Mme Carol Mokoena reflects on life inside the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel. Constructed in 1972 by the apartheid state, the hostel formed part of a wider system designed to regulate and contain Black migrant labour. Its architecture tells the story: inward-facing, imposing, and disciplinary. Movement was monitored. Families were separated. Lives were reduced to beds and shifts. Alexandra was meant to have 25 single-sex hostels, each housing up to 2,500 workers — human storage units for the engine
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Mme Carol Mokoena reflects on life inside the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel. Constructed in 1972 by the apartheid state, the hostel formed part of a wider system designed to regulate and contain Black migrant labour. Its architecture tells the story: inward-facing, imposing, and disciplinary. Movement was monitored. Families were separated. Lives were reduced to beds and shifts. Alexandra was meant to have 25 single-sex hostels, each housing up to 2,500 workers — human storage units for the engine
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