Spatial reorganisation, decentralisation and dignity: Applying a Fanonian lens to a Grahamstown shack settlement

by Sarita Pillay

  “The divided, Manichaean colonial world and its social relations are manifested in space –one Fanonian test of post-apartheid society is to what extent South Africa has been spatially reorganised”  (Gibson, 2011: 187).

  

1.   Introduction

In Grahamstown, East and West are not merely cardinal points. East and West are not unbiased references to directional differences. In Grahamstown, East and West are contemporary manifestations of a colonial world that Frantz Fanon described in The Wretched of the Earth as “a world divided in two” (Fanon, 1963: 3). East and West are representative of the Manichaean (post) colonial town and its social relations.

A response to 'A Dying Colonialism: Transformation and the Algerian Revolution'

by Sarita Pillay

It is 1959. The fifth year of the Algerian Revolution. The fifth year of what others would rather call the Algerian War – perhaps as a means to detract from the gravity of the event. This is a Revolution. This is a mass struggle by a people who will not settle for anything less than a new society. This is a tug-of-war between the defenders of a colonial outpost and the Algerian people who say, “no more”.

Is it necessary for a liberatory politics to be conducted at a distance from the state?

by Sarita Pillay

It is an all too familiar narrative. The gutsy and radical revolutionary movement which seizes control of the state in a bid to liberate the people. Or perhaps it’s the more reserved yet equally idealistic social-democratic party which looks to state-reform as the liberatory panacea. These are the two revolutionary protagonists. One of them (it doesn’t matter which) gains control of the state and the people rejoice. But very soon the masses are overcome by a sense of betrayal (Badiou, 2006)(Holloway, 2002). The revolution fades into obscurity and the very system which was opposed is recreated in a similar form. It is a narrative which could be applied to virtually every state in the globe. A narrative of failed liberatory politics.