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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   31917 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023

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Mandela Goes From Hero to Scapegoat as South Africa Struggles

10 years after his death, attitudes have changed. The party Mr. Mandela led after his release from prison, the African National Congress, is in serious danger of losing its outright majority for the first time since he became president in 1994 in the first free election after the fall of apartheid. Corruption, ineptitude and elitism have tarnished the A.N.C... Faith in the future is collapsing. Seventy percent of South Africans said in 2021 that the country is going in the wrong direction, up from 49 percent in 2010, according to the latest survey published by the country’s Human Sciences Research Council. Only 26 percent said they trusted the government, a huge decline from 2005, when it was 64 percent... The unemployment rate is 46 percent among South Africans aged 15 to 34. Millions more are underemployed, like Mr. Thebe. He studied computer science at the university level, never receiving a degree. The best job he said he could find was selling funeral policies to the staff of the court.

While Mr. Mandela is still lionized around the world, many South Africans, especially young people, believe that he did not do enough to create structural changes that would lift the fortunes of the country’s Black majority. White South Africans still hold a disproportionate share of the nation’s land, and earn three and a half times more than Black people. Mr. Vawda, 17, belongs to a generation that knows Mr. Mandela only as a historical figure in textbooks and films. To him, Mr. Mandela’s fight to end apartheid was admirable. But the huge economic gap between Black and white South Africans will be on his mind when he votes for the first time next year, he said. "He didn’t revolt against white people,” Mr. Vawda said. “I would have taken revenge.”

the truth and reconciliation commission led by mandela chose to pardon many perpetrators of crimes related to apartheid, such as the murderers of amy biehl, an anti-apartheid activist, in order to encourage, well, truth and reconciliation. young south africaners have identified that mandela and his friends didn't go far enough with their silly restorative justice ways - perhaps a nuremberg would have been more appropriate. if you were willing to necklace traitors of your own race, why not the enemy?

I think this is the stage of "true socialism has never been tried", only ANC/SA flavored, and the reason this "socialism" isn't true because not enough random whites were tortured in enough graphic ways to satisfactory atone for all the past wrongs.

believe that he did not do enough to create structural changes that would lift the fortunes of the country’s Black majority.

In a way it's true. But "taking revenge" surely won't get them anywhere near where they want to be. On the other hand, maybe somebody could suggest them to look into the history of Japan? I think there are a lot of similarities there, with regard to being colonized, being an economic underdog, and restructuring the society to become an economic superpower. I'd recommend not repeating the part where they go into war with the US and get nuked, of course.

somebody could suggest them to look into the history of Japan? I think there are a lot of similarities there, with regard to being colonized

Japan was colonized? That’s news to me. Perry’s gunboats didn’t lead to concessions or annexations. Unless you count being forced to open ports and restrict tariffs as colonization…? That’s markedly different from South Africa.

This was probably in reference to their unconditional surrender in WWII and the coerced political changes that followed rather than to Perry's gunboats.

The period following WW2 makes more sense, oops. Thanks.

Still feel like it’s qualitatively different, do we call Germany a victim of colonisation?

Eastern Germany probably yes.

Doesn't that just make Colonialism another meaningless Bad Word for geopolitics, like Fascism is for national politics or Capitalism for economics? A fighting word applied to malign whatever one dislikes? Or do we actually quantify the success or failure of a country under foreign control, and call it colonialism when it's economically worse off afterwards?

I agree that the Soviet occupation of Eastern Germany was bad, and the Allied occupation of Western Germany less bad, but what exactly makes the one colonialism but the other not?

Well, colonialism and fascism certainly have meanings, but as sure as that, you will find people using it as a general pejorative having nothing to do with the specific meaning. I don't think this can be helped - but I also don't think that automatically makes the word useless.

Also, I think it makes sense to separate colonisation - and colonial status - as an objective classification of relationship between two countries, and "colonialism" as an ideology, which may be useful in some contexts, but many colonial relationships have not been driven by the same ideology and in fact could follow from a wide variety of circumstances. I'd be much more careful in using "colonialism" versus "colony" or "colonisation".

Allied occupation of Western Germany less bad, but what exactly makes the one colonialism but the other not

Allied control over Germany was much more short-lived. I think the first election had been held in 1949. And yes, one could split hairs and claim this election was influenced etc. - and it probably was, to some measure - but if you are to seriously consider it, Germans were managing their own affairs, even though with some influence from the US, pretty soon. In fact, even in 1949 elections almost 1/3 of the votes went to the socialists, and another 5% to communists. Soviet Union created GDR in the same year, and East Germans never did independently manage their affairs, while GDR existed, and the examples of Hungary and Czechoslovakia showed what would happen if they tried. You can argue that until 1950s, West Germany was a US colony, but this period is so short it doesn't really matter.

Is the tenor of the US towards West German reconstruction significantly different from Japanese reconstruction esp post 1950?

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