KEY BOOK IN WHITENESS STUDIES THAT ENGAGES WITH THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN
WHICH THE LAST WHITE MINORITY IN AFRICA TO GIVE WAY TO MAJORITY RULE
HAS ADJUSTED TO THE ARRIVAL OF DEMOCRACY AND THE DIFFERENT MODES OF
TRANSITION FROM "SETTLERS" TO "CITIZENS".
How have whites adjusted to, contributed to and detracted from
democracy in South Africa since 1994? Engaging with the literature on
'whiteness' and the current trope that the democratic settlement has
failed, this book provides a study of how whites in the last bastion
of 'white minority rule' in Africa have adapted to the sweeping
political changes they have encountered. It examines the historical
context of white supremacy and minority rule, in the past, and the
white withdrawal from elsewhere on the African continent. Drawing on
focus groups held across the country, Southall explores the difficult
issue of 'memory', how whites seek to grapple with the history of
apartheid, and how this shapes their reactions to political equality.
He argues that whites cannot be regarded as a homogeneous political
grouping concluding that while the overwhelming majority of white
South Africans feared the coming of democracy during the years of late
apartheid, they recognised its inevitability. Many of their fears
were, in effect, to be recognised by the Constitution, which embedded
individual rights, including those to property and private schooling,
alongside the important principle of proportionality of political
representation. While a small minority of whites chose to emigrate,
the large majority had little choice but to adjust to the democratic
settlement which, on the whole, they have done - and in different
ways. It was only a small right wing which sought to actively resist;
others have sought to withdraw from democracy into social enclaves;
but others have embraced democracy actively, either enthusiastically
welcoming its freedoms or engaging with its realities in defence of
'minority rights'. Whites may have been reluctant to accept democracy,
but democrats - of a sort - they have become, and notwithstanding a
significant racialisation of politics in post-apartheid South Africa,
they remain an important segment of the "rainbow", although dangers
lurk in the future unless present inequalities of both race and class
are challenged head on.
African Sun Media: South Africa
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781800103788
Publisert
2021
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter