Publisher's Synopsis
The authors (re)turn to the streets of their childhood, known colloquially as the Casbah, the 'non-white' part of Durban. From its coming into being in the early twentieth century, it faced a barrage of racist attempts to hem it in and, finally, as the white minority National Party government consolidated power, smash it to the ground. This book not only chronicles the remarkable story of how the Casbah survived, but it also enters the alleyways, the snooker saloons and the markets. By the 1960s, cinemas flourished and clubs trumpeted late into the night. Marxism debated Black Consciousness, coming up against those who chose to deflect rather than confront the bulldozers of apartheid. The Casbah stood next to and against the white CBD, with its apartheid panopticon, as a place that provided 'lines of flight' for all races who could jostle and mingle, tasting a life beyond apartheid, if only for a moment. This is the first concentrated study of the Casbah that brings together newspaper reports, interviews and academic studies. It is a beguiling narrative of a place that continues to live in the memory and still pulsates with life as migrants from across the world find their feet on pavements that were always open to global influences. The book includes extraordinary photographs collected over the last twenty years.
