Bamboo Square: A Documentary Narrative of the 'Indian and Native Cantonment' at the Point, 1873 to 1903

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Periodical article

Title:	Bamboo Square: A Documentary Narrative of the 'Indian and Native Cantonment' at the Point, 1873 to 1903
Author:	Kearney, Brian
Year:	2002
Periodical:	Journal of Natal and Zulu History
Volume:	20
Pages:	29-63
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa Natal
Subjects:	urban society informal settlements urban history History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations Law, Human Rights and Violence Health and Nutrition Urbanization and Migration
Abstract:	Bamboo Square at the Point, Durban (South Africa), was one 19th-century settlement of marginalized people whose persistent attempts to establish themselves near places of wage employment sheds some light on life at the urban edge. Drawing from numerous official and commercial documents, the author relates the saga of Bamboo Square's tenuous existence over a period of some thirty years (1873-1903). The records of the settlement also include issues such as early Natal approaches to racial segregation; problems of slums, sanitation and planning; self-help housing using a variety of resources both natural and industrial; the persistent efforts of local apostles of sanitation to improve the environmental health of Durban; and the seeds of municipal and government controls, policies and administrative techniques, which were to become powerful instruments in the future. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]