Heribert Adam

The opening of the Apartheid mind : options for the new South Africa

Refusing to be governed by what is fashionable or inoffensive, Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley frankly address the passions and rationalities that drive politics in post-apartheid South Africa. They argue that the countrys quest for democracy is widely misunderstood and that public opinion abroad relies on stereotypes of violent tribalism and false colonial analogies. Adam and Moodley criticize the personality cult surrounding Nelson Mandela and the accolades accorded F. W. de Klerk. They reject the black-versus-white conflict and substitute sober analysis and strategic pragmatism for the moral outrage that typifies so much writing about South Africa. Believing that the best expression of solidarity emanates from sympathetic but candid criticism, they pose challenging questions for the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela. They give in-depth coverage to political violence, the ANC-South African Communist Party alliance, Inkatha, and other controversial topics as well. The authors do not propose a solution that will guarantee a genuinely democratic South Africa. What they offer is an understanding of the countrys social conditions and political constraints, and they sketch options for both a new South Africa and a new post-Cold War foreign policy for the whole of southern Africa. The importance of this book is as immediate as todays headlines.

Political Violence, 'Tribalism', and Inkatha

PROBABLY no other aspect of the South African conflict has elicited more divergent explanations and misinterpretations than the ongoing political violence. It is variously attributed to (i) de Klerks double agenda and unreformed police; (2) a third force of right-wing elements in the security establishment, bent on derailing the Governments negotiation agenda; (3) Inkatha-A.N.C. rivalry, engineered by ambitious Buthelezi in danger of being sidelined as an equal third party; (4) the A.N.C.s campaign of armed struggle, ungovernability, and revolutionary intolerance; (5) ingrained tribalism, unleashed by the lessening of white repression that merely resulted in black-onblack violence formerly held in check; (6) the legacy of apartheid in general, migrancy, hostel conditions, and high unemployment among a lost youth generation. Helen Suzman, for example, singled out sanctions for at least part of the blame in her I991 presidential address to the Institute of Race Relations, while its director, John Kane-Berman, lists all parties as having bloody hands.1 Our analysis refutes single-cause explanations. It de-emphasises a primary focus on the policies of leaders in favour of predisposing social conditions, such as the rural-urban divide, the inter-generational cleavages, and the differential living conditions, social status, and heightened competition of long-time urban residents, shack-dwellers, and migrants in single-men hostels. Regardless of peace-accords signed at the top, antagonistic groups at the bottom often act violently outside of leadership control. This applies, in particular, to elements of the official security establishment, linked to right-wing agendas of destabilisation of the negotiation process. A credible comprehensive account of the violence in South Africa has

Modernizing racial domination : South Africa's political dynamics

The publisher tells us that the author is a native of Germany who spent some time in South Africa and who is now at Simon Fraser University. It is a pity that the publisher did not have the authors style revised by somebody who has mastered the art of using the English language for the purpose of lucid exposition. As it is, the reader is hard put to discover exactly what the author is trying to say in these turgid pages. Of course, only a minority of social scientists express themselves clearly and with precision, but we really must protest that obscurity cannot be accepted as wisdom. To his credit, Mr. Adam perceived the paradox whereby a country that should, by all reports, by overripe for revolution (because rotten with injustice) is today the most stable in Africa. If the author had had clear and valid ideas about political theory and practice, he might have contributed something of value to the much needed explanation of this paradox. As it is, his exposition is admittedly derived in the main from informative books previously published and there is nothing fresh or stimulating in this book. Perhaps the vital fact to grasp about South Africa is this: British policy, open or disguised, continues to support Pretoria, while condemning apartheid on formal occasions. This policy, especially in the economic field, is in effect endorsed and followed by the United States, France, and West Germany. Mr. Adams devotes a few pages to this situation but he fails to explain its basic importance. We must, however, recognize that even without these powerful allies, South Africas white rulers could continue to keep the black millions in subjection. To think otherwise is to believe that an unjust society is necessarily an unstable one. Unfortunately it is not; and Mr. Adam at least knows that there is no revolution around the corner. But to describe the government of this sick society as a pragmatic oligarchy is to cover the absence of deeper analysis with a fancy phrase. JULIUs LEWIN London

Imagined liberation : xenophobia, citizenship, and identity in South Africa, Germany, and Canada

ForewordAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations and AcronymsIntroductionPart I Integrating Difference1 Comparative Xenophobia2 South African Perspectives on Xenophobia3 Youth VoicesAim and Methodology ? An Ethnography of Township Schools ? How Students View Foreigners4 Falling from Grace Shifting Views on Mandelaland ? Reflections on Mandela ? Patriarchy, Sexual Violence, and HIV/AIDS ? Crime and Punishment ? Corruption and Consumption? Reracialization, Affirmative Action, and Black Economic Empowerment ? Descent into Zimbabwe? ? Popular Sentiment versus a Liberal ConstitutionPart II Variations of Migration Policies: Africa, Germany, and Canada5 Settler ColonialismTwo Types of Colonialism ? Founding Myths and Intergroup Attitudes ? Metropolitan/Settler Relations6 Xenophobia in GermanyThe Case of Roma/Sinti ? Muslims as Enemies ? Capitalist versus Communist Xenophobia ? Conclusion7 Multicultural Canada as an Alternative?Canadian Identities and Cultural Traditions ? How to Select Immigrants ? Opportunistic MulticulturalismPart III Political Literacy8 Xenophobia and Political Literacy Comparing Political Education in Multiethnic Societies ? Political Literacy as Strategy to Combat Xenophobia ? Nation, Nationalism, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism, and Critical Patriotism ? Cosmopolitan Consciousness9 Theorizing XenophobiaConclusion: Alternatives and Global TrendsAppendicesAutobiography I: Navigating Difference: Insiders, Outsiders, andContending Identities (Kogila Moodley) Autobiography II: Controversies: Peacemaking in Divided Societies(Heribert Adam) ReferencesIndex of Names

Xenophobia, Asylum Seekers, and Immigration Policies in Germany

In the context of Germanys anti-Semitic past, current attitudes towards refugees and immigrants are surveyed and compared with other countries. Higher levels of xenophobia in former East Germany, despite far fewer foreigners than in West Germany, is explained with the official denial of the fascist legacy, in contrast to an effective reeducation policy and dealing with the Nazi past in the West. Islamophobia and allegations of welfare tourism have now emerged as the main obsession of xenophobes. Yet, overall attitudes towards outsiders have improved, together with legislative changes in immigration policy and citizenship acquisition, the weekly anti-Muslim demonstrations by PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans) in Dresden and arson attacks on asylum homes notwithstanding. Younger and better educated Germans are far less xenophobic. This analysis portrays the current German public discourse, provides relevant statistics on immigration, explores contested integration/asylum policies, scrutinizes implications of categories from the cultural repertoire through which migrancy is understood and assesses the contending political forces.

Forecasting scenarios for South Africa

Abstract Reluctant reconciliation is taking shape in South Africa. The forced marriage between the National Party and the African National Congress results from a balance of forces where neither side can defeat the other. The emergence of multiracial domination has surprised most observers who saw the battle about legalized racism as a clear moral issue. Developments have also been widely misunderstood owing to the tendency to apply false colonial analogies or popular stereotypes of violent tribalism. Scenario-planning exercises enjoy great popularity in a society beset by anxiety and ideological confusion. Rather than reviewing the various scenarios sketched by others, this article selects three courses as played out in other countries and compares South Africa to these models. By exploring the similarities between South Africa and Zimbabwe, Yugoslavia and Germany, lessons are drawn about desirable policies in the post-apartheid era.

Comparing South Africa: Nonracialism versus ethnonationalist revival

Reluctant reconciliation is taking shape in South Africa. The ambivalent alliance between the two major contenders for power, the National Party (NP) and the African National Congress (ANC) results from a balance of forces where neither side can defeat the other. It is their mutual weakness rather than their equal strength, that makes both long-time adversaries embrace negotiations for powersharing. Like a forced marriage, the working arrangement lacks any mutual love but nonetheless is consummated because behind any alternative behaviour looms a worse fate for both antagonists. The emergence of multiracial domination has surprised most observers who saw the battle about legalised racism as a clear moral issue, the defeat of the last colonisers by a widely acclaimed movement of national liberation. During the 1970s and 1980s the international debate on South Africa was preoccupied with the obvious immorality of apartheid. The apartheid state was invariably treated as a monolithic racist entity, and internal strategic developments were overlooked or reduced to simple dichotomies between oppressors and victims. This either-or reasoning ignored local contexts and obscured the ambiguities, contradictions and irrationalities of life under apartheid. Undoubtedly the grotesque Verwoerdian social engineering was brutal; but it also contained a certain paternalistic benevolence that oiled the system and helps explain why apartheid lasted so long. Incontrovertibly, the racially defined privileges designated oppressors and victims, but if we are to understand South African politics, victimology needs to be balanced by accounts of how the seemingly powerless survived, gave meaning to their lives, and acted upon their particular historical circumstances. Developments in South Africa have also been widely misunderstood owing to the tendency to apply false colonial analogies or popular stereotypes of violent tribalism. Later, the personality cult surrounding Nelson Mandela and the accolades accorded to F W De Klerk have further romanticised a conflictual relationship, personalising it into a literal matter of black versus white, and thereby obscuring the social conditions and constraints under which these leaders act, the passions and interests that drive their interacting constituencies. Which are the likely futures of South Africa, compared with developments elsewhere? Scenario-planning exercises enjoy great popularity in a society beset by anxiety and ideological confusion. The Anglo-American exhortation for a

Ideologies of dedication vs. blueprints of expedience 1

The motivating role of ideology seems central to the antagonists in a polarizing conflict. Apartheid is frequently associated with an elaborate ideology of puritan calvinist authoritarianism, aimed at legitimating white domination, at least in the perception of its beleaguered defenders. However, it may be argued that compared with the role of ideologies in other conflict situations and dictatorships, the defence of White privileges does not represent a fixed belief system or the self‐delusion of a false consciousness, which constitutes both the strength and weakness of white South Africa at the same time. By allowing for ideological cleavages and tactical splits among its ruling group instead of an encapsulating monolithic static ‘siege culture’, the South African system of pragmatic racial domination is rather flexible in accommodating pressure and adjusting to new situations outside dogmatic and rigid ideologies.

The Purchased Revolution in South Africa: Lessons for Democratic Transformation

The relatively peaceful changeover of political power in South Africa has been greatly facilitated by the vast resources of the state and a private‐sector‐led economy. Many potential trouble‐makers were bought off by being put on the payroll of the public service or being absorbed into even more lucrative private business. Ideologues of the old regime were pacified through generous retrenchment packages. This purchased revolution has rapidly produced a new Black elite, whose lifestyle discredits the legitimacy of ANC‐led liberation. The embourgeoisement of the new powerholders is critically analyzed and the likely alienation of an impoverished constituency assessed. However, government options to pursue a more radical economic policy of social justice are limited. Constrained by economic interdependence domestically, the semi‐developed South African economy must even more adhere to a global neo‐liberal consensus if it wishes to realize ambitious growth rates. The future of the ANC and a non‐racial democra...

Rational Choice in Ethnic Mobilization: A Critique

Recently, rational choice theory, based on economic models of cost-benefit calculations for behavior, has received increased attention among some social scientists. They have applied the model to ethnic collective behavior focusing on when and why people join organizations and when free-riding (Olson, 1965)becomes the norm. Michael Hechter and his associates (Hechter et at1982) in particular have distinguished themselves in developing further a sophisticated model of what had become known earlier as resource mobilization theory. The proponents of resource mobilization argue against the so-called relative deprivation theory or, what Hechter calls, the stratification model of ethnicity. Relative deprivation as the cause for ethnic collective action has been criticized frequently for not being able to pin down the crucial political behavior. The concept is said to oversimplify the relationship between collective perception of deprivation and behavior into a formula of universal applicability to all historical protests or revolutions without lending itself to predictions. While the two different foci on the etiology of protest are not mutually exclusive and supplement each other, so a number of European researchers argue (Webb et al., 1983) they clearly favor the mobilization approach for its greater explanatory value. Resource mobilization, on the other hand, based on rational choice models of human behavior stresses the level of individual choices as well as the mediating role of organization as the key to the questions posed. In Hechters et at (1982) formulation especially, ethnic collective action is explained with great consistency and at a high level of abstraction that makes the model application beyond specific cases in explaining the presence as well as absence of ethnic mobilization in the light of clear ethnic discontent. The suggestive and pervasive theory, is, nevertheless, marred by serious deficiencies and omissions. The Hechter et al., theory based on strong positivistic assumptions: To the degree that we can actually measure the structural constraints faced by different individuals, we are therefore, in a position to estimate... their private interest in participating in collective action (Hechter et al., 1982:421).