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Postscript MELANCHOLIA IN THE TIME OF THE “AFRICAN PERSONALITY” In early april 2010 two seemingly unrelated events once again conjured up the old specter of an all-out race war in south africa. The extremist leader of the afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (aWB) eugene terre’Blanche was murdered by two of his farmworkers, apparently due to a long-standing pay dispute. in the same week, a heated debate flared up as the controversial firebrand leader of the anc’s youth wing, Julius Malema, was allowed to sing the antiapartheid battle song “ayesaba amagwala” (The cowards are scared) in which the phrase “kill the Boer” occurs. Many newspapers and commentators immediately connected the two events and suggested that terre’Blanche was killed because Malema’s song had reignited deep antiwhite sentiments among ordinary africans. none of the prima facie evidence of the killing suggested that it was any different from the hundreds of attacks, robberies , and murders—fueled by complex and mostly localized conflicts over land, pay, and dignity—that have taken place in the south african countryside in the last two decades.1 like Zuma’s use of the song “Umshini Wami” in 2008–9, Julius Malema’s use of a struggle song quickly acquired a life of its own. The anc initially defended the singing of the song because it constituted a part of the nation’s cultural memory. Gwede Mantashe, the anc’s secretary general, stated that the song was only a means of ensuring south african history was remembered and not meant as an incitement to violence against whites.2 The two events, and the nervous reactions they produced on all sides, indicated that the past remains an infuriating and often uncanny shadow for most south africans. nothing is forgotten, a few things are forgiven, but in the main, history’s deep frustrations are well and alive under the normalized surface of a steeply unequal and intensely commercialized society. During the debates in april 2010, commentators argued that anc should assuage the fears of the country’s minorities, which were constantly unnerved by the prospect of a new and violent majoritarian political climate. Under the panicky statement of these few weeks rumbled the fear of the new style of populist and distinctly Postscript • 291 Africanist politics of the Zuma era, where the memories of the struggle are recruited successfully among the large number of disaffected, disappointed , and unemployed south africans. The appeal to the specificity of “africanness” as distinct rules, experiences, and cultural codes has discarded Mbeki’s lofty rhetoric of an african renaissance and has hit the streets and quotidian political practice as never before. Zuma’s supporters praise his forceful “african personality,” and the president himself is an active promoter of traditional patriarchal values, including polygamy. “This is not america, this is africa and you must follow our rules,” screamed Malema at a BBc reporter who questioned Malema’s denigration of the Zimbabwean opposition.3 or as a young Zulu-speaking driver of a kombi taxi in Durban bluntly told me in 2008 when i asked him about his view of Zuma and the charges of rape and corruption pending against him at the time, “he is our leader, an african leader . . . no white judge has a right to decide if he has done anything wrong . . . that is just the white man’s law, and it has always been used against africans.”4 in the indian townships, the ascendency of Zuma has been regarded with apprehension but also cautious hope. some of my informants hoped that the new government would deliver better services to all the poor in the country, while others fear that new policies would be directed more exclusively at africans than before. some were afraid of the new africanist tenor of public life. They took some comfort in the fact that whites, too, have become a minority like indians, and potentially a powerful ally represented by the Democratic Party, which pulls the majority of indian votes. Many of those paying close attention were encouraged by the fact that the political elite of Durban and KwaZulunatal now controlled the country. Zuma’s first cabinet included almost as many indians as did Mandela’s first cabinet, most of them hailing from Durban.5 as a long-standing friend in chatsworth put it to me, “for Mbeki and his people, we indians were some strange people down in humid Durban—they never understood us. you cannot say that about Zuma and his people. They are from Durban...

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