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Spaces of Resistance: Informal Settlement, Communication and Community Organisation in a Cape Town Township

Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, SA5005, andrewskuse{at}yahoo.com

Thomas Cousins

Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA, thomas.cousins{at}jhu.edu

This paper examines struggles for urban permanency in an informal settlement on the fringes of Cape Town in the run up to the South African national election of 2004. It focuses on the rapid emergence of the settlement of Nkanini (Forceful) and the key social, cultural, political and communicative dynamics that framed the ensuing bitter struggle between residents and local City of Cape Town authorities over claims to occupy the land. Analysis frames this struggle in terms of a local appropriation of basic human rights legislation that informs community action and therein claims to residential formality.

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