Cry the beloved country? Revisiting Mamdani's South African moment through Chief Albert Luthuli's self-narrated alliance politics

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Authors

Mushambi, Dambudzo Darlington
Van Wyk, Tanya

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Routledge

Abstract

Mamdani posits that the nation-state, an institution inextricably linked to violence and exclusion, creates and politicizes racial and tribal identities, inscribing some as permanent majorities and others as minorities within the political community so constructed. Mamdani avers that in the “South African moment” in the 1970s and 1980s, South Africa decolonized the political by reconstituting the political community without reference to race. This article revisits Mamdani’s analysis through Chief Albert Luthuli’s autobiography Let My People Go, suggesting that the South African moment was birthed earlier than Mamdani argues. Autobiography, which is part of history-making, inscribes one’s personal identity and subjectivity, challenging imposed identities and implicating the lives of others by framing them as friends or strangers in the narrative. In this way, autobiographies create associations or distance between the self and others, resulting in entrenched or contested hierarchies, and the possibility of reconstructing or fabricating social realities and political communities.

Description

This article represents an aspect of a Thesis (PhD (Systematic Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2023. "Narrating the political Christian self : Chief Albert Luthuli's political theology in his autobiography "Let my people go"" completed under the supervision of Prof. Tanya van Wyk. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/94347.

Keywords

Mahmood Mamdani, Chief Albert Luthuli, Autobiography, Apartheid, Decolonization, South African moment, Reimagining political identity, SDG-04: Quality education, SDG-05: Gender equality, SDG-10: Reduced inequalities, SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-04:Quality Education
SDG-05:Gender equality
SDG-10:Reduces inequalities
SDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institutions

Citation

Dambudzo D. Mushambi & Tanya van Wyk (03 Mar 2025): Cry The Beloved Country? Revisiting Mamdani’s “South African Moment” Through Chief Albert Luthuli’s Self-Narrated Alliance Politics, Political Theology, DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2025.2471690.