Paper long abstract:

The rise of neoliberal globalization in Africa over the past few decades has created such profound social inequality for the urban poor in metropolitan centers such as Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, and Abuja. The neoliberal state, deficient in its ability to provide social amenities for the urban poor, has lost credibility in the eyes of its residents who are forced to invent creative ways of transforming inequality. As class inequality between rich and poor widens within the urban space, it sharpens the political consciousness of the urban poor, which in turn leads to concerns about economic participation. The consciousness of social vulnerability inspires the urban poor to invent alternative models of social transformation. Drawing on the backdrop of decolonization thinking, this paper examines how slum communities innovate and invent creative processes to overcome the inequalities that urbanization generates in Africa. The first objective of this paper is to critically examine how class, privileges and cultural positions determine how we know Africa and the dominant narratives we construct about inequality in Africa's urban spaces. The second objective is to decolonize the dominant narratives constructed about violence in Africa's urban spaces, by seeking to know Africa from the inventive potential of urban slums. In seeking to know Africa from a perspective that mirrors the continent's potential rather than miseries, I synthesize insights from constructivism and decolonization theory to understand slums as centers of innovation and slum dwellers as significant agents in the creative processes of urban transformation. I theorize these social processes of transformation against the argument that slums are not just a representation of poverty and violence but ecologies of creativity, innovation and ingenuity that mirror the inventive potential of Africa's urban spaces. Much attention is devoted to understanding the extent to which these inventions are recognized and incorporated into mainstream policy.