Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

The Uzvlded Afrlcnn St vltl ITefnson
despotism. Rather they attempt to accommodate the chiefs, encouraging the111 in idea that the chiefs-who are regarded as 'being the spokespersons generally of
belief they are somehow part of democracy in South Africa and, indeed, that their 1
should be reinforced and privileges extended. lem of development is relegated to the minor question of the
The revival of political life in the run-up to the 1999 election ies and municipalities. There is paralysis on
exarnples of the Realpolitik of South Africa which are also those of Africa, illustra whether traditional leaders should have voting
that national political leadership depends on traditional authority for power. clusion at all. The blurring of these issues
support of the rural people is solicited not directly by campaignin th the anti-democratic traditional authorities.
chiefs. This is illustrated by the tendency for Robert Mugabe ill Zimb is is the Realpolitik which Mamdani is sharply alive to and which confinns the mail1
the cultural and religious significance of the African chiefs, to promise ust of his argument. These examples of the articulation of lnodernising elites with
strengthening of their position, and affirm their role in communicating ate a general tendency in African politics and society: that of
ancestors before elections. Similarly there are displays of President Mandela mo to reach its limits and to seek accommodation and joint rule
fa~niliarly among the chiefs of the Transkei, and our Minister of Constitution th the chiefs. Customary law unreformed by the embrace of
Developlnent promising an expanded role for chiefs in local government and the rms of despotic rule remain the afterbirth of
continued control over the allocation of land (SATV 5 March 19
leaders are alive to this courtship and play the game. The leader of
Phathekile Holomisa, has expressed the fear that politicians want
the chiefs who, he claims, represent the people in the rural areas. He
at modernising local government have been made before in Africa a ntellectuals is Mamdani's analysis of the inner
they will fail in South Africa because elected councillors don't delive ns between this colonial tradition, the scalpel of iinperialisln in the dextrous
not properly represented in local councils in rural areas (SAfm 1 May 1998). Spe alevolent flowering of apartheid. The argument
on behalf of CONTRALESA, he objects to the Ministers deciding on the ra the end product of colonialism in Africa, however, which appears so
traditional leaders, who is a king or paramount chief, etc. and demand ple, unfortunately also reveals the limits ofhis hypothesis. While there
pensions and salaries for traditional and elected leaders (SAfm 2 May 1998 mate connections, colonial practice did not prescribe the outcome of apartheid.
central to the debate about traditional culture. In rural areas to draw on the insights provided by the cheap labour theorists to explain its
development projects, case studies have revealed that decisions about such ~rojects ory. Theoretically Malndani appears to lose the essential link between the
often taken autocratically by the chief and his councillors. Youth and women are den~e cal economy of South Africa and the nature of internal divisions; the lines of
participation. The first priority often seems to be to build a road to the ch vision among the population were most brutally enforced, but they were also
When food relief is provided it has been reported that the first person to benefit is wed. The solution to these manifest divisions, both in South Africa and
chief, who requires food for himself before the children can be fed. Communi in the political or administrative, though both are vital in the
complain to the Hearings on Poverty that the chiefs are the main notion of African unity and progress, but in the economic and the
development. These are impressions of the actual power relationships i e modem sector and the eventual smoothing over of the rasping lines of
and policy statements aim at accommodating these realities. ciety. This is a function of rural as well as urban
The recently released White Paper on Local Government (Ma tradition of the Ujamma villages of Tanzania, which were originally
1988:4.4,4.3) avoids confronting the issue of power and authori 1 Africa's imagination before becoming the bureaucratic nightmare
arguing that there is no conflict between Afiican customs and traditions mi-modernised and authoritarian state, shows the latent possibilities of African
and promising 'additional functions' to be added to those of traditional leaders. ve and African solutions.
distortion of tradition under apartheid is not mentioned and neither are the obvio Mamdani expresses severe reservations about the emergence of a vital civil
enormous problems such as the representation and rights of women, e outlines of the landscape of African realities are presented in
one crucial question. This policy statement from a democratic government promot okes but the colours are sharply monochroinal, purely black and
slow evolution of society from the customary
various challenges posed by the individual and
' For some reasoll these displays of courtship are only registered in the electronic media a aled in civil society, the bending of custom and tradition to the
not in the press. Speeches are not lodged on the ANC's website of speeches, making a recordi s of urban and industrial life (most evident in South African anthropology, but
of the actual promises and entreaties dependent on note-taking at transmission times! the work of the Zambian school of social change), the initiatives of individuals