Post-Apartheid Criticism
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South Africa's post-apartheid narrative is one of democracy and equality - but its flaws run deep, argues Ives S. Loukson. Disclosing prejudices about whiteness, homosexuality and democracy in the »staged society«, he claims the concept of relation as an adequate framework for the embodiment of »profane democracy« understood in Agambian terms. Its fluidity is equated to openness and transparency that are relevant dimensions for profane democracy. A demonstration of literary criticism practiced as a fecund interdisciplinary activity, Loukson's study lays the foundation for post-apartheid criticism different from post-colonial criticism.
Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa
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The book examines the reform of the communication sector in South Africa as a detailed and extended case study in political transformation - the transition from apartheid to democracy. The reform of broadcasting, telecommunications, the state information agency and the print press from apartheid-aligned apparatuses to accountable democratic institutions took place via a complex political process in which civil society activism, embodying a post-social democratic ideal, largely won out over the powerful forces of formal market capitalism and older models of state control. In the cautious acceptance of the market, the civil society organizations sought to use the dynamism of the market while thwarting its inevitable inequities. Forged in the crucible of a difficult transition to democracy, communication reform in South Africa was navigated between the National Party's embrace of the market and the African National Congress leadership's default statist orientation.
Nostalgia after apartheid : disillusionment, youth, and democracy in South Africa
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In this engaging book, Amber Reed provides a new perspective on South Africa's democracy by exploring Black residents' nostalgia for life during apartheid in the rural Eastern Cape. Reed looks at a surprising phenomenon encountered in the post-apartheid nation: despite the Department of Education mandating curricula meant to teach values of civic responsibility and liberal democracy, those who are actually responsible for teaching this material (and the students taking it) often resist what they see as the imposition of "white" values. These teachers and students do not see South African democracy as a type of freedom, but rather as destructive of their own "African culture"--whereas apartheid, at least ostensibly, allowed for cultural expression in the former rural homelands. In the Eastern Cape, Reed observes, resistance to democracy occurs alongside nostalgia for apartheid among the very citizens who were most disenfranchised by the late racist, authoritarian regime. Examining a rural town in the former Transkei homeland and the urban offices of the Sonke Gender Justice Network in Cape Town, Reed argues that nostalgic memories of a time when African culture was not under attack, combined with the socioeconomic failures of the post-apartheid state, set the stage for the current political ambivalence in South Africa. Beyond simply being a case study, however, Nostalgia after Apartheid shows how, in a global context in which nationalism and authoritarianism continue to rise, the threat posed to democracy in South Africa has far wider implications for thinking about enactments of democracy. Nostalgia after Apartheid offers a unique approach to understanding how the attempted post-apartheid reforms have failed rural Black South Africans, and how this failure has led to a nostalgia for the very conditions that once oppressed them. It will interest scholars of African studies, postcolonial studies, anthropology, and education, as well as general readers interested in South African history and politics.
Mandela, Tambo, and the African National Congress
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This timely documentary history provides a unique analysis of contemporary South African politics, covering the forty-two-year period between the ruling National Party's electoral victory of 1948 and the subsequent institution of apartheid, to the recent release from prison of Nelson Mandela. The book follows the changing nature of the African nationalist movement over these years, focusing on the central roles Mandela and Oliver Tambo have played in the African National Congress and the ANC's success in overcoming government opposition and persecution to reemerge as the recognized voice of the anti-apartheid movement. Representative writings and public statements of Mandela and Tambo, together with key ANC documents and lucid interpretive essays by the editors, help bring this continuing struggle to life. Also included are compelling accounts from Mandela's fellow prisoners and visitors that show how Mandela's conduct in prison enhanced his leadership status and helped make him one of the world's most famous political prisoners. Providing a clear background necessary for an understanding of the present negotiations between the ANC and the South African government, Mandela, Tambo, and the African National Congress is invaluable to anyone interested in black South Africa's struggle to free itself from apartheid.
One Nation, One Country
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