How informal settlements get their names: ‘They’re archiving history’
The naming of informal settlements can reveal a lot about their establishment.
Young, unemployed people amble aimlessly in the Loyiso Nkohla informal settlement in Cape Town. Picture: Ntuthuzelo Nene/Eyewitness News
Lester Kiewit speaks with Associate Professor Divine Fuh, Director of HUMA- Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town.
Listen to the interview in the audio below.
Informal settlements are often named after people or events that were relevant at the time that they were established.
Some settlements have been sarcastically named after the former minister of Human Settlements Joe Slovo, and there are even a few named after President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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Additionally, we have Kosovo, Marikana, and Covid which were named after major events.
Fuh says that this is usually done to memorialise these moments locally and internationally.
“This naming is a way of archiving history.”
- Divine Fuh, Director of HUMA at the University of Cape Town
While it may seem like an insult to have a space where people are living in squalor named after you, Fuh does not believe this is the intention.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.