Don’t get me wrong: I don’t believe contemporary politics is about tribalism. The current division is not amaXhosa Mbeki-ites vs amaZulu Zuma-ites. Ethnic differences barely count in the contemporary clashes over succession.
But, still, there is something about the history of the amaXhosa that just conceivably has a bearing on the way things are.
The point is that it took the British a century and nine frontier wars to subjugate the Eastern Cape. The reason is said to lie largely in the fragmented social structure of Xhosa society at the time. When one chieftainship forcibly acceded to conquest, others fell outside their jurisdiction and continued the fight. Some sub-groups allied with the colonisers; others transferred allegiances forward and back as a result of intra-Xhosa disputes.
It was a different story in Zululand, where an entire nation more or less surrendered when their king was compelled to concede defeat. (Bambatha being an exception.)
This specifically Eastern Cape history gave South Africa a legacy of resistance and leaders of the calibre of Biko, Sobukwe, Mandela and Sisulu.
But it also entailed immense intrigue and factionalism. Some would say this was only temporarily subsumed during the struggle years, and the associated underground conditions and centralising Soviet influence. Undeniably, however, fractiousness is a style that colours mainstream politics today.
Current divisions in the ANC may therefore, in a very broad sense, be related back to the indigenous political culture of Cape colonial times.
This isn’t to say that South Africans of whatever heritage are prisoners of tradition. It is only to muse on historical lineages, and posit that the squabbling character of politics today may owe something to history.
However, if indeed the fount of our national politics was not one of monolithic populism or obedient authoritarianism, that’s also something to celebrate.
It’s possibly one reason why Thabo Mbeki, as powerful as he has been, has ended up today back to the wall. Contestation is part of our make up.
It’s this same political culture that will block any future despot from successfully consolidating control of the country.
Right now, political camps and cliques don’t make an edifying spectacle. But they’re a good guarantee of democracy in the medium term.
Ooh!
Guy; that hurts. Are you saying that we ferocious Zulu warrior nation folded, not with a loud bang but a little whimper?
I’m greatly offended.
Besides tribalism affecting South Africa’s future destiny, what about the audited membership of the ANC published on Thursday (in the Business Day) which showed that less than 1% of South Africa’s population will be deciding on the future (leaders) of the country?
Rashad, in a word. No.
70% of the voting public make that decision. The ANC members only decide on the president of the ANC. The ANC is not an automatic government. The ANC members’ choice will have to be ratified by the electorate in ’09. Believe me; when that 1% make that choice in December, they will be very mindful of that fact.
Of course; you could argue that in practical terms the ANC IS, in fact, always a government in waiting because it is the only realistic option for the majority of voters – at least in the foreseeable future. My answer to that would that the future of the country is still being determined by the voters who choose to cede their franchize to the ANC.
Either way; the ANC members do not have the power that you want to allocate to them.
Ndumiso
In a country where (a) you vote for a party not a person, (b)the party’s membership has the ultimate say as to who its leaders will be, and (c)the party leaders are invariably the ones who end up governing the country, it follows that the party not the general voting public who ultimately decide who will lead the country. So, your claim that 70% of the public make the decision as to who would lead them is just wrong. How many of the voters who may have voted for the party would actually agree on some of the individuals the party decides, will appear on the party lists?
Ndumiso, this is not an insult to Zulu history, nor a dimunition of resistance to colonialism in that part of the country. It’s just a matter of social structure. A centralised kingdom could conclude a peace settlement that held, unlike a fragmented social formation.
On the party lists story, it’s interesting to note that the biggest region is – no surprise – the Eastern Cape. And it is not insignificant that the region does not come with a monolithic position!!
The very fact that even within the Eastern Cape, there is no unanimous position on who should be the leader to the ANC, is testament to the robust and rigorous debates and trade offs that are taking place. Guy argues fairly convincingly that this is good for our nascent democracy. I agree. As much as I support President Mbeki’s stewardship of the country and the economy, it is important that a way/method is found to tell leaders that they are not invincible and that their intellectual and ideological hegemony will surely not last. There are many ambitious people within any political movement, and these people will not just move to the sidelines when they see that their time (which has come or not) is being usurped by the same people.
With the same breath, I really think that it will be interesting to see the kind of leadership and structural arrangements that could be made, if President Mbeki is reelected as ANC president. And really how the ANC would react. Many (who, it must be said have their own agendas) have argued against different people being the leader of the ANC and head of state. To my analysis, they have not argued their points convincingly, whatever they posit for their stance always lays bare their real intentions.
My position is that it is good that all these political machination are occuring now, so that we can experience and learn from them. Imagine if we were to have what is going on between Mbeki and Zuma 30 years from now, for example. We will definitely be thrown back to the wells of political elementarism. The country needs to brave out this current political status quo, irrespective of its supposed creation of politico-economic instability. After having gone through this, we will be a much better country. South African are tough, and won’t take lying down what they concieve to be detrimental to them and the gains that they have achieved since the advent of democracy.
@Guy
As Ngcobo indicated his astonishment,I also feel the same.
I beg to differ from your narration and analyses of south african history regarding this two tribes and the imposition or your opinion to which the legacy for resistance is given to.This might indeed owe to our different source of informaion regarding the history of south africa.
Having said so I do agree with the presentation of the structures of this two tribes from time to time, fragmentation of the Xhosa tribes and solidality unity of the Zulu tribes.
Looking at our history and resistance from 1500 to 1900, from the eras of King Shaka to King Dinuzulu, to Chief Albert Luthuli the first President of the ANC if I am not mistaken and who was from the Zulu tribe, up to the times of Buthelezi and Zumas.
I beleive from time to time the unity of the Zulus , braviness ,warriorness,deteminations,pasio n ,uncompromising stand towards the colonisers resistency, can hardly be ignored in the our history , unless if we just want to write a new history to the new generations, unknown to the south africans gallaries.
If we look back in our history, we have been having among our public holidays , the Shakas day, Dinganas days and others , where does this important occassions come from if not from the richest part of the Zulu Kingdom and the unity.
Battle fieds:
among the others ,like piet retief, Rocksdrift,isadlwana, Ulundi, Gingidlovu,Hlobane,Shiyane,Nkambule,Gingidlovu,Eshowe,Mnambithi,Mgungudlovu,and others were not fought the same day by one leader.
But it was a matter of different times , different leaders giving hard times to the colonisers and strong resistance to this tribe of which through this organised Zulu Kingdom ,it took years and years and a lot of recorded and unrecorded loses among the colonisers, mainly boers and british . Some they might be shy today to mention this to the public.
In the south african history of colonisation and resistency,colonisers could hardly forget the Zulus
no matter what the media preffers to write history about today, but there are unignorable moments.
King Centshwayo,you can choose to ignore him but the British people cannot ignore him in history at any time among the south african heroes, because of their victims all over Zululand and mostly around Isandlwana dongas,bushes and rivers.
Among other things that would always remind you when you are in south africa you have to speak Zulu first amongst our 11 languages otherwise you will regret being in this country that is not the media’s choice, but it is the nature and pressure from the history of our country, before you can choose to go further and speak other languages.
In every success we have achieved in this country there has always been the Zulus,like it or not . Go back and revise your history,otherwise this facts would always be haunting us no matter how much are we trying to ignore them.
Ndebeles who left S.A. for Kwabulawayo , Zimbabwe around 1400, they can tell the truth about the Zulu kingdom,
This is not being aimed at scoring the political and publicity point for this tribe,the unity of this Kingdom contributed a lot to the freedom of our country and their history of sticking together and back their kings against their enemy can not be compared to other tribes in this country who were always divided and siding with the enemies out of desperation and fear.
When south african people of origin were thinking of forming the strongest freedom organisation , they unrelectantly thought of the Zulus to form the backbone and the leaders of the organisation, taking the advantage of their strenght, unity, brave,nunretreating,nonbiase, forward thinking nature of this tribe which has always been imposing threat to other tribes. We cannot dispute the facts of this vital elements within this tribe which gave a big problem in the last century to the great britain, because it was difficult for them to penetrate this tribe,accessing to indoctrinate it so as to use its famous policy of divide and rule.
Looking at these Kings style of leadership , they have always been welcoming to other tribes but having that suspicious feelings to their enemies, so always giving them some kind of test of faith and conquer them all the times.The most interesting features is that of being steady but sure of the ultimate outcome.
Look at Dingana giving a peace of mind to the afrikaans settlers to cool their anxiety and relax and later capturing them at Piet retief Kraal ,what a warriors experience? look at Centshwayo, after the whole era of his fathers rule( King Mpande) when settlers were starting to relax, what a heroe! would you really choose to ignore the history of this tribe,Consider the contribution of Mafukuzela Langalibalele msizi onjengelanga Dube an Academics, from this Kingdom in the resistency struggle, MbAMBATA Kamanciza and others.
I would nt personally blame most of people who under estimate this tribe because of the little infomation they had in the past due to previous apartheid govt. who was not giving people a proper access to this information because of fear of domination,reviving the memories of these national heroes to the young generations who might rebel sometimes to regain the heroec status of their forefathers who gave them hard time in the past.
Our good writters and artist, there are now free in this time to go around and take the proper history in our country, I know especially in this Zulu kingdom it has always been difficult in the past to go in there and collect history because of the complex structures of this kingdom and the way the confidentiality was maintained to protect the asserts of the Kingdom, respect and loyality nature of the people, as you said earlier on that when the King considered peace with the settlers people had to pause the war for a time being of which you were right according to the discipline of this tribe. But however that didnt mean conceding defeat as always with this tribe from my experience and history, it always obey the chief commander’s order, taking positions, changing the tactics and defeat the enemy.
That is the disaster of your wrong assumptions to this Kingdom which led to the Piet retief boers disaster, when they forget that Zulus were more experienced warriors in this region ,compared to other tribes.The unity of this tribe contributed massively to this nation and its history is still far from being forgotten , it is just a matter of time from freedom and proper revealations to the nation and economical restrains that limit the vital celebrations by the mighty Zulus. We have just started again to see vital occassions unfolding,annual celebration of vigin rid,at Enyoken Palice, King shaka, at kwadukuza, Stanger,Mbambatha Kamnciza, Pietmaritzburge,King Dinuzulu,statue,Chief Albert luthuli,road, Prince Mangosuthu AIRport, Prince Mangosuthu High way, Prince Mangosuthu Technichon ,Durban,Soon you will be seeing his BRONZE statue around Ulundi,Warriors Zulu renaming celebrations,which was previously bunned ,by British, osuthu KWANONGOMA,trying to disband the Zulus in fear of the night mare posed BY Centshwayos warriors at Sadlwana and the humulition by this emperor at the hands of the Zulus,
You must have seen the regrouping of the Monnuments which are uniq within the zulu kingdom all over the region,soon you will be seeing zulu warriors celebrating the Rocksdrift,isadlwana ,Piet retief, Mgungudlovu,and more, a lot of revealation are going to show up to back the vital history and contribution of this kingdom within south africa ,among the others depending on the availability of funds.
Poeple are donating a lot because they want to see these things happening,they want to know their history, they want to reconcile with their traitors,they want to celebrate,they want to write the facts about their history, they want to regain the recognition and their rightful position in history.
They want to see where are the graves of their heroes and they want to see the list of names of their heroes and their leader positions during these importent times in the past.