Zusammenfassung der Ressource
'Tribalism' politics in South
Africa
- FF+
- Afrikaner
- language
- Great Trek
- National Party 1948
- rep since 1994, junior minister in ANC gov currently
BUT relatively easy in proportional representation
- dwindling: 9 seats in 1994 down to 4 in 2009 (Southern,
2012); less than 1% of vote in last 3 elections
- 2009: 0.83% (SA Electoral Commission)
- most Afrikaners vote DA (Southern, 2012)
- political aims: Afrikaans university,
concern over 'poor whites'
- Inkatha Freedom Party; 1975
(cultural movement before this);
Buthelezi
- Zulu
- warriors
- no other African group has
shown this tendency despite self
identification
- critical of ANC's non racial
policy which has forced a
'dilution' of its Zulu component
- even in KwaZuluNatal (densest Zulu
pop) over 63% voted ANC; IFP 20%
- 2009: 4.55% (SA Electoral Commission)
- DA
- still seen as a predominantly 'white' party
- BUT 5% of Africans voted for them in 2011 elections
- fastest growing party in SA; rhetoric not
based on ethnicity; greater focus on
corruption esp re Zuma
- ANC
- accusations of Xhosa ties; origns in Eastern Cape
(Xhosa area) but strong performance in non Xhosa
areas e.g.1994
- Xhosa is a linguistic group not a tribe
- fear of ethnic mobilization e.g. earlier constitutional
proposals of 1988 sought to ban ethnic parties
- Watkins 2001: 'Cape Coloureds'
- construction of their identity abides by apartheid Population Registration (1950); undermines 'rainbow
nation'; still feel discriminated against? esp re black economic empowerment
- 'Tribalism'
- political unit larger than a clan and smaller than a nation (Bernard &
Spence, 2012)
- not = to ethnicity; though much conflation in
media
- 'importance of self
identification
- ethnicity
- 'primordial' - deep history
- instrumentalists - political instrument
- constructivists - fluidity
- role of missionaries/colonialists/anthropologists in
'freezing' previously fluid system cf Zulu wars
- written documentation >> formalisation
- British 'indirect rule'harnessed power of
'traditional authorities'; where none present
'ordinary's used (Mare, 1993)
- ANC still does this; CONTRALESA
- could change in future to be problem
- Barnard & Spencer, 2012
- Mare - set of symbols and beliefs, beliefs of a
common origin, sense of belonging confirmed
through interaction with insiders and outsiders
- need to belong need to
exert sense of control
- can coexist with other forms of identity
doesn't nec rule voting patterns
- ethnicity = political affiliation >> politics = demography
- centralised defintion of ethnicity >> less democratic (Mare, 1993)
- 2009 National Elections