“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
Cityscapes 8: Urban-South-Asia (Africa Centre for Cities, June 2017)
This issue, edited by Tau Tavengwa and Arpita Das, focuses on cities in South Asia, not as a generic category but rather as a symbolic and political constellation loaded with complex histories and contemporary dynamics.
The selected stories illuminate a diverse region gripped by political and cultural upheavals, and bounded by stereotypes. South Asia is experiencing enormous shifts, particularly as its inhabitants become overridingly urban. The region exhibits a complexity that no single story can or should seek to capture. It is in the juxtaposition of this issue’s content that the full nature of relationships and life within and between the various cities profiled emerges.
