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Post-apartheid

History making and present day politics : the meaning of collective memory in South Africa

Medarbetare: Stolten, Hans Erik J.
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2007
Ämnesord: history, political history, political development, Social change, Nation-building, Post-apartheid, historiography, South Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap
In this collection, some of South Africa's most distinguished historians and social scientists present their views on the importance of history and heritage for the transformation of the South African society. Although popular use of history helped remove apartheid, the study of history lost status during the transition process. Some of the reasons for this, like the nature of the negotiated revolution, social demobilisation, and individualisation, are analysed in this book. The combination of scholarly work with an active role in changing society has been a central concern in South African history writing. This book warns against the danger of history being caught between reconciliation, commercialisation, and political correctness. Some of the articles critically examine the role of historians in ideological debates on gender, African agency, Afrikaner anti-communism, early South African socialism, and the role of the business world during late apartheid. Other contributions explore continuing controversies on the politics of public history in post-apartheid South Africa, describe the implementation of new policies for history education, or investigate the use of applied history in the land restitution process and in the TRC. The authors also examine a range of new government and private initiatives in the practical use of history, including the establishment of new historical entertainment parks and the conversion of museums and heritage sites. For readers interested in nation building processes and identity politics, this book provides valuable insight.

Cadres, capitalists, elites and coalitions : The ANC, business and development in South Africa

Upphovsperson: Van Wyk, Jo-Ansie
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Post-apartheid, political development, Democratization, Political leadership, Elite, political parties, Governance, Economic conditions, South Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa is widely regarded as an exemplary case of an elite political settlement. Moreover, South Africa’s political history in the last two decades can certainly be understood in terms of the way old, new, political and economic elites interacted in different domains and sectors to resolve major collective problems and produce institutional solutions that would work – even if some of these solutions appeared contentious – and cater to broad interests. The political settlement achieved by opposing elites produced a unique democratic pact. However, less attention has been paid to the economic pact achieved by these elites. As a liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) advocated nationalisation to undo the socioeconomic legacies of apartheid, but once the political transition had commenced, it discarded nationalisation. Instead, ANC elites opted for pro-business/market policies, which stabilised the economy and attracted much needed foreign direct investment. Their decision was partly attributable to the negotiated political and economic pacts that they concluded with National Party elites and ‘white’ capital. With the political or democratic pact in place, the negotiation and consolidation of the economic pact was achieved with the formation of numerous formal and informal coalitions with first ‘white’ and later ‘black’ capital to undo the economic legacies of apartheid. Not only did the pact result led to a stable political transition, it also in political and economic transformation. More importantly, early signs are now evident of a developmental pact that may result in a successful developmental state capable of achieving equality and equity for all in post-apartheid South Africa.

The cultural politics of female sexuality in South Africa

Upphovsperson: Gunkel, Henriette
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet; Routledge
År: 2010
Ämnesord: sexuality, Homosexuality, Sexual behavior, Social identity, gender relations, Women's rights, legislation, Colonial influence, Post-apartheid, South Africa, Sociology, Sociologi
Sexual identity has emerged into the national discourse of post-apartheid South Africa, bringing the subject of rights and the question of gender relations and cultural authenticity into the focus of the nation state’s politics. This book is a fascinating reflection on the effects of these discourses on non-normative modes of sexuality and intimacy and on the country more generally. While in 1996, South Africa became the first country in the world that explicitly incorporated lesbian and gay rights within a Bill of Rights, much of the country has continued to see homosexuality as un-African. Henriette Gunkel examines how colonialism and apartheid have historically shaped constructions of gender and sexuality and how these concepts have not only been re-introduced and shaped by understandings of homosexuality as un-African but also by the post-apartheid constitution and continued discourse within the nation.

Fault-lines in South African democracy : continuing crises of inequality and injustice

Upphovsperson: Hendricks, Fred T.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2003
Ämnesord: Post-apartheid, Political transition, political development, Democratization, South Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa has raised questions, on the one hand, about the tension between the imperatives of justice and equality and, on the other, reconciliation. Transforming the decades' old apartheid system under conditions of a political compromise has turned out to be a formidable challenge. This paper is about the complexity of the transformation processgoing on in South Africa. Although too early for a real assessmentof the experiment, the tensions, dilemmas, contradictions, paradoxes and some of the changes have already begun to manifest themselves. In this Discussion Paper, the author gives the full measure of the tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes involved in the transformation of South Africa. Apartheid was more than formal discrimination along racial lines: it was a system of exploitation and oppression in which race, class, gender and other markers of social identity all overlapped. The paper shows how political deals affect the administration of justice, and how they impinge upon the nature of democracy, often by frustrating efforts to realise social goals in the post-authoritarian phase. It also raises the fundamental question of the broader necessities for the long-term survival of democracy in South Africa, which, the paper argues, must include: - addressing the enormous disparities between wealth and poverty and black and white left in the wake of apartheid and - creating a legitimate polity that respects the rule of law.