Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

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The L)~viikiA Africtrrl Stc~t avid Hemson {-~lral arcas as largely residual. it is uilable tillly to explain aparlheici as a pl0yiIIg traditional beliefs, British actiolls to prevent the fi,rlll of tlle slate. It is only Sl.orn an cconoiiiistic perspective-- one tllat are described by MamcJani as being essentially curative in India higll\ig\l[s lcvcls of i~~dustrializalion and prolciarianization onesicjed]y---lilat So~ltlr Afr-ican cuceptionalism makes sense. (:onversely. the same cxecptionalism masks the colol~ial nature of the Soutli African esperience (27)'. fl-ica. The British rulers, operating under the overarching aegis of principles, functioned differently in the colonies as land was 0Inmunal holding. For all the exultation of the individual under enterprise capitalism, the African was defined not as native but as tribesperson. He es a COmlnentator on colonial administration as follows: 'The genius ofBritish rule by 'semi-industrialization, semi-p strong civil society'. For all his spurn footedly t]~ro,~gh tile lvriting on trade tradjtioll critically on its own t question', the conditions of rule ov commonality between South Africa an bifurcated state which characterises both. This monstrosity did not arise as a Pure id frica.. . was in seeking 10 civilize Africans as commuliities, not as individuals'. A one-sided opposition between the individual and the group, civil society and traditions emerged which allowed a cheap and (for a fairly long ss method of rule by a small number of bureaucrats over the form of rule is supremely political, aiming at a frictiollless mination over the African people. The respected colonial archivist and strategist, d as stating frankly how Afi-ican life was warped under authority and resistance not only i state was that it was Janus-faced, The objective of African customary law is primarily designed to jllaintajn the social ecluilibrium (5 1). organised differently in the rural areas and the urban areas. There is a duality 0 fonns ofpower under a single hegemonic authority: ma was, in the view of colonial authorities, that it did not freeze -conquest stage, but, in a familiar phrase, was a 'transitional Urball power spoke the language of civil society and civil rights. rural power of community and culture. Civil power claimed to protect rights. customary power pledged to enforce tradition. The l'oriner was organized on tile prillciple of differentiation to check the concentration ofpower, the ]alteral.ound the principle offusion to ensure aunitary authority (1 8). ation of Africans as communities, and not individuals, inlo the m world. Indeed, indirect rule which has led to the long-te~m forms of bondage of esented as an important colonial refinn. What was actually dani's ~ne~norable phrase was 'decentralised despotism', the rule by over the lnasses indirectly through traditional authorities. Altllough the asses were powerless, their immediate rulers were given considerable powers This experience of statefonn is the characterises the lives of rural people, S which eliminated traditional checks and balances. These powers full. The lnodel of decentralised despotism was monarchical, genuine democracy and freedom. Manldani's argument is surprisingly simple and direct; initially the cola riarchal, and authoritarian: rulers had a sillgle-millded obscssi it presumed a king at the center of evely polity. a chief on eve1.y piecc of. after vanquishing the tribes tllrougl soon reversed this policy and ended up stabilising colonial rule 011 the social bas traditional rulers. Here lies the worm in the bud. African traditional culture and administrative groulld. and a patriarch in every homestcad or kraal. Wliether in thc homestead. the village, or the kingdom. authority was considered an attribute of apersonal despotism (39). social structures became intimately interwoven with the apparatus of for dolnination. The idea did not arise specifically from the African experience, althou flowered in the continent, but rather it had its roots in earlier experience. He argues Britain, the irnperialist couiltry par excellence, had the perverse gellitls of being the to systematically exploit the authoritarian possibilities in native c~1lture. 111 reaction were the fruits of colonial reform: Foreign rule and colonialism was rlot openly force of arms, it was effectively camouflaged for the vast majority of le through chiefs. 011 the one side was the unchecked despotism of' the overarching colonial power, on the other was tile lilnited \vhich largely existed in a racial form, available orlly to the eliberately excluding the African urban people. Mamdani follows this essentialist reading of colonial history wit11 a fiee- avoid references to the book are simply enclosed in brackets. Iicferen e variety of experiences ill Africa of Hritislj, Fre~lcIl and 1 .~o to otiier texts will be S~~lly indicated. ms of rnle, displaying an unsurpassed skill in rinaiysis an
ange of retrieval of the literature of colonialism. The argument irk the of the reviewer is convincing, but it has been made before in less expansive histor albeit without the detailed knowledge, keen logic and self-confidence of the aut What is strikingly original and provocative are the next steps of the argument. the cheap labour thesis Mamdani argues that his locus nzodc t.fcrccumz,lntion. Working conclusion that apartheid is uniquely African rather than the political product oft out of the operation ofthe cheap labour systeln. In his words: usually ullderstood as institutionalized racial domination. apartlieid was actually an attempt to soften racial antagonism by mediating and thereby refracting tile impact of racial domination Lhrough a rall&c of Native A~~thoritics (27). Apartheid kactured (he ranks of the ruled along a double divide, etllllic on the one ha rural-urban on the other: M~~~ tlran a response to 111c qucslion of securing cheap labor power in a srmi-illdustrial setting, 1 have argued that apartlieid needs to be llndcrstood as the ouicolne of an llr?e~rfing q~~estji~r order- in a setting boll1 semiintlustrial and colonial. Without denying illc importance of the selnlilldustl-ial context. 1 \lave illulniriated the ~igniticancc of tilc colonial colltest in understartding apartheid as aform of the state (295: c.a.). The Divided African S vicl Fle~izson This is a substantial clailn and Marndani has considerable illtellectual power to bat ~t level here is a startling new idea, at anotherwe have to ask o~lrselveswhetherit not a re-interpret interpretation of a econoanic logic has a certain the s~lperstruct~lre for an expla me to be an inversion ofthe 1 It is ulldeniab)e tha featul-es of segregation and a property ofwhites, ofblacks urban areas, etc.-expandin I 870~ in Natal (HemSon 1980). The apparatus of control was ready made, what powered tile developme:lt of pre-apartheid institutions further along these li Lv\ias an ecollornic impulse, a Inode of accumrrlation that interlocked with a inode domjllation, he point wllicli needs to be rnade here is that while the bif~~rcated st -- - sucl, as~)aviil wcls1,(1971) inllisstudy ofnativeafhirsi~iNatal: and DavidKaplall(197 244 245 ered defence is in order. The spectacular theoretical advances of the 1970s have , and the co~nplex reinterpretations of its essential tenets which have followed
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nts who ale 'customers', 'stake-hol
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uilds and [it in turn] creates anot
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From that day on, Nd~ng'ur~ began t
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. - r - other words, used certain f
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nn Hooper tlie language, ~nesmerisi
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Song and dance as we have Teen are
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Glerzn Hooper sense, one that rende
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Glenn Hooper Armah, Ayi Kwei 1973.
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71e lise ~rnoa~~liii- I,crizgii~lge
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References I he Use o/ 1Vet.narllla
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Davicl Kazanlian deportat~on scheme
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David EiLzzcznjlaw Racial C;overrzn
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L)av~tl KCIZII~J~U~ Racial Cioverrz
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David Kusi~njian Spain's colonies i
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David Kczcilzanjicln calculably and
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YC'VLU 11Lllilr~/lurl and in Ann La
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David Kazanjian terrify~ng effect o
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JI~ivi (1 kiiztitz~za~z Raclal Gove
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Dovid Kcrzavrjzan Racial Governnzen
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David Kastrnjrnn white Americans ar
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Slanlo~i, I.,ucia C: 1993. 'Those W
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David Jol~nson De Misl, Race unrl N
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De Mzst, Race and Nation opposjlion
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De Mist, Race and Nutlon Whether th
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L ur-rerzt Irencis in the I'rodz~ct
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from it: 'ahovc it"? L.llr1 rrlr rv
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lived modernity, and as complex and
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C'zirrent Turrzds in the Production
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urrent lrends in the Prodzdction of
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LI(IIEPZI ~reilus zn the Prodzlcllo
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Alex la Guma's Politics and Aesthet
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Alex In Gzlrna i Polltics and Aesth
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as L,a Gu~iia hirnself later realis
Page 74 and 75: Alex la Gums k Politics and Aesthet
Page 76 and 77: Alex la (Yurna 3 Polilics and Aesth
Page 78 and 79: Alex In Gumn 2 Politics and Aest la
Page 80 and 81: Ale\: la (I'11~zcr k Politics cr~z~
Page 82 and 83: Alex lil Gzlnla .? Politics and Aes
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Page 86 and 87: Ales la C;zlma i Politics ~~ndilesf
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Page 90 and 91: C'orlnne .sunr/~i~th X,vo wo~orrzen
Page 92 and 93: Corinne Sandwith Two Women Critics
Page 94 and 95: Tilo Women Critics and South Africa
Page 96: nces and Selected Bibliography hori
Page 99 and 100: I'F~CI N~~~I.S~I~I~IL Constr~lction
Page 101 and 102: coti-iplain. They have beer1 writtz
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Page 105 and 106: value is socially constructed and d
Page 107 and 108: C'onstuzrct~ons of Protest Poetqj u
Page 109 and 110: Priya Narisrntll~l Cowstrnctions of
Page 111 and 112: and public accountability. Althougl
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Page 115 and 116: .Yh~zne MU~LZPJ Acnder~~ic I.l.tchn
Page 117 and 118: Africa. This partially accounts for
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Page 122 and 123: Maqagi. Sisi 1990. Who Theorises? C
Page 126 and 127: T/7e Dividect African S id Hernson
Page 128 and 129: The Uzvlded Afrlcnn St vltl ITefnso
Page 130 and 131: ion. Johannesburg: SATRK. This does
Page 132 and 133: Writitig .Yoz~th IW~M Sole ican ide
Page 134 and 135: scrubbed away. Thus, Asvat's c Flam
Page 136 and 137: Book Reviews States of Eniergency i
Page 138 and 139: Arrived after you had returned honi
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Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

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