To generations of women
women and the younger women here in the hostel. We don’t get along. We young ones go to parties at night and, when we come back, we come back ratchet and loud. In the mornings, you’ll hear the older women saying, ‘They are being loud, they must go’. Then we respond with ‘You should go and move to the rural areas because you’re old’. When we say it’s our time now, they say we young ones must go because this is their place.”
Senamile Ndwandwe (22) was born in KwaNongoma in KwaZuluNatal and she started living with her older sister in the hostel in 2013. She is related to Wendy and Nokwanda.
“The hostel is slowly being turned into family units or individual rooms instead of just having many women who don’t know each other sharing one room. So let’s say someone leaves the hostel, dies or moves to another room, then another person who is sharing will be moved into the empty room. A lot of older women leave the hostel because top of that other block that was damaged by strong winds a while back. When it rains, the rooms in there get flooded and all those people’s things are soaked.”
Besides the daily problems, the women’s hostel is infamous for being a place where babies are found wrapped in plastic bags.
Nokwanda bends her head and looks at her hands. “Many babies are found thrown away or aborted. You can’t be sure if it’s only women from the hostel doing this because any woman can just walk in here with a plastic bag and dump it. It happens a lot and there are so many young women who fall pregnant here. Who are you going to blame? Some babies are found in drains. Living here is painful. So painful.”
The apartheid government’s intention to subject black people to subhuman living conditions that offered no way of getting out or progressing continues to haunt the hostel.
“There are so many problems here at the hostel. The piping has issues, so sometimes sewage and water just pools outside in the yards and stays there for a long time. The smell — don’t get me started.
“We understand that the goal is to get the hostel into family units but the young men who live here with their mothers don’t make us feel safe. Sometimes they just grab and run off with your bag while you’re walking up the stairs at night.
“The only thing that is a comfort to us is that, if a man comes into your room to attack you, you can blow a whistle and scream ‘indoda!’ [man] and the other women will come out to help you,” Nokwanda says.
The three women are also quick to share their dreams.
Senamile takes acting classes at Olive Tree Theatre in Alex every day from about 7am until late in the afternoon. She says acting is what she was “born to do” but she’s very clear about what she wants.
“I don’t like on-screen acting. I like theatre more. My dream is to go international and perform in other countries, so I’ll keep going to these classes until I get where I want to.”
Wendy was doing her second year in public relations at Rosebank College when she fell pregnant. She works at a retail store in Woodmead. Nokwanda looks after her daughter during the week when she’s at work.
“Studying public relations is not what I wanted to do exactly. I wanted to study social work. When I went to UJ [University of Johannesburg] to apply for social work, it was already full because I applied late. I didn’t want to just sit at home and do nothing so that’s how I ended up doing public relations … One day when I’m done with my diploma and I’m working, I’m going to start studying social work,” Wendy says as she ties up her long braids with a print scarf.
Nokwanda wants to teach consumer studies, business and tourism.
“I have the passion of teaching and I can sit down with someone and explain something to them until they understand. I want to go back home to the rural areas and teach there because I feel like schools back home lack teachers who are qualified and passionate and knowledgeable, and I want to be that.”
But these young women can never stay serious for long. Senamile dramatically pops the gum she has been chewing, much to Nokwanda’s irritation, and Wendy starts laughing. Before you know it, they’re laughing and arguing about where the best chilling spots in Alex are.