The Social Construction of Blackness in Azania

Tafira, Hashi Kenneth

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_7

The Social Construction of Blackness in Azania

Hashi Kenneth Tafira⁴

Chapter
First Online: 29 May 2016

256 Accesses

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities ((AHAM))

Abstract

This chapter argues that since blackness is a historical phenomenon, it can only be thoroughly understood by analysing its historical roots. My engagement with this question hinges on how black South Africans have been brought into racial subjectivity and objectification and how this question persists even with the formal abolition of apartheid. I make four major postulations: firstly, blackness is a white creation through white anti-black racism; secondly, in the process of construction of blackness, whiteness was also created; thirdly, I look at social suffering and the black body in the making of blackness; fourthly, I analyse how black people are responsible for bringing themselves into subjectivity through large swathes of resistance, in other words blackness as agency. The latter explains the persistence of blackness and ideas consistent with it. Further, I look at the evolution and instability of the political, racial and cultural usage and categorization of the term blackness, which reached its zenith with the inception of BC movement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 89.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 119.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 119.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1973. Being and Nothingness. An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. Northampton: John Dickens and Co. p351.
2.
Fanon, Frantz. 1967. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grover Press, Inc.
3.
Ibid.:128.
4.
Ibid.:92.
5.
Ibid.:125.
6.
Jordan, Winthrop D. 1968. White Over Black: American Attitudes Towards the Negro, 1550–1812. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
7.
Fanon, op cit.
8.
Ibid.:95.
9.
Fanon, op cit.
10.
Jordan, op cit.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Ibid.:141.
13.
Ibid.:156.
14.
Fanon, op cit.; West, Cornel. 1994. Race Matters. New York: Vintage Books. p122.
15.
Fanon, op cit.
16.
Hoch, Paul. 1979. White Hero Black Beast. Racism, Sexism and the Mask of Masculinity. London: Pluto Press.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Fanon, op cit.
19.
Zizek, Slavoj. 2006. How to Read Lacan. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.
20.
Hein Marais, “Making Sense of the Indefensible,” Mail and Guardian April 5–12 2012.
21.
Fredrickson, George M. 2002. Racism. A Short History. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p120.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Fanon, op cit.
24.
De Kock, Leon
25.
Magubane, Zine. 2004. Bringing the Empire Home. Race, Class and Gender in Britain and Colonial South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
Magubane, Bernard M. 2007. Race and the Construction of the Dispensable Other. Pretoria: UNISA Press. p7.
27.
Ibid.:83.
28.
Comaroff, John. 2001. Reflections on the Colonial State in South Africa and Elsewhere: Factions, Fragments, Facts and Fictions. In Abebe Zegeye, ed. Social Identities in the New South Africa After Apartheid. Volume One. Cape Town: Kwela Books.
29.
Comaroff, Jean and Comaroff, John L. 1992. Ethnography and the Historical Imagination. Colorado: Westview Press, Inc.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Ibid.:70.
32.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Martin Luther King Jnr, 1967 speech “Where Do We Go from Here?”
34.
Bibi Bakare-Yusuf “Yellow Fever, Nko?” The Chronic 18–24 May 2008.
35.
“Yellow Fever” is also a title of Fela Kuti’s 1970s album
36.
Malcolm X with Haley, Alex. 1965 (2007). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. London: Penguin Books. p139.
37.
Cited in Shava, Piniel Viriri. 1989. A Peoples’ Voice. Black South African Writing in the Twentieth Century. London: Zed Books. p48.
38.
Fanon, op cit.:109.
39.
Ibid.:45.
40.
Fanon, Frantz. 1990. The Fact of Blackness. In David Goldberg, ed. The Anatomy of Racism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p124; Cesaire, Aime. 1972 [2000]. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by James Pinkham. New York: Monthly Review Press.
41.
Cesaire, op cit.
42.
Cesaire, op cit.; fanon, op cit.
43.
Goldberg, David Theo. 1990. The Social Formation of Racist Discourse. In David Goldberg, ed. The Anatomy of Racism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; Douglas, Mary. 1975. Implicit Meanings. Essays in Anthropology. London: Routledge.
44.
Taussig, Michael. 1987. Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
45.
Kleinman, Arthur. 1995. Writing on the Margin. Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
46.
Kleinman, Arthur, Das, Veena and Lock, Margaret, eds. 1997. Introduction. Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
47.
Hodge, John C. 1990. Equality: Beyond Dualism and Oppression. In David Goldberg, ed. The Anatomy of Racism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
48.
Robinson, Cedric J. 1983. Black Marxism. The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. London: Zed Press.
49.
Hodge, op cit.:93.
50.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghart. 1999. Of Our Spiritual Strivings. In Martin Bulmer and John Solomos, eds. Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
51.
Kleinman, Das and Lock, op cit.
52.
Kleinman, op cit.
53.
McClintock, Anne. 2000. The White Family Man. Colonial Discourse and the Reinvention of Patriarchy. In Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. London: Routledge.
54.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghart. 1965. The World and Africa. New York: International Publishers.
55.
Fanon, op cit.; du Bois, op cit.
56.
Cesaire, op cit.
57.
Wolf, Eric. 1971. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. London: Faber and Faber.
58.
Cesaire, op cit.:42.
59.
Ibid.
60.
IB Tabata, n.d.
61.
McClintock, op cit.:364.
62.
Ibid.
63.
Ndebele, Njabulo. 1972. Black Development. Paper presented at the symposium on Creativity and Black Development organised by SASO.
64.
Magubane, Bernard M. 2007. Race and the Construction of the Dispensable Other. Pretoria: UNISA Press.
65.
Cited in W.M. Tsotsi, Presidential Address at Conference of the All African Convention, Queenstown, 17–20 December 1956.
66.
Cabral, Amilcar. 1979. Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings. London: Heinemann.
67.
Clements Kadalie, “Open Letter to Blackpool,” published in the New Leader, 27 September 1927.
68.
“A Declaration to the People of South Africa From the NEUM.” Statement by the NEUM April 1951.
69.
Magubane, op cit.
70.
Kuper, Leo. 1969. African Nationalism in South Africa. In Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson, eds. The Oxford History of South Africa Volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p63.
71.
Steve Biko testifying at BPC-SASO Trial.
72.
Wilderson, Frank B 111. 2008. Biko and the Problematic of Presence. In Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander and Nigel Gibson, eds. Biko Lives. Contesting the Legacy of Steve Biko. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
73.
Sartre cited in Magubane, op cit.
74.
Rev. Z.R. Mahabane “The Exclusion of the Bantu.” Address as president of the Cape Province National Congress 1921.
75.
Clements Kadalie “Open Letter to Blackpool,” published in the New Leader, 27 September 1927.
76.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme 1932 “The African National Congress—is it Dead?” A Pamphlet.
77.
Gilbert. T. Coka “The African Liberator, Our Message” Editorial, The African Liberator, October 1935.
78.
“Presidential Address” by Prof D.D.T. Jabavu, AAC, 29 June 1936.
79.
“United Anti-Fascists Rally.” Flyer announcing a rally in Durban on 28 May 1950 to be addressed by Dr. James Moroka.
80.
Karis, Thomas. 1973. From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882–1964: Hope and Challenge 1935–1952 Volume 2. Stanford: Hoover Institution.
81.
Non-European was the term used by the Unity Movement during that time.
82.
“A Declaration to the Nations of the World.” Statement of the Non-European Unity Movement, signed by Rev. Z.R. Mahabane, Dr. G.H. Gool and E.C. Roberts, July 1945.
83.
Lynch, Hollis R, ed. 1971. Black Spokesman. Selected Published Writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden. London: Frank Cass and Co. Ltd.
84.
Ayandele, Emmanuel A. 1970. Holy Johnson. Pioneer of African Nationalism 1830–1917. London: Frank Cass and Co. Ltd.
85.
Cited in Ayandele, op cit.
86.
Ibid.:293.
87.
Ibid.:295.
88.
Manifesto of the Africanist Movement.
89.
“Forward to 1958.” Editorial by the Editor, The Africanist, December 1957.
90.
“A Declaration to the Nations of the World.” Statement of the Non-European Unity Movement, signed by Rev. Z.R. Mahabane, Dr. G.H. Gool and E.C. Roberts, July 1945.
91.
Inaugural Convention of the PAC, 4–6 April 1959, opening address by R.M. Sobukwe.
92.
Potlako K Leballo, “The Nature of the Struggle Today.” Article in The Africanist, December 1957.
93.
“Launching Address,” R.M. Sobukwe’s final instructions, 20 March 1960.
94.
Adam, Ian and Tiffin, Helen, eds. 1991. Past the Last Post. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
95.
Rodney, Walter. 1981. The Africa Revolution. A Talk at the University of Michigan March 31 1972. Urgent Tasks Volume 12 pp. 5–13.
96.
Martin, Tony. 1999. Race First and Self-Reliance. In Martin Bulmer and John Solomos, eds. Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
97.
Ibid.:231.
98.
Magubane, Zine. 2004. Bringing the Empire Home. Race, Class and Gender in Britain and Colonial South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
99.
Ibid.:13.
100.
Simons, Jack and Simons, Ray Esther. 1983. Class and Colour in South Africa 1850–1950. International and Aid for Southern Africa.
101.
Seligman, CG. 1930. Races of Africa. London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd.
102.
Du Bois, op cit.
103.
Seligman, op cit.
104.
Pheko, Motsoko, “Effects of Colonialism on Africa’s Past and Present.” Address at AZAPO commemoration of African Liberation Day, Pimville Community Hall, Soweto, 26 May 2012.
105.
A. Matrose, quoted in notes taken by an African police constable at a PAC meeting, Langa, Cape Town, 14 February 1960. Available in the Karis and Carter collection, University of the Witwatersrand.
106.
“Launching Address,” R.M Sobukwe’s final instructions, 20 March 1960.
107.
Magubane, op cit.
108.
Statement of Dissolution of the SA Coloured Peoples’ Congress by Barney Desai and Cardiff Marney, London, March 1966.
109.
Du Bois, op cit.; Jordan, op cit.
110.
Du Bois, op cit.:20.
111.
Jordan, op cit.:95.
112.
Jordan, op cit.
113.
Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture) and Hamilton, Charles V. 1967.Black Power. The Politics of Liberation in America. New York: Random House.
114.
Essien-Udom, EU. 1962. Black Nationalism. A Search for an Identity in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
115.
Carlos Cooks cited in Essien-Udon, op cit.:41.
116.
Robinson, op cit.:105.
117.
Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture) and Hamilton, Charles V. 1999. Black Power: Its Need and Substance. In Martin Bulmer and John Solomos, eds. Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
118.
Ibid.
119.
Ibid.
120.
Ibid.:237.
121.
Lott, Tommy L. 1994. Black Vernacular Representation and Cultural Malpractice. In David Theo Goldberg, ed. Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
122.
Du Bois, op cit.:19.
123.
Malcolm X with Haley, Alex. 1965 (2007). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. London: Penguin Books.
124.
I heard this during one poetry performance by a BC poet, Sabar.
125.
Aime Cesaire interviewed by Rene Depestre, 1967, in Cesaire, Aime. 1972 [2000]. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by James Pinkham. New York: Monthly Review Press.
126.
Azania News Volume 26 Number 6, October–December 1990.
127.
Alexander, Neville. 1989. Non-Collaboration in the Western Cape, 1943–1963. In Wilmot. J. James and Mary Simons, eds. The Angry Divide. Social and Economic History of the Western Cape. Cape Town: David Philip.
128.
Facebook post, August 1 2011.
129.
Hall, Stuart. 2000. Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities. In Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. London: Routledge.
Alexander, Claire. 2000. Beyond Black. In Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. London: Routledge; Roediger, David, R. 1992. From the Social Construction of Race to the Abolition of Whiteness. In Paul Le Blanc, ed. Black Liberation and the American Dream. New York: Humanity Books.
130.
Hall, op cit.:205.
131.
Hall, op cit.
132.
Ibid.
133.
Alexander, Claire, op cit.:211`
134.
Ibid.:221.
135.
Ibid.
136.
Sivanandan cited in Roediger, David R, op cit.
137.
Alexander, Claire, op cit.
138.
Ibid.
139.
Hall, op cit.
140.
Hall, op cit.:204.
141.
Ibid.
142.
Ibid.
143.
Biko, Steve Bantu. 1987. I Write What I Like. Aelred Stubbs CR, ed. London: Heinemann.
144.
See, for example, Martin Luther King’s 1967 speech “Where do We Go From Here?”
145.
SASO policy manifesto, July 1971.
146.
Biko, op cit.
147.
Report by Stanley Ntwasa on the National Seminar on Black Theology, Roodepoort, 8–12 March 1971.
148.
SASO policy manifesto July 1971.
149.
Report by Strini Moodley on SASO Leadership Training Seminar, Pietermaritzburg, 5–8 December 1971.
150.
Steve Biko, BPC-SASO Trial
151.
Temba Sono, “Black Consciousness: Its Significance and Role in the Life of the Community,” n.d.
152.
Temba Sono “Black Consciousness: Its Significance and Role in the Life of the Community.” n.d.
153.
Ibid.
154.
By August 1972, the media was forced by SASO students to drop the term “non-white.” At a congress at St Peters Seminary, the leaders asked the media not to use the term or they would be thrown out. The liberal morning daily, The Rand Daily Mail, refused, and their representatives were asked to leave. Their reporter Tony Holiday, a white reporter, as he was leaving, Bokwe Mafuna, his colleague, announced his resignation from the paper to some deafening applause (Harry Mashabela 1987 [2006]).
155.
The second Black Laws Amendment Act 102 of 1978, paragraph 464, “For the heading “CITIZENSHIP OF TH BANTU HOMELANDS” substitute “CITIZENSHIP OF THE BLACK STATES”; replace the word “Bantu” with the word “Black” and the words “Bantu Homeland” with “Black State”
156.
Azania News Volume 26 Number 6, October–December 1990.
157.
Winant, Howard. 2000. Race and Racism. Towards a Global Future. In Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. London: Routledge.
158.
Chinweizu. 1987. Decolonising the African Mind. Lagos: Pero Books.
159.
Ibid.
160.
Coopan, Vilashini. 2000. W(h)ither Post-Colonial Studies? Towards the Transnational Study of Race and Nation. In Laura Chrisman and Benita Parry, eds. Postcolonial Theory and Criticism. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
161.
Ibid.
162.
Goldberg, David Theo. 1994, ed. Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
163.
Coopan, op cit.
164.
Ibid.
165.
These were some of the allegations raised by the apartheid state during the BPC-SASO Trial.
166.
Harris, Bronwyn, Valji, Nahla, Hamber, Brandon and Ernest, Carnita. 2004. CSVR Race and Citizenship Series.
167.
Evans cited in Harris, Bronwyn, Valji, Nahla, Hamber, Brandon and Ernest, Carnita. 2004; Posel, Deborah, Hyslop Jonathan and Nieftaodien Noor. 2001. Debating Race in South African Scholarship. Transformation-Durban, i-i.
168.
Harris, Bronwyn, Valji, Nahla, Hamber, Brandon and Ernest, Carnita, op cit.
169.
“The Future of the Africanist Movement.” Questions and Answers by R.M Sobukwe in The Africanist, January 1959.
170.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1992. In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1991. Out of Africa, Topologies of Nativism. In LaCapra, D, ed. The Bounds of Race, Perspectives on Hegemony and Resistance. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press pp. 134–163.
171.
Omi, Michael and Winant, Howard. 2002. Racial Formation. In Philomena Essed and David Theo Goldberg, eds. Race Critical Theories. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
172.
See Andile Mngxitama, “Blacks Can’t be Racist.” New Frank Talk 2.
173.
Temba Sono, “Black Consciousness: Its Significance and Role in the Life of the Community.” n.d.
174.
STM Magagula, “Black Power” n.d.
175.
Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture) and Hamilton, Charles V. 1999. Black Power: Its Need and Substance. In Martin Bulmer and John Solomos, eds. Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
176.
“Understanding SASO.” Discussion Document by Steve Biko for SASO Formation School, Pietermaritzburg, December 5–7, 1971.
177.
Ibid.
178.
Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture) and Hamilton, Charles V, op cit.: 239–40.
179.
STM Magagula, “Black Power.” n.d.
180.
BPC Press Release, January 19 1973.
181.
Chipkin, Ivor. 2007. Do South Africans Exist? Nationalism, Democracy and the Identity of the People. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
182.
Harrison, Faye V. 1995. The Persistent Power of “Race” in the Cultural and Political Economy of Racism. Annual Review of Anthropology Volume 24 pp. 47–74.
183.
Harrison, Faye V. 1998. Introduction: Expanding the Discourse on “Race.” American Anthropologist, New Series Volume 100 Number 3 pp. 609–631.
184.
Goldberg, David Theo. 1990. The Social Formation of Racist Discourse. In David Goldberg, ed. The Anatomy of Racism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p ix.
185.
Ibid.: xii.
186.
Crenshaw, Williams Kimberle. 2000. Race, Reform and Retrenchment. Transformation and Legitimation in Anti-Discrimination Law. In Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. London: Routledge.
187.
Ibid.
188.
Ibid.
189.
Essed Philomena and Goldberg, David Theo. 2002. Introduction: From Racial Demarcations to Multiple Identifications. In Philomena Essed and David Theo Goldberg, eds. Race Critical Theories. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
190.
Raiford, Leigh and Cohen, Michael. 2012. “Black History Month and the Uses of the Past” available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/2012/2224952.html accessed on February 28 2012.
191.
Chinweizu, op cit.
192.
Shelby, Tommy. 2002. We Who Are Dark. The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
193.
West, Cornel. 1994. Race Matters. New York: Vintage Books.
194.
Crenshaw, op cit.
195.
West, op cit.
196.
Jensen, Robert. 2005. The Heart of Whiteness. Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege. San Francisco: City Lights.
197.
Martin Woollacoft, “Ironies of the New South Africa”, Mail and Guardian, 17–23 May 1996.
198.
Jensen, op cit.
199.
“Fanon on Blackness”. WISER, University of the Witwatersrand, 31 May 2012.
200.
An exclusive Afrikaner enclave where black people are not welcome.
201.
Jensen, op cit.:45.
202.
Van Dijk, Teun A. 2002. Denying Racism: Elite Discourse and Racism. In Philomena Essed and David Theo Goldberg, eds. Race Critical Theories. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
203.
see http://mg.co.za/on-on whiteness.
204.
Tafira, Kenneth. 2011. Is Xenophobia Racism? Anthropology Southern Africa, 34 (3 & 4). Tafira, Kenneth 2010. Black Racism in Alexandra: Cross-Border Love Relationships and Negotiation of Difference in a post-apartheid Community. MA Thesis. University of the Witwatersrand.
205.
Hall, Stuart. 2002. Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance. In Philomena Essed and David Theo Goldberg, eds. Race Critical Theories. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
206.
Balibar, Etienne. 1991. Is There a Neo-Racism? In Etienne Balibar and Wallerstein, Immanuel. Race, Nation, Class. Ambiguous Identities. London: Verso.
207.
Hall, 2000:206.
208.
Essien-Udom, EU. 1962. Black Nationalism. A Search for an Identity in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p328.
209.
Cone, James H. 1986. A Black Theology of Liberation 2nd ed. New York: ORBIS Books; Cone, James H. 1970. Black Consciousness and the Black Church: A Historical Theological Interpretation. Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume 387 pp. 49–55.
210.
Hall, op cit.
211.
Biko, op cit.
212.
Fanon, op cit.:197.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa
Hashi Kenneth Tafira

Authors

Hashi Kenneth Tafira
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Tafira, H.K. (2016). The Social Construction of Blackness in Azania. In: Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_7

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_7
Published: 29 May 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59087-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58650-6
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Abstract

Buying options