From Crisis to Upward Mobility: Urban Informality in Fictions of Lagos and Johannesburg

Abstract

Stories of the slum in African contexts often depict deprivation and dispossessed realities; the term ‘slum’ itself has been criticized for its emphasis on dystopic urban futures. The concept of subaltern urbanism, as outlined by Ananya Roy, goes beyond notions of dystopia, enabling more nuanced examinations of representations of the city. This article investigates the concept of subaltern urbanism in connection with four fictional works about Lagos and Johannesburg, two of Africa’s cultural and economic centres: The Restless Supermarket by Ivan Vladislavić, GraceLand by Chris Abani, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, and the short story collection Lagos Noir, with stories by multiple authors. The texts show that binaries such as authorized/unauthorized, formal/informal, and legal/illegal converge in the slum representing it as a place with its very own forms of production, creation, and survival. The balance between crisis and opportunity is portrayed in multiple ways, particularly through informal practices relating to social and economic upward mobility.