ABSTRACT
Across much of today's urban Africa, most residents seem to tend to their own waiting games—waiting either for something to drastically change or simply for time to run out. There are few opportunities and resources to construct narratives of any discernible progression, and inordinate effort may be expended to maintain a provisional sense of sameness. In contrast to the routinized middle-class orderliness that creates the veneer of an endless, stable present, the slum shows its daily wear-and-tear, but in ways and in response to events too numerous and variegated to provide a discernible account. In a city of intense scarcity and constantly shifting possessions, success is often a matter of slowing others down to allow one time to get to some piece of information, some money, some customer. At the heart of urban modernity has been the attempt to circumvent demonstration-to bring to a close the need to make visible how things work, how things are put together.
