South Africa was one of the ‘miracles’ of the 1990s, a racially divided, deeply violent country apparently reconciled through the stature of Nelson Mandela and the processes he and his government initiated. Where are we now, with the project of building a non-racial South Africa? This book seeks to answer that question.
This book was published as a special issue of Politikon.
When Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994, the world looked on at the ‘miracle’ of racial reconciliation that unfolded in South Africa. However, the dream of a ‘Rainbow Nation’ (in Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s phrase) seems to be fading, and racial identities seem to be more entrenched than ever. What prospects then for the ‘non-racial democracy’ envisioned by Mandela and the South African Constitution?
This book examines the status and future prospects of non-racialism. It discusses the nature of non-racialism and applies the concept to wider national issues and to questions of identity. The book looks out into South Africa's future and assesses generational changes to the country's handling of non-racialism. This latter point is the main theme in the opening preface by Ahmed Kathrada, jailed with Nelson Mandela, who reminds the reader that there is no easy answer: non-racialism is built every day, every minute, by people who seek to transform social relations and allow the ‘Rainbow Nation’ to flourish.
This book was published as a special issue of Politikon.
Preface: Non-Racialism in South Africa Today
1. Non-Racialism in South
Africa: Status and Prospects
2. The Possibilities of Researching
Non-Racialism: Reflections on Racialism in South Africa
3. Deepening
Non-Racialism in South Africa
4. Revisiting the National Question and
Identity
5. Requiring Respect: Searching for Non-Racialism in Post-Apartheid
South Africa
6. Some New Perspectives on South African Indians and
Non-Racialism: Findings from the AKF Non-Racialism Focus Group Data
7. We
cant really say what the future holds for us: Non-Racialism in a
Transitional Democracy
8. Leaving it to the Children: Non-Racialism,
Identity, Socialisation and Generational Change in South Africa
9. Rethinking
Non-Racialism: Reflections of a Selection of South African Leaders
David Everatt is the Executive Director of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, a partnership of the University of Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, and the Gauteng provincial Government. His most recent book is The origins of non-racialism: Wehite opposition to apartheid in the 1950s (Wits University press, 2010).
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