Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City

How are poor people in South Africa confronting the persistent legacy of apartheid spatial segregation and anti-blackness? And what can movements across the world engaged in a global struggle against racial capitalism learn from the South African experience? This book explores the relationship between shack dwellers and the municipal government in South Africa. Grounded in the local realities of the struggle for housing and basic survival, the project makes broader interventions in national, continental and global debates about urban geography, African studies, social movements and race. The author argues that the shack settlement is emblematic of a democratic South Africa still profoundly shaped by apartheid’s afterlife.

Yousuf Al-Bulushi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine, USA.