Review: Lawrence Hamilton, Are South Africans Free? (2014)

Review of the monograph:Lawrence Hamilton, Are South Africans Free?, London et al.: Bloomsbury, 2014, ISBN 9781472534611, ix + 155 pp

South Africa's elections 2014: and the winner is?

On 7 May 2014, less than half a year after the death of Nelson Mandela, South Africans democratically elected for the fourth time since 1994 the country's national parliament and the various provincial governments. In a generally relaxed climate, all seemed well in the rainbow nation. Most parties welcomed the announced results. But do they and the South African people now have cause for optimism? This contribution presents a summary report and analysis of the final stages of the lead up to the elections, the vote count, and the results, partly based on personal observations during 4-10 May 2014. It comments on the political trends now likely to emerge, as indicated by both the election results and the reactions of the parties to them. Furthermore, it offers a mapping of the current political landscape in the country, as reproduced in the national and provincial parliaments - and also as it exists outside of these institutions of governance. Despite some institutional flaws that favored the ANC as the dominant party, the election campaigning was relatively open and fair - though, as always, the bigger parties had advantages thanks to the greater financial means at their disposal. The voting and counting processes happened with only a few minor disturbances therein, and even at local "hotspots" hardly any disruptions occurred that could have cast doubts on the legitimacy of the electoral procedures. The final results officially announced were finally accepted by all parties and the wider public, which testifies to the democratic nature and general political stability of South Africa’s current governance system. The general analyses by observers tended to be more critical as regards the success of the bigger parties than the official party declarations themselves suggested, while it seems that the future of the ANC and of South Africa’s political landscape is being affected by growing voter apathy (mainly among the younger generation)

Colonialism, Land, Ethnicity, and Class: Namibia after the Second National Land Conference

Since independence in March 1990, the unequal distribution and ownership of land as a leftover of colonial-era dispossession and appropriation has been a major issue of sociopolitical contestation in Namibia. This article summarises the structural colonial legacy and the efforts made towards land reform. Reference points are the country’s first national land reform conference in 1991 and the second national land reform conference in October 2018. The analysis points to the contradictory factors at play, seeking to contextualise land reform in between the colonial legacy of racial discrepancies and ethnicity as well as class, as more contemporary influencing factors.Seit der Unabhängigkeit Namibias im März 1990 sind die fortgesetzte ungleiche Verteilung und die Besitzverhältnisse von Land als Folge der im Kolonialismus vollzogenen Vertreibungen und Aneignungen ein wesentlicher Konfliktpunkt geblieben. Der Artikel fasst die strukturellen Konsequenzen der Kolonialzeit und die Bemühungen um eine Landreform zusammen. Als Bezugspunkte dienen die erste Landkonferenz im Jahr 1991 und die zweite Landkonferenz im Oktober 2018. Die widersprüchlichen Aspekte im staatlichen Umgang mit der Landfrage werden im Spannungsfeld zwischen kolonialer Erblast, rassischer Diskriminierung und Ethnizität sowie Klasseninteressen als neuen Einflussfaktoren thematisiert

In the shadow of apartheid: The Windhoek Old Location

The so-called Old Location was established during the early years of the 20th century for most of the African population groups living in Windhoek, the capital of then South West Africa. It confined them to a space separate from but in close vicinity to the city and was the biggest urban settlement for Africans in the country. As from 1960 the residents were forced to relocate into a new township at the margins of the city against their will. This brought an end to inter-group relations, which the Apartheid system and its definition of “separate development” replaced by a stricter sub-division of the various population groups according to classifications based on ethnicity. Protest against the relocation escalated into a violent confrontation in late 1959. This contributed to a post-colonial heroic narrative, which integrates the resistance in the Old Location into the patriotic history of the anti-colonial liberation movement in government since Independence. Presenting insights based mainly on archival studies, this article is an effort towards a social history of the hitherto little acknowledged aspect in the urbanisation processes of the Territory under South African administration. It maps the physical features of the location and assesses its living conditions. Some of the dynamics unfolding between the late 1940s and 1960 also document the plural ethnic interactions, the local governance and the social life of its inhabitants as well as their protest against the forced resettlement. It thereby revisits and portraits a community, which among former residents evokes positive memories compared with the imposed new life in Katutura