 . . . Fall 1999
By Leoneda Inge-Barry Driving through the lush hills of Durban, you can't help but notice the immaculately sculptured parks, gardens and the Indian Ocean down below. It is also hard to miss the large number of magnificent homes tucked away in this tropical paradise. But almost a decade after South Africa's apartheid policy that separated the population into categories of Blacks, Whites, Coloureds and Indians was repealed, housing remains very much segregated.
Many Whites who had been allocated prime urban land near the city center still live in those magnificent homes, and many people of color live on the periphery, in overcrowded downtown flats or wherever they can find space to build a shack.
"I was surprised by its size and proximity to a major road, a road people used every day to travel to the beautiful neighborhoods near the University of Durban-Westville," Vega said.
We knew this road well, taking "kombi" taxis back and forth to the university and Cato Manor. The development can almost be described as a third world city within a first world city. Standing near the curb, you could easily see a Mercedes Benz or Audi driver chatting on a cell phone to your left, and a group of women and young girls carrying 25 liter jugs of water on their heads to your right.
Housing is a major tool used around the world to measure a country's economic growth and the quality of life of its residents. In South Africa, housing and, more important, land, was used to capture social and economic power. Laws limited less than 15 percent of the country's land to nearly 90 percent of the population, which is mostly Black. After Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress gained power in the country's first democratic elections, the government's Reconstruction and Development Program built hundreds of thousands of homes for the majority poor, Black population. But despite the continuing effort, many Blacks, mostly women and children remain in squatter settlements.
"Given that so many women of color all over the world are suffering, it becomes increasingly important to share their struggles in hopes that some form of aid will come to assist them," said Supuwood. "I've taken both a personal and research interest in these women." Michigan Prof. Hemalata Dandekar, chairman of International Planning in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning and an expert on socioeconomic issues affecting women worldwide, advises our research team and visited us in Durban. "Women around the world have the triple burden of income earning, family sustenance and reproduction," Dandekar noted. "A home of one's own is a very valuable asset. It allows for value-adding, income-generating activities while looking after the kids and provides access to urban locations where earning an income is possible."
By the 1950s, 50,000 Blacks lived in shacks in Cato Manor. Under national policy most were relocated, often forcibly. After years of non-occupation, the land was designated as a site for housing for Indians. But in the early 1990s, after Mandela was released from prison, Africans surged onto the property and put up shacks in much of the buildable space. In a way, Blacks were sending the "old" South Africa a "new" message of freedom–freedom to live where they pleased. Government got the message, allowing, in part, most of the temporary homes to stay. Today, the Durban Metropolitan Area includes Cato Manor in its strategic housing plan. The Cato Manor Development Association has organized ongoing housing upgrades and construction in the area. Our trio of U-M researchers spoke to women living in several different levels of housing in Cato Manor-some houses made of mud, bamboo and cardboard with outhouses nearby and others recently built, including electricity and water. Our goal is to provide new data on women and housing in South Africa and encourage dialogue on women's housing needs in the Durban Metro area and nationally. Gender equality is a major area of focus in the new South African government, but implementing such strategies has been difficult, especially in the area of land reform. Constraints range from a reluctance to tackle traditional patriarchal attitudes to the absence of a significant women's grassroots movement. We plan to present our findings at an international conference in Johannesburg next summer. Leoneda Inge-Barry is in the MS program in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. She was a Michigan Journalism Fellow in 1995-96.
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One housing development in Durban that leaves visitors speechless, with its massive squatter settlements, is 
Internationally, researchers use the status of "poor Black women" as an indicator or gauge of development, since in most countries where they live, women of color are the most impoverished. Furthermore, there are more single women head of households in Africa than anywhere else in the world. Knowing this, our research team member Kiabe Supuwood, a 
