The Victoria Mxenge housing project : women building communities through social activism and informal learning

At the beginning of South Africa's democratic change in 1994, the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project was founded, by a group of 30 women who lived in shacks on the barren outskirts of Cape Town. These women had come from rural areas and were poor, vulnerable and semi-literate. Yet they learned how to build, negotiate with the government and NGOS, architects and building experts, and form alliances with homeless social movements locally and internationally. The desolate piece of land they occupied is now a thriving, sustainable community of more than 5 000 houses. Over a period of 10 years the author has tracked the history of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Association, from its start as a development organisation to its evolution into a social movement to its status as a service provider. Through the stories of these women, the reader is given a thorough understanding of the choices a social movement made when caught up in the struggle to mobilise for housing and become service providers in a context where the state did not live up to its social responsibilities. The text weaves together perspectives on agency, identity and the usefulness as well as limitations of popular education. This book plugs a hole in the literature for adult education students and social activists in the developing world. It highlights the value of local and traditional knowledge, experiential learning, learning in an informal context and places an emphasis on how women relate to and interact with knowledge. It taps into the growing international interest in social learning in the context of the growth of social movements.