Study Notes: South African Political Theory, Civilisation, and the Transition to Democracy

Benjamin Magson Kies and the Theory of Non-Racialism

• Biographical Background: Benjamin Magson Kies ($1930$–$1979$) was a prominent South African political theorist.
• Theory of Non-Racialism: Kies was the primary figure responsible for the development and articulation of both the theory and the practical application of non-racialism.
• The Invention of Race: The core tenet of non-racialism is that ‘race’ is not a biological reality but an invention created by forces of hegemony and domination. Its purpose was to secure the subjugation of individuals classified as ‘non-white’.

Eurocentric Narratives and the Myth of Race

• Rationalization of Superiority: Kies argued that ‘privileged’ groups consistently rationalized their status by claiming superiority that was either ‘inherently’ or ‘divinely bestowed.’
• Sacrifice of Truth: In the construction of racial myths, truth is considered the ‘first casualty,’ impacted by biases in religion, history, and science.
• Imperialism and Colonial Plunder: The ‘myth of race’ coincided with the rise of Imperialism, serving as a necessary rationalization for colonial theft and exploitation.
• Marginalization of the Other: Eurocentric narratives systematically marginalized various groups, including Italians, Japanese, Africans, and Jews.
• Shift in Civilizational Framing: There was a historical transition from a ‘Nordic Axis’ focus to a broader concept of ‘Western Civilisation,’ which was explicitly Christian-centric.
• Dismissal of Non-European Achievement:     * Chinese inventions, such as gunpowder and the compass, were frequently dismissed or downplayed.     * Africa was categorized as the ‘Dark Continent,’ with no concessions made to its historical contributions.
• Global Contributions: Kies emphasized that the contribution to world civilization is vast and exists significantly outside of Europe.

Defining and Categorizing Civilisation

• Problems of Definition: ‘Civilisation’ remains a difficult concept to define strictly.
• AD Richie’s Definition: Defined as everything that differentiates Europe and North America from ‘primitive’ peoples.
• Clive Bell’s Perspective: Argued that there are only ‘civilized minorities,’ rather than a single ‘civilisation’ as a whole.
• Toynbee’s Analysis: Toynbee studied $26$ separate civilizations and concluded that they rise and fall based on their ability to respond to specific challenges.
• Kies and the New History Approach: Kies preferred the ‘New History’ approach developed by Robinson. This view defines civilisation as ‘a single, unique and astonishing achievement of the human species.’

Anthropological Foundations and the Evolution of Culture

• Human Ancestry: Homo sapiens evolved from earlier ancestors known as hominids (apelike species). All modern humans belong to the single species, Homo sapiens.
• The Cradle of Humankind: Located in Gauteng, South Africa, this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site identifying where significant human evolution occurred.
• Cheddar Man Case Study:     * Analysis of nuclear DNA from ‘Cheddar Man’ shows he was a typical member of the Western European hunter-gatherer population.     * Phenotype: He likely possessed blue-green eyes, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin.     * Genetic Adaption: He showed no genetic adaptation for lactase persistence into adulthood.
• Defining Culture (Graham Clarke): Culture is defined as the measure of man’s control over nature. This control is exercised through experience shared among social groups and accumulated over ages. It comprises the sum total of technical, social, and conceptual apparatus.
• Non-European Origins: Culture historically evolved first outside of Europe.
• Geological Context: The last glacial period ended only $11,700$ years ago.
• Stages of Culture:     1. Savagery: Survival-based existence with no farming. A general pattern found globally from China and Spain to Kenya, Alaska, and Southern France.     2. Barbarism: Marked by the ‘Neolithic revolution,’ characterized by farming, villages, cultivation of food plants, and domestication of animals. Key sites include India, West Asia, Afrasia, Afghanistan, and NW China.     3. Civilisation: Characterized by the development of cities, writing, and complex systems. These first emerged in the valley river systems of the Hwangho, Indus, Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile.

The Sinews of Civilisation: Mining and Technology

• Mining as the Catalyst: Neuburger suggested that the beginning of civilization coincided with the advent of mining.
• The Six Ancient Metals: According to Rickard, people living before the Christian era recognized six primary metals: gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin.
• Pioneering Regions: Asia and Africa (from China to Ethiopia) were the primary pioneers in mining these metals.     * Copper: China and India sank copper pits approximately $5,000$ years ago; Egyptians mined copper on Mt Sinai around $5000\,BC$.     * Gold: Likely first discovered in Africa, supplied by Nubia, known historically as the ‘land of Gold.’
• The Second Technological Revolution (Higher Barbarism):     * Development of agricultural tools such as the plough and yoke.     * Invention of sledges and four-wheeled carts.     * Draft animals: Use of donkeys, horses, and camels.     * Horse Harnessing: Developed in China around $200\,BC$, whereas it reached Europe significantly later, between $600$ and $1000\,AD$.     * Advancements in boats and ships (sails), specialized carpentry, and the potter wheel.     * Advancements in basic chemistry, physics, mathematics, and medicine.

Collective Scientific and Legal Achievements

• Interdependence: Early societies mixed freely and depended on different river valleys for their various needs. Science was developed out of necessity (‘because there was a need for it’) and to manage food surpluses.
• Specific Achievements:     * Writing: Developed in Babylonia.     * Alphabet: Developed by the Phoenicians.     * Mathematics: Algebra was established before the Hellenic period.     * Astronomy and Timekeeping: The development of the hourglass and calendar; these systems were not surpassed until the work of Galileo and Hyghens between $1583$ and $1673$.     * Medicine: Assyro-Babylonian medicine flourished around $2000\,BC$.     * Law: The codification of laws occurred during this early civilizational period.

Bernard Magubane and Racial Capitalism in South Africa

• Biographical Background: Bernard Magubane ($1930$–$2013$) was a Chief Research Specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council. He served as the Director of the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET).
• The Road to Democracy: He edited a $10$-volume comprehensive history titled The Road to Democracy in South Africa.
• Core Thesis: Magubane argued that South African democracy (post-$1994$) is inseparable from the historical construction of race as a system of economic and political domination.
• Foundation of Democracy: Democracy was shaped by three factors: Colonial conquest, Racial capitalism, and the Anti-apartheid struggle.
• The 1910 Baseline: Magubane used $1910$ as an analytical baseline to review nearly $100$ years of white supremacy.
• The Political Economy of Race and Class:     * Race was used as a tool for economic control, not just identity.     * Mines and Works Act (1911): Protected white workers from black competition.     * Native Labour Regulation Act (1911): Controlled the physical movement of African workers.     * Cheap Labour Hierarchy: Systems were built on the hierarchical structure of cheap African, Coloured, and Indian labor.

The Evolution of Racial Capitalism and the Afrikaner Republic

• Structural Inequality: Capitalism in South Africa relied on cheap black labor across mines, farms, and industry. Exclusion was institutionalized via pass laws, land dispossession, and job reservation.
• Unique Demographics: South African capitalist development created the wealthiest white settler community served by the poorest black working class living in compounds, shanty towns, or townships.
• The Poor White Problem: Following the opening of the Witwatersrand gold mines, the state prioritized the ‘Poor White’ problem over black welfare.
• Group Areas Act: United competitive merchants, shopkeepers, and real estate agents to limit business opportunities for Asians, Africans, and Coloureds while granting whites exclusive land ownership in select suburbs.
• Labor Competition: Farmers, mine owners, and urban industries competed for cheap black labor, leading to stringent pass laws to direct labor away from cities toward mines and farms.

Imperialism and the Culture of Race

• British Imperialism: Emerging from the Boer War, British policy was infused with a sense of Anglo-Saxon racial supremacy expressed through ‘Social Darwinism’ (white races being ‘better fitted’ to survive).
• Superiority Complex: Britons were encouraged to believe they possessed the moral, intellectual, and cultural capacity to be superior not only to ‘natives’ but also to the Boers.
• The Importance of Gold: Racism became deeply entrenched due to the economic reliance on gold mining. By $1960$, more than $1$ in every $3$ employed men worked in the mining sector.
• Lord Milner’s Policy: Milner argued for increasing the white population without creating a ‘white proletariat.’ He insisted that even the lowest-ranking whites must maintain a standard of living far above the poorest sections of purely white countries.
• Civilised Labour Policy: This sentiment was echoed in Hertzog’s Civilised Labour Policy and the later policy of Job Reservation.

The Road to 1994: Crisis and Transformation

• International Turning Point: From $1960$ onwards, white minority rule faced worldwide condemnation. Decolonization elsewhere put high stakes on the South African outcome for the US and UK.
• Total Strategy: The regime formulated ‘Total Strategy,’ which combined extreme repression with ‘reforms’ like the granting of ‘independence’ to Bantustans (Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, and Venda).
• Tricameral Constitution (1983): Gave Coloureds and Indians a limited constitutional dispensation to create an illusion of power-sharing while maintaining white control.
• Geopolitical Shifts: Independence in Mozambique and Angola ($1975$) and Zimbabwe ($1980$) signaled that the minority regime’s days were numbered.
• The Angola Defeat: The loss in Angola, achieved with help from socialist Cuba, damaged the prestige of the South African armed forces.
• NP Split: The Afrikaner political establishment split between the ‘Verligte’ (enlightened) and ‘Verkrampte’ (hide-bound) factions.
• Sanctions: In $1986$, after the second state of emergency by P.W. Botha, international pressure for sanctions from the US and Britain intensified.

Mandela’s Release and the New Dispensation

• The 1990 Breakthrough: On February $2$, $1990$, President F.W. de Klerk (who had replaced P.W. Botha) announced that Nelson Mandela would be released on February $11$. Organizations like the ANC and SACP were unbanned.
• Global Event: Mandela’s release was transmitted globally via satellite.
• Inauguration of 1994: On May $10$, $1994$, Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President, ending $350$ years of white domination.
• International Presence: The inauguration featured a vast gathering of leaders, including Fidel Castro (who received the loudest ovation), Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Moammar Gaddafi, and Yassar Arafat.
• Post-Apartheid Critique: Magubane raises the question of whether the ANC has become an instrument for the ‘African petty bourgeoisie.’ While the majority of the poor remain black, a new black upper-middle class has developed rapidly, widening the gap between the richest $10$ percent of black citizens and the majority.