Amy Jefter
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
I come from the Cape Flats, which is a sort of area where black people were moved to during apartheid and black people were moved from the beautiful areas, the suburbs, into this low-lying, arid community, township. and that's where my family is from, Bishop Levis.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
It sits in South Africa's southern suburbs, which is quite a wealthy enclave of middle-class, upwardly mobile, ambitious middle-class life. And Stillwater is an amalgamation of many kinds of gated communities or closed suburbs that exist in South Africa, and they're very tightly curated and quite exclusive.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
What's happening in South Africa at the moment is that there's obviously an upwardly mobile class of economically privileged black people. who are now able to move by virtue of their class into these enclaves, which have traditionally been all white.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
Good House is about a shack that goes up in a very conservative, gated community, and what happens when that shack starts to sort of infringe on the lives of the neighbors.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
What I wanted to do was write a story about the state of the nation, sort of have a racial temperature gauge, and write about how we relate to each other now in post-apartheid South Africa, but make it naughty. I think the tendency is always to overly romanticize or to purify, especially, I guess...
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
Black characters, make them too dignified or make them without blame, I guess, for upwardly mobile, young, economically sound black people who are moving into like a different class status, who are reaping the benefits of what a post-apartheid South Africa looks like. I think there's a lot to critique there and there's like a lot to say.
Global News Podcast
Hundreds of thousands head home in northern Gaza
We need the humour and we need the satire and we need the send up. Really, we need to be able to make fun of these things and to be able to laugh at race relations because they're so often absurd. The conclusions we draw, the prejudices we tap into, they're hilarious at times and they make for some really uncomfortable and awkward moments.