Digital Storytelling and Planning
In the spring of 2021, I engaged in fair housing advocacy by supporting a grassroots organization based in Cape Town, South Africa called the Housing Assembly. I spoke with members of the group to identify their needs as an organization, and we decided I would create a multimedia project that could be used online and at events to spread awareness about housing inequities in South Africa and showcase the activism work that the Housing Assembly engages in. The project highlights video and audio footage from the Housing Assembly’s media archive as well as a more detailed explanation of the philosophy that the Housing Assembly is rooted in.
Part I: Multimedia Project
Part II: History and Cause
Background
The Housing Assembly is a grassroots housing rights movement based in Western Cape, South Africa and composed of residents of unfit housing. Currently, there are about 7,000 regular Housing Assembly members and 400 activist members from over 30 communities across Western Cape. The organization also addresses housing-adjacent issues like water and electricity, gender-focused housing problems. Members of the Housing Assembly also host trainings, workshops, and events at their community house headquarters. street meetings, speak outs, focus groups, specialized topic meeting groups, training courses, protests, and fundraisers to get comrades out of jail.
The Housing Struggle in South Africa
Informal settlements are on the rise in South Africa. There are more informal settlements and more evictions today than there were during the apartheid regime. This trend has culminated in the realization that poor people must organize around the demand for decent housing.
Since the 1950s, wealthy white residents of Cape Town have lived in large homes with access to good schools, clean drinking water, electricity, and access to parks and other natural areas. Marginalized groups were forced to move inland, separated from the wealthy white neighborhoods by large roads, landfills, mountains, railroad lines, and sewage lines. Today, even decades after apartheid, the dynamics of segregation are still reflected in the layout of Cape Town and the province of Western Cape. There is a lingering sentiment that the current conditions for poor and non-white residents of the province aren’t what was fought for during the anti-apartheid movement.
Prior to the formation of the Housing Assembly, about 5,000 people were forced by the government to move onto a remote field in Western Cape. This group was composed of extremely vulnerable people, including the elderly, those with HIV/AIDS, and orphaned children. The government did not allow people in this settlement to erect above-ground structures, never tried to help the people find housing, and never offered to move them to state-sponsored housing. So the group began to resist the arbitrary and inhumane rules and fight back together. Eventually, the group started confronting neoliberal capitalism as a way to advocate for housing and sanitation solutions. Viewing their struggle through a lens critical of neoliberal capitalism helped the group refine their messaging and aims around the fight for decent housing.
The ramifications of apartheid are multi-generational; they didn’t stop after anti-apartheid negotiations were made. In terms of corruption and inaction on behalf of the local government, the city of Cape Town has made an integrated development plan (IDP) but hasn’t solicited or paid attention to actual input from unfit housing residents. When members of the Housing Assembly contribute at public meetings, the City shuts them down and says there’s no money for housing right now.
Cause
The Housing Assembly sees housing as part of the core of the inequalities existing in South Africa and anywhere neoliberal capitalism operates. There are thousands of people living in unfit housing in Western Cape who are demanding help from the government and an end to evictions, slum clearances, and sham public housing developments. The Housing Assembly focuses on housing because of its fundamental function to the right of living a dignified and healthy life. Because poor housing conditions lead to rampant maintenance issues, trouble sleeping and maintaining proper hygiene, and overcrowding, residents of Western Cape’s informal settlements and public housing are reclaiming their dignity and health by resisting.
The Housing Assembly divides Western Cape’s unfit housing into four categories: Backyarders, informal settlements, temporary relocation areas, and government housing. Here’s a breakdown of the characteristics of each unfit housing type:
Backyarders: This refers to extra households located on a parcel in addition to the designated single household for that parcel. Backyard housing results in overcrowding and limited water and electricity supplies. It also subjects residents to sudden evictions and/or housing code violations.
Informal settlements: In Western Cape, informal settlements are clusters of makeshift and homemade dwellings on land that is not designated for residential use. Often, the land is privately owned by a hopeful developer, which subjects residents to even harsher repercussions for dwelling there. Residents of informal settlements have typically been forced to the area because of slum clearances in other parts of the province.
Temporary relocation area (TRA): TRAs are called concentration camps colloquially. They’re similar to informal settlements except more temporary; residents can be kicked out by the government whenever it’s time for a development plan to be implemented or a new group of residents to move in. According to Housing Assembly resources, most residents only stay in TRAs for a couple of months. Inside TRAs, thousands of families are packed into a small area with limited access to hygiene and sanitation resources.
Government housing: These houses were hastily built, already require lots of maintenance, some don’t have ventilation or electricity, and all are very dusty inside. Many people choose to move out of government housing because they can’t afford the rent or can’t keep up with the maintenance. Many of those who move out of government housing end up back in informal settlements.
Adjacent Issues
The Housing Assembly’s motto is “decent housing for all”, and the organization’s focus has been on resisting housing discrimination and segregation from the government. However, this struggle has uncorked other issues that the Housing Assembly now addresses in its activism work.
One example of the extra work the Housing Assembly has taken on is gender-based inequities in housing. The overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of unfit housing is especially difficult for women during menstrual periods. The Housing Assembly hosts workshops and specialized groups to address this issue and create temporary solutions for women in the fight for decent housing.
Another housing-adjacent issue addressed by the Housing Assembly is water. In government housing, specially-programmed meters often limit residents’ consumption of water. The meters are designed to shut off service after a period of time, leaving people without water once they use the allotted quota. Recently, privatized water meters have been implemented, limiting residents to only 350 liters of water per day. The Housing Assembly has begun to protest automatic water shutoffs and educate residents on how to turn meters back on even when the quota has been reached. In addition to the privatization of water, other basic services such as electricity and schools are becoming privatized, much like in the United States.
Housing Assembly Goals
Very broadly, the Housing Assembly demands
To build a City-wide mass organization that unites the working class, especially those living in informal settlements, in backyards, in tiny and badly-build RDP houses and overcrowded public rented dwellings and other overcrowded, unfit or insecure housing, in a struggle for decent housing for all;
To especially reach out to and mobilize women, youth, students, the unemployed, the disabled, non-citizens (economic migrants and refugees) and other disadvantaged and oppressed groups living in bad housing conditions;
To support the struggle of middle class people for decent housing;
To link the struggle for decent housing to other key working class issues, such as water, electricity, health, the environment, land, education, unemployment and decent work, transport, among others;
To link up with international struggles for decent housing for all;
To reveal the full extent of the suffering of the working class caused by bad housing conditions;
To fully expose the failings of the government’s neoliberal housing policy;
To stop evictions, put an end to the criminalization of the occupation of land and win the right to occupy vacant land for the purposes of securing access to housing;
To promote an understanding among affected communities that the cheap policies such as site-and-services, the upgrading of informal settlements and backyard dwellings, ‘re- blocking’ initiatives, self-help schemes, among others, are hopelessly inadequate changes and unacceptable as alternatives to decent housing for all;
To develop a working class alternative to the neoliberal capitalist housing policy framework;
To form a fighting united front or alliances with unions, social movements and other working class organizations in the struggle for decent housing for all and around other key working class issues;
To defend and promote the common interests of the working class;
To struggle for a society free of oppression and exploitation and where social and economic equality prevails.
Housing Assembly Principles
The Housing Assembly also lists several guiding principles, which explain their connection with activists in Champaign-Urbana, Ireland, and elsewhere. Their principles are:
Maximum unity in action and struggle of the working class;
Independent working class organization;
Grassroots membership, democracy and participation in the Housing Assembly and the struggles of the working class;
Consistent, democratic, accountable and collective leadership within the Housing Assembly;
Gender equality, women’s leadership and struggle against sexist behavior in the Housing Assembly and society at large;
Opposition to all forms of racism and xenophobia both within the Housing Assembly and in society at large;
Rejection of discrimination based on sexual orientation both within the Housing Assembly and in society at large;
International solidarity in the struggle for decent housing for all.
Part III: Q&A
As prescribed by the instructors of the UP 494 course, this section follows a Q&A format. The section was submitted as part of the preliminary medium and narrative description phase of the project, so the format acted as a kind of checklist to ensure students were on the right track with their projects. I will describe why I made certain choices regarding the video medium, software, and narrative style.
What is the medium or combination of mediums you chose?
I have chosen to create a 5-6-minute video using Blender. Blender is a free, open-source software for modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and game creation. I have worked with Blender in the past to create 3D video game elements.
Why did you select that?
I selected the video medium for a few reasons. First, I feel comfortable using this medium and really enjoy it. It’s something I can delve into for hours and keep feeling inspired by for a sustained period of time. Second, I want the video that I produce to be editable by members of the Housing Assembly organization. Blender is free and open-source, unlike almost all video editing programs. Third, I noticed that there’s a lot of audio and visual content in the Housing Assembly’s media archive and I want to make use of it. I think it’s really important that the Housing Assembly has access to and ownership of all their source media. However, there is a lot of it and it’s kind of hard to navigate. I figured that distilling some of the material into a video could be of use to the organization.
What opportunities does this provide?
A 5-6-minute video featuring some of the Housing Assembly’s own source material provides the organiztion with the opportunity to quickly teach newcomers and outsiders about their organization’s struggle, history, and culture. Additionally, the video can be displayed in-person or online, if the Housing Assembly decides to upload it to a video sharing platform or add it to their website. Creating the video in Blender will allow the Housing Assembly to modify the video in the future if they want to.
How does this medium limit you?
The video medium could impact the “purity” of the Housing Assembly’s story because I will be making decisions about cuts, duration, and selecting which media to include. My intention was to editorialize the media as little as possible by cutting down on narration and special effects. However, story can also be an interplay between author and listener. In that sense, my video might be an interesting example of the Housing Assembly through an American’s perspective.
How does this tool help you better illustrate your story?
Blender, and video editing in general, seems like a good way for me to tell a story that I haven’t told before. I will rely a lot on the source material provided by the Housing Assembly in order to mold the narrative. Through video, I get to teach people about the history and struggle of this organization using their words, their music, their videos, and their photos.
What is your level of proficiency using this tool and how are you planning to improve that?
I am used to using linear video editing software like iMovie and Premiere Pro. However, I haven’t ever used Blender as a video editing software. From what I’ve read, video editing in Blender is a lot easier than what I’ve used Blender for in the past. Because Blender is open-source, there are lots of tutorials and resources online. Blender publishes their own documentation, and users also share their tips on websites like Stack Exchange.
Is this compatible with what this social movement needs?
Currently, the Housing Assembly has quite a lot of media on their website but there’s not a video that consolidates everything for people who are new to the organization.
