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| President Jacob Zuma |
'We can’t think like Africans in Africa generally. We are in Johannesburg.' -- President Zuma.
A version of this post originally appeared on Africa in Transition blog. The views expressed are the author's own.
An
off-hand comment made by President Jacob Zuma this month implied that
South Africa is fundamentally different from the rest of Africa.
His
comments have resulted in renewed debate about the extent to which
South Africa is “African.” Some examples of the debate can be found on the link down.
According
to a recording of the event analyzed by “Africa Check,” President Zuma
said: “We can’t think like Africans in Africa generally. We are in
Johannesburg. This is Johannesburg. It is not some national road in
Malawi. No.”
Multi-racial,
multi-ethnic South Africa is both a developed and developing country.
Economically, it is far more developed than any of the other large
African states. It's white, “coloured,” and “Indian” minorities together
make up about 20 percent of the population. Whites still dominate the
modern economy. The country’s apartheid history is unique, but the
racial segregation upon which it was based was common throughout sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial period.
Certainly under apartheid, and to a certain extent even now, whites and some “coloureds” saw South Africa as a European outpost.
During
the apartheid era, school textbooks often portrayed the Europeans and
the “Bantu” tribes as arriving at about the same time, altogether
ignoring the indigenous peoples already there.
Geography has also
played a role in fostering the sense of the “apartness” of South Africa.
The Kalahari Desert cuts off South Africa from the rest of the
continent similar to the way the Sahara Desert separates sub-Saharan
Africa from the North African littoral.
In both cases, however, there has always been more movement across these ostensible barriers than is often recognized.
Many
intellectuals and opinion leaders insist that South Africa is, indeed, a
part of Africa and that the country’s alleged “apartness” is a holdover
of an apartheid mentality.
That may account for some of the strong reaction to President Zuma’s apparently off-hand comments.
Some examples of the debate can be found here.
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Some examples of the debate can be found here.
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