Empire, Global Coloniality and African Subjectivity by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni

Author:Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni [Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2013-05-31T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Subjection and Subjectivity in South Africa

Introduction

I owe my being to Khoi and the San … I am formed of migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land … In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. Their proud dignity informs my bearing, their culture a part of my essence … I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetswayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonor the cause of freedom … I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena and the Bahamas … I come from those who were transported from India and China … Being part of all these people and in the knowledge that one dare contest that assertion, I shall claim that I am an African.

(Thabo Mbeki 1996: 31–36)

In the political catechism of the New South Africa, the primary enquiry remains the National Question. What is the post-apartheid nation? Who belongs or is excluded, and on what basis? How does a ‘national identity gains its salience and power to transcend the particularities of ethnicity and race?

(Colin Bundy 2007: 79)

In contemporary South Africa, the issue of race continues to permeate every aspect of public life. Citizens are regularly required to indicate their race when filling out government or other official forms; race often plays a role in decision on whether a job application or the application for admission to certain university programmes are successful; in political debates the race of various protagonists are often noted when evaluating the merits of their contributions; and when judges are appointed to positions on the High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal or Constitutional Court, the race of the appointees are duly noted or commented upon and taken into account when considering the suitability of the candidate for appointment to the bench … We cannot escape our own race. Even when we claim that we have escaped the perceived shackles of race, we are merely confirming its presence by our stated yearning for its absence. This is the paradox: while South Africa has emerged from a period in its history in which the race of very individual played a decisive role in determining their life chances, allocating social status and economic benefits on the basis of race in terms of a rigid hierarchical system according to which very person was classified by the apartheid state as either white, Indian, coloured or black and allocated a social status and economic and political benefits in accordance with this race, in the post-apartheid era the potency of race as a factor in allocation of social status and economic benefit has not fundamentally been diminished in our daily lives – despite a professed commitment to non-racialism contained in the South African Constitution, the founding document of our democracy.

(Pierre de Vos 2010: 2)

It is surely time … for historians to formulate

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