Kabelo Sekhotho

Migrant/Black Women/ SADC Region/ Documentation/ South Africa/ Ingress/ Informal Sector

This body of work illustrates the experiences of undocumented migrant women living in South Africa. Women who have migrated from countries in the SADC region and are now living in Johannesburg. The aim of these photographs is to humanize the experiences of these women and to offer an extensive look into their individual lives and to explore the power of photography in how these women can be represented in ways that are not harmful. These photographs focus on three women, two who are from Lesotho and one who is from Zimbabwe, their faces in these photographs have been concealed to protect their identities due to their precarious circumstances. These photographs offer an insight into the feminization of migration which is a phenomenon that has been taking place for many years now and puts into focus issues that are specific to migrant women when they enter a country illegally and the way they live in their newfound communities. These photographs some of which are taken by the women themselves offer a viewpoint that is hardly ever acknowledged by policy makers which is extremely problematic in many ways. The black migrant women’s experience is not a monolithic one but one that is idiosyncratic and deserves to be seen and acknowledged as such most especially by lawmakers.

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