A place called home, a basic human right

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$6,& human rights are nature given entitlements which are naturally conferred to all human beings from the time of their birth to the time of death.

+owever, the world is still not yet one hundred per cent agreed on the nature given entitlements of unborn children. The doctrine of basic human rights behoves that anyone who is born alive has got an inalienable right to life.

This means that such a person has got the right to live. If someone has got the right to life, or the right to live, no one whatsoever, has got the right to taNe away that life, and for whatever reason.

+aving the right to life also means having the right to everything which gives or enhances life. 6uch being the case, having the right to life also means simultaneously having the right to a place to live in or e[ist in, the right to air to breathe, water to drinN, food, health, education, transport, safety and security.

PHENOMENON

%y definition, home is a place where one lives, where one comes from, or where something originally started. $s far as one’s place of birth is concerned, no one ever chooses to be born in any given place or country.

That choice is made for all of us by nature. 6uch being the case, a place called home, a place where one lives in, comes from, or was born in, is actually a naturally endowed or naturally given phenomenon.

+ence a place called home is actually a basic human right. (very person, every human being, has got the right to a home or to a place called home 6uch being the case, no one must ever be homeless, or found to be homeless

:hat the above means is that if one is born in a given country, then that country, as one’s country of birth, automatically also becomes one’s natural home country by birth.

In fact, the world has acceded to this fact by reTuiring all countries to automatically give citi]enships to all people who may be born within their boundaries if and when such citi]enship is sought or desired. /ocally, and within any given country, citi]ens have places which they call home as well.

These are the places in which they live, or in which they were born, or say that they come from, or originally came from. In 6ub-6aharan $frica, almost everyone has got a place in the rural areas which they call home.

This is the pace where they say they come from. 1o blacN $frican person says that he or she comes from an urban locality. This is because urbanisation is a relatively new phenomenon in $frica and in the developing world in general. 0ost developing world populations are still heavily rural based.

6uch being the case, the few people who go to urban areas for employment purposes still have got very strong rural roots or connections. They still go bacN home to their home villages every now and then.

+owever, with time, some people may permanently lose their rural connections and then become completely and permanently urban based Must liNe what happened in developed countries.

:hen such happens, then wherever one stays or lays their head becomes their home, a home to which they would be entitled to as a basic human right.

DEFINITIONS

+aving established the fact that a place called home is a basic human right, let us now try to define what home or a home is. +ere, we have two different but related definitions of home. The home which we have been talNing about so far is the place where one comes from or lives in such as home village, homeland, home town, roots, fatherland, motherland or home country.

The second definition of home is related to the first one given above. The second definition of home is eTually important as a basic human right as well. This second definition of home denotes, means or refers to a physical building or structure in which one lives or resides in such as a house, an apartment, accommodation, Tuarters, lodgings or dwellings.

(veryone has got the right to a physical structure in which to live. :ithout a physical structure or a sheltered place such as a house in which to live, one becomes referred to as being homeless. +omelessness is a threat to life.

This is because without a sheltered physical structure in which to live, one is left e[posed to all the vagaries of nature such as e[treme weather conditions.

$s we all Nnow, e[posure to too much heat, cold, rain, wind, dust or sun is detrimental to health and can be life limiting. $lso life-threatening to those who are homeless would be the lacN of safety and security. 2n an annual basis, many homeless people have unfortunately been found dead on the streets.

STRUCTURE

In relation to a place to stay in such as a house, what e[actly does it mean to say someone has got the right to a home or a place called home?

If we looN all around us, barring the few people who are franNly homeless and actually live, stay and sleep on the open streets, most people have some sort of physical structure which they go bacN µhome’ to sleep in at night.

+owever, a lot of those physical structures are not homely at all. :hen someone goes bacN µhome’ at night to sleep in a shacN made out of cardboard papers, corrugated iron sheets, grass, pieces of clothing materials, plastic papers, Mute bags, poles and dagga, sticNs and mud, and some such other scrap materials, can that person be said to have a real home or house?

The answer is definitely no, right? $ place called home or a house must be fit and proper for that purpose. It must merit the definition of a proper house, home or place to live or stay in. In other words, it must measure up to standards.

$ real or proper home or house is a properly constructed physical dwelling structure which is made out of safe and durable construction materials which are properly put together.

It is a physical structure made up of several purpose built rooms such as a Nitchen, living or sitting room, dining room, bedrooms, and toilets and baths, among many other rooms.

$ proper home or house has got access to roads, running water, electricity or any other forms of energy, and a healthy and hygienic sewage reticulation system. $ proper home or house is a safe, healthy and hygienic physical structure to live in.

$nything less than this is not a proper home or house at all. It might be better than living, staying or sleeping out on the open streets, but it would still not be considered to be a proper home or house. $ proper home or house must be fit for purpose, full stop

It is obvious from the above paragraphs that many 6ub-6aharan $frican people are actually homeless by definition. In all our villages, cities and towns, hordes and hordes of people live in appallingly deplorable structures and conditions.

BUILDING

They live in tightly sTuee]ed up shacNs which are made out of any non-descript scrap building materials which they can lay their hands on. %ricNs and motor, corrugated iron sheets, broNen wooden planNs, cardboards, chipboards, grass, poles and dagga, sticNs and mud, and anything else goes

These shacNs are usually built in highly pacNed up slams with no access to roads, no running water, no electricity, and no sewage reticulation systems at all. Those with pit latrines would count themselves to be very lucNy.

+ealth and hygiene, or safety and security are completely non-e[istent in the slams and sTuatter camps of $frica. In addition to being a sorry e[cuse for a place to stay in, or a place called home or a house, these slums are also an eye sore to be beholden

If you walN into one of the real slams of $frica, and you have got a human heart in you, it is very difficult not to shed a tear of two, either inwardly or outwardly, or even both.

It is very difficult not to wonder why most of our post-independence $frican governments still let many, many people live in such highly deplorable states of e[istence? Pre-independence, we had the e[cuse that it was part of the oppressive, e[ploitative and uncaring nature of colonialist regimes.

:hat about now in this post-independence era? :hat e[cuses do we have now as independent $frican countries which are ruled by µdemocratically’ installed national governments?

:hat e[cuses do we have now as post-independence national governments, and also as a people? :hat e[cuses do we have for letting other people, other human beings live in such horrendously deplorable physical structures and places as slums, sTuatter camps, shacNs and all?

If all our blacN $frican liberation struggles were waged in order to, among other things, restore the respect for human rights and human dignity at national level, why then have we not yet come around to restoring the basic human rights of our people to a decent home, a decent house and a decent physical structure to live in?

SHACK

'o we still not Nnow that a place called home, a proper house, and not a shacN, slum or sTuatter camp, is a basic human right? These are the sort of sober Tuestions which we must all asN ourselves, good people.

:ith this article, I want to challenge all our $frican post-independence national governments to change their own national homelessness situations for the better.

Post-independence $frican national governments should be ashamed of presiding over citi]ens and voters who live in sTuatter camps, slums, shacNs or any other less than habitable structures and places.

+onestly, how can you, as public figures or public leaders, go bacN home to your own personal or government provided safe, healthy and securely gated community mansions, in leafy ultra-low density suburbs, and have peaceful sleep, while your own people, your own Nind, and the ones who put you into power, are sleeping in rugged, dirty, unsafe, unhealthy, unhygienic and insecure sTuatter camps or slum dwellings?

Politicians, can you please find it somewhere within your hearts to do the right thing in this regard. &an you please let everyone enMoy their right to a place called home, a decent place to live in? $men.