Reassessing transition violence
Voices from South Africa's township wars, 1990-4
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6020630 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gary Kynoch (0000-0001-9562-4438, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 112 |
| Issue | 447 |
| Pages | 283-303 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/afraf/adt014 |
| OpenAlex | W2151909089 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
Drawing on interviews with people involved in the communal violence that traumatized Thokoza and Katlehong townships in the early 1990s, this article challenges the received wisdom regarding transition violence in South Africa. Most significantly, it transcends the dominant narrative that African National Congress (ANC) supporters in the townships were under relentless attack by state security units known as the ‘third force’, along with the co-opted impis of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). The evidence presented indicates that Inkatha was responsible for much of the violence, but that ANC-affiliated militants also conducted murderous campaigns. Some police commanders and their units initiated violence for political ends, but different police and military groups operated independently and lacked a uniform political orientation. Some favoured the IFP, some backed the ANC, while others were divided or indifferent. Thus, the narrative that casts the ANC as victims of a state-orchestrated onslaught versus the Inkatha sell-outs who opportunistically sided with the white government (and its security forces) does not accurately capture events on the ground in Thokoza and Katlehong, two of the townships most afflicted by transition violence. A more fractured, less partisan picture emerges from the voices of those who survived the township wars.
Criminology · Government (linguistics) · Narrative · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Security forces · Sociology · State (computer science) · White (mutation) · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · South African History and Culture
El dispositivo transicional
How negotiated peace in underdeveloped countries results in structural violence
So, the Killings Continued
From warlords to freedom fighters
A tale of two cities
The Bantustan State and the South African Transition
Bloody Commonwealth peacemongers’
Anatomy of Political Violence in South Africa
Of Space and Alienation
Curbing the Killing Fields
The hostel wars in apartheid South Africa
Inkatha's young militants
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,92 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |