Housing an illegitimate aristocracy : an urban profile of a coloured community in Greenwood Park from the 1950's to the 1970's

Abstract

There is no historiography on Durban coloureds . This work is an attempt to change that . This dissertation is an urban study of a small coloured community in Greenwood Park (GWP) during the apartheid era - a study in which housing is used as a vehicle to examine this community's response to their changing economic and socio-political status from the 1950's to the 1970's. Because of the absence of historical data , this study relies heavily on the contributions of other social sciences . It also uses oral data to fill the many gaps in the story of this marginal group . Chapter 4 and 5 explores housing as a complex physical and social phenomenon. Chapter 6 explores the GWP community's response to their housing environment . In this chapter, the association between housing and socio-economic status is explored . From 1950 to the l 970's, housing became the single most defining entity which kept coloureds trapped in the vortex of privilege and oppression .