Content uploaded by Talent Moyo
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Talent Moyo on Dec 24, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujua20
Journal of Urban Affairs
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujua20
Subaltern urbanism as a way of life: Redefining
and (re)imagining postcolonial urbanity in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Talent Moyo
To cite this article: Talent Moyo (2022): Subaltern urbanism as a way of life: Redefining and
(re)imagining postcolonial urbanity in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Journal of Urban Affairs, DOI:
10.1080/07352166.2022.2099284
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2022.2099284
Published online: 11 Oct 2022.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 20
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Subaltern urbanism as a way of life: Redening and (re)imagining
postcolonial urbanity in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Talent Moyo
Midlands State University
ABSTRACT
The paper contends that subaltern urbanism is a way of life in the context of
contemporary Zimbabwe. Through ethnography conducted in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe, between February 2019 and May 2019, the paper extends the
concept of subaltern urbanism through presenting subaltern urbanism as
a way of life that encapsulates individuality and urban governance. The
paper argues that subaltern urbanism is scripted by individuals positioned
at the bottom of the social ladder and urban governing institutions. The
paper maintains the view that subaltern urbanism as a way of life denotes
redenition and (re)imagining contemporary post-colonial urbanity. Finally,
the paper proposes the notion that the author labels as “subalternization of
the city” by urban governing institutions and suggests new ways of under-
standing urbanism in Africa.
KEYWORDS
Urbanization; governance;
urban politics; identity; Africa
Introduction
The African continent has witnessed increasing urbanization since it attained political independence
from colonial rule. Urbanity has become an important aspect in understanding societies in Africa and
ultimately leading to various academic endeavors seeking to unravel and understand social lives within
urban contexts. However, these academic endeavors have largely projected urbanism particularly in the
Global South as a singular and universal experience and form often associated with poverty and
degeneration. This form of urbanism has been expressed as subaltern urbanism (see Bayat, 2000, 2007;
Roy, 2011; Schindler, 2014; Spivak, 2005). Despite the overwhelming literature discussing subaltern
urbanism, there is a conspicuous dearth of unique narratives and experiences of urbanism in Africa as
many of the narratives remain fixated on the ubiquitous dominant narratives that usually perceive
subaltern urbanism through the slum metaphor (Nuttall & Mbembe, 2005; Roy, 2011), subaltern
urbanism suspended within the matrix of postcolonial theorizing (King, 1993; Yeoh, 2001), subaltern
as periphery (Simone, 2010), entreprenualism within the slum (De Soto, 2000), and subaltern political
agency (Bayat, 2000) whilst underplaying the complexity of subaltern urbanism and agency of different
cities within Africa. As such, through the use of the city of Bulawayo the paper seeks to highlight the
complexity of (subaltern) urbanity. The paper redefines and (re)imagines postcolonial urbanity through
the argument that subaltern urbanism is a way of life. Refining and (re) imagining postcolonial urbanism
affords understanding of urbanity for the purposes of urban planning and decision-making. The paper
extends the concept of subaltern urbanism as instructively forwarded by Roy (2011) by presenting
subaltern urbanism as a way of life that encapsulates individuality and urban governance.
The paper contends that subaltern urbanism is scripted by individuals at the bottom of the social
ladder and urban governing institutions. As a result, the paper maintains the view that subaltern
urbanism as a way of life denotes redefinition and (re)imagining contemporary postcolonial urbanity.
CONTACT Talent Moyo talentmoyo115@gmail.com; tmoyo@staff.msu.ac.zw Department of Community Studies, Midlands
State University, P Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe.
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS
https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2022.2099284
© 2022 Urban Affairs Association
Therefore, the paper proceeds to propose the notion that the author labels “subalternization of the
city” by urban governing institutions. Finally, through the use of city of Bulawayo, the paper suggests
that contemporary African cities need to be understood in new ways that involve deconstructing
dominant discourses of “postcolonial city” as they tend to be all-encompassing, relate to the connec-
tion with the West (erstwhile colonial powers) and entail conspicuous urban decay and degeneration.
The postcolonial label warrants for rethinking of (subaltern) urbanism in Africa particularly the slum
metonym and the epistemic question regarding urbanity and cities. The paper is divided into three
main sections—the first section introduces the city of Bulawayo, discusses postcolonial urbanism,
urbanism as a way of life, and subaltern urbanism. The second section of the paper focuses on
researching the postcolonial city—thus the main methodological underpinnings of the paper. The
final section of the paper discusses urbanism as a way of life ultimately redefining and (re)imagining
postcolonial urbanity in Bulawayo. The paper concludes by mapping a way forward on understanding
African urbanism and urbanization.
Situating the context: The city of Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is located in southern Africa. Bulawayo
has a population estimated to be around 650,000 people (ZimStat, 2014). The population presented by
ZimStat (2014) was contested by Bulawayo City Council (BCC) who argued that Bulawayo has an
estimate of around 1 million people. However, it is imperative to trace the historical roots and origins
of the city of Bulawayo. The city dates back to pre-colonial times in the period of King Lobhengula’s
1
reign and it served as his home and capital in 1870 (Bulawayo City Council [BCC], 2020). The city was
occupied by Pioneer Column
2
on November 4, 1884, and later declared as a town by Dr Jameson on
June 1, 1894 (BCC, 2020). Bulawayo attained the city status on November 4, 1943, under Proclamation
41. Today, the city comprises the city center (business district), industrial areas, and residential areas
(low-density areas and high-density suburbs). Bulawayo forms the axis of a well-planned road and
network to the north, south, east, and west of Zimbabwe (BCC, 2020). Bulawayo is strategically located
as a link with other southern African countries such as South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia. The link
with the southern African countries afforded the city of Bulawayo to be the industrial hub of
Zimbabwe as from colonial times to postcolonial times (to mainly the year 2000 before the deindus-
trialization of Zimbabwe). On architecture, the city (center) is dominated by Victorian and modern-
day building design. Presently, the city is directly governed by Bulawayo City Council (BCC) under the
Urban Councils Act (2015).
3
On the political economy of the city, there is a wide range of economic
activities which range from manufacturing to service delivery. These economic activities are located
within the formal and the informal matrix.
Conceptualizing postcolonial urbanism
Postcolonial urbanism has emerged as one of the key areas in the study of cities and urbanization.
Postcolonial urbanism emerged through coalescing of postcolonial theorizing and urban studies. One
might suggest that postcolonial urbanism is a branch of postcolonial studies. However, it is important
to trace the genealogy of the concept of postcolonial urbanism. Postcolonial urbanism as suggested by
King (1993, p. 90) entails “real political and historical referents in space and time, locating cultural as
well as economic and political connections between metropole and colony” which usually denote “the
social, demographic, political, cultural, and spatial built forms in once-colonial societies of the
periphery.” Whilst others such as Radcliffe (1997, p. 1331) posit that postcolonial is “an attitude of
critical engagement with colonialisms aftereffects and its constructions of knowledge.” However,
radical scholars such as Crush (1994) have indicated the power of postcolonial theorizing in destabi-
lizing and dismantling dominant discourses of the metropolitan West. The radical position is a quest
to challenge “inherent assumptions and to critique the material and discursive legacies of colonialism”
(Yeoh, 2001, p. 457; Crush, 1994). One may contend that postcolonial urbanism entails the study of
2T. MOYO
urbanism focusing on the period after attaining political independence from colonial regimes. There is
a demarcation between the colonial and the postcolonial but it is important to understand the
trajectory linking the two historical epochs. The link between these two historical epochs has led
others like King (2009, p. 1) to define postcolonial cities as “those cities (frequently capitals) in what
were previously colonial cities.” Despite giving a succinct definition, King’s (2009) definition falls short
because it is limited to cities that are associated with the colonial era, omitting cities that emerged after
the colonial era. As such, postcolonial cities should be understood as cities of formerly colonized
countries. Therefore, postcolonial urbanism should be perceived as the total condition and experi-
ences of urbanity in formerly colonized countries.
One of the defining characteristics of postcolonial urbanism is the issue of identity. There have been
various identities that have been forwarded in an attempt to characterize postcolonial urbanism. Yeoh
(2001, p. 458) acknowledges that the postcolonial city is “an important site where claims of an identity
different from the colonial past are expressed and indexed, and, in some cases keenly contested.” The
first identity ascribed to postcolonial cities or postcolonial urbanism concerns the connection with the
erstwhile colonial metropolitan centers. The urban trajectories are linked to colonialism. This has been
largely through the fact that most of those cities were developed and maintained by the colonial
powers. Yeoh (2001) citing Kusno (1998, p. 551) notes that “urban forms and architecture, in
particular, have been treated as ‘a social and political means of representation’ in which
a postcolonial nation forms a dialogue with the colonial past.” This connection has inevitably led to
the constant comparison of postcolonial cities and urbanism with Western cities and urbanism. The
Western metropole tends to be privileged as the yardstick to measure or imitate from with a view of
modernizing the postcolonial city in ways that are informed by notions of Western urbanity. Although
there are constant references to erstwhile colonial metropolitan centers as ideal urbanism, “the
postcolonial city traces continuity rather than disjuncture from its colonial predecessor in nature
and quality of social encounters” (Yeoh, 2001, p. 461). The identity of the postcolonial city is closely
linked to the Western cities of their erstwhile colonizers.
Postcolonial urbanism is also identified through nomenclature that is associated with urban
degeneration and decay. The nomenclature is expressed through famous labels such as “Third
World” and “the Global South.” The metonymic labeling of postcolonial cities conjures up images
of poverty-laden cities punctuated with poor living conditions. With such depictions and representa-
tion, the “slum” (Roy, 2011) symbolizes postcolonial urbanism. As argued by Nuttall and Mbembe
(2005, p. 153) the slum “is the ‘recognizable frame’ through which the cities of the global South are
perceived and understood, their difference mapped and located.” The slum is located at the “periph-
ery.” According to Simone (2010) the periphery should be understood from various angles as it is
multidimensional. To Simone (2010), entails marginality in terms of urban analysis and spaces
omitted from the developmental agenda of the center. In this regard, postcolonial urbanism tends
to be identified through terms associated with urban degeneration and decay. Despite these identities
ascribed to postcolonial urbanism, it should be noted that postcolonial urbanism cannot be reduced to
a singular homogeneous identity but there exist multiple complex identities of postcolonial urbanism.
The new perspective: Southern urbanism
In recent times, scholars (see Brenner & Schmid, 2015; Pieterse, 2011; Schindler, 2017) lamented the
inadequacies of postcolonial theorizing in capturing experiences of urbanity and urbanization in the
Global South. Pieterse (2011) contends that existing theorizing on African urbanity fails to succinctly
capture the “unknowable” leaving African urbanity as an “elusive mirage clouded by limited data and
inadequate theoretical approaches” (p, 20). In addition, Schindler (2017, p. 52) suggests that “post-
colonial” fails to signify a phenomenon or condition of urbanization characteristic of the Global South.
The criticism leveled against postcolonial theorizing inevitably gave impetus to theorizing about
southern urbanism. The notion of “southern urbanism” seeks to theorize “the urban’s making
a discernible paradigm shift from ‘researching cities’” (Schindler, 2017, p. 52).
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 3
Southern urbanism is characterized by distinctive characteristics that are not measured through the
cities of the Global North. Schindler (2017) identifies three characteristics that characterize southern
urbanism. The first characteristic concerns “the persistent disconnect between capital and labor which
give rise to urban governance regimes geared toward the transformation of territory rather than the
improvement of territories” (Schindler, 2017, p. 52). The second characteristic of southern urbanism is
the metabolic configurations that are discontinuous, dynamic, and contested. The final aspect con-
cerns political economy and materiality. The political economy of southern cities and materiality
interplay and cannot be solely reduced to structure and context. Southern urbanism attempts to
explain the condition of southern cities without using northern cities as the ultimate yardstick.
Important to the conceptualization of southern urbanism is the ability to pinpoint idiosyncratic
characteristics of southern cities.
Subaltern urbanism
In recent times, the notion of subaltern urbanism has gained popularity in urban studies (see Bayat,
2000, 2007; Chatterjee, 2004; Chattopadhyay, 2012; Davis, 2004; De Soto, 2000; Roy, 2011; Sarkar,
1984; Spivak, 2005, 1999). Urban scholars have devoted their attention to understanding urbanity
from the perspective of the subaltern standpoint that has largely been associated with periphery and
poverty. However, before delving on the notion of subaltern urbanism, it is important to understand
the genealogy of the notion or concept of subaltern. The concept of subaltern has its roots on the work
of Antonio Gramsci and other scholars with neo-Marxist academic orientation. In Gramscian terms,
subaltern denotes disenfranchised individuals or social groupings through cultural hegemony ulti-
mately resulting in lack of agency and voice. Although the concept was originally coined to theorize
social relations between the colonized and the colonizer, the concept has been extended to encapsulate
social phenomena that deal with social positioning beyond the parameters of colonial theorizing. As
such, the concept of subaltern has been incorporated into the realm of urban studies and emerged as
subaltern urbanism.
Scholars such as Ananya Roy present subaltern urbanism as centered on the “slum” which
“provides accounts of the slum as a terrain of habitation, livelihood, self-organization and politics”
(Roy, 2011, p. 223). The slum symbolizes and represents subaltern urbanism. The slum is positioned
within the matrix of urban poverty and urban decay (Roy, 2011). The positioning of the slum should
not be conceived as a hopeless social positioning. Despite the seemingly bleak picture of urban slums,
in her study of Indian “slumdog cities,” Roy (2011) presents a city characterized by slums marked by
resilient “economy of entrepreneurialism” which highlights the agency of the social actors positioned
within the slum. De Soto (2000) echoes Roy’s (2011) observations of entrepreneurialism within the
slum. De Soto (2000) theorizes the slum as a “people’s economy” driven by “heroic entrepreneurs.”
However, De Soto’s (2000) theorization views the agency of the “heroic entrepreneurs” within the
“people’s economy” as a conscious class act of a revolution from the below against state instituted
forms of bureaucracy. This on its own inevitably becomes a form of political agency. The political
agency of subaltern urbanism can also be traced in the work of Asef Bayat. Subaltern political agency
in urban spaces and locales as posited by Bayat (2000) entails a “quiet encroachment” by the ordinary
people that translates into street politics. The street politics which expresses itself as the “habitus of the
dispossessed,” as argued by Bayat (2007, p. 579) embodies a conspicuous degree of “flexibility,
pragmatism, and survivalism.” As such, subaltern urbanism denotes day-to-day mundane agentic
practices of urban dwellers within slums whose urbanity is crafted by the urban social actors
positioned at the bottom of the social ladder.
Subaltern urbanism incorporates the epistemic question—how subaltern urbanism is understood.
Various theorists have invariably brought attention to the question of how to theorize subaltern urbanism
in the quest to holistically frame the debate of subaltern urbanism. As a point of departure, perhaps it
might be useful to attempt to trace a diachronic trajectory of the concept subaltern as from its main
proponent Antonio Gramsci. In his seminal work Prison Notebooks, Gramsci deploys the term to describe
4T. MOYO
disenfranchised individuals or social grouping through cultural hegemony ultimately depriving agency
and voice (Gramsci, 1971). Since the establishment of the concept by Gramsci, various scholars have
refined and expanded the concept to encompass a lot of social phenomena in their academic endeavors.
The epistemic question is in the quest to comprehend the “subaltern” in this particular instance subaltern
urbanism. Through the use of Spivak’s (2005) submission of “subalternity as a condition,” it prompts the
interrogation of rationalities of understanding subalternity. There are two major rationalities to under-
stand subalternity—thus through a deductive approach or inductive approach. Case studies of these two
have been provided by Roy (2011) and Schindler (2014). In the study of “slumdog cities” in India, Roy
(2011) employs a deductive approach to comprehend subalternity particularly subaltern urbanism whilst
Schindler (2014) utilizes inductive approach to study subaltern urbanism in Flint, Michigan, in the United
States of America. Roy’s (2011) deductive approach places a priori categorization of slums as subaltern
urbanity. The a priori categorization employed by Roy confines the understanding of subaltern urbanism
to the main categories she identifies—“slum as a terrain of habitation, livelihood, self-organization and
politics” (2011, p. 223). Given this kind of categorization embedded within the deductive approach,
subaltern urbanism is confined within the purview of the slum. This categorical confinement raises
problems as it limits understanding of subaltern urbanism to the slum. On the other hand, the inductive
approach as employed by Schindler (2014) entails theorization after an in-depth interaction with data or
research participants. In the study of Flint, Michigan, Schindler (2014) proposes an approach to the study
of subaltern urbanism that is not informed by a preconceived set of ideas about what constitutes subaltern
urbanism. Again, through this approach, Schindler (2014) argues that subaltern urbanism can be
extended beyond the Global South to Global North which also enables a comparative approach. As
such, these two distinct epistemic approaches offer ways of understanding the epistemic question of
subaltern urbanism. In a bid to understand subaltern urbanism in Bulawayo, this paper utilizes the
inductive approach to holistically comprehend all aspects of urbanity that constitute subaltern urbanism
through the lived realities and subjectivities of residents of Bulawayo.
Researching the post-colonial city: Ethnography and the city
In the quest to understand subaltern urbanism as a way of life in postcolonial Zimbabwean city the
paper adopted qualitative research methodology. Qualitative research entails “an array of attitudes
toward and strategies for conducting inquiry that are aimed at discovering how human beings
understand, experience, interpret, and produce the social world” (Sandelowski, 2004, p. 893). The
adoption qualitative research aimed to project subjective narratives of subaltern urbanism from
various stakeholders within the urban setup of Bulawayo. The case study of Bulawayo represents
exceptional cases of subaltern urbanism that tend to diverge from classical cases of subaltern urbanism
characterized by conspicuous urban decay and poverty. Under qualitative methodology, the researcher
employed ethnography as the main research method. Ethnography has no standard or universal
definition but it entails “immersion in people settings to participate overtly or covertly in everyday
contexts” (Henderson, 2016, p. 30; Neuman, 2011). Following Hammersley and Atkinson (2007, p. 4)
observation, ethnography significantly seeks to “describe what happens, how people involved see and
talk about their own actions and those of others, the contexts in which the action takes, what follows
from it.” As such, the researcher engaged in ethnography in Bulawayo for a period of 5 months from
February 2019 to June 2019 as an attempt to comprehensively understand subaltern urbanism as a way
of life from the perspective of all stakeholders within the city. Within the field, the researcher
administered 24 individual interviews, five focus group discussions, and six expert interviews in
a quest to understand subaltern urbanism in Bulawayo.
In the past decade various urban scholars (see Billo & Mountz, 2015; Shatz, 2009; Yanow et al.,
2011) have engaged in ethnography to understand social actors within the city and how they shape
everyday processes of urbanity, urban governance, and urban policy formulation. The research process
was informed by Henderson’s (2016) suggestion of “ethnographic sensibility.” Henderson (2016,
p. 30) suggests that “developing and adopting an ethnographic sensibility in urban research is one
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 5
avenue worth exploring to better comprehend practices and scope for transformation.” In this paper,
urban ethnographic sensibility is the reflexive and flexible immersion into research processes which
goes beyond mere data collection practices to centering subjectivities and narratives of the researched.
Ethnographic sensibility in research “creates opportunities to understand values and meanings in
urban planning based on what is said and done” (Henderson, 2016, p. 30). Ethnography afforded an
opportunity for the researcher to understand the context which is the city of Bulawayo and social
conditions of the city as well as the agency of the social actors within the city.
The researcher engaged in 5 months of ethnography in the city of Bulawayo, which resulted in
comprehensive fieldnotes. The researcher carried out interviews and participated in various activities
that included meetings organized by various stakeholders within the city. For the researcher, living
within the city facilitated what Rhodes et al. (2007) call “ethnographic immersion.” Ethnographic
immersion as posited by Rhodes et al. (2007, p. 3) “goes with interpretive, symbolic and constructivist
perspectives on how social realities are enacted and structured by the people that are part of and make
up such realities.” Ethnographic immersion within the city of Bulawayo allowed understanding of how
subaltern urbanism as a way of life is enacted by city dwellers using their own standpoint enabled by
“interpretive, symbolic and constructivist perspectives” (Rhodes et al., 2007, p. 3). Ethnographic
immersion by the researcher within the city of Bulawayo aided by familiarity with the city provided
a reflexive turn to the entire research process. There was establishment of reflexivity within the
research process. Reflexivity is a process and strategy whereby researchers engage in self-aware meta-
analysis (Finlay, 2002a, 2002b). The iterative use of reflexivity within the research helped the
researcher to navigate the research process smoothly. The major contributions of reflexivity within
the research process were six-fold. The first major contribution of reflexivity in the research process
was giving the researcher the opportunity to use reflection so as to capture the social and emotional
world of participants. Secondly, reflexivity allowed the researcher to explore the mutual meaning
emerging within research relationships. Thirdly, reflexivity fostered smooth cooperation between the
researcher and the researched. Fourth, reflexivity helped in managing power imbalances between the
researcher and the researched. Lastly, reflexivity helped the researcher to interpret data from the
research findings. As such, the researcher’s ethnographic immersion and reflexivity in the city of
Bulawayo helped to comprehend narratives of city dwellers and how they construct subaltern urban-
ism as a way of life in their everyday mundane social practices.
In a bid to holistically understand subaltern urbanism as a way of life the research was framed using
four distinct epistemological lenses. These epistemological lenses were adopted from Yap and
Mcfarlane (2020) in their quest to understand urban extreme poverty and proved to be effective in
providing a holistic picture of urban extreme poverty. These epistemological lenses are urban political
economy, urban political ecology, feminist urbanism, and postcolonial urbanism. The four lenses
guided the framing of the research questions in order to project a holistic picture of subaltern
urbanism as a way of life. The first lens which is urban political economy deals with processes that
include production and capital flows. The urban political economy approach plays a critical role in the
lives of the social actors within the city as it largely influences their lives and livelihoods. Subaltern
urbanism cannot be fully comprehended without an understanding of political economy and its
immediate influences. The relationship between subaltern urbanism and political economy can be
validated through Yap and Mcfarlane’s argument (2020, p. 263) that “urbanization plays vital roles in
driving the global economy, absorbing surplus wealth, and unequally distributing resources and
provisions across the city.” The argument is supported and reiterated by scholars such as Harvey
(2006) who contend that capitalist urbanization has inevitably led to unmitigated spatial and social
destruction. As such, incorporating urban political economy in the research to understand subaltern
urbanism was of paramount importance. The second epistemological lens is urban political ecology.
The urban political ecology approach focuses on capital and nature. Capital and nature largely
influence how social actors lead their lives in the context of the city. In the case of Yap and
Mcfarlane (2020) urban political ecology shaped their understanding of how urban extreme poverty
is influenced by inadequate provision of basic services within the city. Some of these basic services
6T. MOYO
include water infrastructure, food, and waste removal. The indicators marked by Yap and Mcfarlane
(2020) through urban political ecology applied to this research in framing and understanding
subaltern urbanism. The third epistemological lens concerns feminist urbanism. This epistemological
lens underscores the embedded gender dynamics in urbanization. Feminist urbanism is a theory that
observes how urban planning and decision-making are informed by patriarchal structures (Markovich
& Hendler, 2006). Again, the concern of feminist urbanism hinges on “gendering of spatial difference”
(Buckley & Strauss, 2016) and how it influences the everyday experiences of urbanity in women and
girls. Feminist urbanism within the research underpins the subjectivities of women and girls in making
and unmaking of subaltern urbanism in urban planning and decision-making. The final epistemolo-
gical lens is postcolonial urbanism. Postcolonial urbanism entails understanding the complex social
system that informs postcolonial Africa. Postcolonial urbanism operates at two different levels: as
a social system and a theoretical underpinning. As a social system, postcolonial urbanism fosters an
understanding of how politics of representation directly intersect with colonial legacies in participa-
tory approaches to urban social realities (see Jazeel & McFarlane, 2010; McEwan, 2009). The second
aspect of postcolonial urbanism focuses on how systems of thinking affect understanding and
experiencing urbanity. As such, postcolonial urbanism was incorporated into the research to com-
prehensively understand how subaltern urbanism is informed by postcolonial systems and way of
thinking. Therefore, the four epistemological lenses were of paramount importance in comprehending
complexities of subaltern urbanism as they fostered a holistic understanding of issues from all spheres
that ultimately constitute urbanity.
Redening and (re)imagining post-colonial urbanity in Bulawayo
Hybridized subaltern urbanism in Bulawayo
There is a conspicuous aberration of subaltern urbanism witnessed from the city of Bulawayo. This
type of subaltern urbanism differs from the one that is dominant in the discourses of subaltern
urbanity (see Bayat, 2000, 2007; Chattopadhyay, 2012; Roy, 2011; De Soto, 2000; Spivak, 2005). The
initial divergence from notions of subaltern urbanism as suggested by Roy (2011) of classifying
subalterns as social class through the lack of a consistent class or easily recognizable social group of
subalterns within the confines of Bulawayo. One of the research respondent noted that:
Our problems (referring to poverty) differ . . . some of us appear like everything is ok but ask us you will find out
that we cannot afford basics such as food and paying bills but we live in decent places that are better than squatter
camps. Others are poor in a way that they do not own anything but appear to be doing well when you look at their
outward appearance. Despite all differences, we are all focusing on survival.
The above quotation highlights how it is difficult to pinpoint to a certain homogeneous group of
people who are poverty stricken. Within the interviews, individuals were asked the question on
whether they are poor or not and do they identify with a certain group or other people. This question
was followed up with a follow-up question that tried to quantify and ascertain that these individuals
were indeed poor through measuring their economic status via the Human Development Index
(HDI). Many of the individuals noted that they were poor and this was ascertained by the HDI but
insisted on being different from others. The point of difference makes a very interesting turn in the
understanding of subaltern urbanism as it highlights a lack of distinctive social class. The indistin-
guishable subaltern class within Bulawayo stems from the realization that were subaltern urbanism
had been previously witnessed it was mainly concentrated in specific urban zones unlike in Bulawayo.
The Bulawayo case differs particularly with that of Dharavi, Mumbai in India as dispossessed people
are dispersed all over the city making it difficult to perhaps see a common “habitus of the dispossessed”
(Bayat, 2007). Although individuals within the city of Bulawayo deploy eclectic ways of survival like
subalterns elsewhere in the world, they are not concentrated in a visible single urban zone which can
be clearly labeled like the “slumdog” sites in India. This lack of particular “zoning” associated with
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 7
subaltern urbanism presents an interesting dimension to the understanding of subaltern urbanism. It
challenges the notion of visibility of subaltern urbanism as envisaged in the works of scholars such as
Bayat (2007) and Roy (2011).
The inconspicuous subaltern social class in Bulawayo reinforces the argument by Spivak (2005) that
“subalternity is a condition.” Subalternity exists as a condition in Bulawayo and this challenges the
dominant discourses of subaltern urbanism that locate subaltern urbanites as an overt social class or
category. Through the absence of an overt subaltern social class in Bulawayo, one may contend that the
agency of Bulawayo subaltern urbanism is scripted through individuality rather than collectivity. The
understanding of subaltern urbanism of Bulawayo is contingent upon subjective narratives. An
observation alone cannot elicit the experiences of individuals in Bulawayo in other cities where one
can understand the livelihoods and experiences through the “slum tours available in Rocinha favela of
Rio de Janeiro, the Soweto township of Johannesburg, kampungs of Jakarta and the Dharavi slum of
Mumbai” (Roy, 2011, p. 225). Again, the issue of urban governance comes into play in the under-
standing of the invisible subaltern class in Bulawayo. The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has a tight
grip on forms of urbanization as it uses an iron fist in dealing with things such as urban informality.
This diminishes the visibility of subaltern urbanism in Bulawayo. As such, one may contend that
Bulawayo offers a new understanding of subaltern urbanism as it is not directly visible to the onlooker
but exists as a “condition” to borrow from Spivak (2005). In this way, subaltern urbanism exists as
a covert way of life in Bulawayo.
Envisaging subaltern urbanism beyond the slum in Bulawayo
Subaltern urbanism diverges from the understanding that subaltern urbanism is centered on the slum
but it is also found in regulated settlements that do not qualify to be classified as slums. Despite having
two prominent slum sites—thus Ngozi Mine and Killarney Squatter Camp, Bulawayo is largely
characterized by regulated residential townships with proper habitation. Ngozi Mine and Killarney
Squatter Camp have approximately less than 4,000 habitants combined, the majority of Bulawayo
residents reside in regulated settlements but fall under the category of subaltern urbanites. Subaltern
beyond the slum echoed in many respondents who posited that, “Although we are poor, we live in
homes that are regulated, have electricity, running water (there are shortages at times), and we also live
within the authority of the city council.” A city council official added that:
We try by all means as Bulawayo City Council to minimize uncontrolled urbanization which manifests through
slums . . . our urban planning policies are tough to anything that falls beyond them. We demolish and arrest those
who flaunt our by-laws as a city and on that we do not compromise.
The above two respondents point out to Spivak (2005) suggestion that “subalternity is a condition,” it
applies to Bulawayo as subalternity does not characterize their place of residence or shelter but
encompasses their way of life and livelihood. Bulawayo depicts subaltern urbanism, which is beyond
the slum. This calls for expansion of theorizing subaltern urbanism and a new understanding of some
African cities that might be witnessing subaltern urbanism without the slum image. Bulawayo’s
subaltern urbanism defies the suggestion by Nuttall and Mbembe (2005, p. 153) that the Third
World slum “is the ‘recognizable frame’ through which the cities of the global South are perceived
and understood, their difference mapped and located.” Through Bulawayo, it can be established that
subaltern urbanism can be a way of life that does not necessarily entail living within the slum but living
the subaltern way of life within properly regulated residential settings within cities.
Rethinking southern urbanism
The urban experiences of people of Bulawayo highlight new forms of urbanity that tend to invariably
diverge from the major characteristics of southern urbanism in terms of governance. Citizens of
Bulawayo are involved in governance through social movements that seek to contribute to the day-to-
8T. MOYO
day urban planning and decision-making. Some of the social movements found in Bulawayo are
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) and Bulawayo Residents Association (BRA)
among other notable social movements. The social movements seek to forward the agenda of the
people who are located at the bottom of the social ladder. Some activities of those social movements
have been witnessed through advocacy for better service provision, citizen representation, and social
mobilization (see Musekiwa & Chatiza, 2015). Individuals are also part of associations such as burial
associations to provide help in times of need such as bereavement. These social movements and their
activities witnessed in Bulawayo echo Simone’s (2010, 2014) observation that urbanity in cities
stretching from Jakarta to Dakar are characterized by fleeting associations that govern everyday
experiences of urbanity. These associations respond to Simone’s (2001, pp. 17–18) suggestion that
residents “appear increasingly uncertain about . . . where they will feel protected and looked after.” As
such, associations become part of their urban life in order to meet their demands as urban citizens.
These associations directly point out to the need to address the “discontinuous, dynamic, and
contested metabolic configurations” (Schindler, 2017, p. 54). These metabolic configurations include
water, electricity, and waste management. Therefore, social movements through associations within
the city of Bulawayo contribute to urban governance. Southern urbanism fails to capture the indivi-
dual characteristics of cities as it ascribes urban governance solely to governing bodies without the
input of ordinary citizens.
From postcolonial city to African city: Complex subaltern urbanisms
The everyday mundane experiences of urbanity within Bulawayo highlight complex subaltern urban-
ism that warrants a paradigm shift from postcolonial city to African city. Individuals within the city of
Bulawayo locate themselves as positioned within poverty but do not link their social standing to
former colonial power (Britain). This is an important aspect in the theorizing and imagining of the city
particularly Bulawayo. The social actors engage in street politics which constitutes “habitus of the
dispossessed” (Bayat, 2007, p. 579) but do not attach it to colonial legacies such as way of life within
urban spaces. Within the interviews, John posited that:
Our city is rich in culture as you can see from the way of life and the architecture, our everyday lives are not linked
to the colonial past . . . at present we do what we have to do to survive each day. The traces of British architecture
in the city do not erase our present identities and everyday struggles . . . we are Bulawayo citizens before anything
else.
The above excerpt depicts the subaltern positioning which portrays the disjuncture from colonialism an
aspect that has been deployed to characterize postcolonial cities that entails “real political and historical
referents in space and time, locating cultural as well as economic and political connections between
metropole and colony” (King, 1993, p. 90). Such a disjuncture questions the unilateral use of the term
postcolonial city and it totally defeats the “attitude of critical engagement with colonialisms aftereffects and
its constructions of knowledge” (Radcliffe, 1997, p. 1331). As such, one may suggest that Bulawayo is an
“African city” not a “postcolonial city,” hence, signaling a move from theorizing using the “postcolonial
city” label to “African city” label. Finally, despite noticeable poverty constituting subaltern urbanism,
Bulawayo digresses from descriptive labels such as “Third World,” “the Global South” (Roy, 2011) as those
labels are associated with the slum metonym. The absence of urbanism dominated by slums in Bulawayo
dismisses the contention by Nuttall and Mbembe (2005, p. 153) that the “slum is the ‘recognizable frame’
through which the cities of the global South are perceived and understood, their difference mapped and
located.” Cities characterized by the absence of slums and clearly noticeable urban decay and degeneration
fall outside the purview of the “postcolonial city” positioning and theorizing. The absence of slums and
their immediate association with “Third World” and “the Global South” label validates the move from
theorizing and labeling through the use of the “postcolonial city” label to a label independent from
narratives and identities of urban decay and degeneration which is the “African city” label. The “African
city” label which can be attached to the city of Bulawayo, which has subaltern urbanism but not
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 9
characterized by conspicuous urban decay and degeneration characteristic of the slum metonym. This
signals the need for new theorizing about urbanity in Africa exemplified by Bulawayo city which dismisses
the slum metaphor.
Subalternization of the city
In this section, the author discusses the concept that he labels as “subalternization of the city.”
Through the reference of the city of Bulawayo, interviews from the study revealed that subalternity
or subaltern urbanism is not only scripted by individual agency within the urban but also by urban
governing institutions. These urban governing institutions vary from the metropolitan council body
(Bulawayo City Council), government, and other stakeholders involved in urban governance.
Subalternization of the city entails impoverishment and diminishing of better living conditions
within the urban setup or city by urban governing bodies through compromised service delivery and
induced chronic poverty. Through the notion of subalternization of the city, I intend to extend the
understanding of subaltern urbanism to include the role of urban governing institutions in con-
tributing to and shaping subaltern urbanism. This is meant to challenge dominant discourses of
subaltern urbanism that tend to largely focus on the agency of individuals within subaltern urban
spaces (Butola, 2021; Cruz & Silva, 2019; Sheppard et al., 2013). For Roy (2011, p. 223), subaltern
urbanism is largely hinged upon the slum which in turn represents subaltern urbanism as a “terrain
for habituation, livelihood, self-organization and politics” (Roy, 2011, p. 223). Such theorization
eschews the role of urban governing institutions in the ultimate scripting of subaltern urbanism. The
ultimate goal of the city of Bulawayo to properly deliver services such as water and sanitation and to
be an engine of economic growth cannot be underrated in shaping subaltern urbanism. As such,
subalternization of the city occurs within the city of Bulawayo and this has immediate ramifications
on the ordinary residents of Bulawayo in their everyday mundane experiences of urbanity and
urbanization.
Mapping the way forward
The city of Bulawayo offers new insights to understanding contemporary African cities. The first
insight involves the need to deconstruct dominant discourses of “postcolonial city” as they tend to be
all-encompassing, relate to the connection with the West (erstwhile colonial masters), and entail
conspicuous urban decay and degeneration. Therefore, the postcolonial city label warrants for
rethinking of (subaltern) urbanism in Africa particularly on the slum metonym that is dominant in
the work of various urban scholars (see Butola, 2021; Cruz & Silva, 2019; Roy, 2011; Sheppard et al.,
2013). Bulawayo underscores the fact that subaltern urbanism which represents postcolonial urbanism
can be outside the confines of the slum. Urbanism in Africa cannot be solely understood through the
slum metaphor which is said to be the “recognizable frame through which cities in the global South are
perceived and understood, their difference mapped and located” (Nuttall & Mbembe, 2005, p. 153). In
transcending this view, urban scholars, urban planners, and governors need to revisit the epistemic
question—how do we reach conclusions about what constitutes postcolonial or rather urbanism in
Africa? In responding to the epistemic question, African urbanism must be understood and theorized
through an inductive approach that seeks to understand before making conclusive theorization.
Conclusions
The paper employs the city of Bulawayo as a case study to highlight reconfigured and (re)imagined
urbanism within the context of Africa. The case study of Bulawayo challenges dominant perceptions of
subaltern urbanism characterized by conspicuous degrees of urban decay and urban degeneration. As
such, one may contend that post-colonial urbanism represented by subaltern urbanism in Africa is
complex and not singular but multidimensional as it goes beyond the slum metaphor and metonymy.
10 T. MOYO
This is evidenced by individuals who acknowledge living a subaltern way of life but within the confines
of regulated residential settings. Again, there is an inconceivable homogeneous class with the context
of Bulawayo. Everyday mundane experiences of subalternity particularly poverty tend to be variegated
and there is no singular experience in all the subalterns of Bulawayo. Apart from the individual
characteristics of subaltern urbanism, there is a need to understand the role of urban governance in
turning cities into subaltern urban setups. As the paper termed this phenomenon “subalternization of
the city,” this process is through poor service delivery and decision-making which ultimately leads to
dysfunctional cities. Finally, as a way forward, there is a need to move from labeling African urbanism
and cities as “post-colonial cities” as this nomenclature often represents negative perceptions such as
modeling urbanism through the Western yardstick and it bears negative undertones laden with the
slum metaphor, urban decay, and degeneration. As such, a move from “post-colonial city” to “African
city” will afford understanding of African urbanism as a heterogeneous experience and condition. In
addition, theorizing on the African city and its immediate urbanism needs to be hinged on inductive
approaches that seek to comprehend before theorizing and labeling.
Notes
1. King Lobhengula (1845-1884) was the last king of the Northern Ndebele people also known as Matebele or
Ndebele of present day Zimbabwe.
2. The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil John Rhodes and the British South Africa Company in 1890 to
conquer and occupy Matebeleland and Mashonaland which is present day Zimbabwe.
3. Urban Councils Act [2015, Chapter 29:15] provides for the establishment of municipalities and towns by local
boards, municipal and town councils; to provide for the administration of local government areas by local boards.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the editors and editorial team of the Journal of Urban Aairs and the anonymous
reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. The author will also like to extend his gratitude to Dr. Patrick
Cobbinah from University of Melbourne, Australia on his input on this project and Ms. Precious Ngwenya from Lupane
State University, Zimbabwe for her review of the earlier versions of this paper. Lastly, the author would like to thank all
individuals and entities who were part of this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.
About the author
Talent Moyo is a lecturer at the Department of Community Studies formerly the Department of Sociology at Midlands
State University. He teaches Urban Sociology, Social Policy and Social Administration, Political Sociology, and Sociology
of Organisations. His research interests include the urban sociology, urban politics, urban policy, and youth in cities.
ORCID
Talent Moyo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3129-0835
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 11
References
Bayat, A. (2000). From ‘dangerous classes’ to ‘quiet rebels’: The politics of the urban subaltern in the global South.
International Sociology, 15(3), 533–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/026858000015003005
Bayat, A. (2007). Radical religion and the habitus of the dispossessed: Does Islamic militancy have an urban ecology?
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(3), 579–590. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.
00746.x
Billo, E., & Mountz, A. (2015). For institutional ethnography: Geographical approaches to institutions and the everyday.
Progress in Human Geography, 40(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515572269
Brenner, N., & Schmid, C. (2015). Towards a new epistemology of the urban? City, 19(2–3), 151–182. https://doi.org/10.
1080/13604813.2015.1014712
Buckley, M., & Strauss, K. (2016). With, against and beyond lefebvre: Planetary urbanization and epistemic plurality.
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(4), 617–636. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775816628872
Bulawayo City Council. (2020). About Bulawayo. Retrieved October 29, 2020, from https://citybyo.co.zw/about/
Bulawayo
Butola, B. S. (2021). Subaltern urbanism. In A. M. Orum (Ed.), The wiley blackwell encyclopedia of urban and regional
studies (pp. 1–10). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0326
Chatterjee, P. (2004). The politics of the governed: Reections on popular politics in most of the world. Columbia
University Press.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2012). Unlearning the city: Infrastructure in a new optical field. University of Minnesota Press.
Crush, J. (1994). Post-colonialism, de-colonization, and geography. In A. Godlewska & N. Smith (Eds.), Geography and
empire (pp. 333–350). Oxford.
Cruz, M. M., & Silva, N. A. (2019). Intersections in subaltern urbanism: The narratives of women in urban occupations
in Brazil. EPC: Politics and Space, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419887969
Davis, M. (2004, March-April 26). Planet of slums: Urban involution and the informal proletariat. New Left Review, 26
(5), 5–34. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://newleftreview.org/issues/1126/articlees/mike-davisplanet-of-slums
De Soto, H. (2000). The mystery of capital: Why capitalism triumphs in the west and fails everywhere else. Basic Books.
Finlay, L. (2002a). Negotiating the swamp: The opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in research practice. Qualitative
Research, 2(2), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410200200205
Finlay, L. (2002b). “Outing” the researcher: The provenance, process, and practice of reflexivity. Qualitative Health
Research, 12(4), 531–545. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973202129120052
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks (Q. Hoare, G. N. Smith, Trans.). Laurence and Wishart.
Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles and practice. Routledge.
Harvey, D. (2006). Spaces of global capitalism: Towards a theory of uneven geographical development. Verso.
Henderson, H. (2016). Toward an ethnographic sensibility in urban research. Australian Planner, 53(1), 28–36. https://
doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2015.1135817
Jazeel, T., & McFarlane, C. (2010). The limits of responsibility: A postcolonial politics of academic knowledge
production. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(1), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-
5661.2009.00367.x
King, A. D. (1993). Identity and difference: The internationalization of capital and the globalization of culture. In
P. Knox (Ed.), The restless landscape (pp. 83–110). Prentice Hall.
King, A. D. (2009). Postcolonial cities. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 321–326. doi:10.1016/b978-
008044910-4.01069-5
Kusno, A. (1998). Beyond the postcolonial: Architecture and political cultures in Indonesia. Public Culture, 10(3),
549–575. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-10-3-549
Markovich, J., & Hendler, S. (2006). Beyond “soccer moms” feminist and new urbanist critical approaches to suburbs.
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 25(4), 410–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X05280545
McEwan, C. (2009). Postcolonialism and development. Routledge.
Musekiwa, N., & Chatiza, K. (2015). Rise in resident associational life in response to service delivery decline by urban
councils in Zimbabwe. Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 16, 120–136. https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i0.
4489
Neuman, L. (2011). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. University of Wisconsin.
Nuttall, S., & Mbembe, A. (2005). A blasé attitude: A response to Michael Watts. Public Culture, 17(1), 193–201. https://
doi.org/10.1215/08992363-17-1-193
Pieterse, E. (2011). Grasping the unknowable: Coming to grips with African urbanisms. Social Dynamics, 37(1), 5–23.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2011.569994
Radcliffe, S. A. (1997). Different heroes: Genealogies of postcolonial geographies. Environment and Planning D: Society
and Space, 29(8), 1331–1333. https://doi.org/10.1068/a291331
Rhodes, R., Hart, P., & Noordegraaf, M. (2007). Being there. In R. Rhodes, P. Hart, & M. Noordegraaf (Eds.), Observing
government elites up close and personal (pp. 1–20). Palgrave MacMillan.
12 T. MOYO
Roy, A. (2011). Slumdog cities: Rethinking subaltern urbanism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35
(2), 223–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01051.x
Sandelowski, M. (2004). Qualitative research. In M. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T. Liao (Eds.), The sage encyclopedia of
social science research methods (pp. 893–894). Sage.
Sarkar, S. (1984). The conditions and nature of subaltern militancy: Bengal from Swadeshi to non-co-operation, ca.
1905–22. In R. Guha (Ed.), Subaltern studies III (pp. 271–320). Oxford University Press.
Schindler, S. (2014). Understanding urban processes in Flint, Michigan: Approaching ‘subaltern urbanism’ inductively.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(3), 791–804. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12082
Schindler, S. (2017). Towards a paradigm of Southern urbanism. City, 21(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.
2016.1263494
Shatz, E. (2009). Introduction: Ethnographic immersion and the study of politics. In E. Schatz (Ed.), Political ethno-
graphy: What immersion contributes to the study of power (pp. 122). University of Chicago Press.
Sheppard, E., Leitner, H., & Maringanti, A. (2013). Provincializing global urbanism: A manifesto. Urban Geography, 34
(7), 893–900. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2013.807977
Simone, A. (2001). Ways of seeing: Beyond the new nativism. African Studies Review, 44(2), 15–41. https://doi.org/10.
2307/525573
Simone, A. (2010). City life from Dakar to Jakarta. Routledge.
Simone, A. (2014). Jakarta: Drawing the city near. University of Minnesota Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1999). A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present. Harvard University
Press.
Spivak, G. C. (2005). Scattered speculations on the subaltern and the popular. Postcolonial Studies, 8(4), 475–486. https://
doi.org/10.1080/13688790500375132
Yanow, D., Ybema, S., Wels, H., & Kamsteeg, F. (2011). Organizational ethnography: Studying the complexity of everyday
life. Sage.
Yap, C., & Mcfarlane, C. (2020). Understanding and researching urban extreme poverty: A conceptual–methodological
approach. Environment & Urbanization, 32(1), 257–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819890829
Yeoh, B. S. A. (2001). Postcolonial cities. Progress in Human Geography, 25(3), 456–468. https://doi.org/10.1191/
030913201680191781
ZimStat. (2014). Bulawayo province. ZimStat.
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS 13
