Contested Memory

Retrieving the Africanist (Liberatory) Conception of Non-racialism

in Theoria
Author:
Ndumiso Dladla University of South Africa beingndums@gmail.com

Search for other papers by Ndumiso Dladla in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2017.6415307
Keywords:
conquest; liberal; liberatory; non-racialism; racism; white supremacy
Restricted access
USD  $22.00
Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

South Africa since 1994 is widely represented as a society which has broken both historically and politically with white supremacy. One of the central discursive pillars sustaining this representation is the appeal to the most recent South African constitution Act 108 of 1996, the founding provisions of which declare that South Africa is founded on the value of non-racialism. The central argument of this article is that an examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the non-racialism of the constitution can give us a better understanding of why and how South Africa remains a racial polity despite the coming into effect of the constitution. We will conclude the article by considering the ethical and political demands which must be met before the actuality of non-racialism may be experienced.

Contributor Notes

Ndumiso Dladla is based at UNISA (Pretoria) and teaches philosophy in the department of philosophy, practical and systematic theology, his specialization is in African philosophy. His areas of interest are social, political and legal philosophy and philosophy education, with his most recent research being in the theoretical-historical study of race. He is a member of the Azanian Philosophical Society. E-mail: beingndums@gmail.com

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Theoria

A Journal of Social and Political Theory

Cover Theoria
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
27
Keywords:
conquest; liberal; liberatory; non-racialism; racism; white supremacy
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2017
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2017
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2017

  • Balibar, E. 2015. ‘War, racism and nationalism’ https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1559-etienne-balibar-war-racism-and-nationalism (accessed 24 October 2017).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Biko, S. 1978. I Write What I Like. London: Bowerdean.

  • Brookes, E. 1977. A South African Pilgrimage. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

  • Campbell v Hall (1774) 1Cowp 204, 98 ER 1045

  • Dladla, N. 2015. ‘Friends of the Natives: The Inconvenient Past of South African Liberalism’ (book review). New Voices in Psychology, 11 (1): 138–149.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Everatt, D. 2009. The Origins of Non-Racialism: White Opposition to Apartheid in the 1950s. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

  • Everatt, D. (ed). 2014. Non-racialism in South Africa. New York: Routledge.

  • Goldberg, T.D. 2009. The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

  • Hoernle, R. 1945. South African Native Policy and the Liberal Spirit. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.

  • Lipton, M. 2007. Liberals, Marxists and Nationalists: Competing Interpretations of South African History. Johannesburg: Palgrave MacMillan.

  • Maloka, E. 2014. Friends of the Natives: An Inconvenient History of South African Liberalism. Durban: 3MS Publishing.

  • Mare, G. 2014. Declassified: Moving beyond the dead-end of race in South Africa. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.

  • McCracken, J. L. 1967. The Cape Parliament. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  • Mills, C. 1997. The Racial Contract. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

  • Mills, C. 1998. Visible Blackness: Essays in Philosophy and Race. New York: Cornell University Press.

  • Mills, C. 2008. Racial Liberalism. New York: Modern Language Association of America.

  • Mills, C. and C. Pateman. 2007. Contract and Domination. Cambridge: Polity Press

  • Mngxitama, A. 2009. Blacks Can’t Be Racist. Johannesburg: Sankara Publishing.

  • Modiri, J. 2013. Race, realism and critique: The politics of race and Afriforum v Malema in the (in)equality court, The South African Law Journal, 130: 273–292.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • More, P. 2008. ‘Biko: Africana Existentialist Philosopher’, in A. Mngxitama (ed.) Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko. New York: Palgrave McMillian, 45–68.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ngubane, J. 1963. An African Explains Apartheid. New York: Frederick Praeger Publisher.

  • Oyéwúmi, O. 1997. The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ramose, M. 1999. African Philosophy through Ubuntu. Harare: Mond Books.

  • Ramose, M. 2001. An African Perspective on Justice and Race. polylog: Forum for Intercultural Philosophy, 3 (2001). https://them.polylog.org/3/frm-en.htm

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ramose, M. 2003. ‘I Conquer, Therefore I Am Sovereign: Reflections upon Sovereignty, Constitutionalism and Democracy in Zimbabwe and South Africa’, in P.H. Coetzee and A.P.J. Roux (eds). Philosophy from Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 463–500.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Serequeberhan, T. 1994. The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy. New York: Routledge.

  • Serequeberhan, T. 2003 ‘A Critique of Eurocentrism and the Practice of African Philosophy’, in Philosophy from Africa: A Text with Readings. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 64–78.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Serequeberhan, T. 2007. Contested Memory: The Icons of the Occidental Tradition. Asmara: African World Press.

  • Serequeberhan, T. 2009. ‘African Philosophy and The Practice of Resistance’, Journal of Philosophy: A Cross Disciplinary Inquiry 4 (9): 44–52.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sobukwe, R. 1970. Gerhart-Sobukwe Interview (8 and 9 August 1970). http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/interview-with-robert-mangaliso-sobukwe

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sobukwe, M. and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. 1978. Speeches of Mangaliso Sobukwe from 1949–1959 and Other Documents of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania. New York: The P.A.C. of Azania Office of the Chief Representative to the United States and the Caribbean.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Soske, J. 2014. Unfinished Debates: Settler Liberalism, East Africa, and the Origins of Non-racialism. Johannesburg: http://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/seminar/Soske2014.pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Troup, F. 1975. South Africa. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books.

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 450 181 28
Full Text Views 28 4 0
PDF Downloads 41 4 0