tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/apartheid-8265/articlesApartheid – The Conversation2024-03-24T16:08:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2255372024-03-24T16:08:12Z2024-03-24T16:08:12ZBrian Mulroney’s funeral: Loved ones, celebrities and dignitaries honour a global statesman<p>It was snowing in Old Montréal when well <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mulroney-state-funeral-moments-1.7153501">over 1,000 people gathered in the neighbourhood’s historic and majestic Notre-Dame Basilica</a> to pay their respects to Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th prime minister.</p>
<p>In the nine years that he held office — from 1984 to 1993 — Mulroney transformed Canada at home and abroad. As I took in this special and solemn occasion in Montréal, my mind was consumed with many things. </p>
<p>Mulroney was a prime minister with whom I worked closely for five years as the inaugural director of the <a href="https://www.mulroneyinstitute.ca/">Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. Francis Xavier University</a>. He was a statesman who elevated Canada’s stature on the world stage, and a leader who never shied away from a political fight, particularly when the outcome could and would have had profound consequences for the country he loved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/brian-mulroneys-tough-stand-against-apartheid-is-one-of-his-most-important-legacies-224915">Brian Mulroney's tough stand against apartheid is one of his most important legacies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Glowing tributes</h2>
<p>His two-hour funeral was moving, tasteful, refined and dignified.</p>
<p>For those who knew Mulroney well — and how much of an effort Mila, his wife of 51 years, always invested in making every event special — this type of sendoff wasn’t unexpected.</p>
<p>Each of his sons recited a prayer, and <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/state-funeral-today-for-former-prime-minister-brian-mulroney-in-montreal">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Québec premier Jean Charest, Quebecor CEO Karl Peléadeau and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky delivered heartfelt tributes.</a> I know Mulroney would have been delighted to witness world leaders, celebrities, dignitaries, financiers and other close friends and colleagues come together to say goodbye.</p>
<p>Ontario cabinet minister Caroline Mulroney and her daughter, Theodora Lapham, were particularly poignant. The basilica was almost silent as Mulroney’s only daughter spoke, delivering a speech filled with love, respect and deep admiration.</p>
<p>Several minutes later, Theodora, struggling to hold back tears, performed a moving rendition of her grandfather’s favourite Edith Piaf song. Then she sang a stirring rendition of <em>When Irish Eyes Are Smiling</em> with Québec tenor Marc Hervieux, accompanied by a video clip of her grandfather singing the song. Those in attendance responded with a standing ovation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1771589488726167890"}"></div></p>
<h2>Politics his passion</h2>
<p>Had Mulroney been able to witness his own funeral, he would have been deeply saddened to watch Mila, their four children and 16 grandchildren grieve him. </p>
<p>But there’s little doubt he would have enjoyed keeping track of the politicians in attendance — including Bob Rae, Joe Clark, Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper, Lucien Bouchard, Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh — and the kinds of discussions taking place among former and aspiring prime ministers that could signal a new direction for Canada.</p>
<p>Mulroney was blessed with an extraordinary life, one that began in the small town of Baie-Comeau, Que., in 1939 <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/former-prime-minister-brian-mulroney-dies-at-84-1.6789912">and ended in Palm Beach, Fla., a few weeks before his 85th birthday</a>.</p>
<p>When I had an opportunity to sit down with Mulroney at his home in Palm Beach just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020, we talked about his life, what he imagined he would do with it when he graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in 1959 and how his professional and family commitments kept him grounded for so many years. </p>
<p>As we took in the beautiful surroundings from his terrace, I asked him if he ever thought he’d be living this kind of life. He laughed, then said: “I thought after law school I would go back to Baie-Comeau and become a small-town lawyer.”</p>
<p>His political opponents might have wished he’d done just that. By his own admission, <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/for-mulroney-politics-was-about-the-long-game/article_d0a3af75-0772-5897-9218-26be3a579111.html">Mulroney was a polarizing figure</a>. But he knew how to lead, how to build an extensive network of contacts around the world and when it was appropriate to draw on his ire, charm, wit or charisma to get the people he needed on board. </p>
<p>Few leaders could read the political tea leaves as well as he could. He had astute instincts and employed them when necessary.</p>
<p>As is the case with most leaders, Mulroney had regrets when he left office, including his government’s failure to secure passage of <a href="https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/2019/07/meech-lake-accord/">the Meech Lake</a> <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/kyoto/charlottetown-the-anatomy-of-mega-constitutional-politics/">and Charlottetown constitutional agreements</a>. He <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/mulroney-admits-biggest-mistake/article_de8bc508-f719-5afc-adef-7b9e28db1dbc.html">also admitted to mistakes he made as leader, and to errors in judgment in relation to the Airbus scandal.</a></p>
<h2>Significant accomplishments</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/edward-m-kennedy/edward-m-kennedy-speeches/tribute-to-robert-f-kennedy-st-patricks-cathedral-new-york-city-june-8-1968#:%7E:text=My%20brother%20need%20not%20be,and%20tried%20to%20stop%20it.">In eulogizing his brother</a>, Robert F. Kennedy, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy — <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/kennedy-was-clued-in-about-canada-mulroney-1.429307?cache=%3FclipId%3D89680%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue">who later become a close friend of Mulroney’s</a> — observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mulroney doesn’t need to be idealized either. But he does deserve to be recognized for his achievements. In the fullness of time it will probably become evident that few prime ministers in Canadian history accomplished as much as he did.</p>
<p>He negotiated the passage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/brian-mulroney-champion-of-free-trade-brought-canada-closer-to-the-u-s-during-his-reign-as-prime-minister-224852">the Canada-Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement</a>, convinced President George H.W. Bush to sign <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4731021/george-bush-brian-mulroney-acid-rain/">the acid rain agreement</a>, fought for the protection of <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0923/092354.html">French-language minority rights in Manitoba</a>, played a critical role in helping free Nelson Mandela and <a href="https://theconversation.com/brian-mulroneys-tough-stand-against-apartheid-is-one-of-his-most-important-legacies-224915">galvanizing international pressure to end apartheid in South Africa</a>, brought much-needed <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-mulroneys-key-role-mobilizing-aid-for-ethiopia-shouldnt-be-forgotten/">famine relief to millions of people starving in Ethiopia</a> and introduced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/no-regrets-as-gst-turns-20-mulroney-1.905501">the goods and services tax (GST)</a> that has generated billions of dollars in revenue for the federal government.</p>
<p>In her eulogy to her father, Caroline Mulroney said that in last conversation her mother, Mila, had with Mulroney, she asked: “Brian, are you coming back to me?” </p>
<p>“I plan to,” he replied. </p>
<p>Those were his final words. He often said that one day, he would be going to that big political rally in the sky. I can only imagine what debates he’s having today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Abelson receives funding from SSHRC.</span></em></p>Brian Mulroney has been laid to rest. In the fullness of time it will probably become evident that few prime ministers in Canadian history accomplished as much as he did.Donald Abelson, Professor, Political Science; Academic Director, Wilson College of Leadership and Civic Engagement, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253742024-03-08T13:24:16Z2024-03-08T13:24:16ZEdward Webster: South African intellectual, teacher, activist, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party<p>Eddie Webster (82), sociologist and emeritus professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2024/2024-03/wits-mourns-the-loss-of-professor-eddie-webster.html">died on 5 March 2024</a>, lived a huge life, applying himself to many different arenas with great energy and insight. </p>
<p>His achievements are quite extraordinary. He was an intellectual, a teacher, a leader, an activist for social change, a builder of institutions, a rugby player and jogger, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party. </p>
<p>As an intellectual and activist he was always independent and critical, and always engaged, whether <a href="https://saftu.org.za/archives/7862">working with trade unions</a> or with South Africa’s new democratic government. It was important to get your hands dirty working for change, he always said, but as important to retain your autonomy and intellectual integrity. This held for the university itself, an institution to which he was wholly committed but at the same time found deeply disappointing when it came to social justice. His life was shaped by these kinds of tensions. </p>
<p>Eddie was one of that <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/graduations/2017/a-life-servicing-many-generations-.html">pioneering</a> generation of scholar-activists at the university, white academics who identified with and supported the black resistance movement, and who saw the world in new ways and pioneered the production of new knowledge: his close colleague, feminist and environmental sociologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jacklyn-cock-201078">Jacklyn Cock</a>, anthropologist and democratic activist <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/david-joseph-webster#:%7E:text=On%201%20May%201989%2C%20South,Mandela%20was%20released%20from%20prison.">David Webster</a> (assassinated in 1989), and distinguished historian Phil Bonner. </p>
<p>Eddie inspired generations of us with his vision and practice of critically engaged scholarship – not only in South Africa, but <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/critical-engagement-with-public-sociology">across the world</a>.</p>
<h2>Independent streak</h2>
<p>In 1986, believing that the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) was out of touch with the majority of South Africans, he drove an investigation called the <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2022/2022-10/wits-at-a-time-of-national-crisis-then-and-now.html">Perspectives on Wits</a> with his colleagues. They explored the views of trade unionists and community activists about the university. The university had agreed to fund this investigation. But it was unhappy with the results. These revealed that the institution’s own narrative about its liberal opposition to apartheid was not shared by black South Africans, who saw it as serving white and corporate interests.</p>
<p>A few years earlier, at a time of great repression of unions, he and <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/alumni-news/2017/distinguished-historian-passes-away.html">Phil Bonner</a> had attempted to set up a worker education programme on campus. But the university refused to let it happen. The university’s main funders, such as <a href="https://www.angloamerican.com/">Anglo American</a>, would have been greatly displeased by such a programme – a nice illustration of the point made in the Perspectives document. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trade-unions-and-the-new-economy-3-african-case-studies-show-how-workers-are-recasting-their-power-in-the-digital-age-214509">Trade unions and the new economy: 3 African case studies show how workers are recasting their power in the digital age</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A decade later the indomitable Eddie was able to establish a branch of the Global Labour University at Wits, and bring trade unionists into the heart of the institution. He was not someone to give up easily.</p>
<h2>Insatiable curiosity</h2>
<p>Eddie worked closely with South Africa’s emerging trade union movement in the mid-1970s. At the time black workers were a tightly controlled source of cheap labour for South Africa’s booming industrial economy, and the unions were not recognised legally and suffered severe repression by employers and the state together. Eddie believed that a strong trade union movement democratically controlled by workers would be a powerful force for change.</p>
<p>He contributed to educational programmes for trade unionists, advocating for the recognition of the unions whenever he could. He co-founded the <a href="https://www.southafricanlabourbulletin.org.za/">South African Labour Bulletin</a>, which served as a forum for the interaction between academics and trade unionists, and the Industrial Education Institute with his comrade <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/rick-turner">Rick Turner</a> and others. Turner was assassinated by the apartheid government in 1978. </p>
<p>Eddie went on to support the unions, and <a href="https://mediadon.co.za/2024/03/06/cosatu-mourns-the-passing-of-revolutionary-professor-eddie-webster/">conduct research</a> with and for them, his entire life. Generations of union shop stewards and organisers knew him through his support, teaching and research, and he was widely loved and revered as “comrade Prof”.</p>
<p>As an intellectual Eddie was insatiably curious about the world and how it worked and about new possibilities emerging for progressive change. While the sociology classics were a foundation for his thinking, he kept up to date with new literature and ideas. </p>
<p>He founded Industrial Sociology at Wits and established the Sociology of Work Unit (now the Society, Work and Politics Institute <a href="https://www.swop.org.za/">SWOP</a>) as a research unit in the early 1980s as a way of stimulating labour research and deepening his work with unions. The unit organised and financed research, held seminars and workshops, provided a home for students, and increasingly collaborated with colleagues at other universities and overseas. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/worker-organisations-can-survive-the-digital-age-heres-how-194379">Worker organisations can survive the digital age. Here's how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Eddie loved working with others, whether students or colleagues or trade unionists. He knew that ideas arose from wide reading, discussions and interactions, and frequently said “there is no such thing as an original idea”. For its students, staff, colleagues and associates SWOP stood out as a place of vibrant intellectual exchange and curiosity about each other’s work: it was an intellectual home and a place of comradeship and critique that felt unique in the university.</p>
<h2>Academic and teaching legacy</h2>
<p>Eddie was also a great teacher, bringing all of his passion for ideas and his vivid sense of history and change and struggle into the classroom, exciting students about the life of the intellect and the life of struggle. At SWOP he established the first internship programme for black postgraduate students to support and encourage them in what they often experienced as a hostile environment.</p>
<p>Eddie regularly undertook large-scale research projects and recruited numbers of students to participate in field research. This was another learning opportunity, where students immersed themselves in the collective quest for knowledge and began to see themselves as researchers.</p>
<p>In the midst of a multitude of projects, Eddie remained committed to his academic work, publishing a great volume and range of articles and books, and achieving honours and recognition globally.</p>
<p>His first book, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Cast_in_a_Racial_Mould.html?id=ewPUAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Cast in a Racial Mould</a>, based on his PhD, provided the intellectual foundation for the new discipline of industrial sociology in South Africa, developing an analysis of changing workplace technology and its impact on trade unionism – specifically the workings of race and class. This provided a material basis for understanding the emergence of the new black mass unionism. </p>
<p>His co-authored book <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444303018">Grounding Globalisation</a> provided a new account of globalisation and trade unions through a comparison of South Africa, Korea and Australia. Global scholars were inspired by it and it <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444303018">won a major prize</a> from the American Sociological Association. </p>
<p>His most recent book, <a href="https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/Recasting-Workers%EF%BF%BD-Power/?k=9781776148820">Recasting Workers’ Power</a>, written with Lynford Dor, returns full cycle to the themes of his first book, exploring the impact of technological change on the nature of work in the gig economy, and drawing lessons from forms of worker organisation and collective action that have been emerging across Africa.</p>
<p>Each of these books extends the boundaries of our knowledge by exploring the cutting edge of social change – in a sense helping us see the future and, indeed, helping to make it.</p>
<h2>A great love for life</h2>
<p>It is impossible to think about Eddie without thinking about <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/luli-callinicos-416446">Luli Callinicos</a>, historian and biographer, and the great love of his life. Indeed, she was the rock on which he built his achievements. I remember with great fondness the Greek Easter feasts shared at their home, and the many other gatherings with family, friends and colleagues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-racially-divided-south-africans-can-find-their-common-humanity-57136">How racially divided South Africans can find their common humanity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://sociology.berkeley.edu/alumni-manager/michael-burawoy">Michael Burawoy</a>, the great American sociologist and lifelong friend of Eddie, once told me that he had never laughed as much as he did when he was with Eddie and his colleagues from SWOP. Eddie enjoyed people and was deeply generous; he was a great raconteur, he loved being alive. Three weeks ago he was celebrated for his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bezparkrun/">200th Park Run</a> in one of Johannesburg’s large parks. Whatever he did he did fully, heart and soul. He was not bigger than life, he was big with life.</p>
<p>In later years he introduced himself as “a living ancestor”. Now he is simply our ancestor, one who has given us a huge legacy, a living legacy. It is time for us to reflect on his inspiration, burn <a href="http://phytoalchemy.co.za/2018/06/30/imphepho-is-not-a-smudge/">imphepho</a>, slaughter a cow and pour out the wine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karl von Holdt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Eddie Webster inspired generations of scholars with his vision and practice of critically engaged scholarship, in South Africa and worldwide.Karl von Holdt, Senior Researcher, Society Work and Politics Institute, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2249152024-03-03T14:27:16Z2024-03-03T14:27:16ZBrian Mulroney’s tough stand against apartheid is one of his most important legacies<p>With his <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/brian-mulroney-passes-away-1.7130287">passing</a> announced on Feb. 29, Canadians have cause to reflect on the legacy of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. What will last when the great book of history is written is that Mulroney played a central role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. </p>
<p>This contribution, along with Canada’s contributions to the First and Second World Wars and <a href="https://www.warmuseum.ca/learn/canada-and-peacekeeping-operations/">the creation of peacekeeping</a>, will stand among the great foreign policy contributions in Canadian history. </p>
<p>At the outset, we must acknowledge that apartheid — the system of racial separation and white domination of Blacks and others in South Africa — was <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-politics-explainer-the-end-of-apartheid-101602">brought down principally by South Africans themselves</a>. Their internal opposition to the regime, their mobilization of world opinion and action against it and their courage and moral clarity was a necessary condition for its end. </p>
<p>But the end of apartheid was accelerated by allies in the democratic West, and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-brian-mulroney-south-africa-ramaphosa/">at the head of that group stood Mulroney</a>. Indeed, there is good reason why <a href="https://macleans.ca/news/world/macleans-archives-mandelas-three-city-visit-to-canada/">Nelson Mandela made his first foreign visit to Canada’s Parliament</a> after his release from prison in February of 1990. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2015/12/08/statement-prime-minister-canada-former-prime-minister-brian-mulroney">South Africa awarded Mulroney its highest honour for foreign citizens</a> in 2015 for his “exceptional contribution to South Africa’s liberation movement and his steadfast support for the release of Nelson Mandela.”</p>
<p>It is important that we recognize this accomplishment not only for its moral merits, but because it can teach us how Canadian foreign policy — for moral and instrumental ends — can be done effectively. There are three lessons to learn (or relearn). </p>
<h2>Lesson 1: Mulroney recognized apartheid as indefensible</h2>
<p>Mulroney’s opposition to apartheid was not driven by simple domestic politics and certainly not by diasporic concerns. Opposition to apartheid was widely held in Canada in the late 1980s and it was a live issue. But it was not one that obviously favoured Mulroney politically. So, why did he oppose it? </p>
<p>First, the issue was to him one of simple justice and morality. Like his early political mentor, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1771019570">John Diefenbaker</a>, he thought the system was indefensible and immoral. It could not be redeemed by instrumental appeals to anti-Communism or whatever other realpolitik defences <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/brian-mulroney-legacy-south-africa-apartheid-1.7130982">U.S. President Ronald Reagan or U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher</a> advanced. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/brian-mulroney-champion-of-free-trade-brought-canada-closer-to-the-u-s-during-his-reign-as-prime-minister-224852">Brian Mulroney, champion of free trade, brought Canada closer to the U.S. during his reign as prime minister</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Second, he thought it was contrary to Canadian values, which have their roots in the founding of the country as a place dedicated to bringing different groups closer together, rather than farther apart. To maintain Canada’s credibility in the world as a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/middle-power">middle power</a>, Canada had to act in a way that was consistent with a system of values, and not simple power. </p>
<h2>Lesson 2: Mulroney leveraged political and personal power</h2>
<p>Mulroney was a master of the multilateral system. By the late 1980s, accelerating and amplifying pressure on apartheid South Africa required ever stronger and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/end-apartheid-steps">tighter sanctions</a>. This required as many nations as possible to agree to as strong a sanction regime as possible. </p>
<p>I had the opportunity to directly ask Mulroney about his international leadership in the campaign against apartheid. As director of the <a href="https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/conversation-rt-hon-brian-mulroney">Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy</a>, I hosted a conversation with Mulroney in September 2022. When I asked him how he used international institutions, Mulroney said:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>People who say that nations only have interests, no friendships, is nonsense. … Everybody has interests but also friendships. And you can’t deal at the international level with any hostility. You gotta try and bring people (together). Canada is a middle power. We’re not a superpower. So we have to leverage our assets as best we can.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WV3UKnrQBnQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The author of this article, Peter Loewen, in conversation with Brian Mulroney on Sept. 22, 2022, at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 1987 and 1988, Mulroney had managed to secure the chairmanship of three international organizations covering the majority of the democratic world: The Commonwealth, the G7 and the Francophonie. In each of those organizations, he built personal ties with leaders, reinforced by a deep appreciation for their own domestic concerns and motivations. </p>
<p>When push came to shove on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs.25.4.17">tightening sanction regimes,</a> he had both personal power and agenda-setting power. He could put apartheid on the agenda, and he could use the depth of relationships to push and pull leaders to his own position. We have not had a prime minister since who has combined institutional power and personal connection to such an effect. </p>
<h2>Lesson 3: Mulroney played a long game</h2>
<p>Mulroney played a long(ish) game. When South African President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/world/south-africa-s-new-era-mandela-go-free-today-de-klerk-proclaims-ending-chapter.html">F.W. de Klerk announced in February 1990 the immediate release of Mandela from a prison</a> off the coast of Cape Town, he did not simultaneously agree to dismantle the laws enforcing apartheid. </p>
<p>Despite this, by Mulroney’s telling, he was under immediate and intense <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/07/14/thatcher-and-mulroney-clash-on-sanctions-against-s-africa/125f7806-a7f5-46aa-85ec-8f49f8c7f991/">pressure from Thatcher</a> to support the lifting of sanctions. Mulroney refused to do so until the system of racial separation in law was dismantled. </p>
<p>The broader context is important here. The Berlin Wall had fallen the year before and the world was experiencing a menacing uncertainty. Mulroney knew that the creation of a broader <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/664d7fa5-d575-45da-8129-095647c8abe7">rules-based order</a> with greater international security, more trade and more, not less, reconciliation depended deeply on defending democratic values. Those values had to be as deeply defended in South Africa as they were in a soon reunified Germany. They could not be abandoned as soon as attention moved elsewhere. </p>
<h2>Mulroney’s legacy</h2>
<p>We can arrive at different judgments of Mulroney’s legacy. To me, it is one marked by huge success and risky failures — but always an ambition to do big, consequential things. But in the final judgment, his confrontation of apartheid married moral clarity and effective politics. If only our politics had that same leadership again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Loewen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Brian Mulroney’s role in the campaign against apartheid in South Africa can teach us how Canadian foreign policy can be done effectively.Peter Loewen, Director, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239832024-02-26T13:29:57Z2024-02-26T13:29:57ZSouth Africa’s apartheid legacy is still hobbling research – a study of geography shows how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576988/original/file-20240221-30-sh4e18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Inequalities persist in the field of academic human geography.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">erhui1979</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Knowledge matters. It informs how we think about the world around us. It informs our decisions and government policies, supporting economic growth and development. </p>
<p>Knowledge is also power. Certain types of knowledge <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2020.1775487">are given more value than others</a>. This is driven by histories of privilege. In South Africa, apartheid looms large <a href="https://www.nb.co.za/en/view-book?id=9780624088547">in debates</a> about how knowledge is produced. Though it formally ended 30 years ago, it still influences whose knowledge is considered “right” and whose is sidelined.</p>
<p>And this matters in everyday lives. For instance, health and medical research and instruction used to focus on white and male bodies. This has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03325-z#:%7E:text=Throughout%20history%2C%20racism%20and%20biases,Disease%20itself%2C%20has%20been%20racialised">directly affected</a> the provision and quality of healthcare. </p>
<p>Crucially, control over the production of knowledge provides political, economic and social power. This has real effects on education, healthcare, social policy and service delivery. </p>
<p>In a recent research paper we <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tran.12640">studied</a> how apartheid legacies continue to affect the work of universities in South Africa. In particular we looked at the outputs of the discipline of <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/geo-explainer-what-is-human-geography">human geography</a>, which is our specialisation. It’s the study of how space and time influence economic, social, political and cultural actions. </p>
<p>We found that universities that were historically more advantaged – that is, they served mostly white students – continue to outpace the country’s other institutions in terms of research output. This was true for quantity and quality of publication outputs in journal articles and academic books and chapters. </p>
<p>Our findings show that apartheid’s legacy continues to affect academic output. This suggests that not enough has been done to address inequalities around funding, networking and opportunities for international collaboration. It means that South Africa’s academic landscape continues to reflect the views of a privileged few.</p>
<p>We examined what drove these disparities, and identified strategies to begin shifting the dial.</p>
<h2>Historical background</h2>
<p>The history of South African human geography as a discipline is inextricably linked with colonialism. It was heavily influenced by conservative religious ideas and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315600635-3/social-change-re-radicalization-geography-south-africa-brij-maharaj-maano-ramutsindela">notions of racial superiority</a>. And <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03736245.2016.1220545">during the apartheid era</a> topics were deliberately studied with a notional “non-political” focus, or research was used to support apartheid legislation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colonial-legacies-shape-urban-nature-why-this-should-change-156334">Colonial legacies shape urban nature: why this should change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the 1970s some research began to emerge about how apartheid policies affected Black communities. This was a first. Research had largely <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030913258100500201">toed the apartheid government’s line</a> and not focused on the deleterious effects of segregation and oppression. </p>
<p>But, overall, universities either served white or “non-white” students. White universities were well-resourced while others were not.</p>
<p>After 1994, South Africa’s human geographers turned to policy-relevant work as the country embarked on building a democracy. They began to support post-apartheid priorities related to the economy, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0376835042000325697">small business</a> and spatial development.</p>
<h2>The same dominant hierarchies</h2>
<p>The transition from apartheid led to the opening of South African universities. The racial make-up of institutions began to change. And South African academics began re-engaging with global academia after isolationist apartheid policies were lifted and international boycotts ended.</p>
<p>However, clear resourcing differences and hierarchies remain between <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.52779/9781990995057/04">(historically) advantaged and disadvantaged institutions</a>. Consequently, the discipline remains dominated by a handful of departments. Their dominance is maintained by income generation (student fees, publication income, grants), networks – and prestige. </p>
<p>Our research shows that academics from historically disadvantaged institutions feel removed from these global and national networks.</p>
<p>We found a significant concentration of research outputs among a few (historically) advantaged institutions. This allows them to generate research income and mobilise international collaborations to fund larger projects. That allows academics to take on lighter teaching loads. And that gives them more time to conduct and publish research. </p>
<p>International collaborators are drawn by these institutions’ reputations, histories and resources. It’s easier for academics to visit international universities and participate in international funding applications. Such institutions are also able to support young human geography academics and encourage greater publication outputs in ways that under-resourced and small departments struggle to match.</p>
<p>Human geographers at historically advantaged universities have mobilised international networks to appoint overseas academics to honorary positions. These moves boost the institutions’ publication outputs – and their income from <a href="https://www.dhet.gov.za/SitePages/University%20Research%20Support%20and%20Policy%20Development.aspx">government subsidies and incentives</a>.</p>
<p>As one interviewee described it, the cycle of opportunity and prestige for historically advantaged institutions leaves</p>
<blockquote>
<p>historically Black institutions always on the back foot … the playing ground is not levelled.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>These challenges could be addressed in several ways. One approach might be for more resourced universities to support historically disadvantaged institutions in developing contacts, networks and strategic policies to attract and appoint visiting research fellows. This would open up opportunities for funding. That, ultimately, will lead to more research and knowledge being produced.</p>
<p>Many of our interviewees said that more collaboration was needed between historically advantaged and historically disadvantaged institutions. This should be encouraged. Human geographers from historically disadvantaged universities must be consulted about what kinds of support they need, rather than ideas being imposed by those from well-resourced institutions.</p>
<p>Other priorities could include stronger mentoring for early- and mid-career staff. Training is crucial, too, to develop skills in journal and grant writing. Even something as simple as institutions updating online staff profiles would be valuable. This helps to promote individuals’ research interests. It also supports network building and collaborations. </p>
<p>Perhaps, most of all, there’s a need – as one interviewee told us – to push for difficult conversations about inequalities and shortcomings to “shed light on what is missing”.</p>
<p>Ultimately, commitment is required to realise a more ethical South African human geography. The government, universities, and individual academics all have a role to play in fostering inclusion and collaboration that work beyond historical inequalities. This will help to make the sub-discipline more robust and cutting edge. And that’s ultimately beneficial to academics, students and the country at large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The cycle of opportunity and prestige for historically advantaged institutions leaves historically Black institutions on the back foot.Gijsbert Hoogendoorn, Professor in Tourism Geography, University of JohannesburgDaniel Hammett, Senior Lecturer in Political and Development Geography, University of SheffieldMukovhe Masutha, Senior Research Fellow, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187462024-02-20T13:14:07Z2024-02-20T13:14:07ZWomen in South Africa’s armed struggle: new book records history at first hand<p>South Africa’s young democracy was a culmination of years of sweat, blood and revolution against the apartheid regime. In the early 1960s, after decades of “<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1960-1966-genesis-armed-struggle">non-violence</a>” as a policy of resistance, the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) formed military wings to take the fight to the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>Based on the living record and popular discourse, it would be easy to assume that the struggle against apartheid was almost entirely the domain of men. But women played a crucial role – one which is only really coming to light today.</p>
<p>In her book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Guerrillas-and-Combative-Mothers-Women-and-the-Armed-Struggle-in-South/Magadla/p/book/9781032597249">Guerrillas and Combative Mothers</a>, political and international studies academic <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/politicalinternationalstudies/people/academic/profsiphokazimagadlahod/">Siphokazi Magadla</a> uses life history interviews to offer firsthand insights into women’s participation in the armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa from 1961 until 1994. She also examines the texture of their lives in the new South Africa after demobilisation.</p>
<p>Magadla interviewed women who fought with the ANC’s military wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK); the PAC’s military wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), formerly known as Poqo; and the paramilitary self-defence units in black urban residential areas. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573453/original/file-20240205-15-bk6g7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UKZN Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a sociologist interested in gender and sexuality, I was keen to read this book for the gendered experiences of liberation struggles. I read it alongside <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Guns_and_Guerilla_Girls/dK1borNjTBMC?hl=en&gbpv=1">other studies</a> about <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/The_Front_Line_Runs_Through_Every_Woman/foMvd3m6KDQC?hl=en&gbpv=0">women in southern African liberation wars</a>. </p>
<p>Much of the prevalent discourse about women’s wartime participation tends to centre on one question: why do revolutions and wars fail women? This discourse tends to, for example, heavily examine women’s experiences of sexual violence and victimisation in wars. It excludes their agency and contribution to wars. </p>
<p>But Magadla’s book, as well as the feminist analyses I read to complement it, widens the lens. She wants to know why women joined the armed struggle. How did women use or play with femininity and womanhood to optimise military effectiveness? How can women’s participation broaden our understanding of combat beyond direct physical fighting? And, lastly, how do women view their involvement in the revolutions that result? </p>
<h2>Broadening the definition of combat</h2>
<p>Some may argue that the women profiled by Magadla were not combatants. Few of them engaged in direct combat; that is, physical fighting on the battlefront. But the author urges us to widen the definition of combat. </p>
<p>Citing the South African political activist and academic <a href="https://raymondsuttner.com/about/">Raymond Suttner</a>, Magadla argues that apartheid was a war with no battlefront. Instead it occupied all corners of society. It was fought in homes, schools and churches. Women guerrillas put themselves at risk in different ways and relied on creative approaches to get close to potential targets. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/person-details/231">Thandi Modise</a>, who has served in South Africa’s parliament since 1994 and is currently the minister of defence and military veterans, is one of the women profiled in the book. She tells of carrying a handbag from which protruded a pair of knitting needles – an absolutely ordinary, nonthreatening sight – while she observed potential military targets. </p>
<p>On the rare occasions that women’s wartime participation is recognised in the wider discourse, they tend to be shown as armed revolutionaries who are, simultaneously, feminist icons. Images abound of these women soldiers toting AK47s, ready to shoot, or carrying rifles – and babies on their backs.</p>
<p>Magadla weaves in accounts throughout the book to disrupt this popular narrative. After all, it potentially erases those women who carried neither AK47s nor babies on their backs during the war for liberation. Some women hid bullets inside tampons to bring into the country for the war while others carried explosives in their purses. Some spent endless hours watching and testing for potential dangers and weaknesses in the apartheid military’s defences.</p>
<p>One example is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275874041_The_Road_to_Democracy_South_Africans_telling_their_stories_-_Nondwe_Mankahla">Nondwe Mankahla</a>, who, while working as a distributor for the New Age newspaper, simultaneously couriered bomb equipment for political activists Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba. </p>
<h2>Soldiers, not ‘she soldiers’</h2>
<p>Throughout the book, Magadla refuses to pigeonhole the participants. She recognises that their experiences vary and analyses how the women of MK negotiated its culture of patriarchy in a way that highlights the women’s agency without romanticising their struggles. </p>
<p>Women in MK were known as “flowers of the nation” or as <em>umzana</em> (a small home) of the organisation. Some of the women found the labels, <em>umzana</em> in particular, endearing. Others felt that they diminished women’s roles. Similarly, they resisted qualifiers such as “she comrades” and “she soldiers”.</p>
<p>But they did not want to erase their femininity. Some aspects of the patriarchal culture worked to the advantage of women both inside the organisation and in their encounters with the apartheid security police during operations. Women combatants could easily manipulate their femininity to defy the guerrilla image contained in <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-05-27-00-the-knitting-needles-guerrilla/">government propaganda</a>.</p>
<p>During the 1980s MK staged <a href="https://www.news24.com/News24/Secret-world-of-Operation-Vula-20040331">Operation Vula</a>, a mission to bring exiled leaders back into the country. <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/womanveteransreflectontheirrolesinsouthafricasarmedstruggle.html">Busisiwe Jacqueline ‘Totsie’ Memela</a> successfully smuggled anti-apartheid activists Mac Maharaj and Siphiwe Nyanda into South Africa from Swaziland (Eswatini). Magadla attributes her success to a combination of her military training and dynamic use of femininity: Memela dressed as a Swati woman while observing the border around the clock. </p>
<h2>A work of theorising</h2>
<p>Guerrillas and Combative Mothers is more than just a project to name the women who dedicated their lives to liberating South Africa. It also presents different ways of theorising. It raises an interesting methodological question about seeing the limits of verbal language and the utility of silence when <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011392104045377">dealing with traumatic events</a>. How do we analyse silence when the people’s wounds have not healed and therefore their lips remain sealed? </p>
<p>However, while Magadla’s argument is sophisticated, the language doesn’t “sweat”, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/95923/the-language-must-not-sweat">to quote Toni Morrison</a>. It remains simple and accessible to all audiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thoko Sipungu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The interviews in this book offer firsthand insights into women’s participation in the armed struggle against apartheid.Thoko Sipungu, Lecturer in Sociology, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223502024-02-06T18:08:20Z2024-02-06T18:08:20ZIsrael isn’t complying with the International Court of Justice ruling — what happens next?<p>More than a week has passed since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192">mandated provisional measures against Israel</a> following South Africa’s <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/node/203394">accusation of genocide</a>.</p>
<p>The court’s demands were clear: Israel must take immediate steps to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza; prevent and punish incitement to genocide; allow access to humanitarian aid; and prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged crimes. It must also report back to the court within a month on the implementation of these measures. </p>
<p>There’s little evidence Israel has changed course, despite these clear orders. In fact, reports from Gaza suggest <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/5/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-122">escalated violence and increased civilian casualties each day</a>. </p>
<h2>No adherence</h2>
<p>In the days since the Jan. 26 ICJ ruling, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-africa-israel-ignoring-court-ruling-ordering-prevent-106837772#:%7E:text=Since%20the%20ruling%2C%20Israel%20has,Ministry%20in%20Hamas%2Drun%20Gaza.">Israel has intensified its military operations</a>. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, more than <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-death-toll-in-gaza-nears-27000-66000-wounded">27,000 Palestinians have now been killed and more than 66,000 injured since the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023</a>. </p>
<p>Israel has also targeted several medical facilities in Gaza, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israeli-strikes-level-homes-in-deir-el-balah">including Nasser hospital</a>, since the ICJ ruling. Instead of halting acts that could constitute genocide under Article II of the Genocide Convention, Israel’s military operations have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/04/overnight-israeli-airstrikes-kill-gaza-fears-grow-push-rafah">expanded towards Rafah</a>, intensifying the already dire situation in the last refuge for Gaza’s displaced — despite being labelled as a safe zone for civilians. </p>
<p>The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called Rafah a “<a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-rafah-pressure-cooker-despair-assault-looms">pressure cooker of despair</a>.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1754202679885062579"}"></div></p>
<h2>In direct contravention</h2>
<p>On Feb. 5, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1754511426406744518">published an image</a> on social media showing its damaged food convoy, waiting to travel towards northern Gaza, after it said it was struck by Israeli naval gunfire. Such action would be in direct contravention of ICJ’s explicit order that Israel ensures basic services and humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza.</p>
<p>Israel is continuing to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/3/israel-floods-tunnels-with-seawater-what-impacts-on-gazas-water-supply#:%7E:text=Israel%20confirmed%20this%20week%20that,in%20the%20besieged%20Palestinian%20enclave.">pump seawater into tunnels throughout Gaza</a> in its assault on Hamas’s labyrinth of tunnels, which experts warn could render Gaza <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-s-flooding-of-gaza-tunnels-to-make-enclave-unlivable-for-100-years-environmentalist/3081432#:%7E:text=Israel%20begins%20to%20pump%20seawater,by%20Palestinian%20fighters%20in%20Gaza&text=Israel%27s%20pumping%20seawater%20into%20a,a%20Palestinian%20environmentalist%20warned%20Wednesday.">uninhabitable for 100 years</a> by contaminating underground fresh water. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1753734053168087327"}"></div></p>
<p>These developments underscore the gravity of the conditions in Gaza following the ICJ ruling, and highlight the urgent need for Israel to comply with the orders. </p>
<p>Despite this, there is hope of a potential reprieve as, according to Qatar, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/30/hamas-studying-ceasefire-plan">Hamas has received a new ceasefire proposal</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/02/israel-and-hamas-closer-to-ceasefire-deal-amid-warning-over-gaza-children">is reportedly responding positively to it.</a></p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The ICJ’s decision is legally binding, compelling Israel to adhere not only to the specific provisional measures, but also to the broader mandates of the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions.</p>
<p>But the ICJ relies on the United Nations Security Council to ensure compliance with its decisions, a process complicated by geopolitical realities, namely the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/26/how-the-us-has-used-its-veto-power-at-the-un-in-support-of-israel#:%7E:text=A%20history%20of%20US%20vetoes%20protecting%20Israel&text=Since%201945%2C%20a%20total%20of,two%20by%20Russia%20and%20China.">United States’ longstanding support of Israel</a> and its potential use of its veto power at the Security Council.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the ICJ ruling sends a clear message to the international community, especially to states allied with Israel, reminding them of the collective responsibility to respect and uphold international law.</p>
<p>As such, the implications of the decision extend well beyond the immediate parties involved. It raises concerns about Canada’s military exports, especially the <a href="https://www.cjpme.org/pr_2023_06_12_arms_exports">$21 million</a> of military equipment sent to Israel in 2022. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/ruling-by-uns-top-court-means-canada-and-the-u-s-could-be-complicit-in-gaza-genocide-222110">Legal experts</a> remind us that, in alignment with the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-19/page-4.html#h-203166">Export and Import Permits Act</a>, such transactions should cease if there’s a substantial risk the exported goods could contribute to violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ruling-by-uns-top-court-means-canada-and-the-u-s-could-be-complicit-in-gaza-genocide-222110">Ruling by UN's top court means Canada and the U.S. could be complicit in Gaza genocide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>After weeks of silence by the Canadian government, Global Affairs Canada <a href="https://www.readthemaple.com/trudeau-government-admits-it-authorized-new-israeli-military-exports-after-october-7/#:%7E:text=After%20October%207-,Trudeau%20Government%20Admits%20It%20Authorized%20New%20Military%20Exports%20To%20Israel,that%20term%20offers%20little%20reassurance.">says it’s authorized, and continues to authorize, new permits for military exports to Israel since Oct. 7</a>.</p>
<p>The ICJ ruling places Canada in a difficult spot. Continuing military exports under these circumstances would not only breach Canadian law, but also contravene the country’s commitment to preventing genocide, potentially implicating Canadian officials in these acts.</p>
<h2>The Global South strikes back?</h2>
<p>In a broader context, the ICJ’s involvement represents an example of the Global South striking back, as international law expert Heidi Matthews argues <a href="https://soundcloud.com/hmodpod/hmod-ep12-haguewars">in her podcast</a>. South Africa’s historical fight against apartheid has made the Palestinian cause resonate for South Africans, lending credibility and moral weight to its case against Israel. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, despite the hope that the Global South may begin to effectively hold powerful nations to account, the international reaction to the ICJ ruling has been notably ambivalent. </p>
<p>Within hours of the ICJ decision, the White House <a href="https://www.state.gov/statement-on-unrwa-allegations/">paused its funding</a> to the UNRWA <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/serious-allegations-against-unrwa-staff-gaza-strip">in the wake of Israeli allegations</a> that 12 of its staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10259619/canada-unrwa-funding/">Canada soon followed suit</a>.</p>
<p>Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-top-diplomat-says-defunding-unrwa-collective-punishment-will-endanger-lives/#:%7E:text=Funds%20paused%20by%20other%20donors,at%20stake%2C%22%20Borrell%20said.">recently noted</a> that the total suspended funds amount to more than US$440 million, which makes up half the agency’s expected funds for 2024.</p>
<p>Some nations aren’t following the U.S. lead. <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/spain-to-boost-funding-to-unrwa-after-donors-suspend-aid-264b7df6#:%7E:text=Spain%20said%20Monday%20that%20it,several%20nations%20suspended%20their%20funding.">Spain has announced an urgent aid package of $3.8 million to UNRWA</a> to ensure the organization can maintain its activities during this desperate situation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-unrwas-funding-will-have-dire-humanitarian-consequences-222586">Cutting UNRWA’s funding will have dire humanitarian consequences</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia has also signalled it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/wong-signals-labor-wants-to-resume-un-agency-funding-to-ensure-fewer-children-are-starving-in-gaza">will resume its funding to UNRWA to prevent more children from starving</a> given the lack of any sustainable alternative agencies to deliver aid to Gaza. Belgium has also announced it <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/belgium-to-continue-financial-support-to-unrwa/3125223#:%7E:text=%22Belgium%20will%20continue%20to%20fund,UNRWA%20must%20provide%20complete%20transparency.">will continue to provide funds to UNRWA</a> while monitoring the UN’s internal investigation. </p>
<p>Canada, meantime, says it will allocate an additional <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2024/01/canada-provides-additional-humanitarian-assistance-in-gaza.html">$40 million</a> to support the humanitarian efforts of other organizations. But the specifics haven’t been disclosed, and there are few other organizations with the <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/">expertise and infrastructure to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza</a>. </p>
<h2>Upholding international law</h2>
<p>The ICJ ruling calls for urgent action, not just from Israel, but also from the wider international community — including Canada — to uphold the tenets of international law and support humanitarian efforts.</p>
<p>Global Affairs Canada recently <a href="https://twitter.com/CanadaFP/status/1752333508884767096">stated on social media</a> that “Canada rejects any proposal that calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the establishment of additional settlements. Such inflammatory rhetoric undermines prospects for lasting peace.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1752333508884767096"}"></div></p>
<p>Some have labelled this statement as “<a href="https://twitter.com/aliceseba/status/1752345532843119069">empty words</a>,” given that Canada has yet to take clear actions following the ICJ decision, such as issuing sanctions against Israel or stopping arms exports. </p>
<p>Gazans are now <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/middleeast/famine-looms-in-gaza-israel-war-intl/index.html">eating grass and drinking polluted water</a> to stave off death. By choosing not to resume its financial support for UNRWA during this pivotal time, Canada is intensifying its complicity in potential genocidal acts. </p>
<p>It’s time to reinforce, not weaken the UNRWA. <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145987">UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged governments to resume funding</a>, otherwise UNRWA will be <a href="https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1753064498259189925">forced to shut down operations by the end of February</a> — not only in Gaza, but across the region. </p>
<p>The world is watching, and Canada’s actions now must showcase its commitment to justice, human rights and the rule of law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Basema Al-Alami does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is Israel changing course following the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice? It appears not, and that poses risks for the international community, including Canada.Basema Al-Alami, SJD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227652024-02-06T12:29:17Z2024-02-06T12:29:17ZZuleikha Mayat: South African author and activist who led a life of courage, compassion and integrity<p>Few Indian South African women have achieved wider public recognition than author, human rights and cultural activist <a href="https://salaamedia.com/2021/05/08/championpeople-meet-zuleikha-mayat-social-activist-and-renowned-author-of-indian-delights-cookbook/">Zuleikha Mayat</a>, who passed away on 2 February 2024. An honorary doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal was just one of many awards bestowed on her during a life that spanned almost 98 years. </p>
<p>Mayat was a remarkable pioneer, evocative writer, public speaker, civic worker, human rights champion and philanthropist. She was a staunch supporter of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/whither-palestine-ronnie-kasrils-19-may-2015-london">Palestinian freedom</a> and an end to Israeli apartheid and genocide. </p>
<p>I am a scholar of social justice issues in South Africa and have known Mayat for 49 years, through my friendship with her children. I assisted her with her last book, and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/dr-zuleikha-mayat-appreciation-saleem-badat">recently penned an e-book about her incredible life</a>. </p>
<p>She embodied principled, faith-based, socially committed, inspired leadership based on special talents and indomitable resilience, and upheld the dignity of all with whom she associated. In <a href="https://alqalam.co.za/zuleikha-mayat-93-a-true-indian-delight/">an interview in 2019</a> she said that she hoped to be remembered as “someone who interacted with everyone, no matter who they were, without prejudice”.</p>
<h2>Early life</h2>
<p>She was born on 3 August 1926 in Potchefstroom in South Africa’s North West province, the third-generation child of Indian-South African shopkeepers of Gujarati origins. In a country marked by racial divides even before the advent of apartheid in 1948, she learnt from her grandfather – <a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">as she later wrote</a> – that intermingling across social divides and boundaries was important, as was “learning the languages and folkways” of other social groups.</p>
<p>Her father was generous to poor people and drummed into her, <a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">she later reflected</a>, that “others have a share in our incomes”. For her “the Bounty of God is not just for a select few but must be shared” so that all “can benefit”. </p>
<p>The young Mayat read voraciously but racialism stifled her formal education. After grade 6 at the Potchefstroom Indian Government School there was no secondary school for Indians. Segregation (<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/control-1910-1948">1910-1948</a>), the precursor to apartheid, which legally entrenched racial classification and enforced segregation in all walks of life, meant separate schools for different “races” and the schools for whites would not enrol her. </p>
<p>Patriarchy also played a role. She was one of seven siblings; boys, like her three brothers, continued secondary education in other towns or cities “<a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">but sending daughters away was almost unheard of</a>”. And, so, her ambition to become a doctor was thwarted. </p>
<p>At age 14, as described in her 1996 book <a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">A Treasure Trove of Memories</a>: A Reflection on the Experiences of the Peoples of Potchefstroom, she discovered that she “had a gift as a writer, an intellectual orientation, and a capacity for expressing strong views”. A correspondence course boosted the “English in which (she) would come to write” prolifically. Later, she achieved a certificate in journalism.</p>
<h2>A letter to the editor</h2>
<p>1944 was a turning point. An 18-year-old Mayat posted a letter signed “Miss Zuleikha Bismillah of Potchefstroom” to the newspaper <a href="https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/keywords/indian-views">Indian Views</a>, which was published in Gujarati and English. The editor was M.I. Meer, father of human rights activist and scholar <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/professor-fatima-meer">Fatima Meer</a>. He published the letter, in which <a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">she</a> “argued for higher levels of education for girls” in a “style that revealed not only a principled passion concerning this matter but also her sharp wit”.</p>
<p>In 1954, aged 28, she invited friends to her small apartment in the coastal South African city of Durban. After supper, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/gender-modernity-indian-delights-womens-cultural-group-durban-1954-2010-goolam-vahed-and">Women’s Cultural Group</a> was founded. It sought to mobilise women for social change.</p>
<p>Fatima and her husband <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ismail-chota-meer">Ismail Meer</a> roped Mayat and her husband Mohammed into their revolutionary activities. While hiding from the apartheid authorities, activist and future president Nelson Mandela slept at the Mayat home a few times.</p>
<p>In 1961, she edited the famous <a href="https://www.spiceemporium.co.za/product/indian-delights-orange/">Indian Delights</a>, a recipe book, which flew off the bookshelves “<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/zuleikha-mayats-indian-delights-still-cooking-9845007">like hot samosas at a buffet</a>”. Several new editions have been published and it remains one of the best selling books in South Africa today.</p>
<p>Between 1956 and 1963 Mayat contributed a weekly column to Indian Views. Her column, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290929021_Fahmida%27s_worlds_Gender_home_and_the_Gujarati_Muslim_Diaspora_in_mid-20th_century_South_Africa">Fahmida’s World</a>, brought what academics Goolam Vahed and Thembisa Waetjen <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/gender-modernity-indian-delights">have described</a> as her “signature liveliness and humour, as well as a sharp moral eye, to bear on various topics”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/gender-modernity-indian-delights">In her columns</a>, she criticised social hierarchies, “ethnic and class prejudices” and racist and inhuman conduct, and commented on “the ethical triumphs and breaches of daily life”. </p>
<p>Mayat was involved in numerous institutions and organisations. These included the McCord Zulu Hospital, Shifa hospital, Black Women’s Convention, South African Institute of Race Relations, the Natal Indian Blind Society, and schools, old age homes and mosques.</p>
<p>And, throughout her life, she wrote.</p>
<h2>A life of writing</h2>
<p>In 1966 she compiled Quranic Lights, a book of prayers. <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-09-textiles-carry-a-living-history-in-nanimas-chest/">Nanima’s Chest</a> appeared in 1981 to promote the appreciation of traditional Indian textiles and clothing.</p>
<p><a href="https://iucat.iu.edu/iub/893561">A Treasure Trove of Memories</a>: A Reflection on the Experiences of the Peoples of Potchefstroom (1996) recounts growing up and life in her home town. South African scholar Betty Govinden <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Devarakshanam-Betty-Govinden/1751866409">called the book</a> “an important contribution to autobiographical fiction in this country”.</p>
<p>History: Muslims of Gujarat was published in 2008, the result of “inner urges” that compelled her to probe into her family’s distant past.</p>
<p>A year later came <a href="https://humanities.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/content_migration/humanities_uct_ac_za/1009/files/Devarakshanam_Govinden.pdf">Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn: The Letters of Zuleikha Mayat and Ahmed Kathrada 1979-1989</a>, based on 75 letters exchanged between herself and anti-apartheid giant <a href="https://theconversation.com/ahmed-kathrada-a-simple-life-full-of-love-after-26-years-of-incarceration-75361">Ahmed Kathrada</a> that covered culture, politics and religion.</p>
<p>Then in 2015 she published <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20150520/281526519639492">Journeys of Binte Batuti</a>, a travel memoir. And at age 95 Mayat published <a href="https://muslimviews.co.za/2021/07/30/a-new-book-by-the-evergreen-zuleikha-mayat/">The Odyssey of Crossing Oceans</a>, an enthralling and expansive narrative by a consummate storyteller, which embodied some of her philosophy of life. </p>
<h2>Justice and peace for all</h2>
<p>Post-1994, when democratic elections were held for the first time in South Africa, Mayat continued her fight for equity and social justice. She <a href="https://alqalam.co.za/zuleikha-mayat-sadly-india-has-departed-from-indian-nation-to-hindutva-nation/">spoke out</a> and marched against local and global injustices. </p>
<p>She was acutely aware that for many the world was an inhospitable place. She sought, <a href="https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/read-nelson-mandelas-inauguration-speech-president-sa">like Nelson Mandela</a>, “justice for all”, “peace for all” and “work, bread, water and salt for all” – for people to be “freed to fulfil themselves”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saleem Badat receives funding from the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. </span></em></p>Mayat embodied principled, faith-based, socially committed, inspired leadership.Saleem Badat, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226242024-02-05T14:20:21Z2024-02-05T14:20:21ZThirty years of rural health research: South Africa’s Agincourt studies offer unique insights<p><em>In 1992 a group of academics from the University of the Witwatersrand introduced a health and socio-demographic surveillance system in remote, rural South Africa to track and understand health and wellbeing in these environments. This initiative built on pioneering work by a Wits team to establish a health systems development unit in a typical rural setting. Agincourt, in the Bushbuckridge district in rural north-eastern South Africa adjacent to Mozambique, was a microcosm of the neglected health and socioeconomic systems in rural areas during apartheid.</em></p>
<p><em>The Agincourt research centre now covers some 31 villages and 120,000 people. It is one of the longest-running research centres of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, attracting multidisciplinary scholars and researchers from around the world. The scale of data collection has led to groundbreaking research in many fields, including genomics, HIV/Aids, cardiovascular conditions and stroke, cognition and ageing. Stephen Tollman and Kathleen Kahn talk to Nadine Dreyer about what makes this Wits and Medical Research Council Unit different, particularly its focus on health and ageing.</em></p>
<h2>Why is this work so important?</h2>
<p>Before the end of apartheid in 1994, healthcare provision was skewed towards a minority population who represented only <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636545">13%</a> of the country’s people. Healthcare for the majority of South Africans was woefully neglected. </p>
<p>As academics focusing on public health we wanted to understand rural South Africa, the people living away from the hospital, away from the train line, away from the supermarket or the town. Key to this was establishing a relationship of mutual trust and understanding between ourselves and those communities.</p>
<p>Drawing on early experiences with community-oriented primary care, we resolved to establish a longitudinal research and development platform. Today it covers some 31 villages in the Bushbuckridge area 500km from Johannesburg. This involved recording every member of every household – residents and temporary migrants.</p>
<p>We gathered valuable data on age, sex and gender, household type and income – producing a robust population “denominator”. To better understand evolving population dynamics, local field staff walked house-to-house meeting residents and recording data on vital events: who is born, who dies, who moves. In other words births, deaths and migrations.</p>
<p>We apply a simple concept called “person years”. At baseline, and with their consent, a person is enrolled. After five years, the person will have been there for five “person years”. Given a population of some 120,000 people, all followed up (including labour migrants) over 30 years, we can analyse and interpret data in a way that is not really possible with one-off, cross-sectional studies. </p>
<p>Today, the data generated over the past couple of decades is enabling work that was not possible in the early years. </p>
<h2>In 2013 a project was launched to focus on ageing. Why?</h2>
<p>Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (<a href="https://haalsi.org/data">Haalsa</a>) was started to build understanding of the social, economic, biological, behavioural and mental health features that characterise rural people aged 40 years and above.</p>
<p>Ageing is not only about old people; it starts at birth, even earlier, because experiences at key periods influence a person’s life. </p>
<p>Some time ago, we noticed a reversal in mortality was under way. People were dying at a younger age during the height of the HIV/Aids epidemic. </p>
<p>For women living in Agincourt, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4312-x">life expectancy</a> dropped from about 74 years in 1993 to around 57 years in 2005, a loss of 17 years. For men, it dropped from about 68 years in 1993 to 50 years in 2007. </p>
<p>As a result, fostering orphans became a norm. The importance of the older generation – especially of women – stood out. Far from seeing older adults as simply requiring healthcare and support in their later years, it became clear that older rural women played fundamental roles in childcare and household food security. </p>
<p>Of course men were involved too, but because of the way in which apartheid was engineered, women were generally expected to remain in the rural reserves while men migrated to work in the mines and cities. </p>
<p>What makes research in Agincourt so interesting and relevant is the rapidly changing socio-economic profile of the area. </p>
<p>Today we see an increase in life expectancy thanks largely to the widespread uptake of antiretroviral therapies for HIV/Aids. For women, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4312-x">life expectancy</a> had returned to around 70 years by 2013. For men it had increased to around 61 years by 2013.</p>
<p>This means that South Africa is also a “greying society” and more people face an increased risk of developing multiple chronic conditions along with cognitive impairment associated with growing older.</p>
<p>The changes in older people kick in far earlier in situations of adversity. In all probability, signs of ageing you might encounter in a 65-year-old in a high-income country would start to manifest in people aged 45 to 50 in situations of pervasive poverty. </p>
<h2>What stands out when you look back over 30 years?</h2>
<p>When Agincourt started, life was very different. </p>
<p>In the early 1990s when we worked in a small suite of offices at Tintswalo Hospital, there was simply a “wind-up” phone in the entrance to the unit. Now we’re all on email and using mobile phones. </p>
<p>Bushbuckridge has become the land of the shopping mall. Even a person living in what previously was talked about as a deep rural area can now easily reach a mall by taxi or walking. </p>
<p>The pace of social change has been extraordinary. </p>
<p>There’s tremendous poverty. But people are spending money. Some of it may be on credit, some may be earned income or from other sources. </p>
<p>The proportion of households with dwellings <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4312-x">built</a> with either brick or cement walls increased from 76% in 2001 to 98% in 2013. The use of <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4312-x">electricity</a> for lighting and cooking respectively increased from 69% and 4% of households in 2001 to 96% and 50% of households in 2013.</p>
<p>Migrant labour today involves large numbers of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/90009869">women</a>, especially younger adults. </p>
<p>Our research identified a high prevalence of HIV/Aids among <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7417014/#:%7E:text=Disease%20acquisition%20seems%20to%20stop,high%20risk%20of%20HIV%20">older</a> people. As a result we piloted a home-based testing option for middle-aged and older adults, with promising results.</p>
<p>We are seeing an association between formal education and cognition. At a population level, <a href="https://karger.com/ned/article/55/2/100/226666/Incidence-of-Cognitive-Impairment-during-Aging-in">formal education</a> protects against conditions like dementia later in life – an insight that is important in an area with historically poor educational opportunity and attainment. </p>
<p>Another surprising – and welcome – finding is that levels of hypertension are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36752095/">falling</a>. This is especially encouraging because sub-Saharan Africa is in the midst of a profound health transition with infectious diseases paralleled by rapidly rising cardiometabolic conditions. </p>
<p>Despite all these changes, we’re still asking the question that’s guided us from the start: How do you build flourishing societies in a context where jobs are scarce, migrant labour is deeply embedded, but where aspirations and the desire to live a life of meaning are evident?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Tollman receives funding from the SAMRC, Dept of Science and Technology SA, National Institutes of Health USA, UK Medical Research Council, and, previously, Wellcome Trust UK. He is affiliated with the SA Population Research Infrastructure Network and INDEPTH Network of population-based health and socio-demographic information systems.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span> Kathleen Kahn receives funding from the South African Medical Research Council, Dept of Science and Innovation SA, and the National Institute on Aging, USA.
</span></em></p>Agincourt, the University of the Witwatersrand’s rural research centre 500km from Johannesburg, has documented the lives of 120,000 people over decades.Stephen Tollman, Director: MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), University of the WitwatersrandKathleen Kahn, Professor: Health and Population Division, School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204492024-01-21T12:59:15Z2024-01-21T12:59:15ZWestern moral credibility is dying along with thousands of Gaza citizens<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/western-moral-credibility-is-dying-along-with-thousands-of-gaza-citizens" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The western world’s <a href="https://aje.io/f6eanz">feeble response</a> to Israel’s attack on Gaza has severely damaged the West’s already tenuous moral credibility in the Global South and undermined the foundations of the human rights regime and international law developed after the Second World War.</p>
<p>The West claims it champions a liberal <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/maintaining-the-rules-based-international-order-is-in-everyones-best-interests/">rules-based international order</a> and human rights on the global stage. This rhetoric now appears <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/16/israels-war-on-gaza-and-the-wests-credibility-crisis">completely disingenuous</a> to most of the Global South. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ukraine-russia-war-looks-very-different-outside-west-n1294280">The West’s inability to rally the world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects the Global South’s rejection of what it views as western hypocrisy</a>. Few states supported Russia, but fewer accepted the West’s claim that punishing Russia was a “<a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/moral-imperative-supporting-ukraine">moral imperative</a>” when the western commitment to morality is so selective. </p>
<p>This has been particularly exemplified by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/9/16/annan-us-invasion-of-iraq-was-illegal">the illegal invasion of Iraq</a> by the United States in 2003 and Israel’s <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/ceirpp-legal-study2023/">illegal occupation</a> of Palestine.</p>
<h2>Russia condemned, Israel supported</h2>
<p>The West’s position on Gaza has done even more consequential damage to the notion of western global “leadership.” Even as Russia <a href="https://onu.delegfrance.org/russia-is-once-again-targeting-civilian-infrastructure">escalates its violence against civilians</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russias-new-missile-attacks-target-ukraines-arms-makers-and-logistics-2024-1">infrastructure in Ukraine</a>, most Global South states find the American condemnation of Russia <a href="https://thenewamerican.com/world-news/middle-east/turkey-accuses-west-of-hypocrisy-on-ukraine-and-gaza/">grotesquely hypocritical</a> as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/26/why-us-double-standards-on-israel-and-russia-play-into-a-dangerous-game">the United States supports Israel’s war in Gaza</a> an attacks on civilians that are even more devastating than Russia’s. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war">Hamas launched a brutal attack</a> on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But one war crime shouldn’t justify another. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/27/how-does-international-humanitarian-law-apply-israel-and-gaza">What Israel has done to Gaza in response</a> is exponentially worse in terms of the loss of human life and the widespread infliction of human suffering.</p>
<p>Israel is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza">using starvation</a>, dehydration and disease as weapons of war against a captive population of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25/over-2000-children-killed-in-gaza-a-stain-on-our-collective-conscience#:%7E:text=Children%20make%20up%20roughly%2050,Middle%20East%20and%20North%20Africa.">2.3 million people, half of whom are children</a>. </p>
<h2>Long list of atrocities</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/health-organisations-disease-gaza-population-outbreaks-conflict">American public health researcher Devi Sridhar projects that 500,000 Palestinians</a> may die of preventable diseases in 2024 if the war continues. More than 400,000 Gazans are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/children-skeletons-rising-hunger-gaza-famine/">experiencing severe hunger now</a>, with the entire population at risk of famine. <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/intensifying-conflict-malnutrition-and-disease-gaza-strip-creates-deadly-cycle-threatens-over-11-million-children-enar">Rates of diarrhea in children under four</a> are 100 times the norm. </p>
<p>Israel is indiscriminately bombing civilians <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/israel-gaza-bombing-hamas-civilian-casualties-1.7068647">with an intensity not seen since the Second World War</a>. It’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/31/israeli-bombardment-destroyed-over-70-of-gaza-homes-media-office#:%7E:text=War%20on%20Gaza-,Israeli%20bombardment%20destroyed%20over%2070%25%20of%20Gaza%20homes%3A%20Report,most%20destructive%20in%20modern%20history.">destroyed more than 70 per cent of the homes in Gaza</a> and has bombed areas that it declared safe for refugees. </p>
<p>Gaza’s health-care system has collapsed. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/middleeast/gaza-children-losing-legs-disease-intl-hnk/index.html">Children’s limbs are being amputated</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-29/being-pregnant-in-gaza-unsafe-women-paying-heaviest-price-in-war/103241724">pregnant women are enduring Caesarean sections without anesthetic</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/08/the-numbers-that-reveal-the-extent-of-the-destruction-in-gaza">On average, Israel is killing 160 civilians a day</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/23/gaza-media-office-says-100-journalists-killed-since-israeli-attacks-began#:%7E:text=Journalists%20working%20in%20areas%20of,them%20to%20silence%20their%20stories.">including journalists</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/5/gazas-entrepreneurs-are-being-killed-by-israel">and the</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2023/12/22/israel-gaza-war-why-are-culture-and-society-targets">cultural and intellectual elites of Gaza are being targeted</a>. </p>
<p>This list of atrocities goes on and on. International aid workers say Israel’s attack on Gaza is <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/heads-of-humanitarian-groups-say-gaza-nightmare-is-worst-theyve-ever-seen/">the worst situation they have ever seen</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1734386240777048555"}"></div></p>
<h2>Violations of international law</h2>
<p>The West’s failure to protect the rights of Palestinians under international law contributed directly to this disaster.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">For decades, Israel has blatantly violated international law in its treatment of Palestinians.</a> In contravention of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel settled occupied Palestine and employed progressively more violent and oppressive instruments of control to consolidate that settlement. </p>
<p>Israel kept Gaza under a 16-year <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/07/israels-collective-punishment-palestinians-illegal-and-affront-justice-un">illegal blockade</a> that created mass poverty and left <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1172086/">Gazan children malnourished</a> and without access to potable water. </p>
<p>Today, Jewish settlers and the Israeli military are using the distraction of the Gaza war to displace Palestinians from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-settlers-violence-israel-palestinians-1.7019263">large parts of the occupied West Bank</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-scene-in-the-west-banks-masafer-yatta-palestinians-face-escalating-israeli-efforts-to-displace-them-221104">The scene in the West Bank's Masafer Yatta: Palestinians face escalating Israeli efforts to displace them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If the West had held Israel to account, Oct. 7 might never have happened. Palestinians may have had their own state. Instead, the U.S. <a href="https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-us-has-used-its-power-un-support-israel-decades">has used its veto in the United Nations 45 times since 1972</a> to protect Israel from the consequences of its actions.</p>
<p>The West’s leaders have effectively sided with the occupier against the occupied, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of an <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity">increasingly brutal apartheid state</a>. </p>
<h2>Valuing the rule of law</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1224273842/south-africa-outlines-genocide-case-against-israel-at-international-court-of-jus">South Africa recently accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ)</a>. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/read-the-full-application-bringing-genocide-charges-against-israel-at-un-top-court">South Africa’s turn to international law to stop the war</a> illustrates that states in the Global South value the rule of law. </p>
<p>Most states understand their self-interest in maintaining the legitimacy of the international legal system. <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248642/gaza-its-all-black-and-white-and-very-simple">It’s the West, led by the U.S.</a>, <a href="https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2022-01-11-us-makes-a-mockery-of-international-law/">that has most frequently abused</a> <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ukraine-russia-war-looks-very-different-outside-west-n1294280">the rules it claims to support</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/namibia-condemns-germany-for-defending-israel-in-icj-genocide-case">Namibia has condemned Germany’s support for Israel</a> at the ICJ, asserting that Germany has learned nothing from its genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples between 1904 and 1908. The Israel-Hamas conflict is presented in the West through a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/21/the-anatomy-of-zionist-genocide">European, colonial mindset</a> that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3011576">rationalizes the history</a> of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/palestinian-demands-for-liberation-must-never-be-ignored-again/">the displacement of Palestinians</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/10/us-islamophobia-antisemitism-hate-speech-israel-hamas-war-gaza">the U.S.</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/7/why-is-germany-so-viciously-anti-palestinian">Germany</a>, the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/17/israels-war-on-gaza-triggered-a-war-on-free-speech-in-the-west">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248079/yes-mainstream-media-are-biased-against-palestinians">elsewhere in the West</a>, <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/29/steinberg-weaponizing-antisemitism/?fbclid=IwAR1tW8prmPEBaWlxQIcNzEYH-z4XGggMxQXeuB7oM7fmgNlmvgqnhmfU9aM">anti-Semitism has been weaponized</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/22/harvard-law-pro-palestinian-letter-gaza-israel-censorship">silence pro-Palestinian voices</a>. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/16/high-profile-hosts-sacking-from-australian-broadcaster-sparks-outrage">Numerous reporters have been fired</a> for offending pro-Israel sensibilities. </p>
<h2>Disillusionment grows</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna133799">protests against the war continue unabated</a> and Israel <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/16/israel-palestine-quinnipiac-poll-00127726">is losing the youth of America</a>. Eventually, this could have serious political consequences, but that won’t save Palestinians today.</p>
<p><a href="https://thenewamerican.com/world-news/middle-east/turkey-accuses-west-of-hypocrisy-on-ukraine-and-gaza/">Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, recently said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What happened in Gaza has caused the West and Europeans to suddenly lose all their reputation and all the credit they had accumulated. They have spent all their credit in the eyes of humanity, and especially our generation. It won’t be easy for them to get it back.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The West no longer has credibility when it criticizes Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar or any other state for human rights abuses or breaches of international law. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/17/gaza-will-be-the-grave-of-the-western-led-world-order">Disgust</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/16/israels-war-on-gaza-and-the-wests-credibility-crisis">disillusionment with the West</a> is growing in the Global South. <a href="https://odi.org/en/insights/humanitarian-hypocrisy-double-standards-and-the-law-in-gaza/">Western hypocrisy in Gaza</a> is having real geopolitical implications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Narine has contributed to Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Jewish Voice for Peace.</span></em></p>The West no longer has credibility when it criticizes Russia, China or any other state for human rights abuses or breaches of international law due to its feeble response to Israel’s assault on Gaza.Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205582024-01-04T15:31:23Z2024-01-04T15:31:23ZPeter Magubane: courageous photographer who chronicled South Africa’s struggle for freedom<p><a href="https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/tributes-magubane-continue">Peter Sexford Magubane</a>, a courageous South African photographer whose images testify to both the iniquity of apartheid and the determination and devotion of those who brought about its demise, <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2024-01-02-peter-magubane-photographer-who-documented-apartheid-dies-aged-91/">passed away</a> at 91 years of age in early January 2024.</p>
<p>Magubane leaves behind a vast archive of extraordinary images, many of which continue to be the signature images of some of the worst atrocities committed by the apartheid regime.</p>
<p>The photographer suffered <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/peter-sexford-magubane">great losses</a> during apartheid. In 1969 Magubane spent 586 days in solitary confinement. In 1976 his home was burnt down. He miraculously survived being shot 17 times below the waist at the funeral of a student activist in Natalspruit in 1985. His son Charles was brutally murdered in Soweto in 1992. </p>
<p>Despite the pain and suffering he witnessed and experienced, Magubane’s photographs testify to the hope that is at the heart of the struggle for a just world.</p>
<h2>Witness to momentous events</h2>
<p>Magubane grew up in Sophiatown, a mixed-race area around 5km from the centre of the city of Johannesburg. He not only witnessed, but also took part in, many of the most significant events in modern South African history. </p>
<p>He was 16 years old when the white supremacist <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party came to power in 1948</a> and he came of age as the state introduced a series of repressive laws implementing the system of apartheid. These laws were to shape the course of Magubane’s life. </p>
<p>They included the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/group-areas-act-1950">Group Areas Act (1950)</a>, which dictated where people were permitted to live based on the colour of their skin, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/DC/leg19500707.028.020.030/leg19500707.028.020.030.pdf">the Population Registration Act (1950)</a>, which classified all South Africans by race, and the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv01538/04lv01828/05lv01829/06lv01852.htm">Native Laws Amendment Act (1952)</a>, which required all Black South Africans to carry a “passbook”. Referred to as the “dompas”, the document was used to control and restrict the movement of black South Africans. </p>
<p>In 1955, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/destruction-sophiatown">Sophiatown was demolished</a>, and its 60,000 residents were forcibly removed. Magubane’s family were forced to relocate to Soweto. His images focusing on life in the township were later to form the subject of several of his books. </p>
<p>In 1952 the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defiance-campaign-1952">Defiance Campaign</a> saw widespread non-violent resistance to the hated dompas across the country. It was in this incendiary political atmosphere that Magubane found his calling as a photographer. </p>
<p>In 1954, Magubane began working at <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/drum-magazine">Drum magazine</a> as a driver. The magazine, founded in 1951 and modelled on picture magazines like <em>Life</em> and <em>Picture Post</em>, was to take the lead in changing how Black South Africans were represented in the media. Within three months Magubane had taken up a position as a darkroom assistant. He soon began to work as a photographer under the tutelage of <em>Drum’s</em> chief photographer and picture editor, <a href="https://www.jurgenschadeberg.com/">Jürgen Schadeberg</a>. Magubane rapidly secured his place as one of the great photojournalists of his generation, alongside <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/alfred-khumalo">Alf Kumalo</a>, <a href="https://baha.co.za/">Bob Gosani</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ernest-cole">Ernest Cole</a>. </p>
<p>By the mid-1950s, it became mandatory for Black women to carry passes and in 1956, 20,000 women, united under the banner of the Federation of South African Women, marched in protest to the seat of government, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria-9-august">the Union Buildings in Pretoria</a>. Magubane documented this march and continued to pay close attention to the central role of women in the struggle against apartheid throughout his career. Many of these images are collected in his 1993 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-South-Africa-Their-Freedom/dp/0821219286">Women of South Africa: Their Fight for Freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Between 1956 and 1961, Magubane took photographs of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/treason-trial-1956-1961">Treason Trial</a>, which saw 156 national leaders tried for high treason after the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/what-happened-at-the-treason-trial-africa-media-online/bQVR8md1REM3Iw?hl=en">Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1956</a>. Among the accused were leading members of the African National Congress and of the Congress Alliance, including Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph, Ruth First and Bertha Mashaba. </p>
<p>During this period Magubane was arrested four times and frequently harassed and assaulted by the police. </p>
<p>He was one of the photographers who documented the immediate aftermath of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville Massacre</a> on 1 March 1960. On that day more than 7,000 people gathered outside a police station at Sharpeville, a place not far from the city of Johannesburg, to protest against being forced to carry passbooks. Arriving without their passes, their intention was to give themselves up for arrest. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/david-goldblatt-photographer-who-found-the-human-in-an-inhuman-social-landscape-98984">David Goldblatt: photographer who found the human in an inhuman social landscape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Police officers opened fire and shot 13,000 bullets into the crowd. Official records stated that 69 people were killed, and over 300 wounded, although <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharpeville-new-research-on-1960-south-african-massacre-shows-the-number-of-dead-and-injured-was-massively-undercounted-217828">recent reports</a> suggest the casualties were much higher.</p>
<p>Magubane’s photograph of a seemingly endless row of coffins receding into the distance, awaiting burial, their dark wooden surfaces almost white in the sun’s glare, conveys the terrible magnitude of the massacre. Alongside the coffins are a priest in white robes and hundreds of mourners dressed in dark suits. A woman in a black dress stands near the mass gravesite and holds a white cloth to her mouth in a gesture of profound grief. </p>
<p>The image is both chilling and portentous – as curator Okwui Enwezor has <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Fall-Apartheid-Photography-Bureaucracy/dp/3791352806">noted:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>the events of that day produced the picture of the funeral as one of the central iconographic emblems of the anti-apartheid struggle. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Magubane’s images of Sharpeville were published in <em>Life</em> magazine and played a key role in bringing the brutality of the apartheid state to global notice. </p>
<p>On 16 June 1976, young people of Soweto <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">rose up in protest against being forced to learn in Afrikaans</a>. Magubane convinced the students of the importance of producing a visual record of the struggle. </p>
<p>Photographs he took that day were published as a <a href="https://www.protestinphotobook.com/post/june-16-the-fruit-of-fear">book</a>, Soweto 1976: The Fruit of Fear, to commemorate the terrible events that took place that day, when the police killed between 400 and 700 protesters and injured thousands more. </p>
<p>Among the many powerful images Magubane made at that time is a photograph of two women walking in a dusty street, their faces displaying signs of terrible pain. One of the women has a large tear in her abdomen, an open wound that forms a dark hole at the side of her body. Her slender hands are beautiful, and their perfect smoothness accentuates the brutal rupture where her skin has been broken. </p>
<p>The immediacy of the image is striking and is all the more remarkable with the knowledge that the bullet that pierced the young women’s body had just narrowly missed Magubane’s face. </p>
<h2>The archive</h2>
<p>Magubane published more than 20 books. In 2018 his work <a href="https://proto.a4arts.org/products/on-common-ground-2018">was exhibited</a> in a major retrospective, On Common Ground, alongside that of another renowned South African photographer, <a href="https://www.plparchive.com/david-goldblatt-main/">David Goldblatt</a>. </p>
<p>In 1999, Magubane <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/peter-magubane-timeline-1932">was awarded</a> the Order of Meritorious Service by President Nelson Mandela, <a href="https://southafrica.co.za/peter-magubane-receives-the-order-of-meritorious-service-silver-class-ii-from-president-nelson-mandela.html">who stated</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For his bravery and courage during the dark days of apartheid, Peter became a beacon of hope not only to thousands of journalists all over the world but also to millions of people across our country.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He received <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/peter-magubane-timeline-1932">numerous awards</a> for his work, including the Robert Capa Award (1986), Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mother Jones Foundation (1997), the ICP Cornell Capa award (2010), and several honorary doctorates. He served as Nelson Mandela’s photographer from 1990 to 1994.</p>
<p>Magubane’s indomitable spirit and compassionate vision live on through his work. <em>Hamba kahle.</em> (Go well.)</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kylie Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Magubane’s photographs testify to the hope that is at the heart of the struggle for a just world.Kylie Thomas, Senior Researcher and Senior Lecturer (Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork), NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159232024-01-02T07:10:47Z2024-01-02T07:10:47ZCoca-Cola in Africa: a long history full of unexpected twists and turns<p><em>A new book called <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/bottled/#:%7E:text=Sara%20Byala%20charts%20the%20company%27s,but%20rather%20of%20a%20company">Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African</a> tells the story of how the world’s most famous carbonated drink conquered the continent. It’s a tale of marketing gumption and high politics and is the product of years of research by critical writing lecturer <a href="https://www.sarabyala.com">Sara Byala</a>, who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=sara+byala&btnG=">researches</a> histories of <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226030449/html">heritage</a>, <a href="https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Water-Waste-Energy_sm-1.pdf">sustainability</a> and the ways in which capitalist systems intersect with social and cultural forces in Africa. We asked her some questions about the book.</em></p>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/coca-cola-in-africa-a-long-history-full-of-unexpected-twists-and-turns-215923&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<h2>What do you hope readers will take away?</h2>
<p>There are three main takeaways. The first is that while Africa is largely absent from books on Coca-Cola, the company’s imprint on the continent is enormous. It is present in every nation. Most estimates put Coke as one of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/africa/coca-cola-africa-mpa-feat/index.html">largest private employers</a> in Africa, if not the largest. Beyond official jobs, the company has been shown to have <a href="https://docplayer.net/11916251-The-economic-impact-of-the-coca-cola-system-on-south-africa.html">a multiplier effect</a> that means that for each official job, upwards of 10 other people are supported. </p>
<p>The second takeaway is that Coke’s story in Africa is an old one. It starts with its use of the west African <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160922-the-nut-that-helped-to-build-a-global-empire">kola nut</a>, from which it takes its name (if no longer <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/pop-quiz-whats-in-a-coca-cola-if-its-not-coca-or-the-kola-nut/">its source of caffeine</a>). Arriving in Africa in the early 1900s, it’s a story that is deeply and, often surprisingly, entangled with key moments in African history. This includes the end of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> in South Africa and the advent of postcolonial African nations.</p>
<p>Third, I want readers to see that while we may assume that a multinational company selling carbonated, sugary water is inherently a force for ill, both the history of Coke in Africa and my fieldwork suggest a far more complicated story. Coca-Cola is what it is today in Africa, I argue, because it became local. It bent to the will of Africans in everything from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalCopaCocaCola/about">sport</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/cokestudioAfrica">music</a> to <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/social/project-last-mile">healthcare</a>. Its ubiquity thus tells us something about African engagement with a consumer product as well as the many ways in which ordinary people wield power. </p>
<h2>How did Coca-Cola first arrive in Africa?</h2>
<p>Coca-Cola doesn’t export a finished product from its corporate headquarters in the US. It sells a <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/about-us/coca-cola-system">concentrate</a>, which comes from a handful of locations around the globe, including Egypt and Eswatini. This concentrate is sold to licensed bottlers who then mix it with local forms of sugar and water before carbonating and bottling or canning it. </p>
<p>Coca-Cola <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/xe/en/media-center/95-years-operations-community-impact">lore</a> says that the company first secured local bottlers for its concentrate in South Africa in 1928, its first stop on the African continent. By combing through old newspapers, archival documents, and pharmaceutical publications, however, I found evidence to suggest that Coke may in fact have been sold in 1909 in Cape Town as a short-lived soda fountain endeavour. This is just 23 years after the product was invented in Atlanta, Georgia. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1WSRt-lVuWE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>It was neither easy nor assured that Coca-Cola would take off anywhere in the world upon its arrival. The early chapters of my book detail the often ingenious lengths that bottlers had to go to to get Coke off the ground. This included creating a new line of sodas to support the fledgling product called <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/za/en/brands/sparletta">Sparletta</a>. This includes <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/ng/en/brands/sparletta">green Creme Soda</a> and <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/ng/en/brands/Stoney">Stoney ginger beer</a>, both still available for purchase. Later chapters explore the routes by which the product spread across the continent, by detailing everything from the co-branding of petrol stations with Coca-Cola, to the rise of Coke beauty pageants, the birth of local forms of Coke advertising, the proliferation of Coca-Cola signage, and much more. </p>
<h2>What role did it play in apartheid South Africa?</h2>
<p>Coca-Cola was entrenched in South Africa before the advent of the racist, white minority <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> state in 1948. While the company largely attempted to stay out of politics in South Africa, much as it did elsewhere in the world, it resisted certain “petty apartheid” rules. For example, the washrooms and lunchrooms in its plants were open to all ethnic groups, unlike the “whites only” facilities established under apartheid. A turning point came in the 1980s when, in tandem with <a href="https://blackamericaweb.com/2014/08/10/little-known-black-history-fact-operation-push-boycotts/">activism in the US</a> calling on the company to redress racial imbalances in America, the company was forced to reexamine its racial politics in South Africa as well.</p>
<p>What followed was perhaps the most interesting chapter in the story of Coca-Cola in Africa. Breaking with established precedent, the company took a stance against the apartheid state. Coca-Cola executive Carl Ware led the way here. Under his <a href="https://www.carlwareauthor.com/">direction</a>, the company crafted a unique form of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-18-mn-11241-story.html">disinvestment</a> that enabled it to do what no other company managed: keep the products in the country while depriving the apartheid state of tax revenue. To do this, the company <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/09/18/coke-to-sell-all-holdings-in-s-africa/495f0069-2682-4d67-8769-506f4fbd2d83/">sold all its holdings</a> to a separate business that continued to sell Cokes. It then moved its concentrate plant to neighbouring Eswatini, leaving Coca-Cola with no assets or employees in South Africa.</p>
<p>In part, this was possible because the company aligned itself with the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/17/mandelas-stops-during-us-tour-reflect-anc-political-concerns/f41a84a3-4aa5-462f-abc3-fc2a9213bb58/">African National Congress (ANC)</a>, making a host of moves to help to end apartheid. These included meeting in secret with ANC leadership, funding clandestine meetings between the ANC and businesspeople, and setting up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/24/us/coca-cola-giving-10-million-to-help-south-africa-blacks.html">a charitable fund</a> headed by <a href="https://saportareport.com/atlanta-leaders-to-pay-special-tribute-to-desmond-tutu-sept-28/sections/reports/maria_saporta/">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</a> to support Black educational empowerment. In the book, I document these activities for the first time with extensive interviews and archival material.</p>
<p>It was during this era of disinvestment that Coca-Cola exploded within densely populated and remote parts of the country, providing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/26/business/putting-africa-coke-s-map-pushing-soft-drinks-continent-that-has-seen-hard-hard.html">on-ramps to economic participation</a> for scores of South Africans that were later replicated with its global <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/pk/en/about-us/faq/what-is-5by20-0">5x20 project</a> to empower women in business. </p>
<p>This spread in turn drove the consumption of liquid sugar to new heights, causing a host of other problems such as <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1573448/sugar-tax-pits-jobs-versus-health-diabetes-in-south-africa">diabetes and dental cavities</a>, which both the company and my book tackle too. </p>
<p>What I demonstrate in the book is that Coca-Cola’s shrewd positioning at the end of apartheid allowed it to emerge, in the post-apartheid landscape, ready not only to renew business in South Africa, but also to reinvigorate its presence on the continent at large. The question is how to weigh this spread (and its attendant benefits) against the costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Byala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coca-Cola has often been entangled with key political moments in Africa since its arrival in the early 1900s.Sara Byala, Senior Lecturer in Critical Writing, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2191322023-12-14T13:39:33Z2023-12-14T13:39:33ZCreative writing can help improve one’s health: a South African study shows how<p>From the beginning of recorded history, people in diverse cultures have embraced the idea that creative expression, including visual art, stories, dance and music, contributes to healing.</p>
<p>In recent times the therapeutic benefit of expressive writing has been well researched in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388118306157?via%3Dihub">global north</a>, but not in the global south. This is a significant gap because potentially healing interventions need to be investigated in different contexts, particularly where trauma, limited resources and a need to build a caring and compassionate society exist.</p>
<p>A recently published <a href="https://protect-za.mimecast.com/s/5OSqC0go6LfGj8lE0hDxRVl">paper</a> analysed the findings of a study among a diverse group of South Africans who were members of a writing group, the <a href="https://liferighting.com/">Life Righting Collective</a>. Medical students at the University of Cape Town interviewed 20 members of the collective as part of a medical humanities study module.</p>
<p>We were co-authors of the paper. The research team included medical practitioners, medical students and academics with interests in mental health and
<a href="https://health.uct.ac.za/primary-health-care/phc-approach/medical-humanities">medical humanities</a>. Two authors also facilitate Life Righting Collective life writing courses.</p>
<p>Most participants reported improvements in overall wellness and mental health as a result of these writing courses, in line with <a href="http://www.gruberpeplab.com/teaching/psych3131_summer2015/documents/14.2_Pennebaker1997_Writingemotionalexperiences.pdf">other research findings</a> which show that creative writing can promote healthier choices as well as improve relationships, mental health and work prospects.</p>
<p>The research findings indicate that the courses can be a useful, non-medical, cost-efficient method to improve psychological well-being.</p>
<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>The Life Righting Collective promotes creativity as an innate resource for processing one’s experiences. Writing courses of different lengths accommodate between eight and 18 people. The organisation raises funds to sponsor those who cannot afford the courses, thus ensuring inclusivity and diversity. The aim of the writing courses is to promote creativity and play as learning tools for change, whereby negative and stuck narratives can shift into stories that support, create connections, empathise and encourage.</p>
<p>A facilitator who is experienced in group process, personal psychology and the neuroscience of creativity oversees the writing exercises and feedback sessions. They create a safe space through confidentiality, supporting personal agency and respectful listening. They encourage participants to grow and value their own individual creative expression, and to follow their intuition about what to write and what to share. The writing exercises allow for new approaches to narrate what happened.</p>
<p>Before participants read their work aloud, content warnings are discussed. </p>
<p>When both those reading their work and those listening discover that others have encountered similar life challenges, it can create a sense of community. The facilitator is trained to be on the alert for divisive comments or language, and to bring this to the group’s attention with sensitivity.</p>
<p>The facilitator emphasises that the course is not a therapy group, but that regular writing practice is good for well-being. If participants become distressed, the facilitator helps them process this outside the room, one on one, while the rest of the group writes. </p>
<p>Participants are given a mental health resource list should they need additional support.</p>
<h2>The experience</h2>
<p>Some participants reported an improvement in their writing capabilities as well as life skills and personal development. As one participant put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She taught one how to focus what you are trying to say, how to make it more readable, simpler. Just generally how to do it more effectively, artistically but also keeping it very authentic. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Through my writing my English improved … No one could believe it was me, even when I read the reports I wrote … It gave me life skills and it even changed my situation financially, because now I can enter competitions, I can write reports and get paid whatever little money, which means I can also earn a living. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Participants noted that writing about challenging life circumstances led to increased understanding of self and others. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You attentively listen to someone’s story so that you’re able to give them feedback … you can use those tools outside of the group because we all have to sit in meetings, social or academic groups and we need not to be triggered or offended by someone and still be able to give constructive feedback, that is a skill that a lot of people do not have.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The view of another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once you’ve shared your stories, there is a kind of a bond that is very special.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some participants noted improved self-confidence and feeling empowered.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The course really gave me the courage to even to finish up something I’ve been working on before that course. Now I can look at myself very kindly because one of the things I struggled with is that I am too hard on myself. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The writing process had a spiritual dimension for one participant.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Your spirit gathers things in life differently than your mind does. And your spirit already has some answers for you and you can write them up. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some mentioned managing health-related challenges better as a result of the course, including depression, anxiety and grief, as well as some physical conditions. </p>
<p>Participants also gave examples of how the course helped them express their experiences of trauma, such as family issues, rape, living under apartheid and war.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I grew up in the days of apartheid, so there was always a pain in me …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another comment on the same topic:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My family did not help me find counselling … when I experienced flashbacks and nightmares because of the war {in the DRC} … no-one could understand, and they were only thankful that I was alive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We lost our oldest son to cancer … I then started writing a journal, which I called my grief journal … working with your emotions towards healing from grief. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>One participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were new voices inside of me … it really has affected my whole way of seeing myself and the melancholy – it helps lift it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The future</h2>
<p>We concluded that shared writing in group settings is invaluable to promote care of self and others, both in more homogeneous and in diverse communities. The experiences of course attendees suggests that bearing witness to societal circumstances that need recognition and attention, and communicating one’s life experience through life writing, can promote confidence and advocacy. </p>
<p>These benefits are particularly important for resource-constrained countries like South Africa with historical and ongoing multiple traumas that need low-cost and replicable interventions to assist people recover a sense of well-being, self-worth, agency and community. Facilitation skills can be acquired by non-professionals, thereby increasing access to care in individuals and communities where there is literacy in any language.</p>
<p>We argue that benefits could be disseminated through incorporating similar courses in education and training curricula in schools, tertiary education institutions, government departments, non-profit organisations and other community-based groups.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dawn Garisch is affiliated with the Life Righting Collective. She is a facilitator on the courses it runs.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Reid receives funding from South African Medical Research Council. He is a non-executive board member of Tekano Foundation South Africa.</span></em></p>The benefits of creative writing are particularly important in countries where there’s a need to build a caring society and there are limited resources.Dawn Garisch, Part-time lecturer, author, creative facilitator and medical doctor, University of Cape TownSteve Reid, Medical academic and Chair of Primary Health Care, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193422023-12-07T14:13:10Z2023-12-07T14:13:10ZApartheid in Namibia: why human rights and women are celebrated on the same day<p>10 December is worldwide commemorated as <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day">Human Rights Day</a>. It marks the anniversary of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> adopted on that day in 1948. Many countries and organisations acknowledge this as a significant marker.</p>
<p>It created a lasting, normative framework defining fundamental human rights. UN Member States, while in constant violation, have all ratified the principles. They remain a moral and ethical compass demanding recognition and respect. </p>
<p>In Namibia, the day is marked as both International Human Rights Day <a href="https://namibia.unfpa.org/en/news/commemoration-international-human-rights-day-namibian-womens-day">as well as Namibian Women’s Day</a>. The reason for this is that it marks an event that stands out in Namibian history as a reminder of human rights abuses in the past, as well as the significant role played by women in the struggle for the restoration of these rights. </p>
<p>An indiscriminate shooting by police took place on this date in <a href="https://www.namibiadigitalrepository.com/files/original/f1626d4c5966b3ae6527015e129afa71.pdf">1959</a>. Thirteen unarmed demonstrators were killed, among them one woman. More than 40 were wounded as they resisted their forced removal from an area known as the Old Location. </p>
<p>The events became a reference point for the national liberation movement, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/SWAPO-Party-of-Namibia">South West African Peoples Organisation</a>, which was formed in 1960 in response to the event. The actions of the demonstrators acted as a midwife to the organised anti-colonial liberation struggle that went on to gain new momentum, culminating in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">independence in 1990</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-pulls-down-german-colonial-statue-after-protests-who-was-curt-von-francois-195334">Namibia pulls down German colonial statue after protests – who was Curt von François?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As diagnosed by the late South African historian <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/projects/emmett-tony/">Tony Emmett</a> in his pioneering work on the formation of national resistance in Namibia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The authorities’ attempts to move residents of the old location to a new township and the resistance they met represent a significant point in the political history of Namibia. … it transcended parochial issues and united a broad cross-section of groups and classes in a confrontation with the colonial state.</p>
</blockquote>
<h1>The Old Location</h1>
<p>My research has included life in the <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2016_3_Melber.pdf">Old Location</a>, its <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/jch/article/view/5037/4005">history</a> and the <a href="https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/historia/article/view/3827/3915">forced removal</a>. </p>
<p>Since the early 20th century, the Location was the biggest Black urban settlement in Namibia. A former German colony since 1884, the territory then called South West Africa was in 1918 transferred as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations">League of Nation mandate</a> to South Africa. Administered like a fifth province, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid policies</a> institutionalised as “separate development” since the late 1940s, was also transferred to the adjacent country.</p>
<p>The Location was in walking distance to Windhoek’s town centre. Only a riverbed separated it from the suburb set aside for white people. Residents in the Location paid a fee for the area they occupied even though the constructions built for accommodation were their private ownership.</p>
<p>In line with apartheid policy, a decision was taken to move the people from the Location. Residents there were from a variety of indigenous communities in the country. Despite different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, they lived in peaceful cohabitation. </p>
<p>To remove them from the direct vicinity to the “White” city, a new township <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Katutura-place-where-not-stay/dp/B0006W2U1Y">Katutura</a> was created. It was separated by a buffer zone several kilometres apart from the city. It also divided the residents through ethnically (“tribally”) classified, strictly policed separate living quarters. </p>
<p>The houses there remained property of the administration, for which higher rents had to be paid. People of mixed descent, classified as so-called <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c0a95c41-a983-49fc-ac1f-7720d607340d/628130.pdf">“Coloureds”</a> were until then living in the Location. They were now forced to relocate to another separate suburb <a href="https://memim.com/khomasdal.html">Khomasdal</a>. </p>
<p>Hardly anyone living in the Main Location volunteered to move. Instead, as of late 1959, women initiated a boycott of services.</p>
<p>Following weeks of campaigns, a meeting with White officials took place in the Location on 10 December. Stones were thrown, and the police opened fire. The sheer brute force executed to break resistance marked the end of the Location.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-and-south-africas-ruling-parties-share-a-heroic-history-but-their-2024-electoral-prospects-look-weak-204818">Namibia and South Africa's ruling parties share a heroic history - but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As from 1960, people were moved to Katutura and Khomasdal. Their homes in the Location were bulldozed to the ground. It was officially closed in 1968, with no traces of its existence left.</p>
<p>Extensions to Katutura since then turned it into the biggest settlement in Namibia. The area of the former Location has been turned into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2022.2081671">middle class suburbia</a>.</p>
<h1>Remembering</h1>
<p>Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nbcContenthub/videos/in-this-short-history-video-you-will-learn-about-anna-mungunda-also-known-as-kak/2019517574914081/">the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance</a>. </p>
<p>Narratives differ as regards her role. She was not a prominent resident before and had no involvement in the organised resistance. But police killed her when she was supposedly setting the car of one of the White officials on fire.</p>
<p>As the only woman killed, Mungunda is paid recognition and respect by a <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150256637/anna-mungunda">tombstone</a> erected at the Windhoek Heroes Acre, inaugurated in 2002.</p>
<p>There is also an ongoing fight in Germany to get a street in Berlin named after her. The idea is to rename some of the colonial street names in the <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/in-the-afrikanisches-viertel">“African Quarter” (Afrikanisches Viertel)</a>. In particular, efforts are under way to change the Petersallee into <a href="https://taz.de/Dekolonisierung-von-Strassennamen/!5899594/">Anna-Mungunda-Allee</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/454592">Peters</a> was a notorious colonial perpetrator in imperial Germany.</p>
<p>Implementation is on hold due to a legal intervention by some of the residents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-and-angolas-remote-ovahimba-mountains-reveal-a-haven-for-unique-plants-new-survey-213884">Namibia and Angola’s remote Ovahimba mountains reveal a haven for unique plants – new survey</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Windhoek, parts of the neglected and dilapidated Location cemetery have been <a href="https://pickingupthetabb.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/windhoek-remembering-the-old-location-massacre/">restored and upgraded</a> to a memorial site and turned into an Old Location Cemetery Museum. It is a venue for commemoration and on the <a href="https://www.windhoekcc.org.na/tour_attractions.php">list of local tourist attractions</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/he-dr-zedekia-j-ngavirue-dphil-politics-1967">Zedekia Ngavirue</a> was employed as social worker in the Location in 1959/60. Politically active in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/South-West-Africa-National-Union">South West Africa National Union</a> he founded and co-edited the first African newspaper “South West News”. Its nine issues have been reproduced <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/a-glance-at-our-africa/">in a compilation</a> and are a treasure trove documenting discussion of the time.</p>
<p>In his introduction to the collection, “Dr Zed” (as he was later fondly called) might have captured the spirit of these days best:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was, indeed, when we owned little that we were prepared to make the greatest sacrifices.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance to the apartheid policy of forced removal.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176982023-11-29T13:48:41Z2023-11-29T13:48:41ZOpera in Cape Town: critics trace how a colonial art form was reinvented as African<p><em>Many people thought that classical opera in South Africa – regarded as a western, colonial art form that was the preserve of white people during <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> – would die with democracy in 1994. Instead the opposite happened. Black singers emerged as the new stars and the format of opera began to be Africanised for new audiences. Critics mapped this transformation as Cape Town established itself as a hotbed of the new opera. One such critic was Wayne Muller, who became an academic and wrote a <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/0c2c61d1-d674-42e8-a4ac-8175d6f423bd/content">PhD</a> on the view of these changes. Now he has a <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Opera_in_Cape_Town_The_Critic_s_Voice/mT3REAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">book</a> on the subject called Opera in Cape Town: The Critic’s Voice. We asked him five questions.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>How was opera established in South Africa?</h2>
<p>Like most things western European, opera in South Africa is part of a colonial legacy. Sources – from various journal articles and the South African Music Encyclopaedia (1979-1986) – refer to the early 1800s as the time when opera came to South Africa via Cape Town. </p>
<p>Travelling theatre companies from Europe staged mostly lighter operas, such as French <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-comique">opéra comique</a>. As time went by, more of these theatre companies came to Cape Town and travelled to the interior of the country. Eventually some of these artists and producers immigrated to South African, and so local opera production started to take shape. </p>
<p>In 1831, German composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Maria-von-Weber">Carl Maria von Weber</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Der-Freischutz">Der Freischütz</a> was performed in Cape Town and billed in a newspaper, The South African Commercial Advertiser, as the first “serious” locally produced opera. </p>
<p>Since the early 1800s there has been a process of the professionalisation of opera, which can be seen, for instance, in the building of theatres and the training of opera singers at tertiary level. And, to put it simply, in this way opera became established and evolved as the art form that is performed in South Africa today.</p>
<h2>How did critics track opera’s transformation?</h2>
<p>My research on opera in post-apartheid South Africa looked particularly at how two Cape Town daily newspapers reported on the transformation of opera from the middle 1980s when apartheid was starting to unravel. I studied reviews of productions, news reports and other articles. Initially one sees a <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/0c2c61d1-d674-42e8-a4ac-8175d6f423bd/content">survivalist approach</a> in arts reportage that highlighted a political “attack” on western art forms and questioned the place of indigenous art within the new democracy. Soon it became about “how do we ensure the survival of opera while doing the politically correct thing of giving indigenous music the same status”. </p>
<p>Also, critics expressed (albeit subtly) surprise at the emergence of black opera singers because the apartheid narrative had been that opera was the domain of white South Africans. Eventually in classical music and opera, critics’ writing started showing an embrace of a hybrid form of western classical and indigenous music that came about in opera during the 1990s. Looking at the past 30 years, it seemed that opera critics (writing mostly for a white readership) negotiated with their readers for an acceptance of emerging operatic aesthetics and expressions that were distinctly African.</p>
<h2>How did opera become “Africanised”?</h2>
<p>In the book I chart how opera became South African opera. “Africanisation” has been a process in which opera was made relevant to local South African audiences. <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/ce3d5eab-282d-4cd9-96f6-14d0b4aef2fa">Some scholars</a> also refer to this as the indigenisation of opera. Already during the apartheid era, operas were translated into English and Afrikaans as a means of localising them. But the setting and music remained European in nature. Following translation, changing the <a href="https://www.nipai.org/post/mise-en-scene-on-stage">mise-en-scène</a> from Europe to local settings became a means of “Africanisation”. A good example is a 1997 production of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giacomo-Puccini">Italian composer Giacomo Puccini</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Boheme-opera-by-Puccini">La Bohème</a>. It was renamed <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shapers-Boheme-Noir-Giacomo-Puccini/dp/B000055XBB">La Bohème Noir</a> (black) and was set in the township of Soweto instead of Paris. Now the staging was set in a South African context, but the music was still European. </p>
<p>By the early 2000s, “Africanised” productions not only had a local setting, but the original music was merged with indigenous music and indigenous instruments were also included, such as in productions of Italian composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Verdi">Giuseppe Verdi</a>’s Macbeth and English composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Purcell">Henry Purcell</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dido-and-Aeneas-opera-by-Purcell">Dido and Aeneas</a>. Later, themes were adapted to be locally relevant, such as a version of Hungarian composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Lehar">Franz Lehár</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Merry-Widow-operetta-by-Lehar">The Merry Widow</a>, set in an imagined African state with new character names and retitled <a href="https://www.classictic.com/en/the-merry-widow-of-malagawi-cape-town-opera/31771/">The Merry Widow of Malagawi</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mzilikazi-khumalo-iconic-composer-who-defied-apartheid-odds-to-leave-a-rich-legacy-163283">Mzilikazi Khumalo: iconic composer who defied apartheid odds to leave a rich legacy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the most pertinent “Africanisation” of the operatic genre has been the composition of new South African operas with original music and stories – like South African composer <a href="https://theconversation.com/mzilikazi-khumalo-iconic-composer-who-defied-apartheid-odds-to-leave-a-rich-legacy-163283">Mzilikazi Khumalo</a>’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696815.2015.1049245">Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu</a>. Since 1995, there have been more than 20 South African operas performed in the country, and I think each of them in their own way represent a distinct way of reinterpreting opera within a (South) African context.</p>
<p>Concurrently, we saw a transformation in opera with the emergence of black opera singers. The <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/0c2c61d1-d674-42e8-a4ac-8175d6f423bd/content">Choral Training Programme</a> at the now defunct Cape Performing Arts Board (known as Capab) was established in 1993 and played a key role in providing vocal training, particularly to black singers, as a means of enabling transformation in opera. And since then, we have seen many black singers embracing opera, with the likes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/pretty-yende-a-south-african-opera-star-with-a-voice-that-shatters-glass-ceilings-200559">Pretty Yende</a> and <a href="https://www.levysekgapane.com/levy-sekgapane.html">Levy Sekgapane</a> becoming star singers in the big opera houses of the world. </p>
<h2>How reliable are just a few critics in telling history?</h2>
<p>I believe it is a reliable historical perspective if one qualifies that it is an historical account from that specific perspective. It can never be a 360-degree type of history (and the book does not claim this). There are other ways of looking at and interpreting sources on opera that could also constitute a history. However, what I have found is that our archives are inadequate to write a “full” history and much research still needs to be done from other perspectives and sources. So, this book is rather a means of capturing the historical patterns and trends in opera that have been documented by opera critics in newspapers – journalism being the first rough draft of history, as the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/08/on-the-trail-of-the-question-who-first-said-or-wrote-that-journalism-is-the-first-rough-draft-of-history.html">phrase</a> goes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wayne Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new book explores how Cape Town became a hub for African opera.Wayne Muller, Publications Editor / Research Fellow (Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation), Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178282023-11-28T13:24:34Z2023-11-28T13:24:34ZSharpeville: new research on 1960 South African massacre shows the number of dead and injured was massively undercounted<p>On 21 March 1960 at 1.40 in the afternoon, apartheid South Africa’s police opened fire on a peaceful crowd of about 4,000 residents of Sharpeville, who were protesting against carrying <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa-1800-1994">identity documents</a> that restricted black people’s movement. The police minimised the number of victims by at least one third, and justified the shooting by claiming that the crowd was violent. This shocking story has been thus misrepresented for over 60 years.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">new research</a> retells the story of Sharpeville, about 70km south of Johannesburg, from the viewpoint of the victims themselves. As experienced <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/hss/history/people/faculty/clark.php">historians</a> who have undertaken archival research in South Africa <a href="https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/william-worger">since the 1970s</a> we based our <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">research</a> on interviews with survivors and investigation into government records in both the <a href="https://archive.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/south-african-police-museum-and-archives">police archives</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/soe/soe/national-archives-south-africa-nasa">national archives</a> in Pretoria. Our work reveals the true number of victims and the exact role of the police in the massacre.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville Massacre</a> ignited international outrage and the birth of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/british-anti-apartheid-movement">Anti-Apartheid Movement</a> worldwide. It also led to renewed political protests inside South Africa. These were met with the total suppression of political movements that lasted for 30 years. Despite its historic importance, Sharpeville as a place and a community has remained unknown to the wider public and its residents anonymous. Yet they have a story to tell.</p>
<p>Even though the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> chose the 1960 Sharpeville massacre as the formal beginning of its investigation of apartheid crimes, its examination of the massacre itself was perfunctory. Only three witnesses from the community were invited to testify during just part of one day (out of 2,000 witnesses during five years of hearings). </p>
<p>People in Sharpeville believe that the lack of attention to their plight since democracy in 1994 is because the original protest was organised by the rival <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pan-africanist-congress-pac">Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania</a>, not the governing African National Congress (ANC).</p>
<h2>Changing the narrative</h2>
<p>Based on our research, the new book <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">Voices of Sharpeville</a> traces the long residence of Africans in the greater Sharpeville area, as far as the <a href="https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/introduction-to-your-visit-to-the-cradle-of-humankind-world-heritage-site">Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site</a> 100km north. It also emphasises the crucial industrial importance of the greater <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/vaal-triangle-erupts-violence">Vaal Triangle</a> in which Sharpeville is located, from the 1930s onward.</p>
<p>Our work details the rich culture developed by urban Sharpeville residents in defiance of the attempts of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/hendrik-frensch-verwoerd">Prime Minister HF Verwoerd’s</a> attempts to control African life. </p>
<p>Using the words of witnesses as recorded from their hospital beds within days of the shooting, and for weeks and months later, the events of 21 March 1960 are recounted in detail, increasing the number of victims to at least 91 dead, and 281 injured. The official police figures first published in 1960 and repeated endlessly ever since were 69 and 180 respectively. </p>
<p>The witness testimony places the responsibility for the shooting squarely with the police. </p>
<h2>New evidence</h2>
<p>The oral and documentary source material we used was previously off limits to researchers, insufficiently examined, or largely ignored. Access to many records held by the previous apartheid government was absolutely restricted prior to 1994, and since then many of the records have not been properly registered. This makes it challenging for researchers to find important documents.</p>
<p>But with the help of archivists and librarians, we were able to locate rare and even hidden records of Sharpeville and its history, and record the voices of many of the town’s residents.</p>
<h2>History of Sharpeville</h2>
<p>The first settlement in the Sharpeville area – <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/sharpeville-gauteng">Top Location</a> – was razed in the 1950s to make space for white people’s businesses and homes. Official records and aerial photographs reveal the previous existence of a large community on the now empty land. There is also an unmarked cemetery where about 3,500 residents were buried between around 1900 and 1938. </p>
<p>By the mid-20th century, apartheid officials began to plan a bigger settlement in the vicinity. Sharpeville and other places like it were designed in the 1950s to segregate Africans away from the cities, which were reserved for white people only. </p>
<p>Sharpeville’s housing construction became a “model” for the ubiquitous <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/House-types-NE-51-6-and-51-9_fig4_272164901">four-roomed NE 51/9 houses</a> in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43622104">black townships</a> throughout the country, none of which they could own outright but rent only.</p>
<p>In almost 300 witness statements taken by the police immediately following the shooting, many of the everyday details of life in Sharpeville were revealed. These statements were recorded immediately after arrest and under oath by the police to determine guilt or innocence against the charges of “public violence and incitement” brought against them. They were also provided voluntarily in 1961 and 1962, also under oath, by survivors and family members to establish a basis for the compensation the victims unsuccessfully requested.</p>
<p>Details of family life – numbers of children, occupations, wages, and health – were recorded, providing a wealth of information about Sharpeville’s residents. </p>
<p><strong>The massacre</strong>: Testimony, both from the official 1960 <a href="https://idep.library.ucla.edu/sharpeville-massacre#:%7E:text=A%20Commission%20of%20Enquiry%20was,officials%2C%20and%20residents%20of%20Sharpeville">commission of enquiry</a> into the massacre, and the criminal court trial of over 70 Sharpeville residents in 1960-1961, detailed the actions of both the crowd and the police.</p>
<p>The testimony by civilians and police alike, together with the claimants’ statements, provides a minute-by-minute narrative of the day. The testimonies of the residents, including all the Africans who worked for the municipality and as police officers in Sharpeville, unanimously attested to the fact that the crowd gathered peacefully to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa">protest the pass law</a>. According to these witnesses, by the time of the shooting, almost 300 policemen had been moved into the township, including at least 13 white policemen armed with Sten machine guns. There were five Saracen armoured vehicles. </p>
<p>Police testimony makes it clear that the officer in charge gave the order to shoot, with the machine gunners firing directly into the crowd from a distance of no more than 3-5 metres. As one white official noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It made me think of a wheat field, where a whirlwind had shaken it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The crowd was taken utterly by surprise by the police fusillade. Over three quarters of them, dead and injured alike, were shot in the back as they fled.</p>
<p><strong>The victims</strong>: Crucial to gaining an accurate understanding of the numbers of victims – their names, families, and injuries – were the autopsy and medical records detailing the exact causes of death and injury for the over 300 victims. These forms and narrative statements, filled out by the hospital physicians who treated the injured and performed autopsies on the dead, prove conclusively that the government under-counted the victims by at least one third. </p>
<p>This new information remained embargoed in police records throughout the apartheid years to 1994. Some of it was finally transferred to the national archives in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It details the injuries.</p>
<h2>Remembrance</h2>
<p>The people of Sharpeville wonder why the world has not listened to their stories even as they have told them from the day of the shooting to the present.</p>
<p>In 2023, residents were able to use the information uncovered in our research to update the Wall of <a href="https://www.freedompark.co.za/">Names Memorial</a> (which lists the name of every person who gave their life fighting for freedom in South Africa) at <a href="https://idep.library.ucla.edu/africa/about-freedom-park">Freedom Park</a> in Pretoria to reflect accurately the number of victims killed on 21 March 1960. But still they have received no compensation for their injuries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William H Worger receives funding from the University of California Office of the President.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy L Clark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite its historic importance, Sharpeville itself has remained unknown and its residents anonymous, yet they have a story to tell.Nancy L Clark, Dean and Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University William H. Worger, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2179702023-11-22T14:37:55Z2023-11-22T14:37:55ZGood Jew, Bad Jew: new book explores why the west views brutality against Ukrainians and Palestinians differently<p><em>In a recently published book Steven Friedman, who has written extensively on the political and social aspects of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, explores the racist underpinnings of the west’s responses to Israel’s war in Gaza. This is an extract from the book, <a href="https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Good-Jew-Bad-Jew/?K=9781776148486">Good Jew, Bad Jew</a>.</em></p>
<p>Ugandan academic <a href="https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/mahmood-mamdani">Mahmood Mamdani</a> sees a link between the violence of the coloniser and the slaughter of Jews and Slavs by the Nazis. The racial theories of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Houston-Stewart-Chamberlain">Houston Stewart Chamberlain</a> and others who claimed the Aryan race was superior meant that Jews and Slavs, who were both regarded as not Aryan, could be placed beyond the pale of civilisation and were thus candidates for the “laws of nature”, not of war. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">Mamdani</a>, in World War II, the Nazis “observed the laws of war against the Western powers but not against Russia”, and not against Jewish civilians and resistance fighters. British, American and French prisoners of war were treated according to the rules of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.32_GC-III-EN.pdf">Third Geneva Convention</a>, but Russians were not.</p>
<p>A bizarre feature of this distinction between the “civilised” and those ripe for the slaughter was that the Nazis’ Jewish prisoners of war serving in the Western armies were not slaughtered. But Russian soldiers were. This does not mean that Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners were treated entirely equally. Jewish prisoners were usually separated from others and there is some evidence that <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3685079">they were treated more harshly</a>. </p>
<p>But the vast majority survived the war and there is no evidence that any were killed because they were Jewish. Scholars have made various attempts to explain this. But perhaps the most plausible explanation is one that none of them offers – that serving in a Western European or American army meant that Jews, in the eyes of their Nazi captors, had attained at least a sufficient degree of “Europeanness” to save them from death. Serving in the Russian military conferred no such “honorary Aryan” status because Soviet Russia was considered a mortal enemy of the Aryan race – a “non-Western” presence in Europe.</p>
<p><a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gassing-operations">Nazi extermination camps</a>, where gas chambers were used as instruments of slaughter, were all situated in occupied Poland, not in Germany. There were concentration camps in Germany, but these were forced labour camps, not death camps. An obvious explanation for this seemingly odd fact is that the Nazis worried that Germans might learn what was happening in death camps, and might not share their government’s view that wholesale slaughter was acceptable. </p>
<p>This was similar to the tactics of the architects of apartheid in South Africa. They ensured that brutality directed at black people was usually imposed in areas away from the gaze of white people. But it seems unlikely that this explanation would hold. Apartheid showed that human rights abuses do not need to be moved to another country to hide them from the sight of the dominant group. </p>
<p>Rather, it seems likely that the reason was that which Mamdani’s analysis suggests: by siting the camps to the east of Germany, the Nazis were, in effect, removing them from Western Europe where such barbarism was not considered acceptable. The east of Europe became, in a sense, a colony inhabited by people who were not considered Aryan and therefore not fully European. They were thus subject only to the “laws of nature”.</p>
<h2>Anti-semitism, racism and genocide</h2>
<p>Nazi anti-Jewish bigotry was originally labelled racism while bigotry against people who were not white Europeans was not. The context of the situation of the camps helps to explain that. Bigotry was acceptable only if it was directed at people who were not European. Mamdani cites <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/335802">A History of Bombing</a>, by the Swedish author Sven Lindqvist. He <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">observes</a> that the Nazi genocide was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>born at the meeting point of two traditions that marked modern Western civilization: ‘the anti-Semitic tradition and the tradition of genocide of colonised peoples’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first was (mainly) the prejudice of the right. The second produced the less obvious but still real prejudices which justified colonisation and continue to underpin mainstream European attitudes. Mamdani <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">notes</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fate of the Jewish people was that they were to be exterminated as a whole. In that, they were unique – but only in Europe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This point, he adds, was not lost on intellectuals from colonised countries, such as the Martinican thinker Aimé Césaire, who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfkrm">wrote that</a> the European bourgeoisie could not forgive Hitler for</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the ‘coolies’ of India, and the ‘niggers’ of Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This, of course, explains why a Europe that was justifiably appalled at the Nazi genocide had no great qualms about the wholesale slaughter of <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/ajcr-issues/the-colonial-legacy-and-transitional-justice-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">Congolese</a> or about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-traditional-leaders-haul-germany-before-us-court-in-genocide-test-case-71222">Herero genocide</a>. </p>
<p>It might be argued that the reason was not bigotry but distance. Events in Africa were simply not noticed in Europe because they happened far away, and few people were aware of them. But Mamdani’s view that race prejudice was at work is supported by the fact that these attitudes persist today, when communications technologies ensure that the Western mainstream knows what is wrought on people in far-off places. A clear example is the attitudes prompted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/calling-the-war-in-ukraine-a-tragedy-shelters-its-perpetrators-from-blame-and-responsibility-212080">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p>As numerous critiques have shown, European politicians and journalists <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/1/covering-ukraine-a-mean-streak-of-racist-exceptionalism">drew repeated attention</a> to the fact that the Ukrainians were white Europeans or “people like us” – and therefore “civilised” – in contrast to Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, Afghanis, Africans and, until not that long ago, Jews. </p>
<p>While this could be dismissed as the view of a bigoted few, the fact that Europe and the United States acted with a level of anger never directed at the Israeli state’s bombing of Palestinians, Saudi bombing of Yemen or Russian bombing of Muslim Chechnya and Syria suggests that Mamdani’s hypothesis explains this reaction too. That the United States led the charge, despite its own incursions into Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, could be explained as plain hypocrisy but could also fit in with Mamdani’s thesis. The Russians had broken the rules of “civilised war” by treating white European Ukrainians in a manner that should be reserved for colonised subjects. Had they restricted themselves, like the West, to visiting misery only on people who were not European, such as the Syrians whom they had earlier bombed, they would have acted well within “civilised” bounds.</p>
<h2>Racial experiments</h2>
<p>But it seems not always possible to restrict barbarism to the colonies. Mamdani <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106769/good-muslim-bad-muslim-by-mahmood-mamdani/">shows</a> how European behaviour in Namibia set the stage for the Nazi genocide in Europe. It was in Namibia in the first years of the 20th century that Eugen Fischer, a German geneticist, conducted “racial experiments” on Herero people who were, as Jews would later be, interned in concentration camps. Fischer claimed to have shown that people born of mixed Herero and German parentage were</p>
<blockquote>
<p>physically and mentally inferior to their German parents.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Adolf Hitler <a href="https://dnalc.cshl.edu/view/15745-Eugen-Fischer-about-1938.html">read</a> Fischer’s book that made this claim, and later appointed him rector of the university of Berlin. One of Fischer’s students was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josef-Mengele">Josef Mengele</a>, who conducted experiments in Auschwitz on Jewish human beings and who also selected victims for the gas chambers.</p>
<p>Nazism was, seen through this lens, what Franz Fanon <a href="https://grattoncourses.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/frantz-fanon-richard-philcox-jean-paul-sartre-homi-k.-bhabha-the-wretched-of-the-earth-grove-press-2011.pdf">suggested it was</a>: a form of colonial rule extended into Europe. It took the “anti-Semitic tradition” to its logical conclusion by relegating Jews to the status of Africans whose slaughter Chamberlain celebrated in his letters to the German Kaiser hailing the murder of Hereros. </p>
<p>We can see current attempts to align Jews with white supremacy and ethnic nationalism as attempts to escape this history and to position “good”, Zionist, Jews as the white Europeans that Nazism insisted they were not. This gives added significance to the fact that the first American writings claiming a “new anti-Semitism” devoted much effort to blaming black people for anti-Semitism, thus signalling that Jews shared the prejudices of the white European mainstream and so should never have been treated as the Congolese and Hereros had been.</p>
<h2>Zionism and violence against Palestinians</h2>
<p>The current alliance between the Israeli state and other ethnic nationalists is a further example of the attempt to become European. Viewed in this way, today’s right-wing Zionism is not, as it is sometimes portrayed, a departure from the movement’s supposed humanist past. There is a direct line from Herzl, whose Zionism was inspired by the music of a virulent anti-Semite, to the Israeli state and its supporters who find sustenance in the prejudices of <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-and-the-rise-of-white-identity-in-politics-67037">Donald Trump</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/viktor-orbans-use-and-misuse-of-religion-serves-as-a-warning-to-western-democracies-146277">Viktor Orban</a>.</p>
<p>Much the same impulse surely drives British Jews who today unite with those who had once excluded them from their clubs and, more recently, stereotyped them in novels. These stereotypes are used to denounce left-wingers whom the right has <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Specter-Haunting-Europe-Myth-Judeo-Bolshevism/dp/0674047680">always associated with Jewishness</a>.</p>
<p>Mamdani uses the term “conscripts of Western power” to describe those who were once oppressed by the West but are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">now allied to it</a>. But today’s “good Jews” are not conscripts; they are volunteers.</p>
<p>His argument also sheds new light on the visits of right-wing anti-Semites to the Yad Vashem memorial to Nazi victims, a practice aptly described by the Israeli journalist Noa Landau as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-02-28/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-writing-has-been-on-the-wall-for-yad-vashems-schnorrer-culture/0000017f-dc3a-d3ff-a7ff-fdbab8fd0000">“Shoah-washing”</a>. The Israeli anti-Zionist activist Orly Noy <a href="https://www.972mag.com/holocaust-antisemitism-israel-tool/">notes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If Zionism previously justified its crimes against the Palestinian people in the name of the Holocaust, today it uses the Holocaust as a tool to justify antisemitism itself in exchange for political profit. More than that: it allows an antisemite to define what antisemitism is. This is the bitter truth we face today – for the official State of Israel, the concept of the Holocaust and antisemitism are purely political means, and as such can be manipulated, distorted, and deceived, just like any other political tool.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nazi crimes are used by the Israeli state to justify violence against Palestinians. But viewed through Mamdani’s distinction, and the core role that Nazi mass murder plays in Zionism’s justifications, the Israeli state’s use of the Nazi genocide may also be seen as a continuing attempt to remind ethnic nationalists that by forming an ethnic nationalist state, Jews should be treated as the Nazis would not treat them – as fellow Europeans, rather than as “darker people” who are deserving targets of racism.</p>
<p>Noy’s reference to allowing anti-Semites to define anti-Semitism may also shed light on why today’s anti-Semites are happy to accept the invitation to mourn a Nazi slaughter that they usually excuse. An obvious explanation is that their admiration for the Israeli state makes a little hypocrisy necessary. </p>
<p>If their favourite ethnic nationalist state wants heads of government who feel that the Nazi genocide has received an unfair bad press to shed a ritualised tear for its victims, that is a small price to pay. But they may also be signalling that the establishment of an ethnic nationalist state, which itself colonises the “darker races”, entitles “good Jews” to the European status that the Nazis had denied them. This, of course, does not mean that “bad Jews” – those who are not fervent ethnic nationalists – deserve the same consideration.</p>
<p>The distinction between European and colonial wars may also shed more light on why “good Jews”, those who support the Israeli state, are so firmly supported by Western centrists and liberals. If Jews are, as the opponents of Nazi racism insisted, European, then the Israeli state can be seen as another colonial enterprise, which, in the view of some of its opponents, <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1652565">is exactly what it is</a>. And so its response to Palestinians is, in the eyes of its European allies, governed by the “laws of nature”, not by the “laws of war”. To brutalise Ukrainians is to violate the “laws of war” and is unacceptable to Europe and its heirs. To brutalise Palestinians is to follow the “laws of nature”. The Israeli state may do as it pleases to Palestinians without violating the code of those to whom “Europeanness” or “whiteness” is a valued identity – many of whom are liberals or centrists.</p>
<p>The distinction between European and colonial wars, then, throws important light on the new way in which Jews are viewed both by white supremacists and by mainstream Europe.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Good-Jew-Bad-Jew/?K=9781776148486">Good Jew, Bad Jew: Racism, anti-Semitism and the assault on meaning</a> is published by Wits University Press</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The European bourgeoisie could not forgive Hitler because he applied in Europe colonialist procedures previously reserved for the supposedly inferior Arabs, Indians, and Africans.Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2181002023-11-20T03:16:40Z2023-11-20T03:16:40ZABC chief is right: impartiality is paramount when reporting the Israel-Gaza war<p>On November 17, the ABC’s editor-in-chief and managing director, David Anderson, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/not-our-place-to-use-terms-like-genocide-and-apartheid-says-abc-boss-20231117-p5ekrx.html">was interviewed</a> on Radio 774, the ABC’s local station in Melbourne, about criticisms of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/melbourne-mornings/abc-managing-director-david-anderson-news-editorial-coverage/103119010">national broadcaster’s coverage</a> of the Israel-Gaza war.</p>
<p>The interview followed <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/abc-journalists-criticise-broadcaster-s-coverage-of-gaza-invasion-20231108-p5eijd.html?btis=">a well-publicised meeting</a> nine days earlier at which ABC journalists raised a range of concerns about the organisation’s coverage. These included the extent to which the ABC was relying on talking points supplied by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and the alleged unwillingness of the ABC to use terms such as “invasion”, “occupation”, “genocide”, “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” when discussing Israeli government policy.</p>
<p>Concern was also reportedly expressed about what was said to be a blanket ban on the use of the word “Palestine”, with journalists from Muslim and Arab backgrounds saying there was a perception in their communities that the ABC was too pro-Israel.</p>
<p>It was also reported that senior managers acknowledged they had removed a specialist verification team because of the impact that work was having on staff. Instead, they were relying on ad-hoc advice from former Middle East correspondents.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1YiUXEdbY8U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>David Anderson addressed many of these concerns in the Radio 774 interview. </p>
<p>In particular, he said while the ABC did include terms such as “genocide” and “apartheid” in reports of statements made by others, it was not prepared to adopt them itself. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Genocide is a claim that’s being made. It’s a serious crime. It’s an allegation of a crime. The IDF and Israel reject that. Same with apartheid. We’ll report other people’s use of that. We won’t use it ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the issue of alleged over-reliance on the IDF, Anderson was more equivocal. He said he wasn’t sure that was the case, but pointed out the difficulty of verifying material coming out of the war. “I think we’re trying to verify as much as we can.”</p>
<p>In terms of alienating local communities whose people are involved in the conflict, he said it came with the journalistic territory: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We know that there are some people who will be offended by reporting one perspective or another. It’s our job and what’s enshrined in our charter. We don’t pick sides.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This response has generated a good deal of heat on social media, including an allegation that Anderson is acting out of fear by the stance he has taken on the use of the terms such as genocide and apartheid.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-a-ceasefire-and-why-is-it-so-difficult-to-agree-on-one-in-gaza-217683">What exactly is a ceasefire, and why is it so difficult to agree on one in Gaza?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the heart of this discussion is one of the fundamental tenets of professional journalism: impartiality in news reporting, which includes the separation of news from opinion.</p>
<p>Impartiality is not the product of fear: it is the very reverse. It is the product of courageous efforts to be accurate, fair, balanced, open-minded, and unconflicted by personal interest, especially in the face of unrelenting pressure and highly charged emotions. It takes guts.</p>
<p>It takes guts because when damaging facts or allegations are reported, partisan interests affected negatively will accuse the journalist or the platform of favouring the other side. In no area of journalism is this more insistently demonstrated than in the reporting of the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.</p>
<p>Yet impartiality requires that important facts, once verified, be reported regardless of the anticipated blow-back. The same applies to serious allegations for which there is credible evidence.</p>
<p>Verification is foundational to accuracy. But in today’s world, journalists must navigate a landscape where fakery and misrepresentation have become not just art forms in images and text, but political dynamite. War makes the verification challenge even harder because of the combined effects of secrecy, confusion and the opportunities for propaganda.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PIzlfQ4al6M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In addition to accuracy, impartiality requires that the language used should be calibrated to a fair portrayal of events, and that a story should achieve balance by following the weight of evidence.</p>
<p>The question of evidence brings us to yet another fundamental principle, both of law and of journalistic ethics: the strength of the evidence required to support an allegation must be commensurate with the gravity of the allegation. In law it is called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briginshaw_v_Briginshaw#:%7E:text=It%20essentially%20means%20that%20the,a%20standard%20ought%20be%20reached.">Briginshaw principle</a>. Getting that kind of evidence in the midst of war is difficult, but the imperatives of impartiality require that those accused should at least have the opportunity to reply.</p>
<p>A third challenge in stories where the nation has taken a clear position, as Australia has in its support for Israel, is that there is always pressure to report in ways that support the official narrative. Sometimes that pressure comes from within a media organisation, sometimes from outside and sometimes from both. It can become insidious, almost subconscious.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-reporting-from-the-frontline-of-conflict-has-always-raised-hard-ethical-questions-217570">Gaza war: reporting from the frontline of conflict has always raised hard ethical questions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To partisans, these might all seem like pussyfooting abstractions. But from a journalist’s perspective they lie at the heart of good professional practice, and Anderson’s approach as outlined in his interview was that of an editor-in-chief striving for impartiality and prepared to endure the backlashes that come with it.</p>
<p>Without independent evidence, the ABC is right not to adopt for itself terms such as “genocide” and “apartheid”, but equally it is right to report others making such allegations. These highly contested and emotive terms are often used for their rhetorical power, which is the province of partisans but not of journalists seeking to be impartial.</p>
<p>Impartiality matters because it provides the bedrock of reliable information people need if they are to make up their own minds free of the manipulation that results when news reporting is tainted by partisanship. That is why it is built into the ABC charter and why Anderson is right in his determination to uphold it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Without independent evidence, the ABC is right not to adopt for itself terms such as ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’, but equally it is right to report others making such allegations.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2141642023-10-25T11:52:15Z2023-10-25T11:52:15ZIzikhothane: a deeper history of a South African youth subculture where luxury items are trashed<p>In South Africa, a skhothane is a young, fashionably dressed black urban resident who engages in destructive conspicuous consumption. This involves regular get-togethers on weekends in which groups of izikhothane – most likely male teenagers – gather to compete in mock battles where luxury items are often destroyed. The name is derived from a word in the Zulu language, <em>ukukhotha</em>, meaning “to lick”, but in urban slang it means to boast.</p>
<p>There’s no consensus about when exactly this “<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/07/sowetos-skhothanes-inside-the-south-african-townships-ostentatious-youth-subculture.html">youth craze</a>” emerged. But there’s reason to believe the ukukhothana subculture can be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2015.1093322">traced</a> as far back as 2005, first in the townships of the East Rand of Gauteng province before spreading to other provinces. In South Africa, townships are human settlements established outside towns and cities by the white minority <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> government as areas for people categorised as black to live in. </p>
<p>At ukukhothana events, izikhothane show up wearing expensive designer labels such as Rossimoda shoes, DMD shirts and Versace jackets and suits. They also bring what, in the township context, is considered expensive junk food, such as KFC and Debonair’s Pizza. Alcohol such as Bisquit, Hennessy and Jameson, traditionally associated with affluent people, accompanies the food.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o1xJtSddhwA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>What makes the events interesting is what happens to these costly items once there’s an audience and loud music. The expensive clothes are at times torn, burnt or trampled on. The food is thrown on the ground and at each other in a playful and boastful manner. The alcohol is both consumed and used to wash hands and even poured on the ground. All this is done in order to show off wealth, style and swag, and ultimately to outdo each other in attracting cheers from the audience, attention from female spectators and respect from rival crews.</p>
<p>As one would expect, a subculture like this in a developing economy like South Africa has not been well received. It’s often <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/xwd5ed/dissecting-the-backlash-against-the-skhothane">criticised</a> as wasteful and reckless by society and in the media. Prominent investigative journalist Debora Patta, for example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWEcV_Ecfl4">labelled</a> izikhothane as “bling gone obscenely mad” on national TV. The question is asked: why do izikhothane embrace conspicuous consumption despite their limited means?</p>
<p>As communications scholars we have each <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2015.1093322">studied</a> this subculture for several <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/b7e0af6a24ea39bb8fda4d37b868145a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026366&diss=y">years</a>. In a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725843.2021.1913094">research paper</a> we explore the link between consumption and the idea of rehumanisation – or restoring dignity to marginalised lives. We investigate how this subculture is a form of fashion consciousness with a long history – leading on from the “diamondfield dandies” of the 1800s and the “oswenka” of the 1900s. We argue that ukukhothana is a form of expression that has the potential to reclaim a sense of selfhood and pride in the remnants of oppression in post-apartheid South Africa.</p>
<h2>Consumption and identity</h2>
<p>UK anthropologist Mary Douglas and UK economist Baron Isherwood <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203434857/world-goods-baron-isherwood-mary-douglas">suggested</a> in 1979 that consumption is a purposeful act. It’s often aimed at conveying identity, cultural values and social circumstances. The goods people consume serve as markers of social identity and carry deeper meanings. US sociologist Thorstein Veblen’s <a href="https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Veblen/Veblen_1899/Veblen_1899_04.html">concept</a> of “conspicuous consumption” aptly captures this phenomenon. It refers to the act of displaying wealth and status through ostentatious spending.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r8GzlTONgzo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Izikhothane’s behaviour can be understood within this framework. It’s an effort to signal their defiance against adversity and assert their presence in a society that has historically marginalised those who look like them. This historical marginalisation involved the treatment of black people as less than human through the system of apartheid. Black people were dehumanised during this period.</p>
<p><a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/OELDAR">Dehumanisation</a> involves viewing others as fundamentally different and inferior, perpetuating stereotypes and hindering empathy. Interestingly, this practice affects both the dehumanised and the dehumaniser. By devaluing others’ humanity, individuals strip themselves of their own humanising qualities. This underscores the complex psychological toll of perpetuating stereotypes.</p>
<p>Reversing the process of dehumanisation and reclaiming humanity is a nuanced effort that happens through a process of rehumanisation. Sartorial expression, which involves using clothing to convey identity, can play a pivotal role in rehumanisation. </p>
<p>Material possessions hold a significant influence over how we view other people’s identities. People use belongings not only to express who they are but to construct their “best” selves. </p>
<h2>Diamondfield dandies and oswenka</h2>
<p>Izikhothane are not the first and will not be the last to do this. Various sartorial subcultures appear to have arisen under conditions of dehumanisation in South Africa. These include the diamondfields dandies of the 1880s in Kimberley and the oswenka in Jeppestown in Johannesburg in the 1950s. These fashion subcultures found themselves in dehumanising conditions of migrant labour exploitation. They used expensive clothing and competitions of display to carve out a sense of their own humanity.</p>
<p>The diamondfield dandies sought to challenge racially inscribed stereotypes by parading in expensive clothing. They rebelled against the silence of black people in a bigoted white culture and created an identity outside work. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sho-madjozi-the-pop-star-using-traditional-culture-to-shape-a-fresh-identity-for-young-south-africans-213599">Sho Madjozi: the pop star using traditional culture to shape a fresh identity for young South Africans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Years later a different kind of dandy emerged through the oswenka (swankers), who performed menial labour for work. The oswenka subculture went beyond simply parading in expensive apparel in the form of suits; it involved competitive performance battles against other dandies.</p>
<p>In a similar way, izikhothane’s extravagant displays of consumption serve as a means of fulfilling psychological needs.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>Izikhothane’s seemingly frivolous consumption rituals defy the constraints of their socioeconomic backgrounds. Their fashion choices assert their existence and protest against the enduring effects of apartheid. Their actions challenge conventional notions of rebellion and provide a poignant commentary on the complexities of identity, inequality and resistance.</p>
<p>The izikhothane of post-apartheid South Africa show us the power of consumption to challenge social norms and resist structural injustices. Their conspicuous consumption, while seemingly destructive, can be interpreted as a way of asserting identity and demanding recognition in a society that has historically treated those who look like them as invisible and less than human.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mthobeli Ngcongo receives funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sifiso Mnisi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s about more than wasteful destruction; it’s a way of restoring dignity to marginalised young lives.Mthobeli Ngcongo, Lecturer in Communication Science, University of the Free StateSifiso Mnisi, Senior Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152692023-10-24T13:16:03Z2023-10-24T13:16:03ZThe thorny issue of ‘race’ in South African politics: why it endures almost 30 years after apartheid ended<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human">“Race”</a> continues to have much political salience in South Africa, a country where, in the past, perceived differences of skin colour were used to construct a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">hierarchy of “races”</a>, with whites at the top, to justify their political economic domination. </p>
<p>The move to constitutional democracy in 1994 committed the country to <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf#page=7">non-racialism</a>. However, almost three decades after the end of apartheid, politicians of different stripes continue to use “race” <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/files/case-study-competition/20130322-The-Emergence-of-Racial-Politics-in-South-Africa.pdf">as a wedge issue</a> to mobilise support.</p>
<p>The question is why. Two answers stand out.</p>
<p>The first is that racial oppression has been entrenched by the country’s brutal history. The second is that the 1994 political settlement has failed to significantly improve the conditions of the mass of South Africans. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roger-Southall">sociologist</a> and long-term observer of South African affairs, I suggest that these arguments are not easily dismissed, despite counter suggestions that life for most South Africans <a href="https://irr.org.za/reports/occasional-reports/files/life-in-south-africa-reasons-for-hope.pdf">has improved since 1994</a>. Both arguments suggest that, after nearly three decades, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/How-did-apartheid-end">democracy of 1994</a> has become a form of neo-apartheid. Only a small black elite and middle class has been admitted to the old order of white economic prosperity and privilege while the majority of the population remains poor and black.</p>
<p>As long as this is the case, “race” will continue to have salience in the country’s politics, contrary to the non-racial consensus to which the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf">constitution</a> aspires.</p>
<h2>A fault of history</h2>
<p>The first argument says that “race”, as an explanatory feature of the continuing inequalities in South Africa, is hard-wired into the country’s politics by the long history of racial oppression. <a href="https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/default-source/all-documents/biography-mr-moletsi-mbeki.pdf?sfvrsn=38b96d20_0">Moeletsi Mbeki</a>, a provocative commentator, <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2020-09-21-moeletsi-mbeki-how-a-history-of-conflict-made-sa-the-most-unequal-country-in-the-world/">writes that</a> the country’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-africa-1900s-1900-1917#:%7E:text=Increased%20European%20encroachment%20ultimately%20led,South%20Africa%20by%20the%20Dutch.&text=The%20Cape%20Colony%20remained%20under,to%20British%20occupation%20in%201806.">conquest</a> by the Dutch and the British, and the reaction of its native peoples to their conquest, is the only context in which the issues of “race” and “race relations” are understandable.</p>
<p>Having decimated a prosperous African peasantry to produce a massive supply of cheap labour to the mines, the British enlisted a class of Afrikaner collaborators who managed the country between 1910 and 1994.</p>
<p>The implication is that even if South Africa’s politics officially subscribe to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42705231?typeAccessWorkflow=login">non-racialism</a>, the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-02-27-the-business-of-unfinished-busines/">physical and psychological violence</a> inflicted upon the African majority cannot be wished away. It is easily exploited as a resource by unscrupulous politicians. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-white-liberals-dodge-honest-debates-about-race-127846">How South Africa's white liberals dodge honest debates about race</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some see elections as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00471.x?typeAccessWorkflow=login">“racial census”</a>, spurred on by a shift away from non-racialism within the ruling African National Congress (ANC), to prioritising black African interests. The ANC characterises its principal rival, the Democratic Alliance, as the <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2019/05/04/magashule-da-is-a-white-party-despite-black-faces-leading-it">political vehicle of white people</a>.</p>
<h2>Failure of the 1994 settlement</h2>
<p>The second argument about “race” is that the foundation of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-wrong-to-blame-south-africas-woes-on-mandelas-compromises-96062">1994 settlement </a> was built on the premise of a non-racial South Africa. But this has failed to significantly improve the conditions of the mass of South Africans.</p>
<p>In its most conspiratorial form, this presents <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-monopoly-capital-good-politics-bad-sociology-worse-economics-77338">“white monopoly capital”</a> as having concocted a deal with an incoming black political elite. This helps white people to <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/the-unfettered-power-of-white-monopoly-capital-8680007">maintain their economic dominance</a> over the black African majority.</p>
<p>More convincing are suggestions that the social democracy constructed in 1994 produced only a few winners. From this perspective, South Africa’s democracy was built on the simple proposition that the rising black elite and middle class could bargain and compromise with whomsoever it liked so long as each generation of black South Africans did better than the last.</p>
<p>For the first 15 years or so, this held. Although inequality remained vast, the bottom quarter of the population was enabled to rise through the <a href="https://www.gcis.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/gcis/16.%20Social%20Development.pdf">expansion of a welfare state</a>. However, following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/inequality-troubling-trends-and-why-economic-growth-in-africa-is-key-to-reducing-global-disparities-215266">global crisis of 2008</a>, the <a href="http://www.saccps.org/pdf/5-1/5-1_DRMartin_DrSolomon_2.pdf">state capture era</a> under former president Jacob Zuma and <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">COVID</a>, this “foundational covenant” has been broken. </p>
<p>The lives of the younger generations are likely to become worse than those that preceded them. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-cant-crack-the-inequality-curse-why-and-what-can-be-done-213132">levels of inequality</a> are not only intolerably high, but racially skewed. As a result, South Africa has, according to academic and commentator <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonny-steinberg-1438581">Jonny Steinberg</a>, become </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2019-06-14-jonny-steinberg-the-centre-held-in-may-poll-thanks-to-fear-not-hope/">a perfect cocktail for populist mobilisation</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The liberal <a href="https://irr.org.za/reports/occasional-reports/reasons-for-hope-2019-unite-the-middle">Institute of Race Relations</a> has argued that South Africans are far more concerned about material improvement (more houses, more jobs, improved schools, and better services) than they are about “race” and that public perception is that <a href="https://irr.org.za/reports/occasional-reports/files/reasons-for-hope-report-final.pdf">“race relations” have improved since 1994</a>. </p>
<p>They may well be right, yet this rather misses the point that social change could well have been faster than it has been. As many black (and other) commentators <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africa-should-undo-mandelas-economic-deals-52767">point out</a>, there is as much continuity with apartheid as there has been change. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-south-africa-why-the-anc-has-failed-to-dismantle-patterns-of-white-privilege-187660">Racism in South Africa: why the ANC has failed to dismantle patterns of white privilege</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Not least the fact that <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-south-africa-why-the-anc-has-failed-to-dismantle-patterns-of-white-privilege-187660">whites continue</a> to be disproportionately advantaged in terms of income, wealth, housing, and opportunity relative to other South Africans. Yet, there is an unwillingness among white people to recognise that to be white in South Africa continues to be a primary marker of socio-economic advantage.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/StayWoke-Africa-survive-Americas-culture/dp/B093RZJGSX">counter view</a> to this is that continuing inequalities are falsely ascribed to white racial privilege rather than to the broader political and economic dynamics of post-1994 South Africa. Central to such claims is that the non-racialism to which the 1994 settlement aspires has been perverted by the ANC’s policies of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03056240701340365?casa_token=vcnLCrNvWCAAAAAA%3Aof20qYMBRBvHgmsttlZe12dgLK6HodItdYkRai6ZsnYDJaO-V-58gttAXFXsxQP12ldMa9P0QLg5a28">black economic empowerment</a> and <a href="https://www.labour.gov.za/DocumentCenter/Publications/Employment%20Equity/What%20employers%20and%20workers%20need%20to%20know%20about%20Employment%20Equity/EE%20pamphlet%20opt%20red.pdf">employment equity</a>.</p>
<p>Although those policies are officially pitched as levelling the playing fields to render society “demographically representative”, critics decry how they have become instruments for the dishing out of state contracts to those with connections to the ANC. </p>
<p>The debate continues with a remorseless circularity. </p>
<h2>White versus black fragility</h2>
<p>“Race” remains central to politics in South Africa and cannot simply be wished away, even if whites have conceded political power and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv24tr7sh?typeAccessWorkflow=login">offer no major threat to democracy</a>. This does not suggest that white privilege has evaporated. Nor does it mean that there has been no significant change in racial dynamics since 1994. </p>
<p>We also need to understand the dynamics of class as much as those of “race” to understand why “race” remains so central to contemporary political debate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/white-people-in-south-africa-still-hold-the-lions-share-of-all-forms-of-capital-75510">White people in South Africa still hold the lion's share of all forms of capital</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To state the obvious, whites have lost control of the state, enabling ANC policies such as <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/broad-based-black-economic-empowerment-act">black economic empowerment</a> and the widening of access to higher education to promote upward mobility and the growth of the black middle class. Indeed, South Africa’s middle class is today <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/the-new-black-middle-class-in-south-africa/">as much black as it is white</a>. This, even though the black middle class is on aggregate less well-off than the white middle class.</p>
<p>The critics of the political settlement of 1994 largely hail from the black middle class, even though it is the black middle class that has been one of the principal beneficiaries of South Africa’s social democracy. Despite their gains, it is they who are most likely to encounter what they perceive as “white privilege”, most notably in the workplace, as the primary obstacle to material advancement and upward social mobility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Critics of the 1994 political settlement largely hail from the black middle class, even though it has been one the principal beneficiaries of South Africa’s social democracy.Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049582023-10-22T10:44:23Z2023-10-22T10:44:23ZCommunity radio: young South Africans are helping shape the news through social media<p>The number of South African internet users has <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/462958/internet-users-south-africa">nearly doubled</a> in the past decade. One <a href="https://www.electronicshub.org/the-average-screen-time-and-usage-by-country/">2023 study</a> of 45 developed countries suggests that South Africans even lead the world when it comes to the amount of time spent in front of screens, at 58.2% of the day.</p>
<p>This digital transformation has significant implications for the country’s media. Particularly for newsrooms that want to engage online audiences in a time when news production has evolved towards <a href="https://ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/we_media.pdf">greater participation</a> of citizens and civil society. More and more, listeners are <a href="https://ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/we_media.pdf">contributing</a> to media processes. </p>
<p>During protests, for example, news outlets often invite people at the scene to use WhatsApp groups to share firsthand observations, images or videos. These are verified and incorporated into news coverage. (Indeed, WhatsApp emerged as South Africa’s <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1189958/penetration-rate-of-social-media-in-south-africa/">most popular</a> social media platform in 2022.)</p>
<p>This shift is at the heart of our recent broadcast and community media <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-19417-7_8">study</a>. We examined two community radio stations – Zibonele FM and Bush Radio – in South Africa’s Western Cape province. We wanted to know how social media platforms like Facebook and X are shaping the way that young people interact with the stations, and how radio is adapting to meet them online.</p>
<p>We found the stations have embraced social media apps and are actively using them to shape content. Young people are increasingly participating in citizen journalism to influence this content. </p>
<p>This could keep community radio relevant – and that matters. South Africa is home to over 290 community radio stations, <a href="https://brcsa.org.za/rams-amplify-radio-listenership-report-jul22-jun23/">far outnumbering</a> the 41 commercial and public service stations. Community radio emerged with democracy in South Africa in the 1990s, providing a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/100-Years-Radio-South-Africa/dp/3031407059">platform</a> for alternative voices and grassroots organisations. It’s able to address issues often overlooked by mainstream media.</p>
<h2>The stations</h2>
<p><a href="https://zibonelefm.co.za">Zibonele FM</a> and <a href="https://bushradio.wordpress.com">Bush Radio</a> stood out for us. This is because of their youth-focused content, multilingual broadcasts, diverse audience segments and robust use of digital technologies in news production and programming. </p>
<p>Zibonele FM is based in Khayelitsha, a vast township (black residential area) on the outskirts of Cape Town. The station broadcasts mainly in the local Xhosa language. </p>
<p>Bush Radio is one of the country’s <a href="https://bushradio.wordpress.com/about/">oldest</a> and most influential community stations. Founded in 1992, it has played a role in shaping post-apartheid life in Cape Town. <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">Apartheid</a> was a system of white minority rule that suppressed black voices. Bush Radio provided a platform for voices and perspectives that were often marginalised in mainstream media. </p>
<p>June 2023 <a href="https://brcsa.org.za/rams-amplify-radio-listenership-report-jul22-jun23/">data</a> puts listenership figures of Zibonele FM at 182,000 a day. Bush Radio attracts 49,000 listeners. The average daily listenership of community stations in the Western Cape is 29,000.</p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>We conducted in-depth interviews with station managers, producers and journalists at these two stations. Alongside this we studied social media posts from the stations’ X and Facebook accounts and we analysed their on-air content.</p>
<p>We wanted to see if social media shaped youth-oriented programming at Zibonele FM and Bush Radio. While the study’s scope remains small, it provides valuable insights into the digital transformation of news production in South African community radio.</p>
<p>Young Zibonele FM and Bush Radio listeners, we found, were actively participating in the news processes at the radio stations. Especially when the stations tailored their news to draw in these communities. A station manager explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve gained a lot of followers, showing that people are drawn to the station’s young presenters on social media. Many engage with our live videos and interactive content, validating their active involvement in shaping news production and content direction. This reinforces our roles as central community hubs. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our data analysis revealed that young audiences on X and Facebook used these platforms to hold journalists accountable, forcing them to reevaluate their reporting. One producer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any mistake leads to immediate corrections. This caution improves our content quality and accuracy, benefiting from feedback from our social media followers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The participants in our study stressed the importance of WhatsApp voice notes as a feature of social media that enabled greater engagement from youth audiences. Young listeners are actively shaping the content production process by sending questions as voice notes. This shift diminishes the power traditionally held by presenters and producers. One producer elaborated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we interview guests, we inform our audiences that we have a question, and they actively engage with it. During interviews, we encourage young people to post voice notes, which the interviewees respond to. This practice enables us to incorporate diverse voices on air, as people often prefer sending voice notes, sometimes in the form of questions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our research underscores how Zibonele FM and Bush Radio have empowered young listeners to engage with journalists actively. This allows them to question and challenge news content. </p>
<p>Station managers reported increased engagement on social media, reinforcing the effectiveness of these strategies in expanding reach and enhancing audience participation. Young audiences, for their part, also used social media to hold journalists accountable, fostering a culture of transparency and trust.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The challenges faced by South African community radio, such as limited reach and resources, are <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/29780/#:%7E:text=These%20were%20attributed%20to%20high,and%20adapting%20to%20technological%20advancement">well documented</a>. </p>
<p>For a long time academics have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/making-publics-making-places/social-media-and-news-media-building-new-publics-or-fragmenting-audiences/F356F7A3AD7B9AD8444557211EEBD10E">observed</a> that journalism is undergoing changes because of social media. </p>
<p>Social media, as seen in our study, can have a significant impact on the future of radio programming and news. It could lead to a dynamic shift towards more interactive and community-driven programming. This would sustain community radio and enhance its role as a vital source of alternative voices, diverse perspectives and local engagement.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=John+Bulani&btnG=">John Bulani</a> was a co-author of this study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sisanda Nkoala has previously received funding from the National Research Foundation and the AW Mellon Foundation. For this study, however, there are no funders to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blessing Makwambeni and Trust Matsilele do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media is a lifeline for community radio, helping it grow by being shaped by young listeners.Sisanda Nkoala, Senior Lecturer, University of South AfricaBlessing Makwambeni, Senior Lecturer in Communication Science, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyTrust Matsilele, Lecturer in Journalism, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131002023-09-26T13:42:16Z2023-09-26T13:42:16ZThe family home in South African townships is contested – why occupation, inheritance and history are clashing with laws<p>During apartheid, black South Africans could not own land – and therefore their homes – in what were classified as “white” cities. In racially segregated townships, living in “family houses” and passing them on depended officially on a <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA02586568_844#page=5">range of permits</a>. These were usually to rent from state authorities, but in some cases confusingly to build or buy a house without owning the plot underneath it, which was owned by the state.</p>
<p>A crucial measure in undoing apartheid was transferring ownership of township houses to their long-term residents. <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA02586568_844#page=8">In 1986</a>, a few years before apartheid’s end, the law changed to enable outright ownership for black people in urban areas. Subsequently, processes for transfer on a large scale were established.</p>
<p>This massive redistribution of public housing stock, alongside legal change, involved hundreds of thousands of homes. Township houses were now assets. The promise was improved security, rights, and inclusion in the property market.</p>
<p>But change did not necessarily give families greater security. Some family members benefited while others were left vulnerable. That is because the transfers – and the legal definitions of property and inheritance – do not account for how many people understand their homes: collective and cross-generational, available to an extended lineage.</p>
<p>This has led to confusion and heartache for hundreds of thousands of people. That confusion, I showed <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/120/479/219/6132108">in a paper in 2021</a>, extended to encounters with state administration, which can become the stage on which family disputes are played out.</p>
<p>As I argued in another <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02587203.2019.1632737">paper</a>, with Tshenolo Masha, these understandings of home and kinship warrant legal recognition – indeed, constitutional recognition – as urban custom. Various state officials have taken seriously the collective ownership of family houses, as a matter of customary norms and practice, through administration and court judgments. But they face the rigid limits of existing law.</p>
<p>The family house is central but effectively legally invisible, leaving many people uncertain about what it even means to own or inherit.</p>
<h2>Collective home but individual property</h2>
<p>For many residents, family houses belong collectively to multi-generational lineages. Often, a group of siblings is at the core – the children of an earlier, typically male, household head. Family members might build extra structures on the site to live in. Or they might come and go, but the home is a place to return to. The family house is defended as customary, drawing parallels with the rural homestead.</p>
<p>By the end of apartheid <a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/How-did-apartheid-end">in 1994</a>, regulation was patchy at best, but the occupancy permits were understood to affirm group entitlement because they listed family members, not just the householder.</p>
<p>In statutory law, at stake is an asset with one or more named owners – an indivisible plot or <a href="https://www.saflii.org/za/legis/consol_act/dra1937172/">“erf” of land</a> that includes its built structures. Owners can sell, or they can evict; other occupants have no legal right to stop them. When family houses were transferred, one person was generally registered as owner.</p>
<p>In some cases, the allocation to the registered householder was automatic. In others, there were hearings, but even here residents found their ideas of home and ownership marginalised. A family member would come forward as family “representative” and “custodian” of the collective home. But that representative would typically become the sole titleholder.</p>
<p>In many cases, relatives were unaware that this had happened, or even that an application for title had been made.</p>
<h2>Inheritance: an added layer of complexity</h2>
<p>Inheritance has added another layer to the problem.</p>
<p>Under apartheid there were separate inheritance rules for black people without wills. These were finally struck down by the Constitutional Court in <a href="https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2000/27.html">2000</a> and <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2004/17.html">2004</a>. Magistrates’ courts were replaced by the dedicated inheritance office, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/master/">Master of the High Court</a>. Inheritance by the eldest son was replaced by rules for all South Africans, prioritising spouses and children in nuclear families.</p>
<p>Once again, essential redress had the effect of narrowing which relationships would be recognised. When a custodian died, wider family members first discovered that they were not collective owners; then they realised they would not even inherit.</p>
<p>The family house is not a static idea in fights over the home. Warring parties may draw on both customary and legal concepts, sometimes at the same time. Among families that approach the state – and many do not – some subsequently drop out of official process. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/120/479/219/6132108">no simple consensus</a> about who gets what or about how this should be decided.</p>
<h2>Efforts to resolve the issue</h2>
<p>The family house is contested, yet it is key to arguments about what is fair – based not just on who owns, but on the nature of ownership.</p>
<p>State officials have repeatedly tried to make the system more responsive. In Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located, housing tribunals were set up in the late 1990s to decide ownership and to broker family house rights agreements. They were intended to prevent custodians from selling houses or evicting relatives. But it turned out that they held no legal water: from the point of view of deeds registration, custodians’ <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/120/479/219/6132108">ownership was unrestricted</a>. </p>
<p>In the Master’s Office, where inheritance is administered, kin complain that their family home somehow became the property of one relative. In Johannesburg, officials <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/120/479/219/6132108">try to explain the law</a>, while where appropriate querying how title came to be acquired.</p>
<p>What they cannot do, though, is change the rules.</p>
<p>The courts, too, have highlighted problems with rigid law and procedure. In a 2004 Constitutional Court <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2004/17.html">decision on inheritance</a>, a dissenting judge warned that customary understandings of home and custodianship risked being sidelined by standardisation.</p>
<p>More recently in 2018, automatically upgrading householders to owners was <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2018/42.html">declared unconstitutional</a>.
Men were usually documented as householders under apartheid, and gender discrimination was extended by giving them exclusive property rights. </p>
<p>Other judgments recognise the spirit of collective belonging and access, and they stop individuals from taking the house out of the families’ hands by inheritance or sale. But they cannot make legislation, so they send the question of who owns the house back to a tribunal.</p>
<p>Once again, solutions are restricted to workarounds.</p>
<h2>Towards legal recognition</h2>
<p>In 2022, the <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2022/441.html#_ftnref78">Shomang judgment</a> in the North Gauteng High Court called for legally recognising the family house. </p>
<p>A sufficiently flexible notion of family title would be challenging to work out, and doubtless the basis for countless disputes. Surviving spouses need as much protection as the siblings in a lineage. But it would enable administrators and judges to mediate disputes in terms recognisable to the families involved. And to offer more than ad hoc workarounds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxim Bolt's research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK. </span></em></p>The transfer of township rental houses to inhabitants did not necessarily give families greater security. “Family houses” were frequently acquired by individuals.Maxim Bolt, Associate Professor of Development Studies, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131322023-09-14T13:36:14Z2023-09-14T13:36:14ZSouth Africa can’t crack the inequality curse. Why, and what can be done<p><em>South Africa is ranked <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099125303072236903/p1649270c02a1f06b0a3ae02e57eadd7a82">one of the most unequal societies in the world</a>. The Conversation Africa spoke to Imraan Valodia, the Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, about inequality in South Africa.</em></p>
<h2>Has income inequality got worse in the last 20 years?</h2>
<p>According to the most <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099125303072236903/p1649270c02a1f06b0a3ae02e57eadd7a82">recent data</a>, South Africa has the highest income inequality in the world, with a Gini coefficient of around 0.67. The Gini coefficient is a widely used statistical measure of how income is distributed in the population of a country. It takes a value between 0 and 1. A coefficient of 1 indicates perfect inequality – where one individual in a country would earn all the income in that country. Conversely, a coefficient of 0 is an indicator of perfect equality, where the income of the country is distributed perfectly equally among all its citizens. </p>
<p>South Africa’s Gini is exceptionally high. A number of other African countries have high Ginis too. For example, Namibia’s is 0.59, Zambia’s 0.57 and Mozambique’s 0.54. </p>
<p>Countries in Europe, especially Scandinavian countries, have much lower Ginis. They range between 0.24 and 0.27. Among the developed countries, the US has a high level of inequality with a Gini of 0.41. </p>
<p>China’s is 0.38 and India’s is 0.35. Russia’s is similarly relatively low at 0.37. Brazil, like South Africa, has a much higher level of inequality at 0.53. </p>
<p>In South Africa, <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099125303072236903/p1649270c02a1f06b0a3ae02e57eadd7a82">the evidence</a> suggests that income inequality has risen in the post-apartheid period, though it has fluctuated.</p>
<p>What is clear is that levels of inequality are not decreasing.</p>
<h2>What’s driving the trend?</h2>
<p>There are a number of drivers.</p>
<p>First, the fact that large numbers of South Africans are <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02112ndQuarter2023.pdf">unemployed</a> and report no or very low incomes. According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the rate of unemployment in South Africa, in June 2023, <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02112ndQuarter2023.pdf">was estimated</a> to be 32.6%. But this doesn’t include people who have given up trying to find work. (The internationally accepted definition of unemployment requires people who are classified as unemployed to be searching for work.) If we include these discouraged workers, the unemployment rate increases to 44.1%. </p>
<p>There are about <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02112ndQuarter2023.pdf">40.7 million</a> people in South Africa between the ages of 15 and 64 – this is the group that could potentially work. Those who are not able to work, because they’re at school, or ill, or for some other reason, are estimated to number 13.2 million. That leaves 27.5 million people. Of these, only 16.4 million are working. </p>
<p>Of the 16.4 million, only 11.3 million are employed in the formal sector, where income tends to be higher. </p>
<p>These figures make it clear that the economy is just not able to generate sufficient numbers of employment opportunities.</p>
<p>The second driver is that, among those who are employed, many earn very low wages. Of those who do have work, about 3 million people subsist in the informal economy, where incomes are very low. Another 900,000 people work in agriculture and about 1 million as domestic workers, where incomes are very low.</p>
<p>Even in the formal sector, wages, especially for non-unionised workers, tend to be <a href="http://new.nedlac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/NMW-Report-Draft-CoP-FINAL1.pdf">extremely low</a>. </p>
<p>And third, the incomes at the top end of the income distribution are very high. It’s more difficult to provide reliable statistics on this, because incomes for rich households tend to come from a variety of sources. One way to get a sense of this is to look at household expenditure – a good proxy for incomes. Unfortunately, South Africa’s income and expenditure survey is now quite dated. But what’s available <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/Report-03-10-19/Report-03-10-192017.pdf">shows</a> that the richest 10% of South African households are responsible for some 52% of all expenditure. The poorest 10% of households contribute only 0.8% of all expenditure.</p>
<h2>Is South Africa an outlier?</h2>
<p>Yes. However, there are probably many countries that have higher levels of inequality – we just don’t have the data for them. So, while people often say South Africa has the highest Gini in the world, it would be more accurate to say that South Africa has the highest Gini among countries that have data on income inequality.</p>
<p>South Africa’s data is generally very good, reliable and independent. </p>
<h2>What steps have been taken? Why didn’t they work?</h2>
<p>The major intervention in post-apartheid South Africa was to address inequality in terms of race. This is, of course, extremely important. Among other steps, government introduced the Employment Equity Act to address race-based discrimination in employment, and various measures to address ownership by race. There is controversy about some of the measures. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that they have been very <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/871137/pdf">successful</a> in changing the patterns of inequality in South Africa.</p>
<p>However, not enough has been done – race-based inequality is still a real problem. In general, high income South African households, irrespective of race, have done well over the last three decades, which is why inequality has remained stubbornly high. </p>
<h2>What steps should be taken now?</h2>
<p>I don’t think there is any one policy that would address the issue. Some focus on the labour market and argue that employment is not growing because of labour protections. But I think this is incorrect and does not deal with the nuance of the country’s political and economic situation.</p>
<p>I think we should rather be thinking about how to direct the benefits of economic growth and redistribution policies to benefit those at the bottom end. This could involve, for example, raising incomes at the bottom, creating new opportunities and employment for those who don’t have them, and ensuring that the benefits of growth do not disproportionately benefit those at the top end of the income distribution.</p>
<h2>What is the difference between income inequality and wealth inequality?</h2>
<p>Income inequality measures only a portion of the real inequality in South Africa. Measuring inequality in wealth gives a more complete picture of how unequal a society is. Income is only one factor that determines wealth. Wealth also includes inheritance, earnings from assets and so on. </p>
<p>The broad picture is that in South Africa wealth inequality is much worse than <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/research-projects/wealth-inequality/working-papers-and-research-output/">income inequality</a>. Some striking statistics are that the top 0.01% of people – just 3,500 individuals – own about 15% of all of the wealth in South Africa. The top 0.1% own 25% of the wealth. The net wealth of the top 1% is R17.8 million (about US$944,000). In contrast, the bottom 50% have a negative wealth position (they have more liabilities than they do assets) of R16,000 (around US$850).</p>
<p><em>This article is part of a media partnership between Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies and The Conversation Africa for the Annual Inequality Lecture given by Professor Branko Milanovic, titled “Recent changes in the global income distribution and their political implications”. You can watch him deliver the lecture <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAproYSlaMA">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imraan Valodia and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies receive funding from a number of local and international foundations that support academic research. </span></em></p>Efforts have been made to change the patterns of inequality in South Africa. But not enough has been done. Race-based inequality is still a real problem.Imraan Valodia, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director Southern Centre for Inequality Studies., University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1758712023-09-09T12:52:24Z2023-09-09T12:52:24ZMangosuthu Buthelezi: the Zulu nationalist who left his mark on South Africa’s history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444063/original/file-20220202-19-1fky7gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C49%2C575%2C442&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi speaks in parliament.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mangosuthu-gatsha-buthelezi">Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi</a> played a prominent role in South African politics for almost half a century. <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/president-ramaphosa-announces-passing-honourable-prince-mangosuthu-buthelezi%2C-traditional-prime-minister-zulu-nation-and-monarch">He was</a> one of the last of a generation of black South African leaders who influenced the transition from the white minority apartheid regime to a society under a democratically elected government. </p>
<p>Prince Buthelezi (95) was born on 27 August 1928 in Mahlabatini into the Zulu royal family. His mother <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/princess-magogo">Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu</a> was the daughter of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-dinuzulu">King Dinizulu</a>. His grandfather was the prime minister of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-cetshwayo">King Cetshwayo</a>. So, he was the first-born in line to the Buthelezi chieftainship. </p>
<p>His Zulu identity became the decisive compass for his career in politics, and personified the ambiguities between ethnic identity and national policy. He became the only Bantustan leader who played a significant role in South Africa’s transition to democracy and subsequent politics. Under apartheid <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">Bantustans or homelands</a> were the ten mainly rural, impoverished areas where black South Africans were required to live and have nominal “self-rule” and “independence”, along ethnic group lines separate from whites under apartheid. </p>
<p>Buthelezi used his power to combine ethnic particularism with a policy aimed at inclusive national governance opposed to segregation under apartheid. </p>
<p>As Minister of Home Affairs (1994-2004) and MP since democracy in 1994, he remained a relevant political figure with considerable political influence. His political role remains a controversial and heavily criticised example of how a quest for power based on a Zulu identity as regional-ethnic particularism can take a huge toll on lives.</p>
<h2>Under apartheid</h2>
<p>In 1948 Buthelezi enrolled to study history and “Bantu administration” <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mangosuthu-gatsha-buthelezi">at Fort Hare University</a>. In 1949 he briefly joined the African National Congress Youth League. He was expelled from the university in 1950 for his political activism, completing his degree at the University of Natal. In 1953 he became the hereditary chief of the Buthelezi clan. </p>
<p>In 1976 he was appointed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/KwaZulu">chief minister</a> of KwaZulu. The area comprised 11 territorial enclaves in the province of Natal. It was a Bantustan under the apartheid state’s policy euphemistically called <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-separate-development-south-africa">“separate development”</a>.</p>
<p>In 1975 <a href="https://theconversation.com/post-election-pact-failure-echoes-of-fraught-history-between-south-africas-anc-and-inkatha-172696">he revived Inkatha ka Zulu</a>, a Zulu cultural movement established by King Dinizulu in 1922. It later became the <a href="https://www.ifp.org.za/our-history/">Inkatha Freedom Party</a>. According to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mangosuthu-G-Buthelezi">Encyclopedia Britannica</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He used Inkatha as a personal power base that systematically mobilised Zulu nationalist aspirations, although his narrow regional and ethnic support base would make his ambition of being national leader difficult.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His Zulu stronghold allowed him to throw a spanner in the apartheid government’s “separate development” policy, by preventing a declaration of pseudo-independence for KwaZulu. </p>
<p>As he once <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=NcipiPf0tncC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=Mangosuthu+Buthelezi:+We+have+our+own+history,+our+own+language,+our+own+culture.+But+our+destiny+is+also+tied+up+with+the+destinies+of+other+people+-+history+has+made+us+all+South+Africans.&source=bl&ots=SUDJvJwodt&sig=ACfU3U3xcligo5RWHbM_x9pkORPIYtv6Og&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizpKmjwoH2AhXcwAIHHRWLDw4Q6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q=Mangosuthu%20Buthelezi%3A%20We%20have%20our%20own%20history%2C%20our%20own%20language%2C%20our%20own%20culture.%20But%20our%20destiny%20is%20also%20tied%20up%20with%20the%20destinies%20of%20other%20people%20-%20history%20has%20made%20us%20all%20South%20Africans.&f=false">explained</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people – history has made us all South Africans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Adam Houldsworth, in his <a href="http://scholar.ufs.ac.za:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11660/4047/HouldsworthA.pdf;jsessionid=B41C2C6F899271C77B98E5FF9FD35E82?sequence=1">PhD thesis</a> on Inkatha and the National Party, 1980-1989, documents important domestic policy shifts, influenced by Buthelezi’s political manoeuvres. He disputes the view that Buthelezi pursued an opportunistic and unprincipled policy.</p>
<p>Much of the underlying notion in Buthelezi’s position was inspired by the conservative political philosophy of <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/edmund-burke-guide#who-was-edmund-burke">Edmund Burke (1729-1797)</a>. Buthelezi demanded a majoritarian power-sharing system on a national level as opposed to apartheid. He placed his hopes on reformist tendencies emerging from within the National Party.</p>
<p>According to Houldsworth (p. 210): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Buthelezi sought to improve Inkatha’s prospects by advocating a long and multifaceted negotiating process which would allow for the gradual moderation of African politics and the reconciliation of disparate black groups … Inkatha politics were to an extent shaped by considerations of expedience in its efforts to retain or gain influence in South African politics.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Reinventing Zulu traditionalism for politics</h2>
<p>Buthelezi turned his local-ethnic agency into a national policy factor by rejecting the Bantustan principle. This contributed to the growing awareness within the ranks of the more enlightened faction in the ruling <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party</a> that a post-apartheid scenario needed to be negotiated. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-national-congress-anc">African National Congress</a> (ANC) becoming an increasingly influential factor in any negotiated solution, while at the same time a threat to his own interests, Buthelezi walked a political tightrope. Considering the exiled ANC as ideologically too left, he advocated the <a href="https://www.deseret.com/1988/6/12/18768341/leader-of-zulus-calls-for-the-release-of-mandela-assails-emergency-rule">release from prison</a> of its leader <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Nelson Mandela</a>. Mandela had been jailed for life for sabotage aimed at <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/rivonia-trial-1963-1964">overthrowing the apartheid regime</a>. Buthelezi believed Mandela would be a moderating element, preventing a socialist transformation. </p>
<p>German historian Aljoscha Tillmanns adds further insights to Buthelezi’s political strategy in his <a href="https://www.roehrig-verlag.de/shop/item/9783861107545/development-for-liberation-von-aljoscha-tillmanns-gebundenes-buch">PhD thesis</a>. As he shows, Buthelezi’s political convictions were strongly influenced by a belief in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/consociationalism">consociationalism</a>. As a concept of government by coalition it is a form of political power sharing among competing elites.</p>
<p>As sociologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/roger-southall-296862">Roger Southall</a> has shown, this included attempts to seek closer cooperation with liberal and conservative whites <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/721987">in a politics of compromise</a>. Buthelezi posed as a pragmatic reformer without any specific ideology. </p>
<p>His trust in and reaffirmation of capitalism appealed to the business community, both in and outside South African. Tillmanns (p. 408) quotes him from a meeting with the press, commerce and industry in Frankfurt in February 1986:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dire necessity dictates that the free enterprise system be unshackled from its apartheid shackles (and…) multi-party democracy in which politics and economics are synthesised is prescribed by the need for economic development. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>From civil war to democracy</h2>
<p>Buthelezi personified both black nationalism and Zulu traditionalism. But his ambitions were confronted with and limited by the growing influence of the ANC in the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/convention-democratic-south-africa-codesa">negotiations for a post-apartheid society</a>. This escalated into massive violent clashes between his <a href="https://www.ifp.org.za/">Inkatha Freedom Party</a> and the ANC. Thousands of people <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/161169">were killed</a>. </p>
<p>He was willing to cooperate closely with the apartheid regime in his aim to prevent the ANC from seizing power. This went as far as having Inkatha members receiving <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1995-12-22-caprivi-200-the-year-of-the-generals/">military training from the apartheid government’s army</a>.</p>
<p>Buthelezi’s determination to prevent the establishment of a new post-apartheid dispensation in which he had no major role ended in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/161169">large-scale, deadly violence between IFP and ANC supporters</a> in today’s KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. This escalated after the ANC and other liberation movements were unbanned in 1990. Thousands were killed ahead of the first democratic elections of 1994. </p>
<p>At the brink of civil war, Buthelezi – who originally <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/ifp-agrees-participate-1994-elections">refused to participate in the elections</a> – decided to add Inkatha to the ballot papers. This paved the way to reducing the violence and allowed President Nelson Mandela to co-opt Buthelezi as minister of home affairs in his cabinet.</p>
<p>Buthelezi kept the portfolio during the first term of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency. He also occasionally served as South Africa’s acting president.</p>
<h2>The last days</h2>
<p>With the decline of Inkatha in the <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE3.2Mottiar.pdf">2014 elections</a>, Buthelezi lost his cabinet post. He remained president of the IFP until 2019 and an MP until his death.</p>
<p>He had an uneasy relationship with <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-goodwill-zwelithini-kabhekuzulu">King Goodwill Zwelithini</a>, the Zulus monarch since 1971. With the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/22/king-goodwill-zwelithini-obituary">king’s death</a> in March 2021, Buthelezi re-engaged more intensively with the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03068/08lv03074.htm">Zulu kingdom</a> and related politics. </p>
<p>Buthelezi should not be dismissed as a mere stooge during apartheid. Yet, he deserves little praise as an advocate for human rights and civil liberties. His appetite for power was always stronger. But no matter on which side of history he is placed, he will remain the only leader of a Bantustan who left an imprint on South Africa’s way to democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Buthelezi should not be dismissed as a mere stooge during apartheid. Yet, he deserves little praise as an advocate for human rights and civil liberties.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2106882023-08-08T18:31:40Z2023-08-08T18:31:40ZThe Taliban’s war on women in Afghanistan must be formally recognized as gender apartheid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541516/original/file-20230807-23-aa6m4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3300&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-talibans-war-on-women-in-afghanistan-must-be-formally-recognized-as-gender-apartheid" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/afghanistan-marks-1-year-anniversary-of-taliban-takeover">second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan</a> is fast approaching. Since then, Afghan women have been <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/18/afghanistan-taliban-deprive-women-livelihoods-identity">denied the most basic human rights</a> in what can only be described as gender apartheid. </p>
<p>Only by labelling it as such and making clear the situation in Afghanistan is a crime against humanity can the international community legally fight the systematic discrimination against the country’s women and girls.</p>
<p>Erasing women from the public sphere is central to Taliban ideology. Women’s rights institutions in Afghanistan, notably the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, have been dismantled while the dreaded <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58600231">Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice</a> has been resurrected. </p>
<p>The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has been dissolved and the country’s 2004 constitution repealed, while legislation guaranteeing gender equality <a href="https://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/files/2022/12/Bennoune-Finalized-12.09.22.pdf#page=9">has been invalidated</a>. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2022/07/women-and-girls-under-taliban-rule-afghanistan/">Afghan women are denied a post-secondary education, they cannot leave the house without a male chaperone, they cannot work, except in health care and some private businesses</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/25/taliban-beauty-salon-ban-women-rights/24823d78-2aca-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html">they are barred</a> from parks, gyms and beauty salons.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A closed beauty salon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541722/original/file-20230808-17-u58pge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A general view of a closed beauty salon in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, in July 2023. The Taliban has closed all beauty salons in Afghanistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Siddiqullah Khan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Women targeted</h2>
<p>Of the approximately 80 edicts issued by the Taliban, 54 specifically <a href="https://feminist.org/our-work/afghan-women-and-girls/taliban-edicts/">target women</a>, severely restricting their rights <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/events/2023/afghanistan-under-taliban-state-gender-apartheid">and violating</a> Afghanistan’s international obligations and its previous constitutional and domestic laws. </p>
<p>The Taliban <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/19/afghan-women-suffer-under-taliban/">appear undeterred</a>, continuing where they left off 20 years ago when they first held power. The results of their ambitions are nearly apocalyptic. </p>
<p>Afghanistan is facing one of the world’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/15/hard-choices-afghanistans-humanitarian-crisis#:%7E:text=Afghanistan%20has%20largely%20disappeared%20from,girls%20remain%20most%20at%20risk.">worst humanitarian crises</a>. About <a href="https://www.rescue.org/article/afghanistan-entire-population-pushed-poverty">19 million</a> people are suffering from acute food insecurity, while more than <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/04/afghanistan-economic-crisis-underlies-mass-hunger">90 per cent</a> of Afghans are experiencing some form of food insecurity, with <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/wfp-afghanistan-situation-report-18-january-2023">female-headed households and children</a> most impacted. </p>
<p>Gender-based violence has increased exponentially with corresponding impunity for the perpetrators and lack of support for the victims, while ethnic, religious and sexual minorities are suffering <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/situation-human-rights-afghanistan-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-afghanistan-richard-bennett-ahrc5284-advance-edited-version">intense persecution</a>. </p>
<p>This grim reality underscores the urgent need to address <a href="https://spia.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/SPIA_NaheedRangita_PolicyBrief_07.pdf#page=3">how civil, political, socioeconomic and gender-based harms</a> are interconnected.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a blue niqab bottle-feeds a baby. Another fussing baby is in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541521/original/file-20230807-25161-ue4ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mothers and babies suffering from malnutrition wait to receive help and check-ups at an international humanitarian clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan, in January 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>International crime</h2>
<p>Karima Bennoune, an Algerian-American international law scholar, has advocated recognizing gender apartheid as a <a href="https://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/the-international-obligation-to-counter-gender-apartheid-in-afghanistan/">crime under international law</a>. Such recognition would stem from states’ international legal commitments to gender equality and the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/">Sustainable Development Goal 5</a> aimed at achieving global gender equality by 2030. </p>
<p>Criminalizing gender apartheid would provide the international community with a powerful legal framework to effectively respond to Taliban abuses. While the <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-01-12/the-secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-promotion-and-strengthening-of-the-rule-of-law-the-maintenance-of-international-peace-and-security-the-rule-of">UN has already labelled the situation in Afghanistan gender apartheid,</a> the term is not currently recognized under the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/rome-statute-international-criminal-court">Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court</a> as being among the worst international crimes.</p>
<p>Presenting his report at the UN Human Rights Council, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1137847">Richard Bennett</a> — the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan — stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A grave, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Criminalizing gender apartheid globally would allow the international community to fulfil its obligation to respond effectively and try to eradicate it permanently. It would provide the necessary legal tools to ensure that international commitments to women’s rights in all aspects of life are upheld.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/2324266/world">Shaharzad Akbar</a>, head of the <a href="https://rawadari.org/">Rawadari human rights group</a> and former chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, has urged the Human Rights Council to acknowledge the situation in Afghanistan as gender apartheid.</p>
<p>She’s noted that the “Taliban have turned Afghanistan to a mass graveyard of Afghan women and girls’ ambitions, dreams and potential.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1411815986798473222"}"></div></p>
<h2>South African support</h2>
<p>A number of Afghan women’s rights defenders have also called for the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/06/human-rights-council-opens-fifty-third-session-hears-presentation-annual-report-high">inclusion of gender apartheid in the UN’s Draft Convention on Crimes Against Humanity</a>. </p>
<p>Most remarkably, <a href="https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc53-un-experts-open-council-session-with-dedicated-discussion-on-the-situation-of-women-girls-in-afghanistan/">Bronwen Levy</a>, South Africa’s representative at the Security Council, has urged the international community to “take action against what (Bennett’s) report describes as gender apartheid, much like it did in support of South Africa’s struggle against racial apartheid.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1671121452731359232"}"></div></p>
<p>Elsewhere, the <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/delegations/en/joint-statement-of-2-february-2023-women/product-details/20230203DPU35201">chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, as well as the head of its Delegation for Relations with Afghanistan</a>, have described the “unacceptable” situation in Afghanistan as one of gender apartheid.</p>
<p>Whenever and wherever apartheid systems emerge, it represents a failure of the international community. The situation in Afghanistan must compel it to respond effectively to the persecution of women. </p>
<p>Recognizing Taliban rule as gender apartheid is not only critical for Afghans, it is equally critical for the <a href="https://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/files/2022/12/Bennoune-Finalized-12.09.22.pdf#page=11">credibility of the entire UN system</a>. As Afghan human rights activist <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15222.doc.htm">Zubaida Akbar</a> told the Security Council:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you do not defend women’s rights here, you have no credibility to do so anywhere else.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Taliban’s brutal two years in power in Afghanistan have taught us that ordinary human rights initiatives, while important, are insufficient for addressing gender apartheid. The world needs resolute collective international action to end the war on women. Not in two months. Not in two years. But now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vrinda Narain is affiliated with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), a transnational research and solidarity network, as a Board Director. </span></em></p>The Taliban’s two years ruling Afghanistan have taught us ordinary human rights initiatives are insufficient to address gender apartheid. We need resolute collective international action.Vrinda Narain, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2104162023-08-07T13:59:55Z2023-08-07T13:59:55ZUmlungu: the colourful history of a word used to describe white people in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540800/original/file-20230802-23936-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wreck of the British ship Charlotte in Algoa Bay, South Africa, 1854. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In South Africa “umlungu” is a word that’s commonly used to refer to white people. It comes from isiXhosa, the language of the country’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa">Xhosa people</a>. It’s always been a mystery how the word originated or what it actually means because no human beings were referred to as umlungu before the arrival of white people in the country by ship. There was, however, a word “ubulungu” which meant “that deposited out by the sea” or sea scum.</p>
<p>While it may have been considered impolite in the past, <a href="https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2016-11-21-experts-say-umlungu-is-not-negative-in-meaning/">today</a> umlungu is a polite word. Many white South Africans don’t mind calling themselves umlungu – there are even T-shirt ranges bearing the word. And it’s now also commonly used to refer to black people – meaning “my employer” or “a wealthy person”. So how did umlungu come to change its meaning?</p>
<p>As a linguist who teaches and studies isiXhosa, I recently published a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2022.2153709">study</a> that considers the word from a sociolinguistic perspective. Sociolinguistics can be <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Introducing_Language_and_Society.html?id=gA4jAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">defined</a> as the link between language and society. I chose to frame my study through this theory because a language is not independent of the people who speak it. Individuals shape words to reflect the changing context of their society. </p>
<p>The word umlungu has taken on multiple meanings as a result of historical events, showing how language evolves through social interactions. </p>
<h2>Colonial times</h2>
<p>According to one <a href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2023.2188233">study</a>, the term umlungu arose from an incident in which shipwrecked white people were deposited from the sea. The sea’s tendency is to toss anything out that is dirty in order to clean itself. The shipwrecked white people were given the name “abelungu/umlungu”, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2023.2188233">means</a> “filth that is rejected by the ocean and deposited on the shore”. Some of those shipwrecked remained and the clan name Abelungu <a href="http://vital.seals.ac.za:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:28312?site_name=GlobalView">was used</a> to record their children.</p>
<p>The words umlungu and abelungu (plural) are used by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nguni">Nguni</a> people across South Africa. The Nguni are a large cluster of Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in southern Africa who have played an important role in the country’s history and culture. The Nguni ethnic groupings include the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele. These subgroups share linguistic and cultural similarities while adhering to their own traditions and practices. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/20032">Zulu historians</a>, white people arriving in South Africa were called “abelumbi” (magicians). This is because <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/shaka-zulu">Shaka Zulu</a>, the powerful leader of the Zulu Kingdom, witnessed a white person killing a man without touching him (with a gun). He stated that only a witch could kill a person without any physical contact. As a result, he called them abelumbi, which was later altered to abelungu (philanthropists) as time passed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shaka-zulu-is-back-in-pop-culture-how-the-famous-king-has-been-portrayed-over-the-decades-207417">Shaka Zulu is back in pop culture – how the famous king has been portrayed over the decades</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Various events throughout the colonial era forced black people into poverty, particularly after the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nongqawuse">Nongqawuse</a> episode. Nongqawuse was a Xhosa prophetess who, in 1856, had a vision that if the Xhosa people killed all their cattle and destroyed their crops, the spirits would drive the British colonisers out of South Africa and bring about a new era of prosperity. Many Xhosa people then <a href="https://www.siyabona.com/eastern-cape-xhosa-cattle-killing.html">slaughtered</a> their own cattle and destroyed their own crops. Some people died because of hunger.</p>
<h2>Apartheid</h2>
<p>This poverty was exacerbated under <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> – an organised system of white minority rule in South Africa that imposed racial segregation and discrimination from 1948 until the early 1990s. </p>
<p>An umlungu was an esteemed member of society during the apartheid era because of the power and authority that they possessed. It’s my view that because of the apartheid system, black people were psychologically influenced to perceive everything linked with a white person as better and of a higher standard. </p>
<p>Due to the reality of colonisation and apartheid, most black South Africans were forced to work for white people and so an umlungu came to be defined as a white boss or employer. With time, this came to include all bosses or employers – even black people came to refer to a black boss as umlungu.</p>
<h2>Today</h2>
<p>I argue that the views of black people toward white people had a significant impact on the word changing and gaining numerous positive meanings. The concept that anything finer, richer and whiter in colour is umlungu has given rise to new positive connotations for the term. The word umlungu today can refer to an employer, a black person of a certain ethnicity with a lighter skin colour, someone of higher standing, a wealthy person – or simply a white person. </p>
<p>A black person who owns and runs a farm like a white person using a labour tenancy arrangement, for example, is <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/people-and-whites">referred to</a> as an umlungu. University students may be <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/ubuntu-abantu-abelungu">referred to</a> as abelungu since they represent class mobility and luxury. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/zulu-vs-xhosa-how-colonialism-used-language-to-divide-south-africas-two-biggest-ethnic-groups-204969">Zulu vs Xhosa: how colonialism used language to divide South Africa's two biggest ethnic groups</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Xhosa people have further adapted the term, with some naming their children Nobelungu (the one who is of white people), Umlungwana (young white person) or Mlungukazi (white woman).</p>
<p>Social class and status influence the evolution of language. Change is also related to the relative safety of a group’s standing in society, with lower-status groups generally imitating higher-status ones. As a result, those identified as abelungu, particularly among the black population, are seen as having ascended the social ladder. </p>
<p>“Umlungu” demonstrates how the meaning of a word can change to reflect a changing society. Language is not static, it is a growing and shifting way of reflecting the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andiswa Mvanyashe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The word shows that language isn’t static, it evolves to reflect developments in a society.Andiswa Mvanyashe, Senior lecturer in Languages and Literature, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.