Thami Nkosi, who was born and raised in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Johannesburg, which used to be a chemical waste dump for the mining industry. He showed me the thousands of cameras dotting the city’s sprawling streets and described to me the ways it was restricting the movements of Black people, already squeezed by the racial legacies of apartheid and in fear of being criminalized, simply for being Black in a white neighborhood. “They’re essentially monetizing public spaces and public life,” Nkosi said.
