ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by engaging with the concept of Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s abyssal line, debating it with Frantz Fanon’s notion of bifurcated social reality. The author employs the concept of the abyssal line, understanding it as dynamic, contested and even porous, in order to analyze the colonial heritage of South Africa as well as the spatialization of race and the racialization of space, even after the ending of apartheid. He analyzes a political experience from the grassroots, that of the Abahlali baseMjondolo or the Shack Dwellers’ Movement. The motto of the movement is “For us the most important struggle is to be recognized as human beings.” It is a movement that clearly goes beyond the abyssal line through its anti-dialectical logic. Contrary to the Zapatista movement of spatial and economic autonomy, Abahlali baseMjondolo has sought to seize land in the elite urban areas, based on the pillars of land, housing and dignity.
