Goolam Vahed

World Cup 2010: Africa's turn or the turn on Africa?

The awarding of World Cup 2010 to South Africa was hailed as a great ‘victory’ for the African continent and the cause of much celebration. It heightened expectations not only about the spectacle itself but about the benefits that would accrue to South Africa and the rest of Africa. This essay examines the notion of the successful bid as an ‘African victory’ in the context of global power relations in football, South Africa’s alleged function as a sub‐imperialist power on the continent, and xenophobic attacks on African immigrants in South Africa. After tracing the politics around South Africa’s involvement in FIFA, this essay critically interrogates the benefits touted for South Africa and Africa: development for the SADC region, economic opportunities for ordinary South Africans, increased tourism in South Africa, and football development and peace and nation‐building across the continent. Will the World Cup, as Thabo Mbeki would like, be the moment ‘when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict?’

Changing Islamic Traditions and Emerging Identities in South Africa

The deracialization of South African society in the midst of accelerating economic and cultural globalization has set in motion profound social, cultural and political changes that have confronted the existing notions of identity of most South Africans. Many Muslims are faced with a dilemma, as state acceptance of abortion, prostitution, gay rights and so on are unacceptable to them. The dilemma for them is whether to integrate in the larger society or embrace an ever more strict observance of Islam, or `valorize’ the tradition, in post-modern jargon? How do they resolve the dilemma of participating in South African institutions yet remaining a conscious part of the worldwide ummah? Many Muslims are concerned because they have to ® nd a place for themselves in the midst of a number of other religious, racial and ethnic groups in an environment that does not support an Islamic world-view. The central concern of this paper is to examine how changes in South Africa have resulted in the altering, af® rming or abandoning of the identities of Muslims. This will involve an examination of the complex association between racial, ethnic, class, national and Islamic identities of Indian Muslims.

CONSTRUCTIONS OF COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY AMONG INDIANS IN COLONIAL NATAL, 1860–1910: THE ROLE OF THE MUHARRAM FESTIVAL

This article is concerned with the historical construction of communities, cultures and identities in colonial Natal, in this case an Indian grouping that emerged from the heterogeneous collection of indentured workers imported between 1860 and 1911. Despite the difficulties of indenture, Indians set about re-establishing their culture and religion in Durban. The most visible and public expression of ritual was the festival of Muhurram , which played an important role in forging a pan-Indian ‘Indianness’ within a white and African colonial society. This was significant when one considers that the nationalist movement was in its formative stages and there was no national identity when indentured workers had left India.

Contesting ‘Orthodoxy’: The Tablighi–Sunni conflict among South African muslims in the 1970s and 1980s

Muslims constitute less than 3% of South Africa’s population. In a context where divisions of race, ethnicity and class predominated, schisms among South Africa’s Muslims have been largely overlooked in the country’s historiography. Notwithstanding the tendency of outsiders to view Muslims as a cultural and timeless whole, Islam has never functioned as an organic unity in South Africa. The most obvious distinction is between Indian and Malay Muslims with their different histories, cultures and traditions. Most Indian Muslims are confined to KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, while the majority of Malays live in the Western Cape; there has consequently been little interaction. But deep differences also exist among Indian Muslims due to distinctions of locality, class, ethnicity and language. This paper briefly traces the genesis of these differences, with particular emphasis on the upsurge of conflict during the 1970s and 1980s as a result of attempts by reformist Islam to eradicate entrenched popular practices. The ensuing contestation of belief and practices led to significant transformation of identity among reformists as well as defenders of ‘tradition’ among South African Muslims.

Identity and Belonging in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case of Indian South Africans

Abstract This paper examines Indian identities in the post-apartheid period, focusing in particular on the vexed issues of identity and belonging. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of a non-racial democratic South Africa on 10 May 1994 denoted the de-territorialisation of old apartheid racial identities. Race separateness was no longer codified in law and common citizenship was meant to glue all into a South African “nation”. The process has been far from simple as ‘Indian’ identity has been constructed, deconstructed and re-made over the years. A central dynamic of this process has been the tension between the way the state has tried to define identity. In the post-apartheid period too, there is unraveling of Indian identities in response to external factors such as the rise of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in India, the struggle of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the Global War on Terror, while the state continues to play an interventionist role through its race-based affirmative action policies. All of this underscores tensions among Indians on how best to assert their belonging in Africa. As this article is being written there is a growing interest in the commemoration of 150 years since the arrival of Indian indentured labourers in South Africa in 1860. The present conjuncture opens possibilities to debate issues of identity and belonging. If access to resources continues to be defined exclusively by race then one can expect increasing frustration on the part of the poors who will most likely be susceptible to racial and ethnic overtures. On the other hand, the middle classes, living in the same gated communities and enjoying the same sports like cricket and golf, may witness bonding across racial lines. Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons, but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings (Said 1993: 7).

The Viability of Islamic Banking and Finance in a Capitalist Economy: A South African Case Study

Muslims in post-apartheid South Africa have been seeking to introduce stricter Islamic codes in the public and private domains to redefine the kind of Muslims they want to be. An important aspect of this process is the attempt to reconcile living in a “non-Islamic” country with Islamic principles relating to finance, banking, and investment. Muslims are prohibited from engaging in interest (riba)-related economic activities. Muslim minorities worldwide are pioneering efforts in shariah-complaint finance. This includes prohibitions on: (1) investments in businesses whose practices are in conflict with Islamic teachings, such as those that engage in gambling or pornography, or the sale or consumption of alcohol and pork; (2) investments offering fixed interest-based return; (3) investments in indebted companies paying interest on servicing their debt; and (4) speculation in derivative transactions on the stock exchange. This paper examines the growth of Islamic finance, banking, and investment in post-apartheid South Africa. What is its history and how does it differ from existing formal banking and finance operations? Why are Muslims embarking on these ventures? What is Islamic banking as a religious and ethical phenomenon? Which segment of the Muslim population is most au faire with Islamic banking and finance? What does Islamic banking represent in socio-political terms and what are the long-term prospects for the industry in South Africa?

Managing South African transformation: the story of cricket in KwaZulu Natal, 1994–2004

Sport has historically been an important element of South African popular culture, even though it was divided along racial lines for much of the countrys history. In post-apartheid South Africa, sport is seen by politicians, sports officials and many ordinary people as a means to surmount race and class barriers and to forge nationhood. But sport remains a site of acute contestation over what transformation means: ‘merit’ versus ‘affirmative action’, beneficiaries of change, pace of transformation and so on. This conflict reflects the broader tensions over how South African society should be restructured. Change in racial composition at the level of leadership, coaching and players since 1990 has failed to transform cricket into a ‘peoples game’. The cricket establishment is following the lead of government in prioritizing the empowerment of a minority. Class privilege has replaced race privilege. At the same time, tensions generated by change are producing further hostility along the fault lines of race and class. There is, for example, a conflict over resources among those previously labelled ‘Black’: Indians, Coloureds and the majority African population. These struggles reveal the fragmented nature of post-apartheid South African society, notwithstanding attempts to define South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’. The historical, social, economic and cultural legacy of South Africas conflicting pasts, the impact of globalization—and sport is a principal front of globalization, generating vast economic revenue and creating intolerable pressure to succeed—as well as post-apartheid discrepancies in economic and social conditions are all making it difficult to forge a united national culture, despite the attempt to use sport for the ‘mythic enactment’ of a collective South African identity. The tensions discussed in this article continue to be alive though the ‘patterns of prejudice’ are manifesting themselves in different forms.

Indentured Masculinity in Colonial Natal, 1860–1910

The men of Southern Africa have frequently been fitted into the binaries of black/white or indigenous/settler. While this framework distinguishes the different histories and power positions, it conceals the presence of men whose geographical origins, ethnic affiliations, and position in the racial order escape these neat divisions. This chapter on a hitherto neglected group of South African men, the “Indians,” argues that for most of them, their arrival as indentured laborers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was critical in framing their masculinities. Their inbetweenness as “not white” and “not black” and their strong connections with the cultures of the Indian subcontinent created a specific configuration I term “indentured masculinity.”

The Making of Indianess: Indian Politics in South Africa During the 1930s and 1940s

The years 1914 to 1949 were witness to rapid and extensive change in the social and material conditions of Indians. The transformation of the majority of Indians to an urban-based proletariat presented them with new challenges as well as additional choices of group membership. They came into contact with African and white workers in their places of employment, as well as with Indians from different language and religious backgrounds at home, school and work.

“Gagged and trussed rather securely by the law”: The 1952 Defiance Campaign in Natal

For almost half a century after the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Black1 South Africans responded to the segregationist policies of successive white minority governments principally through non-violent techniques of resistance, such as boycotts, civil disobedience, mass demonstrations, and strikes. The movement led by Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1913 and the 1946–48 campaign in Natal against the “Ghetto Act” are two prominent instances of non-violent mass civil disobedience prior to the National Party (NP) coming to power in 1948. The new government began almost instantly to implement its policy of apartheid which, while never static, entailed severe control of African movement in urban areas, the creation of reserves for Africans, white control of political institutions, and strict segregation of Indians and Coloureds.