Lockdown Diaries
70 participants across Cape Town share their experiences of the Covid-19 Lockdown
Lockdown Diaries Analysis
‘the government is saying black lives don’t matter’: Opposing State Brutality in Cape Town
South Africans have been accused of protesting police violence in America whilst overlooking state brutality at home. Such critiques are important but it is also crucial that we don’t underestimate the opposition that exists to state violence, nor the fear that it provokes.In the wake of George Floyd’s death, under the knee of a white…
Covid-19 and Cape Town: Frustration Grows As Lockdown Exacerbates the City’s Inequalities
Instituting Lockdown in South Africa, where inequality is rampant, was always going to be difficult. Since the beginning, one thing has been clear about COVID-19: It is no leveller. Over the last seven weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has collided with the everyday crises that numerous citizens were already facing. Prior to the crisis, many South…
A milestone or a deadend? South Africa’s social grants in the time of Covid-19
The introduction of a new grant and an extended child grant signals a hopeful moment in South Africa but we must not discount the challenges that lie ahead. A version of this article will appear shortly on Open Democracy. ‘At the moment the government is doing what it should of done a long time [ago]…
WhatsApp with the new grants?
This post was first published on the Daily Maverick. Times of crisis are often periods of increased intervention by government, businesses and civic organisations. These interventions deserve our attention not just because their immediate impacts can be immense, but also because the laws, regulations and practices forged in crisis tend to live on long after…
‘Those who zol’: Dangerous discourses in a time of crisis
This post first appeared in the Mail & Guardian. To date, South Africa is the only country in the world to have banned both alcohol and cigarette sales during lockdown. When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the government would be reversing its cigarette ban, it took only a few days for minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to…
Diary Pages
Diary page: Reflecting on the diary process
As we wrap up this phase of the Lockdown Diary Project, we asked our diarists: What has been your experience of the project? How have you found the process of sharing your lockdown diaries? Diarists shared their joy in participating in a ‘meaningful’, ‘informative’ and relevant project. Several of them appreciated the opportunity to share…
Diary Page: Hope in times of COVID-19
During troubled times, moments of hope can be important. This week we asked our diarists: Has there been a particular moment or experience that gave you hope during the lockdown? For some diarists, the interventions by government such as the lockdown itself, expansion and increase of social grants, provision of water, food and shelter, and…
Diary Pages: Why are we at the epi-centre?
The Western Cape has more than half of South Africa’s COVID 19 cases. This week we asked our diarists: Why do you think the Western Cape remains the epicentre of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa? A strong narrative arising from our diarists is that residents have not been able to prevent the spread of…
About The Lockdown Diaries Project.
Since the lockdown began, we have been asking people from across Cape Town to share regular WhatsApp diaries with us that describe their experiences of Lockdown and its impact upon their communities. We currently have 70 participants from occupied buildings, informal settlements, townships and suburbs throughout Cape Town. Participants are diverse in terms of their location, age, gender, and race.
The hope of the project is to share insights from Lockdown with members of the public, policy makers, and responders to the crisis.
The Lockdown diary project is being run by a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of the Western Cape. Click here to find out more about the research team.
Lockdown Diaries 