Race, Place and Everyday Life in Contemporary South Africa: Wentworth, Durban

Local government in South Africa witnessed major deracialisation and the emergence of large metros post-1994. In Durban for example, there was the creation of eThekwini metro that brought 40 separate jurisdictions under the banner of one administration (Freund, Urban Forum, 21(3), 283–298, 2010). Despite this administrative deracialisation, apartheid group areas have largely remained intact. Drawing on primary qualitative data research and participant observation, this article explores issues of place, belonging and identity in the flatlands of Wentworth, a place set aside for coloureds in the early 1960s. Residents’ attitudes towards Wentworth are complex and often contradictory: feelings of alienation contend with a deep attachment to place and a sense that the flats are an asset to be handed down to the next generation. What emerges from interviews conducted with the residents is that the demise of legally demarcated racial boundaries has reinforced a kind of ‘territorial belonging’, as Wentonians increasingly feel alienated from the broader body politic (Bauder, Antipode, 48(2), 252–271, 2016: 255).