South Africa has been ruled by two nationalist parties for the last 100 years. The National Party from 1924 to 1994 and the ANC from 1994 to the present. Nationalism is a social and political movement that is driven by a deep sense of grievance. Population groups become aggrieved when they feel a strong sense of exclusion from enjoying the political, social and economic benefits in each society
In the case of South Africa, we have two schools of nationalism – Afrikaner nationalism and African nationalism. Both nationalist movements were aggrieved because of exclusion from the benefits of colonialism by British imperialists and against the Afrikaner nationalists in the case of the latter. Nationalists, therefore, do not fight to change the socio-economic structure of the colonial system. They fight to be included in it. This is why the South African economic system reorganised by the British between 1900 and 1909 to exploit the country’s vast mineral resources remains essentially intact today.
Chairman of SAIIA’s National Council and political analyst, Moeletsi Mbeki, will explore a century of South African nationalism – from the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in 1924 through African nationalism under the ANC up to 2024.
Presentation
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