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 12 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 Salma Ismail tracked the history of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project, from its start as a development organisation to its evolution into a social movement and then as a service provider. Through the stories of these women, she describes the choices a social movement made when caught up in the struggle to mobilise for housing and become service providers in a context in which the state did not live up to its social responsibilities. The text weaves together perspectives on the usefulness and limitations of Popular Education, the value of local and traditional knowledge, and of experiential learning and learning in an informal context. This book taps into the growing international interest in ‘citizen learning’ in the context of social movements. "At the beginning of South Africa's democratic change, in 1994, the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project was founded by a group of 12 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, in India and Brazil. 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 tracked the history of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Association, from its start as a development organisation to its evolution into a social movement and then as a service provider. The text weaves together perspectives on the usefulness as well as limitations of 'popular education', or informal learning. It highlights the value of local and traditional knowledge, experiential learning, and learning in an informal context, and illustrates how women relate to and interact with knowledge. It taps into the growing international interest in social, or 'citizen' learning in the context of the growth of social movements. This book is a welcome addition to the literature for adult education students and social activists throughout the developing world."--Publisher description. In 1994, at the beginning of South Africa’s democratic change, the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project was founded by a group of 12 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, 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, author Salma Ismail tracked the history of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Association, from its start as a development organization to its evolution into a social movement and as a service provider. This text weaves together perspectives on the usefulness as well as limitations of “popular education.” It highlights the value of local and traditional knowledge, experiential learning, and learning in an informal context, and illustrates 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. This book is a welcome addition to the literature for adult education students and social activists throughout the developing world. Setting the contexts Popular education and development Phase one (1992-1998) : Building houses and communities Phase two (1998-2001) : Leading a social movement Phase three (2001-2003) : Becoming service providers Reflections on learning in a social movement The challenge of independence (2003-2012). An account of how through social activism and informal learning, a group of 12 semi-literate women in South Africa built a community just outside Cape Town, of 5000 houses, in a context where the state did not live up to its responsibilities in the years following the end of apartheid.