The first semester of the MPhil in Southern Urbanism at the African Centre for Cities , University of Cape Town swept away cobwebs of old stale ways of thinking about life in the city and pushed every necessary “refresh” button. My internal adventures, both of the mental and spirit kind carefully choreographed and facilitated by Dr Sophie Oldfield and Dr Laura Nkula-Wenz, had me wading through dense and exciting texts of scholars embedded in the practice of creative ethnographies, interdisciplinary approaches to seeing and understanding urbanism of the south.
These richly layered texts were in turn mirrored with practical action research conducted in Hazeldean, Philippi with a small contained community of activist/homeowners. Overseen by Dr Oldfield and working in partnership with NGO Peoples Environmental Planning (PEP), our class, together with students from partner academic institution, Basel University walked, observed and engaged in conversation with community members of Hazeldean. The interaction in itself was beautifully crafted as an example of responsible and ethical ethnographic research. Mutually agreed outcomes for ourselves as students and for the community members were negotiated prior to our arrival. Open ended questions were in continuous responsive process. Community based research assistants were engaged to act as translators, interlocutors and mediators. Complex questions about; ownership, title deeds (the lack thereof), experiences of first time home ownership, home and belonging and existing challenges within a gentrifying city circulated among us all.
Our conversations took place in a small public room, on the grass verges where we picnic’d informally and in homes where we were warmly welcomed. Jockeyed out of my tired ways of seeing and being in this crudely and brutally divided city, jaded by the prevailing acts to erode dignity and worth committed through acts of power by the city officials and privileged on peoples labelled as ‘Other’… I can find no better way to articulate the tensions and daily navigation of the everyday struggles for dignity and assertion of rights, and a desire for creating home and beauty than through a poem penned in response. This poetographic extract serves to honor those of Hazeldean who shared their stories and to colleagues and friends who listened.
Dreaming
Of a place called home
Four walls squared
On top – PAUSE
Triangle roof
I am
Not done
You say
Snatching pen and paper
No
Colour these walls
Shades of purple yellow blue
Mixes
Not quite right
But
Calling attention
‘ ek
Is hie R
Imperfect
But
Then
Draw a line
Untidy at best
But oh, so clear
From there to here
Plant the seeds
And watch them grow
Each bloom
My world
Defined
Boundaries drawn
Dreaming
Of a place called Home
I count my 50 cents
For You?
A horde of chappies[1]
For me?
These plastered walls
[1] Cheap sweet bubblegum which comes in different fruity flavours and in multiple vibrant colours
Dreaming
A place called Home
Windows barred
Doors jarred
Invisible lines between
Here
And there
What’s mine
What’s yours
Dreaming
Home
I write
Me
My Family – made and unmade
With photographs
Framed
These walls
My title deed
Home
My name
My erfenis
Ulwazi
In a place
In a time
In a space
Where body
Mind
And soul
Still erasable
Unknowable
Ek is
HieR
I am
Here
I am
Beauty
Full