Making Home in Setswetla: A Narrative Exploration of ‘Belonging’ and ‘Home’ in a Contested Informal Settlement in Johannesburg

Abstract

This study sought to explore biographical narratives of black women who reside in Setswetla, a contested informal settlement in Alexandra (Johannesburg), as an attempt to understand how their personal stories informed conceptualisations of ‘belonging’ and ‘home’. While literary interest in informal settlements is notable, there remained a vacuum in studies that narratively explored the lives lived within informal settlements, thus going beyond typical studies of livelihood within these settings. Through the qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry, the study attempted to better understand person-place relations through in-depth narrative interviews and photovoice. Through thematic narrative analysis, the study brings theoretical concepts to life through visual experiential narratives of participants' lives. From the findings, it was clear that the concepts of belonging, and home were complex, especially when explored within informal settlements. The study found that participants continued to experience structural violence through the deplorable and inhumane material conditions that they live in. Through participants’ narrations of social injustice, the study was able to capture visceral accounts of the antithetical nature of structural violence to belonging and feeling at home, both in a community sense and a citizenry sense. These narratives provided a powerful political critique as participants’ adverse living conditions were preventable and avoidable. More crucially, the study unearthed compelling counternarratives of agency and collective action through participants' endeavours to enforce their belonging and feeling at home amid harsh material conditions. Through their stories, the study captures human agency in action and counterattacks to structural violence. Although bonded by their struggles, even more powerful was how they were bonded by relationality, community, and resilience. The study also highlights how participants express their identities and form attachments to their homes through place-making, thus forming new meanings and relationships with place while enriching their biographical narratives. The study therefore provides a new perspective on informal settlements, and it enriches theory while simultaneously enriching our understanding of the lives lived within informal settlements.