Shack dwellers transfer their songs from the streets to a CD

A shack-dwellers' movement known for singing struggle songs while demonstrating against evictions is recording a CD featuring 13 protest songs.

The 29-member Abahlali baseMjondolo Choir has been performing at the movement's events and its general assemblies since 2015. Its members are all from the Marikana Land Occupation in Cato Crest, KwaZulu-Natal, where they faced eviction more than a dozen times.

The movement's Thapelo Mohapi says the choir, which comprises 27 women and two men, travelled to Fort Hare on Sunday to record the album.

They mostly sing about the history and the journey of the movement, which grew out of a road blockade organised from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban in early 2005.

He said the majority of them were unemployed and were very excited to have been invited by the university to record the album.

"Once the CD is registered with Samro, they will get proceeds from the sales," says Mohapi.

The recording, according to the movement, sends a strong message "to those who think that people living in shack settlements are people who cannot think, are criminals or people who do not want to do things themselves".