ABSTRACT
Many scholars in South Africa associate urbanization with an ideal typical proletariat whose primary demands revolve around access to land for housing, wage labor and basic services. However, in Cape Town long-term urban residents are occupying land for raising livestock – a quintessential peasant activity. Drawing on research conducted over the course of six years at land occupation sites in Cape Town, this contribution argues that capitalist development has led to the emergence of an ‘urban proletariat with peasant characteristics’ and to a strong latent demand for urban land for agricultural pursuits. These land occupations are reconceptualized as an important part of the current wave of urban struggles dubbed the ‘rebellion of the poor’. The land and agrarian question is, accordingly, acquiring an urban dimension that needs to be brought to the center of our research and debates.
