*with founding President of the South African Abahlali baseMjondolo Shack Dweller’s Movement and with an introduction by Nigel Gibson* Frantz Fanon discovered what we have discovered in our generation: if you are serious about victory, about succeeding to humanise the world, even a little bit, then your struggle must be a living politics. It must be owned and shaped in thought and in action by ordinary people. If every gogo (grandmother) does not understand your politics then you are on the road to another top-down system. Abahlali’s founding president will discuss the democratic power of the poor within post-Apartheid South Africa through the birth of the Shack Dwellers movement and what it means to build and sustain a living politic from the ground up, as the politics of the poor is met with violent state repression, including assassinations. The event will begin with an introduction from Nigel Gibson, author of Fanonian Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo, and a recognized leading scholar on Frantz Fanon. This talk is part of the Spring 2021 'Thinking Freedom from the Global South' series addressing "the question of human freedom from the perspective of the "the damned of the earth," those on the underside of history. Each speaker, engaged in radical intervention across different emancipatory, anti-colonial struggles, will consider how communities are thinking about and forging alternative futures." Sponsored by AU's Antiracist Research and Policy Center (ARPC), AU Dept of Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies (CRGC), and AU Women's Initiative (WI). Register for the series here: https://american.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5sSLCFCe056AGQl ***To receive credit 1) answer the reflection questions on this form: https://forms.gle/a3FuUYZiRYgMEf8T8 and 2) email a screenshot of your registration to president@auapo.net***