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Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613758003609600 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Brynard, Monique |
| author2 | Van Wyk, Ilana |
| author_browse | Brynard, Monique Van Wyk, Ilana |
| author_facet | Van Wyk, Ilana Brynard, Monique |
| author_sort | Brynard, Monique |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131609 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:41:12.661Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131609 Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City Brynard, Monique Van Wyk, Ilana Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology & Social Anthropology. Gauteng (South Africa) Cape Town (South Africa) Moving (Houshold) Migration, Internal storage and moving trade Storage facilities Storage in the home UCTD Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Starting in 2019, a large number of South African newspapers, supported by government statistics, have noted a new migration trend that annually has seen over 100 000 middle- to upper-income earners moving from the country’s economic hub in Gauteng to Cape Town. In this study, I explore this so-called semigration wave through an anthropological lens attentive to the ways in which semigrants related to the movement and storage of their stuff; the households of furniture, clothes, linen, crockery, cutlery, carpets, appliances, books, art, knick-knacks, toys, tools, vehicles, and jewellery. To explore this topic, I interviewed 28 semigrants comprising of single professionals, families with children, those with adult children and retirees, and also engaged in conversations with three estate agents and two people who worked in the storage industry. I showed that the process of moving to Cape Town was much more intricate than merely packing up one’s belongings, moving them and unpacking them again. For most of my interlocutors, their belongings were largely ‘invisible’ for as long as these things passively filled their homes. However, as soon as my interlocuters decided to move, their belongings were brought into visibility from the background of everyday living, sometimes surprisingly so. When their belongings came into focus, my interlocutors all described being confounded by the sheer volume of things that they owned, an excess that they could not explain and that they described as beyond their control. In their relationship to their “uncontrollable” things, my interlocutors ascribe agency to their belongings quite separate from their own decisions and motivations. Things became weighted and animated; they demanded attention, care, worry and responsibilities that many were poorly prepared for. In this unexpected animated relationship to their things, ‘inalienable’ belongings were more visible and ‘needier’ than other things. In order to tame the demands that their belongings made on them, and the responsibilities that their stuff entailed, many of my interlocutors put their things into storage or left them in boxes for much longer than they had initially planned, often because they had realised that they might have to move again; moving to the Mother City meant moving into smaller spaces where the pressure of dealing with their (accumulating) stuff became acute. My interlocutors’ narratives of chaos, contrasts, paradoxes and uncertainties underscored this. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Vanaf 2019 het 'n groot aantal Suid-Afrikaanse koerante, ondersteun deur regeringstatistieke, 'n nuwe migrasietendens opgemerk wat jaarliks meer as 100 000 middel- tot hoërinkomsteverdieners van die land se ekonomiese spilpunt in Gauteng na Kaapstad laat verhuis het. In hierdie studie ondersoek ek hierdie sogenaamde semigrasiegolf deur 'n antropologiese lens wat aandag gee aan die maniere waarop semigrante verband hou met die beweging en stoor van hul goed; die huishoudings van meubels, klere, linne, breekware, eetgerei, maHe, toestelle, boeke, kuns, snuisterye, speelgoed, gereedskap, voertuie en juweliersware. Om hierdie onderwerp te ondersoek, het ek onderhoude gevoer met 28 semigrante wat bestaan het uit enkellopende professionele persone, gesinne met kinders, ouer generasies met volwasse kinders en afgetredenes. Ek het ook gesprekke gevoer met drie eiendomsagente en twee mense wat in die bergingsbedryf gewerk het. Ek het gewys dat die proses van verhuising na Kaapstad baie meer ingewikkeld was as net oppak, skuif en weer uitpak. Vir die meeste van my gespreksgenote was hul besittings grootliks 'onsigbaar' solank hierdie dinge passief hul huise gevul het. Sodra my gespreksgenote egter besluit het om te trek, is hul besittings vanuit die agtergrond van die alledaagse lewe sigbaar gebring, soms verbasend so. Toe hul besittings in fokus gekom het, het my gespreksgenote almal beskryf dat hulle verward was deur die groot hoeveelheid goed wat hulle besit. Dit was 'n oormaat wat hulle nie kon verduidelik nie en wat hulle beskryf het as buite hul beheer. In hul verhouding tot hul "onbeheerbare" dinge, skryf my gespreksgenote agentskap toe aan hul besittings. Hierdie was beskryf as heeltemal apart van hul eie besluite en motiverings. Dinge het geanimeerd geraak; hulle het aandag, sorg, bekommernis en verantwoordelikhede geëis. Die semigrante was swak voorbereid in hierdie opsig. In die onverwagse geanimeerde verhouding tot hul dinge was 'onvervreembare' besittings meer sigbaar en 'behoeftiger' as ander dinge. Om die eise wat hul besittings aan hulle gestel het te tem, en die verantwoordelikhede wat hul goed behels het, het baie van my gespreksgenote hul goed gestoor of baie langer in bokse gelos as wat hulle aanvanklik beplan het, dikwels omdat hulle besef het dat hulle dalk weer sal moet trek. Hieride was meestal omdat verhuising na die Moederstad beteken het om in kleiner ruimtes te woon, waar die druk van die hantering van hul (ophopende) goed akuut geword het. My gespreksgenote se narratiewe van chaos, kontraste, paradokse en onsekerhede het dit onderstreep. Masters 2025-01-29T07:15:21Z 2025-01-29T07:15:21Z 2024-12 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131609 en Stellenbosch University 103 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Gauteng (South Africa) Cape Town (South Africa) Moving (Houshold) Migration, Internal storage and moving trade Storage facilities Storage in the home UCTD Brynard, Monique Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title | Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title_full | Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title_fullStr | Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title_full_unstemmed | Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title_short | Boxes of belongings: the stuff that moves us from Gauteng to the Mother City |
| title_sort | boxes of belongings the stuff that moves us from gauteng to the mother city |
| topic | Gauteng (South Africa) Cape Town (South Africa) Moving (Houshold) Migration, Internal storage and moving trade Storage facilities Storage in the home UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131609 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brynardmonique boxesofbelongingsthestuffthatmovesusfromgautengtothemothercity |