scholarly journals Matthew Graham, The Crisis of South African Foreign Policy: Diplomacy, Leadership, and the Role of the African National Congress (I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd, 2015). pp. 292.

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Adam Mikhayl Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
National Congress

Family Trees: Roots and Branches – The Dynasty and Legacy of the Reverend Tiyo Soga

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Joanne Davis
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Veterinary Surgeon ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Family Trees

The Reverend Tiyo Soga, ordained as a minister in the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in December 1856, is a remarkable figure in many ways. However, one area not yet commented on in the scholarly literature on Soga is the legacy of his family within the ministry. This paper examines the role of Soga's parents, ‘Old Soga’ and NoSuthu, in his conversion and introduces his wife, Janet Soga, and their seven surviving children, of whom two sons – William Anderson and John Henderson – were ordained ministers and missionaries, and two daughters – Isabelle McFarlane and Francis Maria Anne – worked in missions in the Eastern Cape. The three remaining Soga siblings, who did not go in for the ministry, nonetheless led full and interesting lives. Kirkland Allan was a pioneer of the now ruling African National Congress, Festiri Jotelo was the first South African veterinary surgeon, and Jessie Margaret was a pianist and music teacher in Scotland, where she looked after Janet Soga after they moved to Dollar following Soga's death. In addition, Soga's nephew and namesake, Tiyo Burnside Soga, became an ordained minister and a writer, and since then, several of Soga's great- and great-great-grandchildren have become ministers. This paper seeks to situate the Soga family as a powerful family in South African religious history and its intelligentsia.

Review – Tom Lodge, Red Road to Freedom, A History of the South African Communist Party 1921–2021, Jacana, Johannesburg 2021.10.26

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110596
Author(s):  
Jeremy Cronin
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The South ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Congress ◽  
History Of The South ◽  
Ruling Party

In the year of the South African Communist Party’s centenary, Tom Lodge’s in-depth, scholarly work is a landmark achievement. The account is particularly strong in tracing the ideological currents that shaped the party and the changing and diverse sociology of its membership. The influential role of the party in helping transform the African National Congress into a mass-based campaigning formation from 1945 is a central focus. Lodge also traces the critical role of the party in the re-building, at first largely in exile, of a weakened ANC following the major strategic setback of the liberation movement in the mid-1960s. There is less focus on the reciprocal impact of the ANC upon the party, especially in the context of the practice of “dual membership” in both formations. This neglect is one factor in weakening the analysis of the post-1994 period in which the ANC has been the ruling party.

The Aftermath of War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Boje
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
National Party ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Postwar Reconstruction ◽  
South African War ◽  
National Congress

This chapter examines the aftermath of the South African War, focusing on the period from the conclusion of peace, when Lord (Horatio) Kitchener shook hands with the Boer delegates and pledged, “We are good friends now,” to the establishment of the National Party with anti-British and anti-black bias. The chapter begins with a discussion of the postwar reconstruction, the reintegration of hendsoppers (surrendered Boers) and joiners, and the consolidation of Afrikaners’ national identity. It then considers the role of the Dutch Reformed Church in rebuilding community, along with the political resurgence of the adversaries of “protected burghers” in the Free State. It also looks at the 1914 rebellion that articulated a republican protest against the modernizing state. Finally, it highlights the postwar trauma suffered by blacks, their political marginalization, and the establishment of the African National Congress (ANC).

Stability and Governability the Benign Effects of Party Dominance in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-75
Author(s):  
Ainara Mancebo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The Other ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
African Countries ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
Party Dominance

A tripartite alliance formed by the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions has been ruling the country with wide parliamentarian majorities. The country remains more consensual and politically inclusive than any of the other African countries in the post-independence era. This article examines three performance’s aspects of the party dominance systems: legitimacy, stability and violence. As we are living in a period in which an unprecedented number of countries have completed democratic transitions, it is politically and conceptually important that we understand the specific tasks of crafting democratic consolidation.

Michael Harmel (1915-1974): A South African Communist and His Discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Actual Contribution

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>

Michael Harmel (1915-1974): A South African Communist and His Discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Actual Contribution

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>

scholarly journals Facilitation and Mediation in South Africa: Three Case Studies

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The South ◽  
National Congress

In this paper I discuss three case studies of facilitation and mediation in South Africa: 1) facilitation between the South African apartheid establishment and the African National Congress in exile from 1963 to 1989; 2) facilitation that eventually led to mediation between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in Natal over 10 months from 1985 to 1986; and 3)mediation between the African National Congress and the Afrikaner Freedom Foundation (Afrikaner Vryheidstigting, also known as Avstig) over 18 months from 1991 to 1993.

South African Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Nganje ◽  
Odilile Ayodele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
The Government

In its foreign policy posture and ambitions, post-apartheid South Africa is like no other country on the continent, having earned the reputation of punching above its weight. Upon rejoining the international community in the mid-1990s based on a new democratic and African identity, it laid out and invested considerable material and intellectual resources in pursuing a vision of the world that was consistent with the ideals and aspirations of the indigenous anti-apartheid movement. This translated into a commitment to foreground the ideals of human rights, democratic governance, and socioeconomic justice in its foreign relations, which had been reoriented away from their Western focus during the apartheid period, to give expression to post-apartheid South Africa’s new role conception as a champion of the marginalized interests for Africa and rest of the Global South. Since the start of the 21st century, this new foreign policy orientation and its underlying principles have passed through various gradations, reflecting not only the personal idiosyncrasies of successive presidents but also changes in the domestic environment as well as lessons learned by the new crop of leaders in Pretoria, as they sought to navigate a complex and fluid continental and global environment. From a rather naive attempt to domesticate international politics by projecting its constitutional values onto the world stage during the presidency of Nelson Mandela, South Africa would be socialized into, and embrace gradually, the logic of realpolitik, even as it continued to espouse an ethical foreign policy, much to the chagrin of the detractors of the government of the African National Congress within and outside the country. With the fading away of the global liberal democratic consensus into which post-apartheid South Africa was born, coupled with a crumbling of the material and moral base that had at some point inspired a sense of South African exceptionalism, Pretoria’s irreversible march into an unashamedly pragmatic and interest-driven foreign policy posture is near complete.

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