits University (1997-2002) and worked with Oxfam Southern Africa (2001-2003). He holds visiting professorships in development policy and practice at the Open University and in the Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Sandiswa Sondzaba is currently working at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) as a research intern. She recently obtained an MSc in human geography from Wits. Additionally, she has a BA in philosophy and politics and a BA Honours in international relations from the same institution. Her MSc research focused on how technocrats’ perceptions of Alexandra Township influenced their attempts at implementing the Alexandra Renewal Project’s aims and objectives. Her previous research focused on how legalising sex work would affect sex workers operating in different spaces across post-apartheid Johannesburg. 181
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Sam Spiegel is a geographer and senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies. Jo Vearey is a public health researcher working on migration and health in the southern African region and globally. She is an associate professor and director of the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, and an honorary researcher at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh. With funding from the Wellcome Trust, Jo initiated the Migration and Health Project Southern Africa (maHp) in 2016. She is also vice-chair of the global Migration, Health, and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI) and a member of the South African Young Academy of Science. Jo has published widely and is involved in both global and local policy processes. Gil Viry is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Edinburgh. He is an associate researcher at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships and is co-running the Social Network Analysis in Scotland Group. He holds an MA in physics and a PhD in sociology from the University of Geneva. His research interests bridge the intersection of spatial mobilities, family and personal life, and social networks. His current research focuses on how geographical distance and mobility behaviours impact personal relationships and family networks using mainly quantitative research methods and social network analysis. His last book, High Mobility in Europe, explores the implication of work-related travel on family and career development. Alex Wafer is a senior lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits University. His recent funded research projects (as PI) include Infrastructures of State and Citizenship (2015-2018) and Infrastructure and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2015-2017). Kamau Wairuri is a PhD researcher at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His research examines the pursuit of police accountability for violent encounters between the state police and citizens at Kenya’s urban margins. This project aims to problematize the current approaches by the state and human rights organisations that presume that citizens have equal access to justice and accountability mechanisms, leading them to focus on prosecution and career-based sanctions as remedies for police brutality. Kamau holds a BA degree from the University of Nairobi and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford. Rebecca Walker is a postdoctoral fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University where she works on issues relating to gender, migration, and health. She has a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and a background in research on gender-based violence, women’s activism, and human rights. She has been involved in a number of research projects and consultancies covering topics such as human trafficking and sex work, migrant sex work and vulnerabilities, mothers who sell sex, child trafficking and child rights, girls on the move (across borders to South Africa), girls and education in South Africa, migration and the impact on the healthcare system, and gender, migration, and health policy. 182
Quinten Williams holds an MA in fine arts from the Wits School of Arts. He works with arts-based and design-based methodology in human expression, innovation, and problem-solving. His focus is on uncovering opportunity within the nuanced relationships that emerge between the social, the somatic, the site, and handled material. Quinten has worked on the MoVE project since 2013, lending his ability in ideation, facilitation, production, and visual-narrative representation to several projects. Robin Williams is a professor of social research on technology and the director of the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh. His interdisciplinary research into “the social shaping of technology” over 30 years has focused upon the development, implementation, and use of a range of IT systems and infrastructures in industry, health services, and everyday life. His recent work highlights the use of new forms of social media data in community engagement and resilience. Robin has been an investigator on more than 60 externally funded research projects, often conducted in close collaboration with technical specialists and practitioners. Ingrid Young is a Chancellor’s Fellow in the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh. Ingrid’s research looks at sexual and reproductive health and how biotechnologies are translated within and across communities. She is particularly interested in how experiences of and inequalities across gender, sexualities, race, and technologies shape sexual health and wellbeing. Her current research explores pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), critical HIV literacies, health activisms, and arts-based methods. She is currently the co-chair of the Scottish Interdisciplinary Research in Sexual Health (IReSH) Network, which works collaboratively with clinical, community, and research partners. Zyanda was a reporter for the Izwi Lethu: Our Voice newsletter, a collaborative project involving partnership Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement in South Africa and the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University.
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Š Chantel, Volume 44, 2014