Making Freedom: Apartheid, Squatter Politics, and the Struggle for Home.

• Author: Larson, Zeb
• Position: AFRICA - Book review

Makhulu, Anne-Maria. Making Freedom: Apartheid, Squatter Politics, and the Struggle for Home. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.

Anne-Maria Makhulu examines an important issue about resistance and oppression by examining the question of housing for black South Africans. While other histories of apartheid in South Africa have focused on the liberation movements, Makhulu focuses on an understudied aspect of the anti-apartheid movement: resistance to apartheid housing policies. Her case study focuses on Cape Town, which, despite being considered a fairly liberal city during the apartheid era, had its influx and housing controls more stringently enforced than elsewhere in the country (xvi). In doing so, Makhulu is able to shine light on resistance at the ordinary, daily level in South Africa. As black South Africans tried to live near cities to escape rural poverty and be closer to job opportunities, they adapted to the challenges they faced and directly attacked a cornerstone of apartheid.

Makhulu, associate professor of cultural anthropology and...