Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City

“A city like Durban can be taken as a looking glass to think the world. This is the wager of this book. Focusing his research on Abahlali baseMjondolo, a prominent shack dweller organization, Al-Bulushi explores an amazing fabric of struggle and self-organization that resonates in other global landscapes and foreshadows the coming of a new age for the alter-globalization movement. In the dire conjuncture we are living through, this book opens new vistas for a politics of liberation.” 

Sandro Mezzadra, author of In the Marxian Workshops



“Yousuf Al-Bulushi narrates an in-depth history and political geography of shack dweller struggles in Durban, South Africa, and provides a radical template for urban studies.” 

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Settler Colonialism



“Travelling with Al-Bulushi takes us beyond the surfaces of rhizomatic textures of the rainbow nation and its fake racial cohesion to systemic, structural, and institutional violence. Ruptures is an important contribution to both urban studies and African Studies, and indeed to deeper understandings of the operations of the modern world-system. I have nothing but praise for this erudite and elegantly delivered work which decolonizes our minds as it offers a devastating indictment of racial capitalism.”

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, author of Beyond the Coloniality of Internationalism





This book examines one of the most prominent social movements to have emerged in Africa in the 21st century, Abahlali baseMjondolo. It asks: how are poor people in South Africa confronting the persistent legacy of apartheid geographies and anti-blackness? And what can movements across the world engaged in a global struggle against racial capitalism learn from the South African experience? Thinking at the intersection of Marxism, the black radical tradition, and movement theory from across the global south, Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City offers refreshing theoretical insights based on the local realities of the struggle for land, housing, and dignity in the city of Durban.



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