Abstract
This article examines how black female bed and
breakfast (B&B) and guesthouse entrepreneurs in the black townships in Cape
Town, South Africa were engaged in survivalist improvisation through the
extension of mutual aid to each other. The study is based upon qualitative
research involving interviews of such entrepreneurs, who provided overnight
accommodations to visitors to the townships of Langa, Gugulethu, and
Khayelitsha. The article provides a brief history of the emergence of such
entrepreneurs in the post-apartheid period, explains the gendered category that
they represent, and describes their more recent primary guest clientele. It
also discusses the theoretical underpinnings related to the use of the
survivalist improvisation framework to understand the experiences of these
entrepreneurs in the black townships. Findings from this study demonstrate that
the black female B&B and guesthouse entrepreneurs, when at capacity, were
involved in survivalist improvisation related to the use of their distributed
channels and networks to refer guests to other black female B&B and
guesthouse entrepreneurs in the black townships. In such circumstances, they
improvised with each other. Also, the findings of the study highlight how the
distributed channels and networks of these entrepreneurs were shaped by social
processes and relationships that facilitated survivalist improvisation through
the provision of mutual aid. The black female
entrepreneurs in this study were neighbors, friends, mentors, and mentees who
shared information, advice, encouragement, and resources, including overflow
guests, with each other. They believed that their cooperation with one
another as collaborators instead of being competitors or rivals contributed to
the survival of their businesses and the black township tourism accommodation
subsector. In addition, the findings show that these entrepreneurs’ engagement
in survivalist improvisation occurred within the neoliberal context of South
Africa and that their provision of mutual aid to one another did not undermine
neoliberal economic practice but enhanced it by supporting entrepreneurism in
the black townships in Cape Town.
