Mayibuye iAfrika? : disjunctive inclusions and black strivings for constitution and belonging in 'South Africa'

With a focus on South Africa, I employ the phenomenological approach from an African perspective to analyse strivings for constitution (to constitute an inclusive polity, and etymologically, constare ‘to stand together’) and belonging (affectively and materially). In this postcolony, these strivings can be discerned in perennial protests by impoverished black communities for an inclusive democracy and for social goods; in contestations around land redistribution and against institutionalised forms of social ‘invisibilisation;’ and in calls for the valorisation of life-worlds different from the western. I contend that these strivings should be understood from the perspective that settler colonial constitution-making processes presaged “death of the land” (ilizwe lifile); that is, the shattering of the socio-cultural worlds of indigenous peoples. The outcomes of this processes were ‘native’ pariahdom, homelessness and worldlessness. Accordingly, the original impulse of anti-colonial struggles was Mayibuye iAfrika (‘Return’/‘Re-member’/ ‘Resurrect’ Africa). My two-fold thesis is, firstly, that perennial protests by marginalised communities are impelled by the fact that post-1994 constitutional re-arrangements did not rise to the decolonisation challenge of re-membering the land/world. These re-arrangements have thus perpetuated homelessness, pariahdom and worldlessness. Secondly, I demonstrate that the cause of this failure is partially the fact that ruling party elites - who were beneficiaries of partial inclusion into the settler-constituted polity - failed to overcome their liminal-status induced conditions of double consciousness and racial melancholia. The result is that they elaborated terms of constitution and belonging whose eventual outcomes are, on the one hand, assimilation of ‘native’ elites into the white-dominated world, and on the other, continuing pariahdom and worldlessness for the majority. In Part I, I show that South African anti-colonial leaders based their vision of constitution and belonging on W.E.B. Du Bois seminal manifesto for how people of African descent could achieve liberation and world-reclamation. I argue that this manifesto leads to elite nationalism, a dearth of national consciousness and that it ultimately perpetuates the inherited world of apartness. The main insight from this Part is that quests for post-colonial constitution-making ought to be geared towards re-membering and (re)constituting the historically-colonised world on spiritual, social and material planes – the three realms of African belonging in the world. In Part II, I propose decolonising constitution-making processes centered on politics of Mayibuye understood here as creolising homemaking and re-membering of the world. I do this by advancing Es’kia Mphahlele, Steve Biko and Abahlali baseMjondolo’s interconnected praxes of Afrikan humanness, Black Consciousness and Abahlalism. I contend that these praxes are faithful to the Mayibuye exigency because they, respectively and together, propose ways of re-membering the triadic world and of (re)constituting an all-inclusive polity based on African humanness

Mayibuye iAfrika? : disjunctive inclusions and black strivings for constitution and belonging in 'South Africa'

With a focus on South Africa, I employ the phenomenological approach from an African perspective to analyse strivings for constitution (to constitute an inclusive polity, and etymologically, constare ‘to stand together’) and belonging (affectively and materially). In this postcolony, these strivings can be discerned in perennial protests by impoverished black communities for an inclusive democracy and for social goods; in contestations around land redistribution and against institutionalised forms of social ‘invisibilisation;’ and in calls for the valorisation of life-worlds different from the western. I contend that these strivings should be understood from the perspective that settler colonial constitution-making processes presaged “death of the land” (ilizwe lifile); that is, the shattering of the socio-cultural worlds of indigenous peoples. The outcomes of this processes were ‘native’ pariahdom, homelessness and worldlessness. Accordingly, the original impulse of anti-colonial struggles was Mayibuye iAfrika (‘Return’/‘Re-member’/ ‘Resurrect’ Africa). My two-fold thesis is, firstly, that perennial protests by marginalised communities are impelled by the fact that post-1994 constitutional re-arrangements did not rise to the decolonisation challenge of re-membering the land/world. These re-arrangements have thus perpetuated homelessness, pariahdom and worldlessness. Secondly, I demonstrate that the cause of this failure is partially the fact that ruling party elites - who were beneficiaries of partial inclusion into the settler-constituted polity - failed to overcome their liminal-status induced conditions of double consciousness and racial melancholia. The result is that they elaborated terms of constitution and belonging whose eventual outcomes are, on the one hand, assimilation of ‘native’ elites into the white-dominated world, and on the other, continuing pariahdom and worldlessness for the majority. In Part I, I show that South African anti-colonial leaders based their vision of constitution and belonging on W.E.B. Du Bois seminal manifesto for how people of African descent could achieve liberation and world-reclamation. I argue that this manifesto leads to elite nationalism, a dearth of national consciousness and that it ultimately perpetuates the inherited world of apartness. The main insight from this Part is that quests for post-colonial constitution-making ought to be geared towards re-membering and (re)constituting the historically-colonised world on spiritual, social and material planes – the three realms of African belonging in the world. In Part II, I propose decolonising constitution-making processes centered on politics of Mayibuye understood here as creolising homemaking and re-membering of the world. I do this by advancing Es’kia Mphahlele, Steve Biko and Abahlali baseMjondolo’s interconnected praxes of Afrikan humanness, Black Consciousness and Abahlalism. I contend that these praxes are faithful to the Mayibuye exigency because they, respectively and together, propose ways of re-membering the triadic world and of (re)constituting an all-inclusive polity based on African humanness

Social justice in a time of neo-apartheid constitutionalism : critiquing the anti-black economy of recognition, incorporation and distribution

In this article, I deploy a decolonisation critique to show that apprehended from the lived experiences of South Africa’s socially excluded and racially discriminated: this is the time of neoapartheid constitutionalism. By neo-apartheid constitutionalism I mean to convey the fact that post-1994 constitutional re-arrangements are transforming society in ways that do not instantiate a fundamental rupture with the inherited, sedimented and bifurcated social structure in terms of which the majority of black people remain confined in a ‘zone of non-beings’. More specifically, I demonstrate that in this time of neo-apartheid the contemporary discourse of social justice, which is transformative constitutionalism’s master frame for social emancipation, is complicit in the continuation of this anti-black bifurcated societal structure. A historical survey of the emancipatory politics of anti-apartheid movements serve as a reminder that transformative constitutionalism and social justice have not always been the only emancipatory horizons. I then demonstrate that the pillars of the contemporary praxis of social justice are fetishisation of human rights, deification of the Constitution, and veneration of civil society. I argue that in historically white supremacist countries, firstly, the human in “human rights” is the conception of humanity imposed during colonisation, and that in the absence of the revolutionary approaches that decolonise “the human”, as historically proposed by the PAC and the BCM, the extension of human rights to those historically deemed sub-human is an endeavour to enact transition from the status of sub-humanity to that of being human like the white man without dislodging the edifice of this society of apartness. Secondly, I show how this idea of the human and of human rights is guaranteed by a deified Constitution that is assimilationist in that it seeks to incorporate the historically conquered into an un-decolonised bifurcated societal structure. Finally, I show that the veneration of civil society in the context where the realm of civil society is dominated by white people – who, of necessity, deploy an ahistorical, colour-blind and state-focused notion of social emancipation - entrenches teleological whiteness and deflects attention away from structures of coloniality and racism.This article was developed in the context of the research project ‘ALICE — Strange Mirrors, Unsuspected Lessons’, coordinated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos (see http://alice.ces.uc.pt) at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. The project is funded by the European Research Council, 7th Framework Program of the European Union (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement [269807].Presented an earlier draft of this article at Thinking Africa Colloquium, Grahamstown on 11 September 2014.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journal/ju_slram2018Jurisprudenc

Post-apartheid social movements and the quest for the elusive ‘New’ South Africa

The South African Constitution guarantees justiciable socio-economic rights such as the rights to access to housing; to sufficient food and water; to social security and health care services. This ‘transformative constitution’ is meant to help rid the country of legacies of apartheid such as huge economic inequalities and entrenched poverty. The government's embrace of neoliberalism has, however, meant that these legacies have not only remained largely untreated but have also become entrenched. Poor communities have started organizing themselves in order to challenge the government's neoliberal policies as well as marginalization from structures of governance. This paper evaluates the nature of these 'social movements’ as well as their impact on democracy and development

Book review: Antje du Bois-Pedain : Transitional Amnesties in South Africa

Transitional Amnesties in South Africa is an expansive analysis of transitional amnesties. Bois-Pedain has offered all of us concerned with issues of transitional justice a comprehensive framing of issues and debates in the field of transitional amnesties. It is certainly a must-read for policy makers, consultants, academics and activists

Approaches To Decolonizing Human Rights Education

The call to decolonize human rights education has gained traction in recent years. In the wake of the COVID-19, it is an opportune time to reflect on human rights learning and teaching in higher education that is intersectional, anti-racist and based on decoloniality