Apartheid

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even if there were a satisfactory theory of the state, it would still not make existing theories of
oppression sufficient to understand ethnicism. Something else is also needed.
In my view, one useful starting point may be provided by population biology and
sociology. Ethnicism itself usually incorporates an element of Darwinist belief in the
inevitability of a certain kind of biological competition between the reified ethnic groups. This
competition is mostly seen as a matter of death or survival with no further alternatives
available, except, perhaps, some rather volatile compromises. Genocide and apartheid even
explicate, (attempt to) carry out and justify programs or policies that are of an unmistakably
social Darwinist, i.e. eliminationist, character. Colonialism is somewhat ‘milder’. It does not
necessarily condemn people to death because of their ethnic identity or racial classification,
but it does in general condemn them to miserable lives in servitude and poverty. In this way,
they are also statistically destined to both a shorter life expectancy and a lower quality of life.
Apartheid does the same to those members of the conquered indigenous population who are
not condemned (by the elites) to die immediately. Colonialism and the ‘peaceful’ aspects of
apartheid are therefore compromise solutions to the Darwinian conflict. But if there is any
enforced deviation from the demographic equilibrium, it is almost certain to be in favor of
those in power, i.e. of the oppressive ethnic minority. As we shall see, this is so because of the
primary role of violence in apartheid, which is dependent on the military superiority of the
invading ethnic minority. The latter is a powerful condition, but it is also one that cannot last
forever.
To say that apartheid is nothing but a combination of genocide and colonialism,
however, is to miss some of its most basic features. I will attempt to show that it is
fundamentally different from colonialism as well as genocide, that there are plenty of
qualitative differences, although there are also numerous instances of overlapping, i.e. of
quantitative and gradual differences. With my understanding of apartheid, it is theoretically
located between colonialism and genocide. This also means that a colonial society does not
develop seamlessly into a genocidal one. There has to be at least an idea, among the killers, of
compatriot civilian settlers moving in, while the indigenous are being killed off. This might be
planned as a transitory phase, but, nonetheless, countries like the USA and Australia were at
least to some extent apartheid societies before the Native Americans or the Koori (the
‘Aborigines’) became minorities, i.e. before these societies became fully-fledged genocidal
societies.
As will be seen in the following, apartheid has often been misunderstood as a special
case of colonialism. I shall therefore try to define it as a distinct and no less important form of
systematic human rights violations. The reasons for misunderstanding apartheid in the way
indicated, on the other hand, are easy to follow.
The end of apartheid in South Africa appears to have been the last link in a chain of
events in Africa after World War II, a development that saw the end of European colonies on
the continent. This investigation, however, will show that the apartheid society in South
Africa could have been perpetuated for decades, if not centuries longer. From 1910 onwards
its fate was not necessarily tied to that of the European colonies in Africa – and neither is that
of modern Israel to the fate of European colonies in the Middle East (though, as we shall see,
maybe to US- and European-based neo-colonialism). African nationalism, demographic
dynamics, the development of international law, and the global discreditation of ethnicism all
played roles in making South African apartheid relatively short-lived. In fact, modern Israel
only appeared as the ‘west’ was winding down its old-fashioned colonialism in that region
and elsewhere. The repercussions of South Africa’s apartheid system are in any case expected
to last for a long time, probably longer than the colonialist (though not the neo-colonialist)
legacy in Africa. The demographic factor plays a particularly important role here. Europeans
within political science in order to improve the situation. See Taylor, G,: Marxism, 1995: 248-267; Marsh: The
Convergence between Theories of the State, 1995: 268-287.