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Acknowledgements

Frequently, in the writing of a book, a small group of people become one’s interlocutors. Those people have been Isabel Hofmeyr, Cheryl-Ann Michael, Rita Barnard and Achille Mbembe. My thanks go to Isabel for understanding from the start what I was trying to do, and edging me closer to it; Cheryl-Ann, for being my best and sternest critic; Rita, for her suggestions and support; and Achille, for always being willing to talk through with me points of difficulty in the making of my arguments. More than this, I thank each of them for the inspiration I have drawn from their own work, which is evident from the writing that follows.

Then there is a second circle of people with whom I have discussed my ideas, drawn from theirs, and regarded as sounding boards and shape shifters in my own thinking. These include my colleagues at WISER, with whom, in the deepest and most daily of ways, I have been in conversation, agreement and disagreement. Deborah Posel has made all of that possible by imagining into being an intellectual space, WISER, and by drawing together a group of people with whom I have been able to have interdisciplinary, provisional, at times heretical, conversations. My years at WISER have given me room to try out ideas, to experiment, to speak my mind and to feel at ease and supported by my colleagues in a way that is hard to imagine to the same degree anywhere else.

I thank Deborah too for the inspiration of her own work. Jon Hyslop’s work has been very important in helping me think through questions of race, urban culture and the making of the present in relation to the past. Irma du Plessis, Tom Odhiambo and Robert Muponde, through their writing and their conversation, have caused me to constantly rethink the way I see the world. Liz Gunner has inspired me in numerous ways, including through her work, and Liz McGregor has taught me a great deal about how to shape a more public voice for academic work. Ivor Chipkin, Liz Walker, Marks Chabedi and Nthabiseng Motsemme shared my early years at WISER and I am grateful to all of them for their insights and their writing. Ashlee Neser, Michael Titlestad and Pamila Gupta are all hugely valued colleagues with whom I can talk about anything I happen to be working on. Lara Allen has been a close friend and a valuable intellectual interlocutor. I am grateful to Graeme Reid and Julia Hornberger for their writing, their humour, their comradeship.

Beyond WISER, I thank the following people, with all of whom I have been in conversation during the years it has taken to produce this book: Mark Sanders, Penny Siopis, Hazel Carby, Elleke Boehmer, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Mark Gevisser, Lindsay Bremner, Abdoumaliq Simone, Carol Breckenridge, Arjun Appadurai, Rob Nixon, Vron Ware, Paul Gilroy, Louise Bethlehem, Stefan Helgesson, Meg Samuelson, Ian Baucomb, Eric Worby, Rehana Vally, Emmanuelle Gille, Tawana Kupe, David Goldberg, Philomena Essed and David Attwell.

Finally, in a fourth circle, I thank people who have influenced me in more implicit ways, sometimes in direct exchange, or though reading their work, or simply through knowing them. They are Juan Obarrio, Livio Sansone, Dominique Malaquais, Peter Geschiere, Ena Jansen, Jennifer Wenzel, Annie Gagiano, David Bunn, Jane Taylor, Carolyn Hamilton, Dan Ojwang, John Matshikiza, Njabulo Ndebele, Louise Meintjies, Karin Barber, Michiel Heyns, Michelle Adler, Denise Newman, Colin Richards, Grace Musila, Leon de Kock, Natasha Distiller, Pumla Gqola, Sue van Zyl, Khosi Xaba, Justice Malala, and Fred Khumalo.

My PhD students, including Robert Muponde, Grace Khunou, the late Phaswane Mpe, Kgamadi Kometsi, John Montgomery, Zethu Matebeni, Cobi Labuschagne and Syned Mthatiwa, have been a pleasure to work with, and it has been very meaningful to me to be contributing to producing the next generation of young academics in South African universities. I am very grateful to Veronica Klipp, Estelle Jobson and Melanie Pequeux at Wits University Press for their openness, efficiency and generosity during the months of this book’s production.

Circling outside the work of this book, but lodged deeply in my heart, are Jean and Jolyon, James, Simone, Alice and Zoë.

Achille, Léa and Aniel occupy, like music, a place beyond words and are my love.