Landladies, Stepfathers and Friends: Youth & Pragmatic Cohabitation in Ethiopia and South Africa

Abstract

Youth in African cities struggle with high unemployment which explicitly circumscribes their housing options. This often occurs in complex urban spaces which lack varied and affordable housing options, or which have a dominance of certain housing types. Their desire to live independently requires a pragmatic engagement with fluctuating and high-priced housing markets and taking up rooms in often-shared properties under the authority of landlords and landladies. These living environments produce particular socio-economic, infrastructural and spatial constraints, as well as opportunities, shaped further by gender and employment status. Similarly, many youth cohabit in accommodation or on plots belonging to friends or (extended) family members, where rental payments are not necessarily required but in-kind payments and labour are associated with tenure and infrastructural security. Insecurity can be a cause of these arrangements (i.e youth might choose to build backyard shacks to escape family violence), or arrangements can offer security (access to electricity) but also produce vulnerabilities. This paper explores these varying dimensions of pragmatic cohabitation for youth living in Hawassa, Ethiopia and Ekangala, South Africa. It contrasts the housing histories and current opportunities of these two diverse urban contexts and considers the ways in which these shape youths’ lives. The paper argues that the nexus of (un)employment realities with youth-hood in areas of limited housing provision, means that renting (or residing) are often the primary mode of accessing housing, and thus youth are necessarily at the forefront of complex socio-economic and infrastructural relationships with their housing owners.