The Idea of Nation in South Africa, 1940 to Post-1994: Conceptualizations from the Black Liberation Movement

Tafira, Hashi Kenneth

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_12

Hashi Kenneth Tafira⁴

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities ((AHAM))

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Abstract

My major tangents in this chapter hinge on how the idea of the nation was articulated not only by white rulers but also by black activists in different epochs and historical circumstances. Among blacks there have been polarizations and contestations on what a nation is. The national question, that is, who and what constitutes a nation, is yet to be resolved despite efforts by the ANC to steer all towards rainbowism. This is sharply expressed by the friction between Congress’ multi-racialism and BC/Africanists’ brand of Black Nationalism. The Congress vision of the nation, which has culminated into a post-1994 social order, continues to be contested by BC adherents and Pan-Africanists.

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Notes

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10.
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12.
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13.
“A Call to Unity.” Manifesto adopted by the National Executive Committee of the AAC, 26 August 1943.
14.
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16.
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17.
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Ibid.
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Ibid.
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Ibid.
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“Basic Policy of Congress Youth League.” Manifesto issued by the National Executive Committee of the ANCYL, 1948.
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Anton Lembede, “Some Basic Principles of African Nationalism”, Inyaniso, February 1945.
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“AZANYU Rejects Talking.” New Nation, 10 August 1990.
86.
PAC’s Clarence Makwetu’s speech at the Patriotic Front meeting, October 1991. AZANYU also accepted African Nationalism and Scientific Socialism as “ideological vehicle of our youth movement, mobilising the exploited masses under the banner of African Nationalism” (Press statement of the resolutions adopted in the annual national congress of the Azanian National Youth Unity (AZANYU) held at Ipelegeng, Soweto, 16–17 January 1988.
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Zeph Mothopeng’s speech on 10 March 1990, Pax Nova Hall, Bloemfontein.
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89.
Tami Zani, The Future Society as seen by the Black Peoples Convention.” n.d.
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It saw South Africa as internally colonized with participation of both English and Afrikaner settlers. In 1928, the CPSA travelled to Moscow for the sixth World Congress of the Comintern where the national question was debated. The Comintern stressed the struggle for national liberation must precede socialist transformation. Alexander (1979) has critiqued the CST as implying a two-nations thesis, a claim refuted by Slovo (1988).
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A booklet published by the South African state in 1969. “Progress through Separate Development” makes this claim.
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A derogatory term for black African immigrants.
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Tafira, H.K. (2016). The Idea of Nation in South Africa, 1940 to Post-1994: Conceptualizations from the Black Liberation Movement. In: Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_12

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