History Making and Present Day Politics - Stolten's African Studies ...

h i s t o r y m a k i n g a n d p r e s e n t d a y p o l i t i c s
seems to include the reluctant acceptance of increasing social stratification
and poverty. 16 The question of to what extent capitalism was the main reason
for brutal social repression along race lines for most of last century, or to what
extent capitalism in fact liberated South Africa from outdated political apartheid,
still has implications for strategies for social struggle, economic policy
choices, possibilities of reconciliation, etc., at least if the preferred course
includes the deepening of democracy, the broadening of equality, and the
revival of human solidarity.
The end of the Cold War has led to revisions of post-World War II history
writing in many countries, also in the western world, in some cases with the
purpose of relieving history of its ideological burdens, making it more “objective”,
or, as in other instances, with the intent to ascribe guilt and shame to
old opponents in a continuation of the ideological strife. 17 In a comparative
way, the time may have come for the South Africans to take another look at
the images and myths of their era of repression in the new light of the fact
that their liberation has turned out to be more of a neo-liberal victory than
the national democratic revolution that many had expected. 18
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought political freedom to the peoples of
Eastern Europe, but it also resulted in changes in balances of social power
worldwide. For many social movements, the outcome has had weakening
effects, such as the loss of alternative power bases, organisational discipline,
and political education. 19 With the withdrawal of the stakes deployed by the
16. Economic and Social Rights Report, 5th, 2002/2003, South African Human Rights
Commission, http://www.sahrc.org.za/economic_and%20_social_rights.htm;
David Everatt, “The politics of poverty”, Development Update, 2004, http://www.
polity.org.za/pdf/PoliticsOfPoverty.pdf.
17. In the case of my native country, Denmark, for instance, Steen Andersen, Danmark i
det tyske storrum. Dansk konomisk økonomisk tilpasning til Tysklands nyordning af Europa, Lindhardt
og Ringhof, 2003; Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier, Danmark under
den kolde krig, København, DIIS, 2005.
18. Friedman, Steven, “South Africa’s reluctant transition”, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 4,
No. 2, pp. 56–69, 1993; Ginsburg, David, “The Democratisation of South Africa:
Transition Theory Tested”, Transformation, Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa,
No. 29, pp. 74–102, University of Natal, Durban, Dept. of Economic History, 1996;
Bond, Patrick, Elite Transformation: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa,
London, Pluto and University of Natal Press, 2000.
19. “Die Zukunft der Solidaritätsbewegung: Tema, Internationale Solidarität”, Blätter
Des Iz3, No. 201, pp. 23–46, 1994; Noreena Hertz, The silent takeover, The Free Press,
2001; Eddy Maloka, The South African Communist Party in Exile, 1965–1990, The
Africa Institute of South Africa, 2003, Ch. 6, 7. A Danish social democratic histo-
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