Do South Africans Exist?

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Ivor Chipkin. Do South Africans Exist?

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Do South Africans Exist?

NATIONALISM, DEMOCRACY AND THE IDENTITY OF ‘THE PEOPLE’

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In these terms, the current struggle within the ANC over the identity of President Thabo Mbeki’s successor is a national conflict par excellence. At stake is less an ideological struggle between, say, (neo-)liberalism and socialism, than a conflict about the measure of national authenticity. Who is more authentically a representative of the nation, Jacob Zuma or some other (as yet unnamed) contender?

During the apartheid period, the nation was delimited by virtue of a measure of population. In considering the major constitutional changes that have accompanied, and to some extent inaugurated, the democratic dispensation, we will see that they have sought to overcome these particular measures by outlawing discrimination, including on the basis of race, religion and sexual orientation. In so doing, however, we have to ask: is the South African demos without a measure of population at all?

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