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information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjss20Ethnic euphemisms
and racial echoesSaul Dubow aa School of African and Asian Studies
, University of SussexPublished online: 24 Feb 2007.To cite this
article: Saul Dubow (1994) Ethnic euphemisms and racial echoes,
Journal ofSouthern African Studies, 20:3, 355-370, DOI:
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http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditionsJournalofSouthernAfricanStudies,Volume20,Number3,September1994355Ethnic
Euphemismsand Racial Echoes1SAULDUBOW(School ofAfricanand
AsianStudies, UniversityofSussex)Thewayin whichthe
word'race'hasacquiredthe
obsceneconnotationswhichsurroundedtheword'sex'duringthelastthreedecadesofthe19thcenturydeservestheattentionofsocialpsychologistsbutwearestuckwiththefactthatis
howthingsare.Theeuphemism'ethnicity'isaharmless,decontaminated,wordwhichissonewthatitdoesnotevenappearinthedic-tionarysoIdaresaywecangetalongwithit.Butyouallneedtorememberthatyourowninnerprejudiceswillnotdisappearjustbecauseyougivethemnewnames-EdmundLeach,1983.2This
is a landwhereeuphemismhas long been,like war,an extensionof
policyby othermeans-ChristopherHope,1993.3IntroductionThereare
manyreasonswhythe questionofethnicityand identityhas
forceditselfonto
thepoliticalandintellectualagendaoflate.Inthefirstplace,thecollapseofcommunism,theensuingupsurgeofnationalistconflictinEasternEurope,andtheincreasingvisibilityofracism
in the West, has given a new and urgent focusto problems of race,
nation and identity.Within the academicworld,these developmentshave
helpedto precipitatea
bewilderingstateof'paradigmslost.'Mostnotably,thestrengthsofmaterialistanalysis-bothasananalyticalanda
practical
programme-havebeenseverelyfractured.Ethnicity,which,likenationalism,hasoftenbeenseenbymarxistsasaformofirrationalfalseconsciousness,cannotanylongerbeexplainedawayorignoredinthisway.Itiswithusinoneformoranotherandwethereforehave
to
attempttounderstanditsworkings.Thenewworlddisorderhasalsohelpedto
removesomeofthestigmasassociatedwithethnicityor'tribalism'intheAfricancontext.EventsintheformerYugoslaviahave,para-doxically,
helpedto naturalisethe idea ofethnicconflict;the
horrorofethniccleansing is
asalutaryreminderthatethnicortribalparticularismisnotespeciallyanAfricanproblem.Secondly,thefashionable(andproblematic)riseofvariantsofpost-modernthoughthasalsohelpedtofreeuptheintellectualandpoliticallogjaminpotentiallycreativeways.Familiarcategoriesofanalysisbasedonnotionsofrationalismandprogressarein-creasinglytreatedwithscepticismordisdain.Thereisalsoagreaterresistancetotake1IamgratefultomycolleaguesRichardBrown,RalphGrillo,HilarySapire,andJockStirratwhomadeanumberofusefulsuggestionsduringthepreparationofthispaper.FurthervaluablecommentsweremadebyAndrdu
Toitata seminarintheUCTpoliticalsciencedepartmentin
June1993.2EdmundLeachopening conferenceon'Biosocial Aspectsof
EthnicMinorities',in Journalof 'BiosocialScienceSupplement8
(1983),p.1.3ChristopherHope,'MovingTargets',TheGuardian(12
February1993).Downloaded by [Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10 15
October 2014
356JournalofSouthernAfricanStudiesforgrantedestablishedsocialcategories,includingthoseofraceandclass.
Moreandmoreweseeanemphasisintheacademicliteratureontheambiguous,contingent,andmultiplenatureofhumanidentity.Thirdly,
and more specificto our present concerns, the dissolutionof
apartheid'spoliticaland intellectualstranglehold permits us to
approach the study of ethnicity in a somewhat
lesschargedatmosphere. The conveningof a conferencein South
Africaon ethnicityand nation-alism, as well as the broad range and
background of its participants, is itself testimonyto
thiswelcomedevelopment.It would be a mistake, however, to forget
justwhy ethnicityhas beensuch a
loadedwordinSouthAfrica.Unlikeothersocietieswhereethnicidentitieshavebeeneasilyassertedbygroupsfightingagainsttheoppressionofacentralstateorpowerfulmajority,ethnicparticularisminSouthAfricahasbeenoverwhelminglyrejectedbythemainstreamlibera-tionmovement.ThemostobviousreasonforthisistheundeniablefactthatethnicityhasbeenusedinSouthAfricainitiallyasatoolofcolonisationand,mostforcefullybytheapartheidstate,
as a meansofsecuring politicaldivisionand exploitation.On
accountofthecrude impositionof ethnic, national,and
culturalidentities by the Nationalistgovernment,ithas been
extremelydifficultforoppositionalgroups(withthe possible
exceptionofInkatha)toacceptorevenappropriatethevocabularyofethnicity.4The
ANC,withitspowerfullyuniversalistoppositionalideologyanditscommitmenttocommoncitizenship,hasfounditdifficultto
adjustto present circumstances in which multiple ethnic identities
orsubjectivitiesareincreasinglyasserted.Whetheritisnowpossibletoexerciseclaimstoethnicidentitywithouttendingtochauvinismor
exclusivity,isstillverymuchanopenquestion.'Ethnicity'and'Race'Onaccountofitscapacitytoredefine,absorb,anddissolveproblematicconceptslikeraceandclass,ethnicityhasbeenreferredtobyonewriterasasortofintellectual'lightningrod'.5Like
many portmanteauwords'ethnic'or'ethnicity'canserve as a
euphemisticsub-stitute forotherappellations. The word'ethnic'
functionslike a wild-cardwhichcanreadilybe inserted into a string
of related concepts. For instance, ethnic serves as a mediating
link inthe evolutionistsequence by
which'tribes'supposedlybecome'nations'. It also
functionsasasurrogate term for'race'in the cluster of concepts
whichconnects'race'with'nation'and'culture'.InSouthAfrica,thetermethnichasacquiredparticularsortsofmeaningsandassociationsthatareheavilycontext-dependent.Ethnicis,forexample,variouslysynony-mouswithwordslikepopulationgroup,
tribe,
nation,volk,andrace.Unlikeatermsuchassocialclasswhichhasarelativelywell-definedanalyticalmean-ing,
the conceptof ethnicityis farmore diffuseand unclear. For thesake
of convenience, itspercolationinto South Africanintellectualand
politicaldiscoursecan
bestudiedbytreatingitsdevelopmentintermsofaseriesofdistincthistoricalmoments.'Ethnic'firstmadeitsappearanceinSouthAfricaasanalternativetobiologicalnotionsofraceduringthelate-1930s
and1940s. A second phase may be identifiedfromthe
late-1960sand1970s, when theethnic idea was introduced in
conjunctionwith theories of political
pluralismlargelyderivedfromscholars based in the United States.
Thisstrandofthoughtgainedadherentsamongstanumberofkeyliberalandconservativepoliticalscientistswhoseadvocacyof4See,forexample,LionelForman'sATrumpet
fromtheHousetops(LondonandCapeTown,1992)whichdiscussesthecontroversyoverthe'nationalquestion'
withinthe ANC-SACPalliance duringthe1950s.5BracketteF.
Williams,'AClassAct:AnthropologyandtheRacetoNationacrossEthnicTerrain',AnnualReviewof
Anthropology18 (1989), pp. 401-2.Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes357consociationalismorfederalismhassincemadeitswayontothepresentSouthAfricanpo-litical
agenda. The most recentstrain of interestin ethnicityhas its
immediate provenance inthe1980s with the insistence (especiallyby
historiansand anthropologists)that
ethnicity,farfrombeingaprimordialphenomenon,isinsteadanhistoricallycreatedideologicalcon-struct.
It is with the competing claims of the ethnic idea in its second
and third phase that
wearenowconfronted-bothpoliticallyandintellectually.ThefirstdeliberateuseofthewordinitsmodernsensethatIamawareofoccursinabook
co-authoredin1935 by the Cambridge anthropologist, A. C. Haddon,
and the biologist,JulianHuxley, entitledWe Europeans: AStudy
of'Racial' Problems. Thiswork
representsasignificantlandmarkinthecritiqueofthedominantinter-warracialparadigm.Itwascon-ceived
in the context of the rise of European fascismas an explicit
rejectionof the biologicalmeaningofrace.
Inattackingthe'lamentableconfusionbetweentheideasofrace,
culture,andnation'thenprevalentinbiologicalandanthropologicalthought,HuxleyandHaddonthereforeproposedtoavoidtheword'race'andtouseinsteadtheterm'ethnicgroup'or'people'.6What
Huxley and Haddon referredto as the'pseudo science'of race was,
until the1930s,an orthodoxyin social, scientific,and popular
thought. The history of this racial
paradigmisenormouslycomplexandthereisnospacetoelaborateuponitscentraltenetshere.How-ever,a
numberofcorefeaturesshouldbeidentified:1)
thebeliefthatculture,language,ornationcouldbeexplainedintermsofbiologicalrace;2)anobsessivedesiretoclassifyhumansalongtypologicallines;
and3) theeffortto rankdifferenthuman'types'
onascaleofrisingbiological,moral,andaestheticworth.Fromthemid-1930sthevalidityofraceasascientificconceptwasincreasinglychal-lengedbyliberalSouthAfricanacademics.In1936thepsychologist,I.D.MacCrone,at-tackedthedogmasofinnatementalorracialcapacityasunscientific.CitingtheworkofanthropologistslikeBronislawMalinowskiandMargaretMead,MacCronesuggestedthattheideaof'groupdifferences'shouldbesubstitutedforthe'problemofracedifferences'.Suchdifferences,heargued,oughttobeanalysedinculturalorpsycho-socialtermsbylookingatattitudesandbehaviour.7Some
yearslater, MacCroneextendedthis
critiqueand,echoingthesuggestionofHuxleyandHaddoninWe
Europeans,advocatedbanishingtheword'race'infavourof'somesuchphraseas"ethniccultural"todescribethosegroupsinwhichbiologicalandculturalgroupdifferencescoincidewithoneanother'.8In1943,
thesocialanthropologist,HildaKuper,deliveredatellingattackoncommon'racialmyths'.Referringtosomeofthelatestoverseasanti-racistliterature(suchasRuthBenedict's
Race and Racism,Jacques Barzun's Race,and Huxleyand Haddon'sWe
Europe-ans)Kuperarguedthatwhites,
blacks,andcolouredswereallpartofthesamespeciesandthattherewasnoscientificevidencethatphysicaldifferenceshadanybearingonculturewhatsoever.
In her effortto divorce the notion of culture fromrace, Kuper
slipped in the term'ethnic'asanalternative
-thoughwithoutexplanationordefinition.9TheWitwatersrand6J.S.
Huxleyand A. C. Haddon,We Europeans: A Surveyof'Racial'Problems
(London,1935), pp.107, 108,164-5.7I. D. MacCrone,'TheProblem ofRace
Differences',South AfricanJournalof Science23 (1936),
pp.104-5.8I.D.MacCrone,'RaceAttitudes:AnAnalysisandInterpretation,'inE.Hellman(ed),HandbookonRaceRelations(Oxford,1949),
p.
680.9H.Kuper,'TheUniformofColourinSwaziland',AfricanStudies2(1943),
p.107. Kupercameclosertoadefinitionof ethnic in her article'Social
Anthropologyas a Studyof Culture Contacts', South AfricanJournalof
Science 41 (1944/5), p. 90: 'It is necessary to emphasise that
contact takes place between peoples of similar,as wellas
ofdifferent,ethnic origin. BeforeEuropeansarrivedin Africaor
America, the tribes of thosecoun-tries were borrowingfromand
influencingeach other. Similar ethnic origindid not
engendersimilarciviliza-tionorculture,anditisinterestingtonoticethatethnicsimilarityordifferenceisbutoneofmanyfactorsaffectingthe
receptivityofpeople toinnovations'.Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014 358Journal of Southern
African
StudiesUniversitysociologist,JohnGray,likewiseintroducedtheterm'ethnic'asasubstitutefor'race'atthistime.Ina
chapterhecontributedtoE.H.Cluver'stextbookonpublichealth,Graysupportedthe
idea ofsocialisedmedicineand
criticisedeugenicistsforminimisingthecontributionthatsocialimprovementscouldmaketo'organicwell-being'.10These
early examples of the usage ofethnic were indicativeofaconscious
-iftheoreti-callyundeveloped-efforttochallengethemeaningofbiologicalraceanditsrelatedas-sumptions.
It was the intentionofwriterslikeKuper, MacCrone, and Grayin
usingthe termethnic to downplaythe importance of heredityas a
constitutive elementof
humanbehaviourandtostressinsteadtheagencyofcultureandtheenvironment.Kuper'sworkinparticularreflectswidereffortsbysocialanthropologistsinthe1930sto
freetheideaofculturefromthedeterministicassociationsofrace.IfthebrilliantlywittyandtellingspeechofthecommunistMP,SamKahn,ontheso-calledimmoralitybillisanythingtogoby,thisobjectivewasdulyreflectedinthewiderpoliticalarena.Speakingon
the occasionofthe bill'ssecond readingin1949,
Kahnreferredtotheproposedlegislationas'anillicitunionbetweenracialsuperstitionandbiologicalignorance'.
He condemned'pseudo-biological phantasies about racial purity' and
pronouncedhimselfwhollyunwillingto'subscribetotheethnicarrogancewhichappearstodominatetheGovernmentbenchestoday'.11Theuseofethnicasanalternativetoracewasdouble-edged.Incertaincontextsitim-pliedadeliberaterejectionofthesalienceofrace.However,asabridgebetweenraceandculture
it could also be employedas a means of straddlingthese concepts,
thereby helpingtopreserveessentialistconceptions-albeit
indisguisedform.Beforegoingon to developthisargument more closely,
it may be usefulto draw an analogy with the differentways in
whichthe ideaofculturewasemployedininterwarSouthAfrica.Ethnicity
andCulturalRelativismI have arguedelsewherethatthe
relativistconceptionofculturein its
modernanthropologi-calsensehadanimportantinfluenceontheframingofsegregationistdiscourseinSouthAfricaduringthe1920sand1930s.12Viewedasadynamicprocess,
the
conceptofcultureofferedanescapefromthenineteenthcenturyevolutionistassumptionswhichunderwroteracialdeterminismas
wellas liberaluniversalism. Assuch,
theideaof'culturaladaptation'provedamenabletoappropriationbytheintellectualtheoristsofpoliticalsegregation:itappearedtoofferareadycompromisebetweenadvocatesofracialrepressionontheonehand,
and proponentsofold-style liberalassimilationismon the other. In
the terms ofsegre-gationistdiscourse,culturerepresenteda
meansofinsistingondifference -crucially,with-out the needto
definepreciselyonwhatgroundsthat
differencewaspredicated,orwhethersuchdifferencewaslikelyto
betemporaryorpermanent.Intheapartheiderauseofthetermethnicbecameincreasinglypopularasasynonym,variously,
forwords like culture, population group, volk, nation, and so on.
It is not
preciselyclearwhenthewordethnicwasfirstimportedintothevocabularyofChristian-nationalismorhowitbecamefullyembeddedinapartheiddiscourse.MartinWestpointsoutthatthe10J.
Gray,'MedicalSociologyandSociologicalMedicine',in E. H. Cluver(ed),
PublicHealthin SouthAfrica,4thedn.(Johannesburg,1944), pp. 322,
324, 329.11Houseof AssemblyDebates,vol. 68 (1949), cols. 6414,
6416.12S. Dubow,'Race, Civilisationand Culture: The elaborationof
segregationistdiscourse in the inter-war
years',inS.MarksandS.Trapido(eds),ThePoliticsofRace,Class,andNationalisminTwentiethCenturySouthAfrica(Harlow,1987).Downloaded
by [Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes359termmadeasignificantappearanceinSection5ofthe1950PopulationRegistrationActwhichempoweredthe
Governor-Generalto'prescribeanddefinetheethnicor othergroupsinto
which coloured persons and nativesshall be classified.'13J.
D.(Koot) Vorster, one of
theconservativehighpriestsofChristian-nationalism,usedthetermetnieseinthetitleofanimportantarticlein1961.14Itseemslikelythatitwasthroughthe1960s
-especiallyintheprocessofallocatingnationalgroupstotheirappropriatebantustans-thatthetermenteredintowhathassince
becomecurrentusage.JohnSharphasexploredthecentralityoftheconceptof'ethnos'inthePretoria-basedschool
ofvolkekundiges led by P. J. Coertze. Within this conception, each
ethnos is
regardedasadistinctiveentityconstitutedbytherelationshipwhichexistsbetweenapeople(volk)andtheirculture.15Eachethnos
is investedwithstronglyprimordialqualitiesand, ina tele-ological
fashion, becomes imbued with its own distinctive mission or
calling. Emile
BoonzaierpointsoutthatalthoughCoertzetakescaretodistinguishbetweenraceasa
biologicalandvolk as a socio-culturalphenomenon,physical
featuresenter into his understandingofvolk.Thisambiguityisa
centralfeatureofChristian-nationalthoughtanditisalsocharacteristicofthewaysinwhich
ethnicis
oftendefined.16BoththeKuperianlanguageofdiversityandtheorganic-romanticnotionofvolkderiv-ingfromJ.G.Herderprovedconducivetotheaffirmationofadistinctivekindofculturalrelativism.Idealistnotionsofnation,volk,andculturewerecastinaquasi-mysticalidiomwhichallowedthetheoristsofChristian-nationalismtodispensewith-forthemostpart-full-blownracist
explanationsof human difference.Biologicalnotionsof race were not
nec-essarily repudiated; rather theywere incorporatedwithina
formofculturalessentialismthatencouraged the articulation of human
differencewithout explicit recourse to arguments
basedonbiologicaldeterminism.Inthiscontext,theideaofethnicity,combiningasenseofpri-mordialaffiliation,biologicaldescent,
and cultural identity, was easily
understoodandinter-nalised.17Itisstrikinghowreadilythetermethnichasbeenusedasawayoutofimprisoningconceptssuchasvolk.ForliberalAfrikanerdissidentsinthe1970sthenotionofethnicitywas
embraced as a means of dispensingwith the oppressive connotationsof
volk -similarly,perhaps, to the way ethnic wasadopted by an
earliergenerationofliberalacademicsinsteadofrace.Thishelpsto
explainwhy,in1978,
theStellenboschphilosopherJohanDegenaarcalledforthedmystificationoftheconceptofvolkandtheintroductioninitsplaceofethnicityasamoremeaningfulscientificconcept.1813M.West,'ConfusingCategories:PopulationGroups,NationalStates,andCitizenship',inJ.SharpandE.Boonzaier(eds),
South AfricanKeywords:TheUses and Abusesof PoliticalConcepts(Cape
Town,1988), p.102; E. H. Brookes, Apartheid:A DocumentaryStudyof
ModernSouth Africa(London,1968), p.19.14J. D. Vorster,'Etniese
Verskeidenheid,Kerklike Pluriformiteiten die Ekumene', Grense
(Stellenbosch,1961).15J.Sharp,'CanWeStudyEthnicity?:A
CritiqueofFieldsofStudyinSouthAfricanAnthropology',SocialDynamics6,1
(1980), p. 3.16E.Boonzaier,'"Race" andtheRaceParadigm',inE.
BoonzaierandJ.Sharp(eds),South AfricanKeywords(Cape Town,1988), p.
64.17Theideasglossedinthisparagraphhavebeenarguedindetailinmyrecentarticle'AfrikanerNationalism,Apartheid,and
the Conceptualizationof"Race"', in Journalof AfricanHistory33,
(1992). There arefascinat-ing parallels between
Afrikanernationalistand Soviet ethnos theory, in particular the
tension between biologi-cal and culturalist/mysticaldefinitionsof
ethnicity. See Irina Filatova,'Soviet Concepts of Ethnicity:
Interpre-tationofthe dogma',Southern
AfricaResearchProgramseminar,Yale University,23
January1991.18Citedin H. Adamand H. Giliomee, Ethnic Power
Mobilized:Can South AfricaChange ? (New Haven,1979),p. 66.
Degenaarargued:'To arriveat a new approach the Afrikanerwill have
to relativisethe concept ofvolk.Theshiftfrom Afrikanernationalismto
enlightenedpluralismwouldthen become possible' . And:'A
demys-tificationof theconceptofvolkand the introductionof
themorescientificconceptofethnicitywhichshouldbeassessedrealisticallyinsteadofeitherbeingignoredordeified,isnecessary'.J.Degenaar,
AfrikanerNa-tionalism,OccasionalPaper no.1,
CentreforIntergroupStudies, UCT (1978), pp. 31, 39.Downloaded by
[Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
360JournalofSouthernAfricanStudiesThe notion of ethnicityhas also
beenseized upon withalacrity by the government.In
theconfuseddiscourse of the late-apartheidera the concept has
served as a convenientsurrogatetermforvolkor race, ofteninan
attemptto
persuadeinternationalaudiencesofthevalidityofreform.DuringF.
W.deKlerk'svisittoBritaininNovember1992 hedeniedinaBBCinterviewthat
issues of race had anythingto do with the
constitutionalimpasse:'No, we
arenottalkingaboutracialminorities;wearetalkingaboutvaluesandculture'.19In
onesensethis response reflectsa diplomaticsensitivityto the
post-war internationalrejectionof racistterminology. But it was
also calculatedto strikea reassuringnote withde Klerk'sfragment-ing
constituencyat home, which mightstill relate to the old
romanticconceptionof the volkas
transcendent'essence,'thoughnowrecastintheidiomof'ethnicgroups'.It
seems plausible to argue, therefore,that the ideological labour
performedbyChristian-nationalist theorists fromthe1930s and1940s
onwards, prepared the way for the later
under-standingofethnicity.StandardChristian-nationaldefinitionsofvolkandnationmakefre-quent
-ifoblique -referencesto ancestry, blood,or physicaltype,
thoughwithoutstressingthesalienceofsuchcriteria.Physicalcharacteristicsareneverthelesspresentedasvisible,commonsense,and
undeniable indicatorsof culturalspecificity-in much thesame
waythatendogamyor commondescentis routinelycitedas
keymarkersofethnicidentity.20Ethnic
PluralismLeavingasidetheworkofthevolkekundesandtheplaceofethnicityinChristian-nationalthought,
the firstconcerted effortsto introduce ethnicityas an appropriate
analyticalconceptforthe understandingof South Africanconditionsdate
fromthe late1960s. This usage of
theconceptofethnicitywaslargelyassociatedwiththeideaofpluralismdevelopedbyLeoKuper,M.G.Smith,andPierrevandenBerghe.TheconceptofpluralismwasderivedoriginallyfromJ.
S.Furnivall'sColonial Policy andPractice(1948).
Thispioneeringcom-parativestudy of Burma and Indonesiasought to
provide a
frameworkfortheunderstandingof(tropical)colonialsocietiesinwhichdifferentcommunities,dividedalonglinesoflan-guage,
culture, and religion, were saidto coexistin an uneasystate
ofseparation,experienc-ingintegrationonlyintheartificiallyimposedcontextofasharedeconomicandpoliticalsystem.AsformulatedbytheanthropologistM.G.Smithinthe1960s,pluralismwasameansofunderstandingconflictin'
asocialstructurecharacterizedbyfundamentaldiscontinuitiesandcleavages,andaculturalcomplexbasedonsystematicinstitutionaldi-versity'.21Theideaofethnicgroupsfittedineasilywithintheconceptofpluralism,asisapparentfromLeoKuper'sfacileusageofthetermethnicinseveralofhisdiscussions.Forinstance,inKuper's1969paper'EthnicandRacialPluralism',thewordisauto-maticallycoupledwith
race, thoughwithoutbeing meaningfullydistinguishedfromit.
Con-versely, in his1977 studyofgenocidalconflictbetweenHutuand
Tutsi inRwanda/Burundi,ethnicissimplyusedasasubstitutefortribe.22A
similartendencyto
runtogetherconcepts19JeremyPaxmaninterviewingPresidentdeKlerkon
Newsnight(16
November1992).20Consider,forexample,thedefinitionarrivedatbyNicRhoodieinhis1985surveyofthemodernethnicparadigm.
On the one hand he insisted that race and ethnicity should not be
confused,even if both were treatedas subjectivesocial constructs.
But he nonetheless insisted that physical characteristics were
importantfactorsin the creation of ethnic identities. N. J.
Rhoodie, Die ModerneEtniese Problematiek,HSRC OccasionalPaperno.
24, Pretoria(1985), pp. 26-34.21L.Kuperand M. G. Smith, Pluralismin
Africa(Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1969), p. 27; J. S. Furnivall,
Colo-nial PolicyandPractice: AComparativeStudyof Burmaand
Netherlandsindia(Cambridge,1948), chap. 8.22Ibid., chap.14; L.
Kuper,The Pity of it All:Polarisationof Racialand
EthnicRelations(London,1977).Downloaded by [Akdeniz Universitesi]
at 20:10 15 October 2014
EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes361ofrace,culture,andethnicitywithoutfullexplanationisalsoevidentinSimonBekker's1974
doctoraldissertationonthetheoryofpluralism.23Otherswritingin the
pluralisttraditionattemptedto be more rigorousin theirusage.
M.G.Smith'sdefinition,thoughnotquitethesameasrace,neverthelessgaveconsiderableweighttothenotionofbiologicalinheritance.Forhim,ethnicitydenoted'commonprovenienceanddistinctnessasa
unitofsocialandbiologicalreproduction;itaccordinglyconnotesinternaluniformitiesandexternaldistinctnessofbiologicalstock,perhapsoflan-guage,
kinship,culture,cult,andotherinstitutions'.24PierrevandenBerghe,anotherprominenttheoristofpluralism,alsoattemptedtogivethetermethnicgreateranalyticalprecision.Inhisoftencited(andfrequentlycriticised)1965workSouthAfrica:AStudyinConflict,thetermethnicisbarelyused.Nordoesitappearintheindex.
Bycontrast,inRaceandRacism(1967)vandenBergheaddressestherelationshipofracetoethnicityinexplicittheoreticalterms.
HerevandenBerghesetsoutfourhistoricallydifferentconnotationsofthe
term race and identifieshimselfwith
themod-erndefinitionwherebyraceisseentoreferto'agroupthatissociallydefinedbutonthebasisofphysicalcriteria'.However,vandenBerghenotes,too,thatthetermraceisoftenappliedin
popular usage to describe a human group which'sharedcertain
culturalcharacter-istics such as language or religion'. Van den
Berghe considers that this sense of the word
racewouldbemoreappropriatelycoveredby'ethnicgroup'or'ethnicity'.Inotherwords,al-though
ethnic groups and races are both sociallydefined,the formerare
definedon the basisofculturalcriteria,whereasthe
latteraredefinedonthe basisof physicalcriteria.(Van denBerghe
acknowledges, however, that in practice race and ethnicity continue
to be
confused).25Thisdefinition,whichseesethnicityasasocialconstructratherthanapreexistingorobjectivecategory,wasreinforcedbycontemporaneousdevelopmentsinsocialanthropol-ogy.
ThewordethnicdidnotenterthevocabularyofBritishsocialanthropologyuntilthelate1960sbecauseofitsassociationwiththeproblematicnotionoftribe.26Thisbegantochange,
however, following the publication of Fredrik Barth's edited
collection Ethnic Groupsand Boundaries(1969). Barth was anxious to
explain the formationand persistence of
ethnicgroups.Hearguedthatethnicdistinctionswerecreatedandmaintainedasaresult,ratherthanintheabsence,ofsocialinteraction.Mostimportantly,hedefinedethnicgroups'ascategoriesofascriptionandidentificationbytheactorsthemselves'.Ethnicitythereforehadtobeseenasaformofsocialorganisationinwhichtheparticipantsthemselvesplayedaprimaryroleindeterminingandmaintainingtheiridentity.2723S.
Bekker,'The Plural Society and the Problem of Order', Ph.D thesis,
University of Cape Town,1974.
Bekker'sefforttodefineraceandethnicscarcelyclarifieshisusage:'A
raceisunderstoodtorefertoanethnicgroupwhichis, in part,
distinguishedandidentifiedin
termsof(purported)physicaldifferencesof its members',
p.49.24Kuperand Smith, Pluralismin Africa,pp.103-4.25P.
vandenBerghe, RaceandRacism:AComparativePerspective,1st
edn.(NewYork,1967), pp. 9-10.Seealso P. van denBerghe,
RaceandEthnicity(New York,1970), p.10.26I owe this point to my
colleague, RalphGrillo. See also P. H.Gulliver,'Introduction',in P.
H. Gulliver, Tradi-tion andTransition in East Africa(London,1969),
fn.1, p. 37, which cites Peter Lloyd's1967
observationthat'ethnicity'wasnotincolloquialusageinEnglish-speakingWestAfrica.PeterEkehhasrecentlynotedthat'while
tribalismseems now abandonedin academicscholarshipin
Africanstudies- with some proposingandindeed using'ethnicity' as
its replacement- paradoxically, the use of the term tribalism is
enjoyingan
unprec-edentedboomnotonlyineverdayinteractionsamongordinaryAfricansbutmoreespeciallyamonghigh-rankingAfricansingovernmentanduniversityadministrations'.P.
P. Ekeh,'SocialAnthropologyandTwoContrastingUsesof Tribalismin
Africa',ComparativeStudiesin SocietyandHistory32, 4(1990), p.
661.27F.
Barth,'Introduction'toEthnicGroupsandBoundaries:TheSocialOrganizationofCultureDifference(Bergen-OsloandLondon,1969).
My colleague, JockStirrat,pointsout
thatEdmundLeachinPoliticalSys-tems of HighlandBurma(London,1954)
analysedthe myth of the'unitsociety'and
demonstratedthatethnicidentitieswereshiftingcategories.Downloaded
by [Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
362JournalofSouthernAfricanStudiesTheconceptofethnicitywasfirmlyinstalledinthevocabularyofBritishsocialanthro-pologyfollowingthe1971meetingofitsprofessionalassociationwhichconvenedaroundthe
theme of'urbanethnicity'. The proceedingsof this
conferenceweresubsequentlyeditedbyAbnerCohenandpublishedin1974.28CohenwasevenmoreconcernedthanBarthtoasserttheplasticityofethnicaffiliationsandtodenydefinitionswhichvieweditas'anessentiallyinnate
predisposition'.He was at pains to emphasise ethnicity as a
dynamicinter-active process, reflectingsocial cleavagesand material
competition. Ethnicitywasthereforelikelyto
manifestitself-incontradistinctionto
theexpectationsofmodernisationtheorists-especiallysharplyinthecontextofmodernurbanexistence.29InthisconnectionCohenwasstronglyinfluencedbyGlazerandMoynihan'sobservationinBeyondthe
MeltingPot(1963)ofthe continuingsalienceofethnicconstituenciesin
NewYork, a
viewwhichchal-lengedthegeneralassumptionthatethnicitywouldbesubsumedwithina
commonAmeri-canculture.30ThestressplacedbyBarthandCohenonethnicityasa
subjectiveprocessratherthanastatic,primordialentity,openedupseveralimportantnewlinesofenquiry.Thisconceptualisationwas
not without precedent. The work of J. Clyde Mitchelland Bill
EpsteinontheZambiancopperbeltinthe1950s,
forexample,haddemonstratedthat'tribalism'inthe urban context was
not merely a primitive hangover from time immemorial.
Rather,'tribal'affiliationswereactivatedtoasignificantextentasnewlyurbanisedpopulationscompetedfor
resourcesand sought to createsupportivesocialstructuresto
whichtheycouldbelong.31This circumstantialor situationalapproachto
the understandingof urban identity did nothave
animmediateimpactinSouth Africa-thoughthe workofPhilip
Mayerstandsout asanexception.Inhis1974studyofthe
perceptionsofSowetanresidents,Mayerarguedthatethnic and tribal
formsof affiliationwere on the decline. Such formsof identity were
rapidlygivingwaytotheemergenceofclassconsciousnessandarisingsenseofblacksolidarity.But,despitehisownevidence,Mayerdidnotdiscountthepossibilityofanethnicrevival.NotingtheworkofwriterslikeBarth,Cohen,Mitchell,andEpstein,heacknowledgedthatresidualfeelingsofethnicallegiancecouldbeexploited,
justashadoccurredinpost-colo-nial Africa.Indeed, Mayer displayed
considerable prescience in speculatingthat,'one day inthe
future,inan independentSoweto,
thenumericallypreponderantZuluspeakersmightbetemptedto
useethnicityina bidforpower'.32Mayer's
anthropologically-influencedunderstanding of ethnicity appears to
have
remainedoutsidethetrendofmainstreamdiscussionsduringthe1970s.Instead,thedominantfocuswas
developing,throughthe ideaof pluralism,into the vexedissue
ofwhetherSouthAfricashouldbestbeunderstoodintermsofclassorrace.Asearlyas1969BernardMagubanemountedastrongcritiqueofpluralism(and'tribalism')foritslackofhistoricaldimen-sionandforneglectingthesocialand
economicbasisofsocialcleavageinsociety.This28A.Cohen,Urban
Ethnicity(London,1974).Cohensetouthisviewsonethnicityafewyearsearlierinhismonograph
Custom and Politicsin Urban Africa: A Study of Hausa Migrantsin
Yoruba Towns (London,1969).There he set about to discuss'the
processes by which, under certainstructural circumstances,an
ethnicgroupmanipulatessomevalues,norms,beliefs,symbols,andceremonialsfromitstraditionalcultureinordertodevelopaninformalpoliticalorganizationwhichitusesasaweaponinitsstruggleforpowerwithothergroups,withinthe
contemporarysituation'(preface,p.ix).29Ibid.,'Introduction',pp.
xi,xii.30Cohen, Custom and Politicsin Urban Africa,pp.191-2;
pp.209-10. Glazer and Moynihan, Beyondthe Melt-ing Pot(Cambridge,
Mass.,1963).31J. C. Mitchell, The KalelaDance(Manchester,1956); A.
L. Epstein, Politicsin anUrban AfricanCommunity(Manchester,1958).
See also P. H. Gulliver,Tradition andTransitionin East
Africa(London,1969).32P. Mayer,'Class, Status and Ethnicityas
Perceivedby Johannesburg Africans',in L. Thompsonand
J.Butler,Changein Contemporary Africa(Berkeley, Los
Angeles,andLondon,1975), p.154.Downloaded by [Akdeniz Universitesi]
at 20:10 15 October 2014 Ethnie Euphemisms and Racial
Echoes363lineofattackwasdevelopedfurthera coupleofyearslater by
MartinLegassick,oneoftheleadingexponentsofmarxist'revisionism'.Legassickquestionedthecapacityofpluralistexplanationsto
explainthedynamicsofsocialdivision.He
criticisedLeoKuperinparticu-larforassuming(followingCliffordGeertz)thatcategorieslikeraceandethnicityweremorelikelysourcesof'primordialsentiment'or'totalidentities',thaneconomicclasses.Theconceptofclass,Legassickargued,wasthecrucialmissingelementinthepluralistperspective.33AstheradicalormaterialistunderstandingofSouthAfricansocietygatheredforcedur-ing
the1970s the question of ethnicitywas increasinglyallied with
liberal pluralism.
Ethnic-itywasnownotonlydiscreditedbecauseofitsassociationwith'tribalism'andapartheidtheory;itwasalsoconsideredsuspectonaccountoftheemphasisaccordeditbyliberalreformists-whowereseenasapologistsforthecontinuedexistenceofcapitalistformsofexploitation.Thissuspicioniseasytounderstand.ManypluralistspositionedthemselvesawkwardlybetweenwhattheysawastheexclusiveclaimsofAfrikanerand
Africannationalistsontheonehand,andtheclaimsofmarxistsontheother.Tothediscomfortofliberals,forward-lookingelementswithintheNationalistgovernmentwerehappy,eveneager,toincorporatenotionsofethnicityandpluralismsoasto
buttressthefast-erodinglegitimacyofapartheid.(A
particularlyglaringexampleis providedby the absurdrenamingfora
briefperiodoftheDepartmentofBantuAffairsasthe
DepartmentofPluralRelations).Theappropriationofthelanguageofethnicpluralismbyreformistelementswithintheapartheidstate
can be seen to have been prefiguredin the discussions of the Study
Project
onChristianityinApartheidSociety(SPRO-CAS)from1969-71.Thepoliticalreportwhichitproducedin1973-andwhichstandsasanotablestatementofradicalChristian-inspiredoppositiontoapartheid-madea
fundamentaldistinctionbetweentwopossiblecoursesofactioninthetransitiontowardsamulti-racialSouthAfrica:ontheonehand,theliberalconceptionofthe
CommonSociety, on the other,the'PluralStates'option. One ofthe
mostassiduousadvocatesofthe latterapproachwas the
conservativepoliticalscientist,DrDenisWorrall,whomaintainedthatpluralismwascompatiblewithliberaldemocraticvaluesandthatitrepresentedtheonlypragmaticmeansofinfluencingthegovernmentinapositivedirection.SPRO-CASgaveseriousconsiderationto
pluralism but ultimatelydistanceditselffromthis option on account
of the evasiveness and ambiguity in the pluralist notion of
powersharing.'Inshort',itasked,'isthe'pluralstate(s)'systemintendedasanalternativetodomination,ordoesitseektocontinueandentrenchdominationinamoresophisticatedway'?ThisrhetoricalquestionwaseloquentlyansweredwhenWorralllefttheacademicworldin1974
to jointhe NationalParty. As chairmanof the
constitutionalcommitteeofthePresident'sCounciland,later,astheSouthAfricanambassadortoLondon,hebecameaneffectiveandunashamedapologistforthereformistinitiativesoftheBothagovernment.34In
the post-1976era when the seriousnessof the South Africancrisis
becameapparent toall,
liberal,andconservativepoliticalscientiststurnedincreasinglyto
theliteratureoneth-nicityemanatingespeciallyfromtheUnitedStates.OfparticularinteresttoadvocatesofpowersharingwasNathanGlazer'sandDanielMoynihan'sdiscoveryofethnicityas33B.
Magubane,'PluralismandConflictSituationsin Africa:A
NewLook',AfricanSocialResearch7(1969);M. Legassick,'The Concept of
Pluralism: A Critique', in C.W. Gutkindand P. Waterman,
AfricanSocial Stud-ies: A Radical Reader(London,1977), p. 47. See
also Kuper and Smith, Pluralismin Africa,p. 460.
Legassickwouldhavebeenalertedtopluralismatarelativelyearlystageashehadattendedthe1966colloquiumatUCLA
whichformedthe basisofPluralisminAfrica.34P. Randall, South
Africa'sPolitical Alternatives,SPRO-CAS Publication No.10
(Johannesburg,1973), pp. 76,68 ff.;D. Worrall,'The
Plural-StateSystem as a Direction of Change', Directionsof Change
in SouthAfricanPolitics,SPRO-CASPublicationNo. 3
(Johannesburg,1971).Downloaded by [Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10
15 October 2014 364JournalofSouthernAfricanStudies'somethingnew
afootin the world', as well as Arend
Lijphart'sadvocacyof'consociational'solutionstodividedpluralsocieties.35Conversely,
the1973 Durbanstrikes and the events of1976 had a
radicalisingeffecton anumber of influentialsociologistsand
historians for whom the analysis of social class was
ofcentralimportance.Withinacademicdiscourse,theargumentbetweenliberalsandradicalsfocusedincreasinglyontherelativeimportanceofclassandrace(orethnicity).Althoughtherewereattemptstoreconcilethesedifferentapproaches,36bythelate-1970sthedebatehadbecomehighlyacrimonious.In
hindsight, the publicationof Heribert Adam'sacclaimed
ModernizingRacialDomina-tion in1971 canbeseento
haveanticipatedthedevelopingcontroversy.
Adam'schiefcon-cernwastoarguethattheapartheidsystem,farfrombeingan'outdatedrelicofadyingcolonialism',mightinfactbe'oneofthemostadvancedandeffectivepatternsofrational,oligarchicdomination'.37AlthoughthethesisofModernizingRacialDominationwasnotdefinedcentrallyin
termsof either race, ethnicity, or class, all these
categoriesweresignifi-cantlypresent.Adamwasconsciousofsomeoftheinadequaciesofthepluralistapproachassociatedwithwriters
like Kuper, Smith, and van den Berghe -in particular,their
failuretointegrate the analysis of cultural rivalries with the
insights of politicaleconomy. He was alsoalive to the salience of
class analysisin theSouth Africansituation,though
evidentlyscepti-calofmonocausalmarxistexplanations.ManyofthethemessuggestedinthisbookweredevelopedmorefullyinAdamandGiliomee'sbookEthnic
Power Mobilized:Can South AfricaChange?(1979). Herewe findone ofthe
mostskilfuland consideredtreatmentsofethnicityin theSouth
Africanliteratureofthis period.Adam,withhis
broadlyWeberianapproach,rejectedclassanalysis
forbeingoverlydogmaticand incapableof coming to terms with
ethnicity. But he was also critical
oftheconceptofpluralism.Thiswronglyassumedthatculturaldiversitywasthemainsourceofsocietalinstabilityandsuggestedthatdominationbyaminoritygroupwasinevitablewithinpluralistsocieties.Inshort,Adamarguedthatthepluralistperspectivemistakenlytended'toreifyculturaldifferencesasiftheywereimmutable'.Ethnicconflict,heargued,hadto
beseenmore centrallyin the contextofmaterialinequality.38Notably,
the conceptof'ethnicmobilisation'advancedby Adamand
Giliomeeservedasoneofthefirstdemonstrationsoftheimportanceofthestudyofhistory.BuildingontheworkofAbnerCohen,amongstothers,AdamandGiliomeearguedthattheresonanceofethnicidentity(withitsassociatedsymbols,emotionalforceandsenseofpsychologicalsupport)
could be deployed to secure group interests and to secure
collective
materialadvan-tages.TheclassicinstanceofsuccessfulethnicmobilisationwasAfrikanernationalism,anditis
through an historical account of this phenomenonthat Giliomee
provides Adam's
theoreti-caldiscussionwithempiricalsubstance.Giliomee'sdiscussionof'thegrowthofAfrikaneridentity',takeninconjunctionwithhisotherwritingsonthistheme,
representsasophisti-catedaccountofpoliticisedethnicity.Itisalsosensitivetoemergingmaterialistanaly-sesofSouthAfricanhistory.Thus,althoughGiliomeedepartsincertainrespectsfrom35Glazer
and Moynihan, Ethnicity:Theory and Experience(Cambridge,
Mass.,1975), p. 5; A. Lijphart,Democ-racy in PluralSocieties(New
Haven,1977);'Power-Sharingin South Africa',Policy
PapersinInternationalAffairs,No.24 (Berkeley,1985).36For a
contemporary attempt to extend the notion of pluralism so as to
make it compatible with class analysis, see P.Rich,'Ideology in a
Plural Society: The Case of South AfricanSegregation', Social
Dynamics 1, 2 (1975).37H. Adam, ModernizingRacialDomination:The
Dynamicsof South AfricanPolitics(Berkeley,1971), p.16.38H. Adamand
H. Giliomee, Ethnic Power Mobilized:Can South AfricaChange?(New
Haven,1979), pp. x,1-12, 42-5, 46-50.Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes365theapplicationofclassanalysistotheriseofAfrikanernationalism,heisevenmorecon-cernedto
distancehimselffromthe commontendencyto
placeAfrikanernationalisminanarchaictime-warp.Forexample,hesummarilydismissedthewidespreadassumptionthatAfrikanershavealwaysconceivedofthemselvesasanelectpeoplewithasacredhistory.GiliomeelikewiserejectedthenotionthattheprimerationaleofAfrikanernationalismwastogiveeffecttoapartheidideology.Instead,hestressedtheideathatthekeymotivatingforcebehindAfrikanerethnicidentitywasthepromotionofAfrikanergroupinterests.Andhe
acceptedthat ifthose interests were to change or to becomesubjectto
new pressures,
thenatureofAfrikanerethnicnationalismwouldundergoredefinitionaccordingly.39GivenGiliomee'ssensitivityto
thefluidityand contingencyof
Afrikanerethnicidentity,hismorerecentinsistenceontheundeniablesalienceofethnicityinthecontextofdebatesabout
the nature ofa post-apartheidconstitutionalframeworkis puzzling.
There is a
markeddisjuncturebetweenhisviewofAfrikanerethnicityasanhistoricallyconstructedphenom-enonwhich
hasundergone constantredefinition,and his retreatintoa rather
moreessential-ist view of ethnicitywhen discussing the problems of
constructinga unitary state. For
exam-ple,intheir1989contributiontotheconstitutionaldebateGiliomeeandSchlemmertakeissuewithliberaldemocraticprescriptionswhichseektodefinecitizenshiponthebasisofindividualratherthangrouprights.Theyarguethattheassumptionsofnon-racialismaremisguidedandnaive,fortheseignorethefundamentalrealityofethnicaffiliations.40Theclearimplicationoftheiranalysisis
thata
futureconstitutionwouldhavetoembracesomeformofdevolutionofpoweronanethnic/minority/groupbasis.Itisdifficult,however,toenvisagehowtheirnotionof'dualnationhood'wouldtranslateinpracticeintoanythingotherthancleavagesalongprepackagedracialortriballines.TheChallengeof'
Class'Ihavearguedsofarthatthegrowingprevalenceofthelanguageofethnicityduringthe1970swascloselylinkedtotheconceptionofSouthAfricaasa
pluralsociety.Initsmostbasicform,theinter-group/ethnic/racerelationsparadigmofthelate1970scanbeseeninthe
volumeeditedby H. W. Van der MerweandRobertSchrire
entitledRaceandEthnicity:South
AfricanandInternationalPerspectives(CapeTown,1980).ThecreationoftheUni-versityofCapeTownCentreforIntergroupStudiesunderwhoseauspicesthisworkwasissued,also
reflectsthe pluralistethosofthistime, withits
emphasisonfacilitatingcontactandunderstandingbetweendifferentethnicgroups.A
moresubtleapproach,attemptingtodefinea
modelofpluralismincorporatingelementsofclassanalysis,
wasoutlinedbyLaw-rence Schlemmerin1977.41Likewise, thoughin a more
polemicalmode, Frederick Van ZylSlabbertandDavidWelshinsistedin1979
onthesalienceofethnicityasa politicalrealityandspoke ofthe need
for'powersharing'in South
Africa.42Theysought,somewhatheavy-handedly, to take account of
class stratificationwhile at the same time
firmlyrejectingmarxistformsofanalysis.However,atatimewhenconceptualeclecticismwasdeeplyunfashion-able,suchattemptsto
incorporateclassandethnicperspectiveswithina
multi-factorialper-spectivefailedtogainmanyadherents.Risingsocialtension,asregisteredbytheSowetorevoltof1976,
haditscounterpartinanincreasinglypolarisedclimateofacademicdebate.Thesustainedcritiqueofeth-nicpluralismmountedbyradicalscholarsduringthe1970shadtheimmediateeffectof39H.
Giliomee,'TheGrowthof AfrikanerIdentity',in Adamand Giliomee,
EthnicPowerMobilized.40H. GiliomeeandL. Schlemmer, From Apartheidto
Nation-Building(Cape Town,1989).41L. Schlemmer,'Theoriesofthe
PluralSocietyand ChangeinSouth Africa',SocialDynamics3,1
(1977).42F. Van ZylSlabbertand D. Welsh, South
Africa'sOptions:Strategies forSharingPower(New
York,1979).Downloaded by [Akdeniz Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October
2014
366JournalofSouthernAfricanStudiesdrivingthetwoapproachesintomutuallyirreconcilablepositions.Oneconsequencewasamarked
tendency to oversimplifyand to present either/or positions on the
relativesalience
ofclassorethnicity/race.Anemphaticandpowerfulexampleofthistraditionwasdevelopedby
the activist-scholar Neville Alexander who argued that theories of
ethnicity had, by sleightof hand, replacedandsubsumedolder theories
of race in social science discourse. Alexanderalso identifiedthe
advocacyof ethnic solutions to South Africa'sproblemsas part of a
calcu-latedefforttoobscuretheachievementofasinglenationandtofragmenttheobjectiveinterestsoftheworkingclass.43Alexander'scritiqueofethnicitydrewbroadlyonwhathecalledthe'newschool'ofSouthAfricanmaterialisthistoriography,andspecificallyona
paperwrittenbytheanthro-pologistJohnSharpin1980whichposedthestarkquestion:'CanWeStudyEthnicity'?Sharpwasconcernedtorejecttheprimordialistassumptionswhichunderwrotetheconceptofethnicityintheworkofvolkekundigesandfunctionalistanthropologistsalike.
Ineffect,heleftopentheanswertohisownquestion.Butheimpliedthatanyanalysisthattreatedethnicityas
onlyone possibleformofgroup mobilisation,and that rooteditselfin
anunder-standingofpoliticaleconomy,wouldbean
acceptablepointofdeparture.44EthnicityHistoricisedThe
critiqueofethnicitydevelopedbySharpas well as its treatmentas an
historicalprocessbyGiliomee,servesasa
usefulbridgeintothe1980swhenitispossibletoidentifya
thirdphaseinthedevelopmentoftheethnicideainSouthAfrica.Drawingparticularlyontheinsightsofhistorians,thenewapproachcoalescedata
conferenceonEthnicityandTribal-isminSouthernAfricaheldin1983attheUniversityofVirginia.Theproceedingsofthisconference,editedbyLeroyVail,werepublishedin1989asTheCreationofTribalism
inSouthern Africa.Underlyingmanyofthecontributionswasa
recognitionthat,incontradis-tinctionto the expectationsof
manyscholars(rangingfrommarxiststo modernisationtheo-rists),
expressionsoftribalism or ethnicityin post-colonial Africawere not
disappearing.
Onthecontrary,inmanyAfricansocietiesformsofethnicparticularismwerebeingexpressedwithever-increasingintensity.Moreover,thesesentimentswerebeingarticulatednotjustfromthemouthsofself-interestedleaders,
but'frombelow'aswell. In
ordertounderstandsuchexpressions,aconceptualframeworkwhichtreatedideologyasrathermorethanepi-phenomenal'falseconsciousness'hadto
bedeveloped.Duringtheearly1980sBritishhistoriansandsociologistswerearrivingatsimilarcon-clusions
in their attemptto makesense of nationalism. Tom Nairn, who
declaredin the mid-1970s that the theoryof
nationalismrepresentedmarxism's'greatest historical
failure',con-ceivedofnationalismasthe'ModernJanus';standingoverthegatewaytomodernity,itprojected
itself both forwards and backwards in historical time.45The work of
Eric Hobsbawmand ofErnestGellneremphasisedtoo the idea that
nationalismwasa relativelyrecentcrea-tion, specificallya responseto
the upheavalsof the industrialage and the evolutionof
mod-ernbureaucraticstates.46Intheirbroad-rangingeditedcollectionofessaysentitledThe
In-vention of Tradition (1983), Eric Hobsbawm and
TerenceRangerpointedto waysinwhich43N. Alexander,'Nationand
Ethnicity in South Africa,and Race, Ethnicity and Nationalismin
Social Science inSouthernAfrica',inSowtheWind:
ContemporarySpeeches(Johannesburg,1985).SeealsoNoSizwe:OneAzania,One
Nation(London,1979), pp.137-9.44Sharp,'Can We StudyEthnicity?',
p.14.45T. Nairn,'TheModern Janus', inThe Breakupof
Britain(London,1977), pp. 329, 348-9.46E. Hobsbawm, Nationsand
NationalismSince1780 (Cambridge,1990); E. Gellner,
NationsandNationalism(Oxford,1983).Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014
EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes367nationalistmythologieswerehistoricallycontingentcreations.ThepublicationinthesameyearofBenedictAnderson'sImaginedCommunitiesdrewespecialattentiontothevital
role playedbylanguageand the printedwordin the
constructionofnationalidentities.Takentogether,the
effectofsuchworkwas to sweepaside
manyoftheshibbolethsthathadcausedhistorianstoavoiddealingwiththeissueofnationalismandnationalidentity.Thestudyofnationalismcouldnowinvolvedmystificationofthea-historicalandprimor-dialassumptionsunderlyingnationalistmythology.Theseinsights,appliedtothestudyofethnicityor
tribalism, hada similarly liberatingeffect.In the wordsof Leroy
Vail:'Ifethnicconsciousness was a product of historical experience,
then its creation and elaborationwouldbea
propersubjectofenquiryforhistorians.'47Importantasthisshiftinhistoricalapproachwas,itwouldbemisleadingtoexaggeratetheextentoftheconceptualbreak.Onecandetect,forexample,similarconcernswiththearousal,mobilisation,andpersistenceofethnicidentitiesinthetheoreticalworkofanthro-pologistslikeBarthorCohen,aswellasinthefieldworkofEpstein,Mitchell,andMayer.However,
what is distinctive in the new approachis the
shiftfromanthropologicalto histori-calconcerns:
theoriginsofethnicidentitiesandthe politicaluses to
whichtheycouldsub-sequentlybeput,wereplacedcentrallyontheresearchagenda.Conversely,
and partly in reaction to the work of historians like Hobsbawm and
Anderson,therehasalsobeenaresurgenceofinterestintheideaofethnicityasanenduringandinsome
respectsa trans-historicalcategory. The influentialwork of
AnthonySmith is a case inpoint. In The EthnicOrigins of
Nations(1986)Smithsets out to show that ethnicityis some-thing more
thansituational, and that it is not merelya fleeting or
illusorymatterof time andcontext. Adopting the long historical
perspective and emphasisingcontinuities in ethnic sym-bolsandmyths,
Smithurgesus
to'endownationsandethniccommunitieswithmorestatic"solidity"thancloserinvestigationatanypointintimemightwarrant'.48Inshort,Smith'savowedintentionistoestablisha
positionbetweenwhathereferstoas'primordialists'or'perrenialists' on
the one hand, and'instrumentalists'or'modernists' on the other.49In
prac-tice,heseemscloserto the
formerpositionthanthelatter.Atadirectlypolicy-orientedlevel,theworkofAmerican-basedpoliticalscientistslikeLijphartand
DanielHorowitzhavesought to devise
ethnically-basednon-majoritariansolu-tionsina
post-apartheidSouthAfrica.Horowitzhasbeenparticularlyscathingaboutwhathe
refersto
as'thestudiedneglectofethnicitythatcharacterizescurrentdiscourseinSouthAfrica'.50HeexpressesconfidencethatethnicitywillincreasinglydominateSouthAfricanpoliticsaswhite
dominationcomesto an end. And hesuggests that failureto
arriveatsomeformofconstitutionalarrangementtakingintoaccountethnicandracialdivergencewillhaveapocalypticconsequencesforall.Michael
MacDonald has recently observed that the power-sharing
prescriptions of Lijphartand Horowitz have had a significantimpact
in providing the Nationalist governmentwith
anintellectualrationalisationoftheirapproachtoconstitutionalnegotiations.For,althoughHorowitz
makes theoretical concessions to the circumstantialand historical
nature of
ethnic-ity,inpracticehetakestheexistenceofapartheid-designatedethnicgroupsforgranted.51Lijphart'sprescriptiveethniccategorisationissimilartoHorowitz'sbutaltogethermore47L.
Vail (ed),The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa(Berkeley,Los
Angeles, and London,1989), p.xi.48A. D. Smith,The EthnicOrigins of
Nations(Oxford,1986), pp. 2-3.49Ibid., pp.8-12.50D. L. Horowitz,
ADemocraticSouth Africa?ConstitutionalEngineeringin a
DividedSociety(Berkeley,LosAngeles, and London,1991), p. 28;
Lijphart,'Power-SharinginSouthAfrica'.51M. MacDonald,'The Siren's
Song: The Political Logic of Power-sharingin South Africa',
Journalof SouthernAfricanStudies18, 4 (1992).Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014 368Journal of Southern
African
Studiescrudeinthatittakesnoaccountwhatsoeverofethnicityasaprocess;Lijphartsimplyas-sumes,
paceapartheidorthodoxy,that'theAfricanscan be dividedinto
tenethnicsegmentsand thewhitesinto
AfrikanersandEnglish-speakers'.52Theavowedintentionofmanywriterswhoadvocatepoliticalpower-sharinginSouthAfricaistoproclaimtherealityofethnicityindefianceofacademicsandpoliticianswhohavehithertobeeninclinedtodenyitsexistence.Thispointclearlyhadtobemade.How-ever,itisonethingtoproclaimthenecessityofrecognisingthesalienceofethnicityandquiteanotherthingtoassignethnicgroupsaprimeconstitutionalroleinthecreationofanewsociety.
Theethniccategoriesusedbyadvocatesofpower-sharingremaindangerouslyclose
to the clumsy constructionsof apartheid's planners -whether these
are offeredin orderto
distinguishbetweenEnglishandAfrikaner,orXhosa,Zulu,Sotho,andsoon.
Insteadoflegitimatingtheemergenceoffluidformsofethnicidentification,manyofthosewho
pro-claimtheirreducibleimportanceofethnicityendupbyrevivingthedead-weightlegacyofapartheidascriptions.ConclusionRunningthroughouttheliteratureonecandistinguishbroadlybetweentwofundamentallydifferentsensesinwhichethnicityhasbeentreatedinSouthAfrica.Itmaybeusefultocharacterisethisdifferencebyreferringto
theactof'claiming'ontheonehand,and'nam-ing' on
theother.Byclaiming,I referto
thestrandofthoughtthatconceivesofethnicityinasituational,contextual,andsubjectivesense.Accordingtothisusage,ethnicityisunder-stoodasaformofsocialidentitythatacquirescontentandmeaningthroughaprocessofconscious
assertionand imagining. By contrast, naming refersto the tendencyto
conceive
ofidentityinprimordial,static,oressentialistterms.Crucially,itisoftenemployedbyonerelativelypowerfulgroupas
a meansofdefiningotherless powerfulcommunities.
Thefactthatthosecommunitiesmighttakeonaspectsofthisidentityasapragmaticmeansofde-fenceorelseforopportunisticreasons,shouldnotobscurethepowerrelationswhichoverdeterminethisprocessofascription.Thedistinctionbetweenprimordialandsituationalapproachestotheunderstandingofethnicity
is well established in the literature. In the South Africancontext,
it has a
particularlysharpsetofresonances.Ithasbeensuggestedthatthetermethnicwasfirstintroducedbyliberalintellectualsasa
meansofdrawingattentionto
theprimacyofcultureoverheredity.Inparticular,itreflectedgrowinguneaseovertheconnotationsassociatedwithnotionsof'biologicalrace'.However,theideaof'culture'wasitselfopentointerpretation.Indeed,itwas
adoptedas a keywordin the justificationof interwarsegregation. When
I. D. MacCroneproposedthe ideaofethnicor groupdifferencesas a
substituteforrace, he might
besaidtohaveanticipatedtheconstructionoftheessentialistcategoriesdescribedby'populationgroups'.53Like
culture, the term'volk'embodieda fundamentalambiguity-inthiscasethe
confusionbetween organic, transcendent notions of nationhood, and
hereditarian
concepts52Lijphart,'Power-Sharing',p.36.Headds:'ItismoredoubtfulthattheColouredsandAsianscaneachbeconsideredanethnicsegment,butImakethisassumptionhereforthesakeofbrevityandconvenience'.(!)Morerecently,Lijpharthasmodifiedhispositionsomewhatandnowadvocateswhathecallsan'agnosticapproachto
ethnicity'.SeeLijphart,'Power-Sharing,EthnicAgnosticism,andPoliticalPragmatism',Trans-formation21(1993);
thisarticleis a responseto R.Taylor,'SouthAfrica:A
ConsociationalPathtoPeace?',Transformation17 (1992),
whichattacksLijphartforhis
primordialistunderstandingofethnicity.53I am of course not
suggesting that MacCrone was in a position to foresee how the
language of cultural or ethnicgroups would be deployed. It wouldbe
interesting to find out whether the use of'populationgroups'in
apart-heiddiscoursedrewdeliberatelyonMacCrone'swork.Downloaded by
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EthnieEuphemismsandRacialEchoes369of race. When the connotationsof
volk took on unacceptableovertones ofsuperiority, ethnicwas
readilyavailableforuseasa
moreneutralsubstitute.TheproblemofprimordialisminSouthAfricahasa
particularsalienceinvirtueofthesocialandpoliticalcategoriesimposedbyapartheid'splanners.Ithasbeenarguedthatthetraditionofpoliticalthoughtwhichis
traceablethroughtheliteratureon pluralismto
recentprescriptionsonpowersharingandconsociationalismalmostunavoidablyrestsontheas-sumptionofinnatedifferences.Thesemaynotnecessarilyconnoteracialdifferences,buttheynonethelessrely
heavilyon anacceptanceoffixedsocial identitieswhichtendto
coin-cidewithestablishedracialcategories.Paradoxically,itistheveryartificialityofmosteth-nicattributionsinSouthAfricathataccountsfortheessentialisttermsinwhichethnicityiscustomarilypresented:
because ethnic categories have beenso obviouslymanipulatedby
thestate, inorder to naturalisetheirstatusit hasbeennecessaryto
investthemwiththeaura ofprimordialcertainty. Thisis notto
discountthe possibilitythatnewformsofethnicidentitywillemergeina
post-apartheidSouthAfrica-indeed,thereareclearindicationsthatsuchprocessesarealreadyunderway.It
is unlikely, however, that the
strategiesassociatedwithpluralistorconsociational-typeanalyseswillfacilitatetheemergenceofbenignformsofethnicassertion.Constitutionalsolutions
such as these are foundedon the premise that ethnic groups formthe
basis ofsocialorganisationandthattheir conflictinginterestsneedto
be formallybalanced.Suchschemesare by theirnature
inflexibleandimplya
significantmeasureofmanaged,technocraticrulefromabove -i.e., by the
veryagentswho stand to benefitmost by presentingthemselvesasthe
representativesofethnic constituencies. A
constitutionaldispensationwhichdependsonthemaintenanceofethnicboundariesispoorlyplacedtotakeaccountofethnicfluidityorthecomplex,multipleidentitiesinwhichindividualsoftenchoosetolocatethemselves.Moreover,
as MarkSimpson points out elsewhere in this volume, by giving
ethnicitya
directandelevatedconstitutionalexpression,theriskofonegrouptryingtodestroyanotherissignificantlyincreasedshouldthefragilebasisofcohesioncomeunstuck.54The
ANC'sap-parentsuccessinheadingofftheadoptionofconsociationalismorconfederalisminpost-apartheidSouthAfricais
thereforeto bewelcomed.The question of who defineswhom, and the
power relations involved in this process, is
ofcrucialsignificanceintheprocessofethnicascription.Toelucidatethispoint,itmaybehelpfulto
examine brieflythe origin of the word, ethnic. It has oftenbeen
noted that the
termderivesfromtheGreekword'ethnos',referringtoapeopleoranation.Yet,asthemostrecent
edition ofthe OxfordEnglish Dictionarydemonstrates,'ethnikos'also
refersto'hea-then'or'pagan'.(Indeed,it was oftensupposed
-apparentlymistakenly-that'ethnos'wasthe source of the English
word'heathen'). The OED's etymologysuggests that it is this
senseofthewordethnic(i.e.'pertainingtonationsnotChristianorJewish;Gentile,heathen,pagan')which
predominatedfrommedievaltimes until the mid-nineteenthcentury.
Remem-beringtheequationofthederogatoryword'kaffir'with'heathen'or'infidel'inSouthernAfrica(and,
incidentally, in Pakistan as well), it thereforeseems safe to
assume that the
wordethnicwasemployedasameansofestablishingdifferenceordefiningtheother.
Thisten-dencywouldhavebeenreinforcedwhen,fromthemid-nineteenthcentury,ethnicin-creasinglycametodesignatea'racialorothergroupwithinalargersystem'.55Unfor-tunately,thewordethniccontinuestobeusedintheSouthAfricancontextasameansofestablishingdifferenceorexclusivity.MichaelBantonexplainsthisphenomenonas54SeeM.Simpson,'TheExperienceofNation-Building:SomelessonsforSouthAfrica',paperdeliveredatGrahamstownconference,p.
9.55Thisdiscussionis basedon the definitionof ethnicin1989
editionofthe OxfordEnglishDictionary.Downloaded by [Akdeniz
Universitesi] at 20:10 15 October 2014 370Journal of Southern
African Studiesthe'minusone'definitionof ethnicity:'the
dominantgroup insists upon its power todefine;members of that group
perceive themselves not as ethnic but as setting the standard by
whichothersareto be judged'.56Indefiningthe
differencebetweenethnicand'racial' groups,
EllisCashmorecommentsthat'whereas"race"standsfortheattributionsofonegroup,ethnicgroupstandsforthecreativeresponseofapeoplewhofeelsomehowmarginaltothemainstreamofsociety'.CashmoreoffersasimilardistinctiondrawnbyMichaelBanton:thetermethnicgroup're-flectsthe
positive tendencies of identificationand inclusion', whereas
race'reflectsthe nega-tive tendenciesof dissociationand
exclusion'.57In the case of South Africa,whereethnicityhas
overwhelminglybeen imposedas a means of dominationand division,and
where
ethnicgroupshavebeenstatutorilydefined,itisclearaccordingtotheabovedefinitionsthatthemeaningsofraceand'ethnicity'convergeclosely.There
is surelyenoughtruth in this observationas regards South Africato
make us
waryofitsuse.GiventhehistoryofthewordanditsspecificSouthAfricanconnotations,weclearlyhave
to be verycarefulabout the way inwhich we use the conceptof
ethnicity. Thisis not toadvocatea doctrinalblindnessto
thatwhichdoesnotfitourtheoriesortoexplainawayrealitybymeansofscholarlyniceties.
Rather,itisto
emphasisethenecessitytobearconstantlyinmindthatSouthAfricanrealitiesremainideologicallychargedandthattheimpetustolocateSouthAfricainacomparativeinternationalsense
-welcomeasthisis-shouldnotobscuretheparticularitiesofits history.So
longasweunderstandethnicityas
amalleable,historicallyconditionedprocess,
andrejectitsuseincategoricalor reifiedtermsthatapproximateto raceor
populationgroups, wemaywellbeina positionto
advanceourunderstandingofthatsociety'smanifestcomplexities.56M.
Banton, Racial and EthnicCompetition(Cambridge,1983), p. 65.
Arguably, this point is not strictly true inSouth Africawhere
Afrikanernationalistsare still happyto referto themselvesas an
ethnicgroup or volk. Toalargeextentthisisa
consequenceofthemobilisationofAfrikanerethnicityinoppositiontotheforcesofBritishimperialism.However,itisnotablethatethnicityisnowusedlessandlesstorefertothedifferencebetween
Afrikanerand English-speakers, and increasinglyto define blacks as
minorities. This form of
otheringiscompoundedbythegrowingtendencytoexplainintra-blackconflict-sooftenreferredtointhatuglyphrase'black-on-black'violence
- as'ethnic conflict'.In this usage, ethnicity takes on many of the
primordialresonancesof what usedto be
called'tribal'or'faction'fights.57E. E. Cashmore, Dictionaryof Race
andEthnicRelations,2nd edn. (London,1988), p. 98.Downloaded by
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