ABSTRACT
The title of this article, “fractured compounds,” makes reference to a medical term: the “compound fracture,” a wound in which a bone perforates the skin. These are multiple injuries – of bone, soft tissue and skin – in which the fracture injures and perforates the body, coming into the open. In South Africa, the word compound has been used to describe the living quarters and environment of black male migrant labourers, usually on the mines. These are a site of injury that remains in the South African landscape today. While the migrant labour system is no longer enforced by an apartheid government, the physical architecture and structures of power, which were an integral part of this system, remain in the land and are still home to many who need accommodation close to their places of work. Thus, the hostel/compound system,1 a cornerstone of the apartheid economy, continues to function, albeit in an altered form.
