Social relations around a communal tap : an ethnography of conviviality in Imizamo Yethu, Cape Town

• Main Author: Qhobela, Tsoarelo Sylvia
• Other Authors: Fuh, Divine
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2015
• Subjects: Social Anthropology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12944

Includes bibliographical references. === This dissertation is focused on the (re)configuration of social relations around a communal tap. It looks at the different ways in which fetching water from a communal tap brings life within an impoverished community in Cape Town, South Africa. I examine how the people of Imizamo Yethu who are located in a constrained and heavily populated geographical space, where movement and sociality are limited, take advantage of the tap space to (re)build relations through various social interactions. Water, one of the elements basic to human needs, activates hope in the midst of suffering, while stabilising residents’ uncertainties. During a four month ethnographic study of life within this community, I participated in and observed the daily practice of fetching water, and the interactions around one of the community’s taps. Building on the idea of water as a total social fact, and also conviviality as theoretical frame, I argue that water is as much a giver of life as it is a catalyst for social living. Water provides an opportunity for residents to meet, exchange stories, and seek survival strategies, further strengthening communal bonds. Through water and the social relations that it (re)configures, residents activate dignity.