Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the challenges faced by two people recovering from drug addiction
in Durban. Both are Black African to use the terminology of our time. One a woman, and the
other, a teenager on the edge of youth. This paper uses the life history approach as a way of
telling two stories, illustrating the social context in which people’s lives are blighted by drug
abuse and the recurring problems associated with attempts to overcome addiction. It situates the
narrative of these two lives in a city witness to the eroding of apartheid and the opening up of
new spaces and challenges. Sensitive to issues of spatiality and temporality, it is a story that,
while embedded in local realities, places these issues in the context of broader changes within
society.