Black Land, White Space? Race, Belonging, and the Reproduction of Housing Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Bailey Higgins, Georgia State University

Contemporary inequalities in South Africa remain deeply shaped by institutional and spatial injustices of Apartheid-era land governance. Drawing on theories such as racial capitalism, which emphasize how race and class are intertwined in the development of capitalism, this study situates housing inequality within the historical processes of land dispossession under minority rule. Previous research has primarily focused on these systemic issues from a policy perspective, often overlooking how historical systems of exclusion continue to impact present-day access to land, housing, and economic opportunity. Therefore, this paper asks: How does the connection between post-apartheid perceptions of land rights and economic hope and modern-day deprivation demonstrate the persistent legacy of Apartheid and racial inequality? This study investigates the relationship between historical minority rule and present-day housing deprivation by drawing on data from The Justice of Land in a Land of Injustice (2004) and the 2022 South African census. This study attempts to explore the connection between perceptions of land rights, land ownership, and economic hope in 2004 and modern-day levels of housing deprivation in 2022. Using regression analysis, the study demonstrates how race continues to shape these outcomes across nine provinces in South Africa, reflecting the enduring effects of Apartheid-era segregation. The analysis explores whether Black South Africans experience higher deprivation scores compared to White South Africans in areas characterized by strong land rights sentiments and low economic optimism among Black residents in 2004. The findings will illustrate how the legacies of Apartheid policies continue to reinforce exclusion in modern-day South Africa. By bridging historical political and racial attitudes to contemporary housing inequality, this study illustrates how spatial and economic inequalities are still structured by the legacies of Apartheid.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 168. Racialized Local Spaces