shackdweller
Shackdweller is a South African English term for a person who lives in an informal settlement shack — typically a home constructed from corrugated iron, timber, or other salvaged materials in a township or peri-urban area.
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Shackdweller is a South African English term for a person who lives in an informal settlement shack — typically a home constructed from corrugated iron, timber, or other salvaged materials in a township or peri-urban area. The word is used both descriptively and politically: in activist and housing rights contexts it has been reclaimed as a term of dignity, most notably by the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shackdwellers' movement), which has become a powerful advocacy force in South Africa's ongoing housing crisis.
The documentary followed shackdwellers in Cape Town who had been waiting for formal housing allocation for over a decade.
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(South Africa) A person who lives in a shack.
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Semantically related
- shackland76%
(South Africa) An unofficial urban settlement composed of shacks.
- squatter camp67%
(South Africa) A settlement of makeshift shacks.
- squatter camp66%
A South African term for an informal settlement or shantytown — a community of makeshift dwellings built on land without legal title, typically on the outskirts of cities. The phrase is widely used in South African English in both official and everyday contexts, though it carries the social weight of poverty and inequality associated with such settlements.
- fringe dweller60%
(AU) An Aboriginal person living on the outskirts of a town or other settlement.