Invented tradition

'Invented tradition' is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past.. In fact, where possible, the normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past....However, insofar as there is such reference to a historic past, the peculiarity of 'invented' traditions is that the continuity with it is largely fictitious. In short, they are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repetition (Hobsbawm, 1983: 1-2).




The Invention of Tradition.

Hobsbawm, Eric and Terence Ranger, eds. 1983.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

from Aime Cesaire

And no race possesses the monopoly of beauty,

of intelligence,

of force,

and there is a place for all at the rendezvous of victory.

“At the Rendezvous of Victory”

translated by C.L.R. James

Cultural Power

The dominant culture represents itself as culture. It tries to define and contain all other cultures within its inclusive range. Its views of the world, unless challenged, will stand as the most natural, all-embracing, universal culture. Other cultural configurations will not only be subordinate to this dominant order: they will enter into struggle with it,seek to modify, negotiate, resist or even overthrow its reign – its hegemony. The struggle between classes over material and social life thus always assumes the forms of a continuous struggle over the distribution of ‘cultural power’(Hall 5-6).


Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain (2nd edition).
Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, eds. 2006.
Routledge: New York.

Funeral as a platform for politics

As the death tolls mounted and outdoor meetings were banned, church buildings and congregations became centres for protest. Funerals, usually of the young, became the liturgical focus as whole communities stiffened their will to resist. These highly charged political and religious occasions were traumatic for the bereaved, but also for many clergy who were totally unprepared to minister to angry, grieving crowds surrounded and bullied by troops and police...Thousands, and on occasions tens of thousands, gathered to assert their hatred of apartheid, and to honour the victims of police and army bullets, death squads, and prison torture. Hymns and prayers were
followed by freedom songs. Coffins were draped with A.N.C. colours and, always, Nkosi Sikilele'i (God Bless Africa) was sung (Walshe: 1991, 54).



Peter Walshe
“South Africa: Prophetic Christianity and the Liberation Movement.”
The Journal of Modern African Studies, 29 (1, 1991): 27-60

Stand Up

After having always suffered everything,
taken it all in silence for months and years,
it is a matter of finally having the guts to stand up.
To take one's turn to speak.
To feel like men, for a few days.


Simone Weil's account of the Popular Front in 1936.

L. Bodin and J. Touchard,
Front Populaire,
112,
quoted in Zolberg,
"Moments of Madness," 183.

Democratization

Clearly, in African conditions, democratization cannot be limited to multi-party elections. It has to address these vulnerabilities of the ordinary people who are unable to participation effectively in a democratic dispensation. By all indications, these vulnerabilities can only be addressed by social transformation, by massive social, cultural and economic upliftment of the poor in Africa. Without this there is no democracy.


Claude Ake
The Feasilibilty of Democracy in Africa
CODESRIA 2003
page 172

Swaziland is a political powder keg

Swaziland's political order is bifurcated between an executive or absolute monarchy and traditional leadership. However, the king reigns supreme in both systems. There continues to be a serious stand-off between the monarchy and civil society movements, notably the labour movement, which wants to democratise the country and obviate monarchical rule. Political parties remain banned. Civil society opposition forces are not only excluded from governance, but also harassed for their political beliefs and positions; many of them are in fact driven to exile. So at a time when a lot of attention is focused on Zimbabwe, Swaziland is a political powder keg...



Chris Landsberg
Southern Africa Post-Apartheid? The Search for Democratic Governance.
Cape Town: CPS, IDASA, IMD, 2004, p. 10