DATA DAY | A Household Name: How to say “Shack” in different parts of South Africa

A number of themes are discernable among the meaning of the words. Most names are derivatives of another word, sometimes of a different language. Others can refer to the physical features a shack, or what the shack is used for. Some words are colloquial or slang, while others are (more mainstream) nouns that simply mean ‘shack’.

At a deeper level, many of these words offer clues to the phenomena of indigenous urbanisation in South Africa; embodied in such words as ‘mjondolo’, which is used to describe both the city of Johannesburg and ‘to stay overnight’.

It is important to remember that early shack dwellers would have come from rural villages where this particular type of housing structure did not actually exist. Shacks were an associated element of the urban realm; a place outside of the village, a place where migrants mixed, a place of hardship and ingenuity – all the ingredients for new words to emerge.

Where there is data there is hope!