The Kraal: A Downtown Cape Town, South Africa slum (part 1)
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- čas přidán 27. 04. 2024
- An exploration of family, community, slum culture, and belonging in The Kraal Slum in downtown Cape Town, South Africa.
The “townships,” “districts,” and “informal settlements” in South Africa are all more properly referred to as slums-but the euphemisms sounds a whole lot better. Slum communities are mostly inhabited by “black” and “coloured” people. The government relocated non-whites during the apartheid years situating them in ramshackle housing, isolated areas, and out of sight and mind of white South Africans.
Slum communities do not receive government servicing like non-slum neighbourhoods. Slum residents must make their communities work and run on their own.
Slum communities have attracted unenviable reputations, but we know that painting all with the same brush is both inaccurate and unfair.
The folks that I met with in The Kraal were animated, passionate, kind, and warm. Yet, as they became more comfortable, they revealed how heartbroken they were to be forgotten humans in Cape Town. Despite their circumstance, they rise each day, grind, and struggle to make ends meet, and somehow, they smile all the while.
To live in a slum is to truly understand what it is to be a part of community. While South African slums are segregated from middle-class white communities and alienated from the heartbeat of the larger community, slum residents through their own efforts and resilience find love, belonging, and care amongst each other. Bonded together as family, The Kraal residents bring meaning and purpose to each other’s lives.
Yet another African community that exemplifies community, belonging, and the collective good. The contrast between African communities and western ones couldn’t be more stark…
Hats off to this woman....staying positive and hopeful even such a situation....my respects to you madam❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
What a beautiful strong woman ... raising her daughters with pride ,love and more care than mothers that have more and care less ....
18 years and no house, this family deserves the home that government was promised to be built once and for all.
The only thing to ease that would be a different economy. Vibrant enough to employ peoole so they can buy or build their own houses @wma5440 . And it would need to be a vibrant national economy so people build these homes where they are rather than move to WC. Unfortunately ANC is ruining the economy nationwide. The Eastern Cape is ruining lives
This family is proof that even in slums, you can still find happiness, even if the life your in is cruel and unfair.😥🙂🙏🏻😇
You're exactly right! I visited in February 2024. I hope to get back there again this year. I'd love to pass along the positive comments to Neslie and her people. Thanks!
My people.. Coloured people are strong in adversity.. ❤
Well, they rolled out the red carpet for me. Everybody was so kind!
Good woman. May God richly bless you. You have made a beautiful home for your people. You have sacrificed much. I am humbled. Respect ❤
Wow! I love this content...REAL!!! What an amazing informative video. Can't wait for Part 2
I’ll post it this week! Thanks for your comment.
This is South Africa Cape town 🇿🇦
Cape Town and the other parts of Western and Eastern Capes that I saw were so beautiful. But such a complicated history, truly a land of great contrasts and contradictions.
I was wowed by the sights and met such warm and kind people.
Im from Malmesbury been to BoKaap and never seen that place...so nice if u to make a video of the people and how they stay out there
Thanks so much! I'm so glad I went in to The Kraal to say hello, despite the many warnings I was given by so many about the dangers one would encounter in the slums. Everybody was so kind, and I fell in love with the kids--they were pretty great!
I'm coloured and admire this coloured lady Stay strong my sister
Thanks for writing! I admired her, too. It was my great pleasure to meet her and the kids. Take care.
So sad that this woman has to live in a shack
She is very well spoken
It was my great pleasure to meet her and her dear children! Despite her circumstances, she was so warm and kind. Bless her.
So..who must stay in the slums and shacks.there are people with degree and masters that stay in the same situations untill they are sorted with life
@@Ket2452 I'm sure you're right! It is so hard to make ends meet and the cost of living is crushing. Obviously, anyone from any class, socioeconomic status, education level can live here...I was so warmly welcomed and received. It was a heartwarming experience--I believe for all concerned.
How did you discover this place? I stay in Kuilsriver used to know Bo-Kaap and Signal Hill but I have to go find this place.
Hi, thanks for your comment. I am endlessly curious--honestly, sometimes I just walk around blindly, "follow the cat around," as they say. I spent a good chunk of time walking around and enjoying BoKaap--and The Kraal sits right adjacent to it. It stood in pretty stark contrast to the beauty of the fancy colourful houses. My curiosity got the better of me and I went in. I'm glad I did!
Its ontop of bokaap just asking someone there that seems like they live there
Government won't call it a slum, otherwise,they have to keep their promises and do something for the homeless,sad thing is those politicians will be reaping the benefits from the tourists,and not putting it back into communities like this,
I’m sure you’re right!!
Good on you. Bless you girl.❤❤❤❤
It was my pleasure to meet Neslie and her kids. Hearts of gold, such lovely people!
👍
I am tourist guide based in Langa township, I wish to connect with my Sista, I do City tours and township tours
Thanks for writing. I was in South Africa for a couple of weeks in February but I’ve left to Kenya. I really wanted to meet some folks in Langa township. Too bad we didn’t connect.
@@kimvVoice no stress, you will be back
to have "matriculated" means you passed 12th grade. in theory you should be able to get a good job with a matric certificate (NSC), but unfortunately it somehow is not that easy for many South Africans.
Thanks for your comment, Dave. I am Canadian--it sounds like you might be South African. Of course, I know what it is to matriculate, but, given that I don't hail from the area, the context within which she used the word left me wondering if I had misheard her or what exactly she meant by it. I guess she said what she said and she meant to say it, haha. Now I know. But, your local knowledge is helpful. So many in South Africa, and not just folks in the slums, talked to me about how they struggle to make ends meet. I had a great time during my two weeks there--a land of contrasts, but certainly its very beautiful!
Its a township? Not an informal settlement?
Hmm, I am certainly not an authority on any of it, that's for sure! I'm not sure if you're from South Africa--someone from there would be able to speak authoritatively to this issue. Folks I met in SA: in Cape Town and in the Eastern Cape, said that the slums nearby CT are townships, and those in the Eastern Cape are informal settlements...
@@kimvVoice I am from South Africa. Thats why I am surprised? There is no such. Informal means slum people settled there with no permission from land owner or government. Township is planned by Municipality they build RDP housing- government housing in our case in some places developed by the apartheid government through force removals in some areas look u KwaMashu, Sofia Town even District 6 etc. So this definition is very distorted and the definition has no difference no matter where you live in this country. Information is available or visit the museums in our local Metropolitan cities to research the history of the people
You just ended te video there
theres pt2
Three videos on The Kraal in total.
Shame man 🥹I pray they get their houses
change cc ..that is all.
I don't think you did this out of malice, but it's not OK to take videos of people private places it does not if they allow you that is not the standard our peoples suffering is not for voyeuristic pleasure
Respectfully disagree.
Thanks! It was a beautiful, soulful, and respectful interaction between all parties concerned. And of course, I had their knowledge and consent to tape and post. I am but one of 8B people, merely a cog in a wheel--despite the fact I haven't much of a platform yet, these folks truly appreciated being seen and heard.
As the previous poster rightly commented, no malice intended by me at all! Which of course you understood. I plan to go back and visit again! Thanks for your support!
Don't...comprise...sis
as much as this lady might be telling the truth i dont trust these people
She deserves a nice house, and I mean a beautiful one.
.
Emphasis on really shit
DA call this well managed capetown, no no no
Compared to where? Eastern Cape? How about KZN. I know how bout the north west 🤡
@@brendonnel6593 from other parts of SA we don't brag that it's better, we know the system is broken, there is a huge gap between the super rich and the poor. We acknowledge that there are areas where people are rich and everything looks nice and that there are poor areas like Townships, slums with shacks and villages which we don't hide and pretend they don't exist.
People in villages strive to build their own houses, it can take 10 yrs for them to just make enough bricks another 5 years to pay for roofing and complete their houses.
People in the slums are illegal squaters cause they don't have land to build houses on, some build and municipalities end up demolishing their houses so they continue to stay in the shacks for many years.
The strength of a Province lies in it's ability to upgrade it's poor, bridge the gap between the extreme rich and the extreme poor.
SO according to me all SA Provinces have failed their poor, with no EXCEPTION.
Charity begins at home.
Hmm. Interesting analysis. Thanks for writing!