Meghan Healy-Clancy and Jason Hickel, editors. Ekhaya

In the same week that I received Ekhaya: The Politics of Home in KwaZulu-Natal to review, I noticed for the first time an ad in the Economist. An international bank, presumably seeking to lure additional clients, describes its role financing affordable housing for “rising middle class families” in South Africa. One of the colorful photos shows what looks like a government-sponsored housing development, something many South Africans have been clamoring for more of. Local and international observers alike have criticized the African National Congress for its slow, uneven delivery of housing and other infrastructure to previously disenfranchised communities. In the two decades since South Africa’s historic regime change, there have been strikes and violent protests reminiscent of the apartheid era as residents demand basic municipal services like electricity and clean water. The bank’s ad, however, puts a more genteel veneer on the issue, claiming that access to housing is about “the path to wealth through property ownership” (Economist). Clearly, both the basic provision and the deep symbolism of solid walls and a roof remain contentious issues in South Africa today. Home—and how to get one—is at the center of local politics and high-stakes international capital flows, thus a book on the “politics of home”—in an especially violent and politicized region of the country—is both timely and welcome.

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