Introduction: The Paradox of Post-Apartheid ‘Afrikaner’ Identity: Deployments of Ethnicity and Neo-Liberalism

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Introduction The Paradox of Post-Apartheid lsquoAfrikanerrsquo IdentityDeployments of Ethnicity and Neo-LiberalismThomas M Blaser a amp Christi van der Westhuizen ba University of Stellenboschb University of the Free StatePublished online 23 Nov 2012

To cite this article Thomas M Blaser amp Christi van der Westhuizen (2012) Introduction TheParadox of Post-Apartheid lsquoAfrikanerrsquo Identity Deployments of Ethnicity and Neo-LiberalismAfrican Studies 713 380-390 DOI 101080000201842012740882

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101080000201842012740882

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Introduction The Paradox ofPost-Apartheid lsquoAfrikanerrsquo IdentityDeployments of Ethnicity andNeo-Liberalism

Thomas M Blaseralowast and Christi van derWesthuizenblowastlowast

aUniversity of Stellenbosch bUniversity of the Free State

For much of the 20th century white Afrikaans-speakers ruled South Africa and as

mobilised ethno-nationalist lsquoAfrikanersrsquo were instrumental in the creation and

maintenance of the system of racial segregation named apartheid The white

settler minority handed over political power to the black majority after nego-

tiations led to democratic elections in 1994 The concurrent demise of Afrikaner

nationalism which had historically mobilised Afrikaans-speaking white people as

a social economic and political force provoked ideological political and social

dislocations including among those previously marshalled as lsquoAfrikanersrsquo At

the same time democratisation and the discourse of a human rights-based consti-

tutionalism created new spaces to explore and shape different ways of being

(Zegeye 2001)

How we conceptualise explain and think of ethnic and national identities in South

Africa and across the globe has gone through considerable change (Tambini

2001195ndash217) During South Africarsquos transition to democracy in 1993 a

major international conference titled lsquoEthnicity Identity and Nationalism in

South Africa Past Present Futurersquo was held at Rhodes University Grahams-

town The organisers expressed the hope that first after years of apartheid

manipulation of ethnic identities a new understanding would be created that eth-

nicity was more than just the creation of the apartheid state and second that even

though it was an lsquooppositional constructrsquo ethnicity alone was not bound to lead to

conflict (Wilmsen and McAllister 1996xiii) Indeed the study of ethnic and

national identities has had a troubled history in South Africa During apartheid

the alleged lsquorealrsquo existence of ethnic and racial groups lsquojustifiedrsquo the white exclu-

sion of racialised others from the central institutions of power (Sharp 19886

Mare 200329) and essentialised notions of group identities were used to justify

apartheid separation and violent subjugation Racist practices and ethnic divisions

were not only inscribed in law and society but the kind of ethnology practised at

lowastEmail thblasergmailcomlowastlowastEmail christiwmwebcoza

ISSN 0002-0184 printISSN 1469-2872 online12030380ndash11 2012 Taylor amp Francis Group Ltd on behalf of the University of Witwatersrandhttpdxdoiorg101080000201842012740882

African Studies 71 3 December 2012

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4

Afrikaans universities volkekunde (study of peoples) was heavily supported by

the apartheid regime with the intent to primordialise identities to justify racial

and ethnic separation ndash as was Sociology (Ally 2005) The resultant politicisation

meant that analysis of ethnicity and nation could serve as support to apartheid and

it is this legacy that makes studying and debating ethnic and racial identities in

South Africa a particular challenge Therefore it is prudent to remind ourselves

as Jenkins (200815) does about anthropological research and teaching about eth-

nicity lsquoto resist the naturalisation or the taking for granted of ethnic identity and

nationalist ideologyrsquo

Within the paradigm of the study of nation and ethnicity in South Africa the most

prominent approaches in the social sciences have been the liberal-pluralist Afri-

kaner nationalist and revisionist or neo-Marxist approaches (see Alexander

(20029ndash27) for a useful synopsis see Ally (2005) for a critical analysis of the

revisionist strand in Sociology) The debates on how unity across class ethnicity

and region was maintained and how race class and nation intersected in the

making of the reigning social order shaped South African thought significantly

In a similar vein a focus on group relations tried to pinpoint the factors that

were conducive or hindered a peaceful settlement in an increasingly vehement

contest for power it drew from a race and ethnic studies perspective but also

from Comparative Politics and Sociology (Rotberg and Barrat 1980 Hanf

1981 Du Toit and Esterhuyse 1990) Within this literature because of apartheid

law and codification and the intent of Afrikaners to maintain racial dominance

against the global movement of decolonisation the study of race and ethnicity

in South Africa elicited particular interest This interest included research inves-

tigating the influence of Nazi ideology on Afrikaner racist rule (Furlong 1991)

or comparing the apartheid state with IsraelPalestine (Greenstein 1995)

The modernist conception of state nation and ethnicity had proven its validity in

South Africa state made nation (and ethnicity) and there was nothing inevitable

or natural about the existence of an Afrikaner volk (people) or ethnic identity

Smith (1986) describes the complex interplay between state nation and ethnicity

ethnicities are self-defined groups that can become elevated to nations through

politicisation and staking claims to the state With its highly politicised impli-

cations the idea that there ever existed such a group as lsquothe Afrikanersrsquo a

group of people with self-imagined commonalities who intended to be seen as a

singular group was always contested and subject to fluctuations Who counts as

an Afrikaner and what it means to be an Afrikaner had been contested ever

since the term was for the first time documented in the early 18th century (Gilio-

mee 200322 De Klerk 1984) The alleged ethnic coherence and racial homogen-

eity of Afrikanerness was discursively constructed from the social diversity found

among Afrikaans-speakers and reproduced through careful policing of boundaries

(Hofmeyr 1987 Brink 1990 Norval 1996 Steyn 2001) Homogeneity was ideo-

logically crafted and reproduced among white Afrikaans-speakers who main-

tained far fewer ties with the European continent than other settlers in Africa

The Paradox of Post-Apartheid lsquoAfrikanerrsquo Identity 381

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ober

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4

Afrikaner nationalism which had elevated Afrikanerdom as the highest embodi-

ment of a lsquopurifiedrsquo Afrikaner culture and language had captured state power

ruled over a racially and ethnically demarcated society and ensured the economic

advancement and political dominance of white Afrikaans-speakers

The questions that arise are How after apartheid are race ethnicity and other

identities of the white social group that were at the core of white rule and the apart-

heid state being renegotiated What has happened to the practices of this particular

white group that arguably more than any other across the world stands for a late

and reluctant move away from the ideology and practice of white supremacy

The emphasis in analyses has been on the political changes and the crumbling

of Afrikaner political power as an ethno-nationalist project (Adam and Moodley

1986 Giliomee 1992 1997) However there is a need to investigate new forms

of identity that are emerging in cultural and other mediated spaces within a

global context of proliferations of identities (Alexander 2006)

Since the 1970s important developments in social theory commonly associated

with post-modernism and based on the interpersonal and on the formation of sub-

jectivities have taken place With regards to the latter Victor Jeleniewski Seidler

suggests that within lsquopostmodern societies there is a growing realisation that

people are no longer fixed in their inherited identitiesrsquo and hence they lsquono

longer appear to be so determined by the structural positions that they occupy

within class lsquoracersquo and gender relations of power and subordinationrsquo

(201212) Identity formation involves dynamics of emotions and power and

such identity work lsquoa set of active processes (such as forming strengthening

and revising) which serve to construct a sense of identityrsquo (Sveningsson and

Alvesson 2003 quoted in Beech 2008) leads to complex interactions between

culture and politics (Jeleniewski Seidler 201212)

The processes of identitary reinvention and sense-making among former ruling

social categories are especially analytically challenging as various fractured

forms of adaptation emerge After the initial optimistic phase around the arrival

of the lsquoNew South Africarsquo in the 1990s and the ideal of a common and inclusive

South African lsquorainbow nationrsquo resurgences in post-apartheid re-racialisation of

citizenship have occurred as South Africans continue to presume define and

police lsquofixed prescribed waysrsquo of being lsquoblack or whitersquo (Erasmus 200528)

A rise of black racial nativism in co-constructive relation with white racial deni-

alism can be observed (Mangcu 2008101ndash16 2012280) In his evaluation of

race and racism in South Africa David Theo Goldberg argues that the structures

of whiteness are still very much in place (2009245ndash326) Therefore from a criti-

cal race theory perspective it is imperative to expose the continued workings of

whiteness analysed as acting as an invisible centre from whence racialised

lsquoothersrsquo are constructed

Traditionally critical race theory focuses on how white supremacy came into

being and how it is maintained particular the role of the law in this process

382 African Studies Vol 71 No 3 December 2012

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ober

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4

(Crenshaw et al 1995xiii) but it has been less concerned with how race-based

identities adapt It is therefore necessary to grapple with the (re)constructions of

post-apartheid whiteness a process which allows a critical investigation of permu-

tations of white supremacy and how they contribute to the continuation of racial

injustices This approach also stresses the importance of turning the dissection

knife to the invisible centre from whence white power (still) emanates rather

than the margins which have remained a preoccupation in the social sciences

also in South Africa with its ample volumes of studies on black lsquoothersrsquo While

whiteness in South Africa was a more visible organising element during colonial-

ism and especially apartheid than in the metropolitan centres of the North the ten-

dency in the social sciences has been a focus on the racialised margins With

democratisation and the achievement of political power by subjects marked

lsquoblackrsquo this tradition could continue neglecting examination of the reproduction

of whiteness including its lsquodisgracedrsquo Afrikaner manifestation (Steyn 2001215ndash

70) It is imperative that research and theorising deepen the dissection of white-

ness with a view to destabilising currently resurgent attempts at rehabilitating

whiteness

In this set of articles the focus is on what has been called the subaltern whiteness

of the Afrikaner a whiteness that has resisted that of Anglo ethnicity by deploying

nationalist and ethnic resources a practice that has been revamped and re-applied

in post-apartheid South-Africa in strategies aimed at rehabilitating Afrikaner

whiteness (Steyn 2001218 Distiller and Steyn 20045) The post-apartheid

period witnessed the deployment of what Melissa Steyn (2003 2004) dubs

lsquowhite talkrsquo to preserve ethnic entitlements Afrikanersrsquo white talk employed

harsher lexicon and blunter tropes than English whiteness to devise various reha-

bilitation strategies (Steyn 2001242ndash64)

The essays collected here show the malleability of race but also the intransigence of

race discourse and practice The essays also grapple with the question of how race-

based thinking continues to exist in less overt forms and how these exert an influ-

ence on social relations for example in the form of the lsquoracialisation of culturersquo

The post-apartheid period demonstrates perhaps more than at any other historical

juncture that the role played by discourse and how it is related to materialities

deserves attention in order to understand the ebb and flow of the formation of iden-

tities A focus on interests and state policies alone neglects how people in many

different and contradictory ways shape themselves and the world around them It

is then necessary as these essays taken as a whole do to bring together analyses of

structural factors and narratives in order to gain a more complete picture about

current social political cultural and economic developments in the changing

South African society and polity The focus of the studies exemplifies Sarah Nut-

tallrsquos notion of entanglement lsquosites and spaces in which what was once thought of

as separate ndash identities spaces histories ndash come together or find points of inter-

sectionrsquo (200920)


Dow

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ober

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4

To take a closer look at the articles Rebecca Davies examines the role of neo-

liberalism in Afrikaans-speaking capital elitesrsquo reconstruction of themselves in

the post-apartheid period Their adroit adaptation in the era of neo-liberal globa-

lisation seems part of the lsquopolitical processes through which cultural forms are

imposed invented reworked and transformedrsquo (Gupta and Ferguson 199715)

Afrikaner elites balance a strong material position and distinctive cultural

legacy to capitalise on the liberalisation of the domestic economy and to reposition

themselves in the new dispensation The end of ethnic linkages between big

business and other divisions of Afrikaner capital has led to the emergence of a

new Afrikaner capitalist class with little or no sense of ethnic obligation Thus

an increasingly globalised Afrikaans elite and middle class prosper materially

unperturbed by growing white poverty further reinforcing the break with the his-

torical precedent of Afrikaner nationalist cross-class alliances in the 1930s and

1940s (Van der Westhuizen 2007) As a consequence of such processes Davies

argues class and race have become more salient at the expense of an Afrikaner

ethnic affiliation which has diminished

In contrast to Daviesrsquo elites some Afrikaners failed to maintain or improve their

material status in the transition from apartheid exclusivity to non-racial democ-

racy Working-class Afrikaners resisted the abolition of employment security

for white workers during the period of reformed apartheid in the 1970s and

1980s and the subsequent end of their employment privileges exposed them to

threats of joblessness and poverty In response to this threat of impoverishment

the labour union Solidariteit (Solidarity) is adapting its brand of ethnic entrepre-

neurship to new circumstances and is successfully mobilising white Afrikaans-

speaking workers Jacob Boersema analyses how the narratives of the union

leadership were able to shift from one of racism and Afrikaner nationalism to a

language of rights This was given significant impetus by interpretations of

post-apartheid laws that promoted employment equity (affirmative action) in the

labour market While the unionrsquos leadership declares its intention to adapt to

and be part of a non-racial democracy a politics of resentment stemming from

officialsrsquo versions of history leads to contradictions in Solidarityrsquos position

Mariana Kriel shows in her article how as part of what she analyses as an

attempted revival of Afrikaner nationalism during 1998ndash2008 Afrikaner

organic intellectuals drew on selective interpretations of civic republicanism

and radical democracy to advocate a lsquodemocratic ethnicityrsquo with which to

recruit lsquobrownrsquo Afrikaans-speakers for a 21st century Afrikaans language move-

ment These lsquonew Afrikanersrsquo declared their intention to create new myths to

reactivate the cultural-political energy of Afrikaans-speakers across the whitelsquobrownrsquo divide and spring them from their alleged post-apartheid malaise Their

messages combined a rejection of neo-liberalism and non-racialism ascribed to

the ruling lsquoAfro-nationalistsrsquo to instead emphasise the recognition of lsquolinguistic

and cultural communitiesrsquo which in practice translated into advocating the pres-

ervation of Afrikaans and particularly Afrikaner spaces However Kriel argues


Dow

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22

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ober

201

4

that their inability to popularise their thinking doomed their attempts to follow in

the footsteps of Gustav Preller (1875ndash1943) a pivotal figure in the institutionali-

sation of Afrikaans who created the myth of the Great Trek the bedrock symbol of

Afrikaner nationalism which was instrumental in the lsquoreplayrsquo of the Trek in 1938

which in turn was a foundational event in Afrikaner nationalist mobilisation

Elaborating further on the theme of strategies directed at whitelsquobrownrsquo relations

Kees van der Waal criticises essentialist understandings of identity language and

culture in Die Taaldebat (the debate over language) at the historically Afrikaner

nationalist Stellenbosch University in South Africa The language Afrikaans

was lsquopurifiedrsquo of its creole origins and used by ethnic entrepreneurs to maintain

a racially exclusive social group Those who claim to defend the usage of

Afrikaans at Stellenbosch University today in fact promote a standard form of

Afrikaans at the expense of black and coloured speakers of Kaapse Afrikaans

the Afrikaans vernacular and thereby maintain racist exclusions Coloured

(lsquobrownrsquo) intellectuals and activists while recognising the importance of language

for empowerment refuse to be drafted into the defence of a purified (white) stan-

dard Afrikaans While the usefulness of the concept of creolisation for a lsquocultural

strategy of connection and Relationrsquo is contested Van der Waal suggests that only

a valorisation of Kaapse Afrikaans together with an understanding of white cul-

tural hegemony and its role in the maintenance of socioeconomic inequalities will

contribute to a more lsquocosmopolitanism-oriented South African societyrsquo

The articles in this cluster reveal the generation and deployment of strategies to

rehabilitate an ethnic whiteness in distress A crucial question then is if these

attempts at rehabilitation can be seen as resurgences of an Afrikaner ethno-

nationalism What makes this question particularly relevant is that Afrikaners

despite their sense of identitary embattlement still hold significant social and

economic power even after their loss of political power

Two related modes of rehabilitation are discerned in the articles Both modes

confirm shifts away from state-focused ethno-nationalism but hold mixed impli-

cations for re-racialisation (Posel 200150ndash74) including insofar as the wielding

of race enables class exclusions The Third Afrikaans Language Movement

has apart from the exclusionary actions by Stellenbosch University language acti-

vists also involved attempts by Afrikaner individuals and organisations to recruit

lsquobrownrsquo Afrikaans-speakers as partners in advancing the interests of Afrikaans as

Van der Waal explains Similarly the attempted lsquoradical democraticrsquo re-infusion

of Afrikaner nationalism in Krielrsquos study incorporated a notion of lsquodemocratic eth-

nicityrsquo to recruit brown Afrikaans speakers Both these practices involved depar-

tures from the lsquorace purityrsquo that Afrikanerhood was constructed from Such

departures allowed Afrikaner whiteness to develop lsquounexpected hybrid huesrsquo

while still seeking to hold on to its ethnic entitlements (Steyn 200483) In

another manifestation of the opportunistic adoption of democratic elements to

advance Afrikaner priorities Boersemarsquos study shows that Solidarityrsquos embrace


Dow

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ober

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4

of a discourse of rights is belied by its race politics which reifies whiteness with a

mixture of National Party-esque minority rights talk and ethnicity claims

In these processes of creating apparent openings amidst contestations about categ-

orisation and co-option new essentialisms emerge We are seeing a reaffirmation

of ethnic closure albeit with adjusted racial boundaries This would correspond

with large-scale sociological opinion polls showing that since the 1990s South

Africans think of themselves less in racial terms but that there is an increase in

ethnic identification (Alexander 200660) The modernist project of a white

nation state an outpost of Europe at the southern tip of the African continent

has unravelled and in this sense Afrikaner nationalism has ceased to exist

What instead seems to have emerged is what Hall (199135ndash6) warns of a

lsquoreturn to the localrsquo in which a defensive and exclusivist ethnicity is rediscovered

as grounding in the face of the destabilisations of postmodernity and globalisation

While Hall speaks of this manoeuvre as adopted by marginalised communities

previously excluded from significant cultural representation Bentley and

Habib (2008) identify this strategy as evident in post-apartheid South Africa

among the losers of economic globalisation As most Afrikaners benefited hand-

somely from the incorporation of South Africa into neo-liberal global circuits

after the fall of apartheid (Van der Westhuizen 2007319ndash26) they can

mostly not be counted among such lsquolosersrsquo However a discourse is discernible

among Afrikaans-speaking whites who feel lsquodisillusionedrsquo and lsquotraumatisedrsquo by

the transition to democracy (Visser 2004) to re-construct themselves as victims

of marginalisation and embrace a defensive and exclusivist ethnicity (Steyn

2004) ndash a discourse also evident in the studies in this collection Indeed Bal-

lardrsquos (200460) notion of lsquosemigrationrsquo lsquoa hybrid of emigration and segre-

gationrsquo employed as lsquowhite strategyrsquo to retreat to a self-contained lsquocomfort

zonersquo captures the South African Afrikaner version of Hallrsquos lsquoreturn to the

localrsquo of an exclusivist ethnicity The largest Afrikaans newspaper Rapport

uses the notion inwaartse migrasie (inward migration) to denote an inward

turn and withdrawal from public life among Afrikaners (see for example an

article by Stef Coetzee (2008) head of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut [Afri-

kaans Institute of Commerce established in 1942 to advance Afrikaner nation-

alist capital] in Rapport)

The second and related mode of rehabilitation involves lsquothe globalisation of the

Afrikanerrsquo (Van der Westhuizen 2007) through an embrace of neo-liberalism in par-

ticular its dictum of lsquodepoliticising social and economic powersrsquo (Brown 200543)

This manoeuvrersquos traction would partly explain the failure of the organic intellec-

tuals in Krielrsquos study to interpellate Afrikaners with an anti-neo-liberalism discourse

Neo-liberalism allows Afrikaner capital elites to withdraw to exclusive spaces while

resisting ethnic enclosure Davies shows Brown explains

The model neo-liberal citizen is one who strategises for herhimself among various

social political and economic options not one who strives with others to alter or


Dow

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ober

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4

organise these options A fully realised neo-liberal citizenry would be the opposite of

public-minded indeed it would barely exist as a public The body politic ceases to be a

body but is rather a group of individual entrepreneurs and consumers (200543)

But what to make of the post-2000 explosion in Afrikaans arts and culture

through a proliferation of Afrikaans arts festivals and films and rocketing music

and book sales The discourses prevalent in popular Afrikaans music reflect a

lsquonarrow politics of the selfrsquo (Bezuidenhout 2007) Du Plessis (2012) describes

the exploitation of lsquosentimentrsquo and projection of Afrikaans as lsquoendangered

languagersquo in an expansionary Afrikaans music industry where marketing frames

lsquothe culture and language as exclusively claimed by and directed at an exclu-

sive group of [white] Afrikaans-speakersrsquo (2012 own translation)

Nasionale Pers the Afrikaner nationalist media partner of the National Party (NP)

and monopoly owner of post-apartheid Afrikaans media has grown to be the

largest media company in Africa and second largest in the southern hemisphere

with media assets in Brazil China and Poland It lsquodefines and demarcates its

different target market segmentsrsquo in South Africa according to erstwhile apartheid

lsquoboundaries between different population groupsrsquo (Du Plessis 2012 own trans-

lation) Thus regarding the middle classes could we speak of an ethnicised

group of individual consumer-citizens constructed through the twin operations

of defensive ethnicity and neo-liberalism with their shared utility of facilitating

retreat from public spaces Another variant of ethnic consumer-citizenship

would be Solidarity trade union with its obfuscating and contradictory discourse

that combines the paradoxical modes of neo-liberalism and defensive ethnicity

and fuses them into a political agenda of ethnic entrepreneurship In contrast to

the failed anti-neo-liberal ethnicity of the lsquonew Afrikanersrsquo in Krielrsquos study Soli-

darityrsquos self-declared position is to lsquofight for the rights of its members and their

communitiesrsquo based on a competitive growth-oriented market economy with

low company taxes as lsquothe best system to increase the prosperity of a countryrsquo

It rejects lsquorecklessrsquo lsquomarket fundamentalismrsquo but still advocates lsquothe return to a

healthier free-market system built on the proven values of economic freedom

and humanityrsquo (Kriel1 2004 Van Rooyen2 2004 Buys3 2005 2009 own trans-

lation) While Solidarity avoids any explicit reference to neo-liberalism in its offi-

cial narratives its reiterated support for a competitive lsquogrowth-orientedrsquo free

market with low company taxes corresponds with key tenets of neo-liberalism

Its successful appeal to Afrikaners is evidenced by its expansion into a lsquomove-

mentrsquo of organisations including commercial enterprises during the 2000s the

lsquocivil-rights organisationrsquo AfriForum the lsquoservice organisationrsquo Solidarity

Helping Hand training and education institutions financial services a property

company publisher media house radio and a research institute

Jean Comaroff and John L Comaroff (200922ndash59) offer a useful analysis in under-

standing these twin strategies of defensive and exclusivist ethnicity and lsquodepoliti-

cisedrsquo neo-liberalism with their seemingly clashing logics of collectivism


Dow

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ober

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4

individualism and localglobal They observe that our representations of identities

at the end of the 20th century have become more flexible even malleable but para-

doxically also increasingly fixed and essentialised Triumphant global neo-liberal-

ism offers on the one hand the commodification of the self and hence the freedom

to choose your identity and on the other hand requires the deterministic inscription

of your identity in your genetic make-up and hence as belonging to a clearly geneti-

cally definable group endowed with rights and moral agency The logics of neo-lib-

eralism and defensive ethnicity merge in the inscription of a lsquochosenrsquo identity of an

Afrikaner group of consumer-citizens consuming their cultural products and

drawing on the democratisation of South Africa to advance their lsquorightsrsquo both of

which expand self-contained ethnically demarcated comfort zones Therefore

while the common political project of a state-based ethno-nationalism has been

abandoned by Afrikaners ethnicity and neo-liberalism have emerged as new

defence strategies for a whiteness in rehabilitative mode

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the reviewers of the submitted articles for their

insightful comments and the editors in particular Bridget Kenny for being critical

interlocutors and supporting our publishing project Also Kees van der Waal

deserves our gratitude for getting the project off the ground by hosting our

initial workshop at Stellenbosch University and for assisting with editorial and

organisational advice

Note on Contributors

Thomas M Blaser is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and

Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University He is currently writing a book

based on his PhD thesis entitled lsquoAfrikaner Identity after Nationalismrsquo

Christi van der Westhuizen is Research Associate at the Institute for Reconcilia-

tion and Social Justice University of the Free State South Africa

Notes

1 Kallie Kriel previously served as spokesperson for Solidarity and subsequently became head of

AfriForum its lsquocivil rightsrsquo arm

2 Interview with Flip Buys chief executive of Solidarity

3 Flip Buys is the founder and chief executive of Solidarity wwwsolidaritysacoza

References

Adam H and Moodley K 1986 South Africa without Apartheid Dismantling Racial DominationCape Town Maskew Miller Longman

Alexander N 2002 An Ordinary Country Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy inSouth Africa Pietermaritzburg University of KwaZulu-Natal Press


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4

Alexander P 2006 lsquoGlobalisation and New Social Identities A Jigsaw Puzzle from Johannesburgrsquoin P Alexander MC Dawson and M Ichharam (eds) Globalisation and New Identities A Viewfrom the Middle Johannesburg Jacana

Ally S 2005 lsquoOppositional Intellectualism and Reflection not Rejection of Powerrsquo Transform-ation ndash Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa 5966ndash97

Ballard R 2004 lsquoAssimilation Emigration Semigration and Integration lsquoWhitersquo Peoplersquos Strategiesfor Finding a Comfort Zone in Post-Apartheid South Africarsquo in N Distiller and M Steyn (eds)Under Construction lsquoRacersquo and Identity in South Africa Today Sandton Heineman

Beech N 2008 lsquoOn the Nature of Dialogic Identity Workrsquo Organization 15(1)51ndash74Bentley K and Habib A 2008 lsquoRacial Redress National Identity and Citizenship in Post-

Apartheid South Africarsquo in A Habib and K Bentley (eds) Racial Redress and Citizenship inSouth Africa Cape Town Human Sciences Research Council

Bezuidenhout A 2007 lsquoPopular Music Afrikaner Nationalism and Lost Ironyrsquo Litnet httpwwwargieflitnetcozacgi-bingigacgicmd=cause_dir_news_itemampnews_id=11123ampcause_id=12708

Brink E 1990 lsquoMan-Made Women Gender Class and the Ideology of the Volksmoederrsquo in CWalker (ed) Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 Cape Town David PhilipLondon James Currey

Brown W 2005 Edgework Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics Princeton Princeton Uni-versity Press

Buys F 2005 lsquoHet die Kapitalisme dan nou Mislukrsquo [Has Capitalism Failed] Rapport 15 Mayhttp152111187argiefberigterapport20050515R11804html

Buys F 2009 lsquoPrys van rsquon Vrye Mark is Skoppelmaai van Marktersquo [Price of a Free Market is aRoundabout of Markets] Rapport 3 August http152111187argiefberigterapport20090310RH16flipbuys8mrthtml

Coetzee S 2008 lsquoSkep so rsquon Tuiste vir Almalrsquo [This is How to Create a Home for Everyone]rsquoRapport 4 November http152111187argiefberigterapport20081104RH19mb0211html

Comaroff JL and Comaroff J 2009 Ethnicity Inc Durban University of KwaZulu-Natal PressCrenshaw K Gotanda N Peller G and Thomas K (eds) 1995 lsquoIntroductionrsquo Critical Race

Theory New York The New PressDe Klerk W 1984 Die Tweede (R)evolusie Afrikanerdom en die Identiteitskrisis [The Second

Revolution Afrikanerdom and its Identity Crisis] Johannesburg Jonathan BallDistiller N and Steyn M 2004 lsquoIntroductionrsquo in N Distiller and M Steyn Under Construction

lsquoRacersquo and Identity in South Africa Today Sandton HeinemanDu Plessis A 2012 lsquoAfrikaanse Musiek Eiendoms (Beperk) ndash (Groot op Gelukkige Eiland)rsquo [Afri-

kaans Music Property (Limited) ndash (Big on Happy Island)] Litnet httpwwwlitnetcozaArticleafrikaanse-musiek-eiendoms-beperk-groot-op-gelukkige-eiland

Du Toit P and Esterhuyse W 1990 (eds) The Myth Makers The Elusive Bargain for SouthAfricarsquos Future Johannesburg Southern Books Publishers

Erasmus Z 2005 lsquoRace and Identity in the Nationrsquo in J Daniel R Southall and J Lutchman (eds)State of the Nation South Africa Cape Town Human Sciences Research Councilpp 2004ndash2005

Furlong P 1991 Between Crown and Swastika The Impact of the Radical Right on the AfrikanerNationalist Movement in the Fascist Era Hanover Wesleyan University Press

Giliomee H 1992 lsquoldquoBroedertwisrdquo Intra-Afrikaner Conflicts in the Transition from Apartheid1969ndash1991rsquo African Affairs 91(364)

Giliomee H 1997 lsquoSurrender without Defeat Afrikaners and the New South African ldquoMiraclerdquorsquoDaedalus 126(2) Spring)

Giliomee H 2003 The Afrikaners Biography of a People Cape Town TafelbergGoldberg T 2009 The Threat of Race Reflections on Racial Neo-liberalism Malden MA Wiley-

BlackwellGreenstein R 1995 Genealogies of Conflict Class Identity and State in IsraelPalestine and

South Africa Hanover Wesleyan University PressGupta A and Ferguson J (eds) 1997 lsquoCulture Power Place Ethnography at the End of an Erarsquo

Culture Power Place Explorations in Critical Anthropology Durham and London DukeUniversity Press


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nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4

Hall S 1991 lsquoThe Local and the Global Globalisation and Ethnicityrsquo in AD King (ed) CultureGlobalization and the World-System Contemporary Conditions for the Representation ofIdentity Basingstoke Macmillan Education

Hanf T 1981 The Prospects of Peaceful Change An Empirical Enquiry into the Possibility ofDemocratic Conflict Regulation London Rex Collins

Hofmeyr I 1987 lsquoBuilding a Nation from Words Afrikaans Language Literature and Ethnic Iden-tity 1902ndash1924rsquo in S Marks and S Trapido (eds) The Politics of Race Class and NationalismHarlow Essex Longman

Jeleniewski Seidler V 2010 Embodying Identities Culture Differences and Social TheoryBristol The Policy Press

Jenkins R 2008 Rethinking Ethnicity Arguments and Explorations (2nd ed) London SageKriel K 2004 lsquoKlinkende Klank van Geld rsquo [Jingle Jangle of Money ] Rapport 22 February

http152111187argiefberigterapport20040222R12101htmlMare G 2003 lsquoThe State of the State Contestation and Race Re-assertion in a Neoliberal Terrainrsquo

in J Daniel A Habib and R Southall (eds) State of the Nation South Africa 2003ndash2004 CapeTown Human Sciences Research Council

Mangcu X 2008 To the Brink The State of Democracy in South Africa Scottsville University ofKwaZulu- Natal Press

Mangcu X 2012 Biko A Biography Cape Town TafelbergMarks S and Trapido S (eds) The Politics of Race Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century

South Africa London LongmanNorval AJ 1996 Deconstructing Apartheid Discourse London VersoNuttall S 2009 Entanglement Literary and Cultural Reflections on Post-apartheid Johannesburg

Wits University PressPosel D 2001 lsquoWhatrsquos in a Name Racial Categorizations under Apartheid and their Afterlifersquo

Transformationrsquo 4750ndash74Rotberg R and Barrat J (eds) 1980 Conflict and Compromise in South Africa Lexington Mass

Lexington BooksSharp J 1988 lsquoIntroduction Constructing Social Realityrsquo in E Boonzaier and J Sharp (eds) South

African Keywords The Discourse of Domination Cape Town David PhilipSmith AD 1986 The Ethnic Origins of Nations Oxford BlackwellSparks A 1991 The Mind of South Africa London MandarinSteyn M 2001 lsquoWhiteness is just not what it used to bersquo White Identity in a Changing South Africa

Albany State University of New York PressSteyn M 2003 lsquoWhite Talk White South Africa and the Strategic Management of Diasporic White-

nessrsquo Unpublished PhD thesis University of Cape TownSteyn M 2004 lsquoRehybridising the Creole New South African Afrikanersrsquo in N Distiller and M

Steyn (eds) Under Construction lsquoRacersquo and Identity in South Africa Today Sandton HeinemanTambiah SJ 1996 lsquoThe Nation State in Crisis and the Rise of Ethnonationalismrsquo in Wilmsen and

McAllisterrsquo The Politics of Difference Ethnic Premises in a World of Power Chicago andLondon University of Chicago Press

Tambini D 2001 lsquoPost-National Citizenshiprsquo Ethnic and Racial Studies 24(2)195ndash217Van der Westhuizen C 2007 White Power and the Rise and Fall of the National Party Cape Town

Zebra PressVan Rooyen D 2004 lsquoSolidariteit is los Voor in Debat oor Soort Ekonomiersquo [Solidarity is Streets

Ahead in Debate over Type of Economy]rsquo Sake-Rapport 12 September http152111187argiefberigterapport20040912R4203html

Visser W 2004 lsquoComing to Terms with the Past and the Present Afrikaner Experience of andReaction to the ldquoNewrdquo South Africarsquo Seminar lecture presented at the Centre of AfricanStudies University of Copenhagen 30 Septemberrsquo httpsun025sunaczaportalpageportalArtsDepartemente1geskiedenisdocscoming_to_terms_with_past_presentpdf

Wilmsen EN and McAllister P 1996 lsquoPrefacersquo in EN Wilmsen and P McAllisterrsquo The Politicsof Difference Ethnic Premises in a World of Power Chicago and London University ofChicago Press

Zegeye A (ed) 2001 Social Identities in the New South Africa After Apartheid Vol 1 Cape TownKwela Books


Dow

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ded

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ski]

at 0

350

22

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ober

201

4

Introduction The Paradox ofPost-Apartheid lsquoAfrikanerrsquo IdentityDeployments of Ethnicity andNeo-Liberalism

Thomas M Blaseralowast and Christi van derWesthuizenblowastlowast

aUniversity of Stellenbosch bUniversity of the Free State

For much of the 20th century white Afrikaans-speakers ruled South Africa and as

mobilised ethno-nationalist lsquoAfrikanersrsquo were instrumental in the creation and

maintenance of the system of racial segregation named apartheid The white

settler minority handed over political power to the black majority after nego-

tiations led to democratic elections in 1994 The concurrent demise of Afrikaner

nationalism which had historically mobilised Afrikaans-speaking white people as

a social economic and political force provoked ideological political and social

dislocations including among those previously marshalled as lsquoAfrikanersrsquo At

the same time democratisation and the discourse of a human rights-based consti-

tutionalism created new spaces to explore and shape different ways of being

(Zegeye 2001)

How we conceptualise explain and think of ethnic and national identities in South

Africa and across the globe has gone through considerable change (Tambini

2001195ndash217) During South Africarsquos transition to democracy in 1993 a

major international conference titled lsquoEthnicity Identity and Nationalism in

South Africa Past Present Futurersquo was held at Rhodes University Grahams-

town The organisers expressed the hope that first after years of apartheid

manipulation of ethnic identities a new understanding would be created that eth-

nicity was more than just the creation of the apartheid state and second that even

though it was an lsquooppositional constructrsquo ethnicity alone was not bound to lead to

conflict (Wilmsen and McAllister 1996xiii) Indeed the study of ethnic and

national identities has had a troubled history in South Africa During apartheid

the alleged lsquorealrsquo existence of ethnic and racial groups lsquojustifiedrsquo the white exclu-

sion of racialised others from the central institutions of power (Sharp 19886

Mare 200329) and essentialised notions of group identities were used to justify

apartheid separation and violent subjugation Racist practices and ethnic divisions

were not only inscribed in law and society but the kind of ethnology practised at

lowastEmail thblasergmailcomlowastlowastEmail christiwmwebcoza

ISSN 0002-0184 printISSN 1469-2872 online12030380ndash11 2012 Taylor amp Francis Group Ltd on behalf of the University of Witwatersrandhttpdxdoiorg101080000201842012740882

African Studies 71 3 December 2012

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ober

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ober

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whiteness



























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ober

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ober

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ober

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22

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ober

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




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ober

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ober

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ober

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ober

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22

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ober

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whiteness



























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22

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ober

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at 0

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22

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ober

201

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22

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ober

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at 0

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22

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ober

201

4












































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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




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ober

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22

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ober

201

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22

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ober

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at 0

350

22

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ober

201

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whiteness



























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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

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ober

201

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by [

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




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at 0

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22

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ober

201

4



























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at 0

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22

Oct

ober

201

4


























Dow

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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

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22

Oct

ober

201

4

















whiteness



























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by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































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by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

Uni

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




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22

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ober

201

4



























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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4


























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ski]

at 0

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22

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ober

201

4












































Dow

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at 0

350

22

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ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

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ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




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ober

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4



























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at 0

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22

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ober

201

4


























Dow

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































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by [

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at 0

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22

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ober

201

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Dow

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by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




Dow

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ded

by [

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4



























Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4


























Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

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syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




Dow

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ded

by [

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4



























Dow

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ded

by [

Uni

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4


























Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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t War

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ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4












































Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





References




Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

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ober

201

4



























Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4


























Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

wer

syte

t War

szaw

ski]

at 0

350

22

Oct

ober

201

4















Acknowledgments













Notes





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Dow

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by [

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at 0

350

22

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ober

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4



























Dow

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at 0

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22

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ober

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4


























Dow

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at 0

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22

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ober

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4



























Dow

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at 0

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ober

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4


























Dow

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ober

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ober

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4

Documents

Introduction: The Paradox of Post-Apartheid ‘Afrikaner’ Identity: Deployments of Ethnicity and Neo-Liberalism