Interlude

A vamp on politics in the Western Cape of South Africa

In the political landscape of South Africa, the Western Cape is an incredibly interesting and simultaneously frustrating place. There is a historic rejection of black liberation movements at the polls, leaning towards the capitalist centrist liberal Democratic Alliance. The democratic alliance is historically made up of the apartheid national party, the party of Verwoerd et al. and the democratic party, which was the liberal white party who voted not for change but for a bolstering of the position of the wealthy.

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This vile combination has largely won elections in the Western Cape because of the foundational logic of colouredness: that black is other, is undesirable, must be kept at bay, and presents imminent danger. This logic is birthed out of centuries of colonial propaganda and historical revisionism that continued on under apartheid, and now in the post-apartheid, the work of continuing that manufactured difference has been taken up by mostly well meaning folks who have relented absolutely to race realism.

This has ushered in a continuation of white minority rule in the Western Cape, and more so white and wealthy minority rule. Attempts at solidarity building are often thwarted by reactionary identity politics which has rendered even the most astute political organizers at a loss for how to proceed. There are movements now, thankfully, that are traversing this politic, but with elections coming up in a few months time, the swart gevaar (black danger) mythos continues to hold our people tight to their refusal to complicate the colour line in South Africa.

I remain hopeful, but I also remain deeply frustrated. I made the video and the latest podcast episode, linked earlier in this short write up, to think through the last thirty years in an abridged, summarized format. It is by no means a comprehensive breakdown, and simply begins with the question of whether Mandela sold us out and what the last 30 years have represented for me, so I will continue to make these mini interludes while the work of conceptualizing and researching for season 2 continues, where I will work more on music, but also on poetry and literature and theory.