Paper short abstract:

My paper explores practices of rooting as a political, spiritual and personal doing in Khenana, a shack settlement in Durban/South Africa which emerged from an occupation by landless activists. In an extremely violent climate, the local dwellers find ways to (re-)create their place of belonging.

Paper long abstract:

Most shack dwellers in Durban have moved to the city from rural areas in search of education and job opportunities. Having left their rural homes and thus the places of their ancestors, they often only find underserviced and overcrowded shack settlements as their only affordable housing option in the city. For many, these are initially temporary makeshift solutions that are to be overcome either through municipal interventions or personal economic advancement. However, given the political ignorance towards the marginalised, many shack dwellers remain stuck for generations in (often informal) settlements without proper access to electricity and water. In this paper, I explore the rooting practices of Khenana, a community that has built itself up as a socialist commune in the notorious township of Mayville. Having cleared and occupied unused land, they became a "branch" of the social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which organizes urban shack dwellers in a grassroots democratic way. Since Khenana's foundation in 2018, the local dwellers have been exposed to extreme violence. After three of their leaders were murdered by hitmen in 2022, the vulnerable community has taken even deeper political, spiritual and personal roots in the soil soaked with the blood of their fallen comrades, who are considered as ancestors of their movement. Based on my ethnographic research, I think through rooting as an entangled practice that negotiates tensions and asynchronicities to (re-)create a place of belonging in the midst of a brutal environment.