Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels [Paperback]

Mamphela Ramphele (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1993

In this study, Dr Ramphele documents the lives of the hostel dwellers of Cape Town, for whom a bed is literally a home, for themselves and their families. The migrant labour hostels of South Africa, and of the Transvaal in particular, have attracted international attention in recent years for their violence and degrading conditions. Yet, as Dr Ramphele shows, many of the hostel dwellers are peace-loving people who have developed strategies to deal with their impoverished environment. She describes the constraints - political, ideological, social and economic, as well as physical - faced by the hostel dwellers, and explores the emancipatory possibilities of their situation. Dr Ramphele argues that one of the most important social and political tasks facing South Africa now is empowerment, which depends upon exploring these possibilites and extending people's spaces.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Ohio University Press; 1 edition (August 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821410636
• ISBN-13: 978-0821410639
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Law > Administrative Law > Housing & Urban Development

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