Project 10 - Home (Ikhaya)

When you leave a place that you love so much, it takes time for the heart to forget.” Before the first free and fair elections were held in South Africa in 1994, the apartheid government fuelled violence in a bid to destabilise the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Over 11,000 lives were lost as a result of this criminal interference, and thousands of families left their homes, fleeing the violence. Ten years ago, Zimbili Kamanga, a teacher whose personal strength and courage is dedicated to helping other women out of poverty, fled the spiralling daily horror around her
home in Depot, on the outskirts of Bhambayi. A derivation of Bombay, Bhambayi is, ironically, the same district where Gandhi formulated his strategy of passive resistance. Although some tensions still exist, Bhambayi is now a vibrant district where government housing schemes promise to build a bright future for its residents; a future the filmmaker wants for her child. She applies for one of the government houses and when, no longer being a resident of Bhambayi, she is rejected, she blames it on her mother’s refusal to bless her decision.