This thesis explores the common roots of several contemporary social movements in
Durban, South Africa. My point of departure is a series of community meetings in May,
June, and July 2006, during which geographically separated Black and Indian community
organizations expressed remarkably similar grievances against the municipality and
government, all rooted, I argue, in the colonial dispossession and alienation of Africans,
and later in the enforced marginalization of Indian communities. Largely, these
dispossessions occurred in the 19th century and early in the 20th century ? decades before
the policy Apartheid begin in 1948. It is the continued relationship of exclusion and
repression in relation to land and space in Natal, I argue, that accounts for the common
struggles of these movements. I shall cite Antonio Gramsci extensively in order to argue
that his conceptions of ?consent? and ?coercion? explain the perpetual success of policies
designed to preserve colonial and Apartheid dispossession. Moreover, several labor
struggles will be considered in order to illustrate the degree to which the majority?s
consent has been secured, and to offer evidence that Gramsci?s theories are powerful
assistance to us. Mahmood Mamdani?s identification of ?subject? and ?citizen? will
factor, as the transition from Apartheid to ANC rule has essentially cemented the status
of landless South African subjects. His lengthy iteration of indirect rule in Apartheid
South Africa will become crucial to understanding how the transition was ineffectual for
many.
In addition, by surveying documents relating to the management and control of these
populations, I argue that KwaZulu-Natal?s managers, through several succeeding
governing regimes, have implemented policies of great similarity to achieve the same
effect ? keeping the power of land and space of Natal in the hands of Europeans. In
response, a range of land, labour and housing community organizations have protested
their government and voiced demands that show a continued resistance to policies of
exclusion from and access to valuable land and space in the province. From their
concerns and mobilizations, I will finally attempt to construct an understanding of what
has, and has not, changed in South Africa