South Africans: A tale of contradictions?

In an attempt to illuminate a view that South Africa is a complex case, and not special per se, I said that “South Africans have been consistently giving most of us an impression that we are developing some form of national identity. Public opinion surveys have been showing a trend of improving ‘social cohesion’”. All of a sudden, we are faced with what appears to be a breakdown on social relations” (refer to my first intervention, 8 June 2008). This follow up intervention is an attempt to elaborate this argument and associated points. The essence of my appeal is that we should be cautious about the recommendations we make as we might be getting things wrong. We require more sharp and comprehensive social analyses and rigorous and disciplined dialogue. It’s for history to judge whether this call remains legitimate or it is simply misguided. Or it’s for you to judge!

In Siphiwo Mahala’s When a Man Cries, one of the genius pieces of literal art (in my view), our society is aptly characterised: “My people, our soil needs some cleansing. The son of the soil is not happy. The people of Makana are not happy. God is not happy. We have now upset the Creator by behaving violently in his house, old man Jongilanga began to lament the recent incident and the moral decadence that afflicted our society”. This characterisation is also clearly demonstrated when Themba Limba (the main protagonist) at the time when he was being challenged for his behaviour that was considered inappropriate (correctly so in my view) he says: “Miss Rhasana, who was always hostile to men, jumped to an opportunity. She called an urgent meeting of the school governing body. I knew what they were trying to do — oust me from the school. There was nothing I could do to prevent this from happening.”

It is increasingly indisputable that we are a severely fractured people, many a bruised individual, many scars have been sustained and too much pain has been endured. We are disintegrating, both at community and country/national levels. We are angry, if not angrier. Or is it plain greed? Could all this be a function of wrong personal decisions/choices or a consequence of our shared repulsive past or a combination? As I read Siphiwo Mahala’s brilliant novel I was reminded of St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians (3:28), that: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. In a similar context, in the Gospel of Matthew (an accounting of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, his genealogy, and so forth) it is stated that: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you”.

Anyway, the numbers from public opinion surveys continually implied, among other things, that more than 60% of South Africans do not at all feel discriminated against, as opposed to 27% that said have sometimes been discriminated upon. In particular, the social attitudes survey of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), whose results were published in 2006, showed that across races, pride in being a South African remained high: 94% for Africans, 84% for Indians, 87% for Coloureds and 75% for Whites. In the aggregate, 93% is proud to be South African and 83% would rather be citizen of South Africa instead of any other country. Authors of the HSRC’s report on social attitudes in South Africa reported to have found out that 58% of South Africans believed that the world would be better if all countries were similar to SA, compared to 26% in US, 35% in Ireland and 45% in Canada — countries said to have higher national pride compared to SA.

Further, data implied that there was an emergence of a South African identity which reflects a shift away from a largely racial identity — a new identity that seemed at least associated with state and geographic entity. The surveys of the Institute for Democracy in SA in 1994, 1995 and 1997 showed that between 50% and 70% of South Africans considered racial or nationality/language categories as their primary form of social identification. Subsequently, the recent Futurefact Mindset surveys showed that 53% of the respondents defined themselves as South Africans and 17% defined themselves as African. In terms of race, 80% of Whites, 79% of Indians and 73% of Coloureds and 45% of Blacks defined themselves as South Africans. In the aggregate, about 70% of South Africans defined themselves either as African or South African, and this was strongest among whites followed, in this order, by Indians, coloureds and Africans. The HSRC’s latest social attitudes survey had found that 92% of respondents felt that it is important to be “truly South African” and that 89% “feel South African”. In a similar vein, Markinor’s recent surveys show that about 60% of South Africans felt, last year, that race relations are improving and a staggering 80% is confident of a “happy future”. There are, of course, methodological issues that some people raise about such surveys.

All data is contestable, but we can learn from and respond to what the surveys suggest. In the absence of first best, second best is our best bet (and it is through research and analysis that one recommends an intervention). For instance, a deeper examination of the recent Markinor data suggests that the main discriminating factors remain race, geography and education! For an example, the Western Cape province evinced a sense of relatively weak prospects for the future of South Africa than other provinces, according to data. More analysis of the data could reveal complex intricacies of our society. We thought that “racial fault-lines”, as another telling example, were decreasing!

It therefore seems to me that conclusions about what is happening in our society should not be reached carelessly and/or quickly. And more importantly, recommendations for the way forward should be made with a sense of responsibility. This is more so for those who are an important part of our ideological value-chain in the South African milieu. Among other things, they have to answer for themselves as to what can they do in harnessing collective effort to accelerate nation building, and what can they do in the development of a common developmental agenda for our country.

In conclusion, Frantz Fanon placed a revolutionary task to all of us when he argued that “each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it”. Clearly, as President Mbeki put it in 2005 during his address to the Parliament of Uganda, “all of us, as political leaders, as workers, as businesspeople, youth, women and the intelligentsia have a duty to fight against poverty and underdevelopment as well as ensure that as Africans we define ourselves, not in the image of our former colonisers but in the spirit of our African ancestors, who bequeathed so much to the human race”. We should all try to ensure, in my view, that we are not found in the wrong side of history, when history is written, centuries from today.

Robert Putnam in his relatively controversial work, Bowling Alone, reflects that “life is easier in a community blessed with a substantial stock of social capital”. Do we have any? How do we create some? This is one of the areas where it appears that interventions by government have not made a desired impact. Maybe it is practically impossible for a nation as diverse as ours — where identities as captured in our multiple cultures, language, race, religion, and so on are so robust and pronounced — to carve out a single overarching national identity and/or consciousness! I am however still hopeful that unity in diversity is an attainable ideal!

My encounters, among other things, with relatively similar nations as ours (such as those in the South American region) encourage my optimism that it is doable and that we are not very far, though it is not an easy act to crack. Some “ground rules”, sort of guidelines, might be necessary.