Who belongs in South Africa? ‘Tapestry nationalism’ in the African National Congress
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6305355 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Jeffery (0000-0002-1529-8001, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Virginia Woolf Building King's College London London UK, corresponding author), Thabisani Ndlovu (0000-0001-5592-7522, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Walter Sisulu University Mthatha South Africa) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 148-166 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nations and Nationalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/nana.13072 |
| OpenAlex | W4405220831 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
Perhaps more than any other organisation, the African National Congress (ANC) has defined who belongs in South Africa. Yet, how does the organisation imagine national belonging, and how has this developed? We explore these questions through a discourse analysis of the organisation's annual ‘January 8’ statements. First, the ANC has historically embraced a ‘tapestry nationalist’ approach to belonging, which rejects majority–minority distinctions in favour of a single people and celebrates cultural diversity without reifying groups into distinct political constituencies. Second, while the ANC framed ‘the people’ as a militant democratic mass during the anti‐apartheid struggle, from the 1990s the organisation reimagined ‘the people’ primarily as economic subjects in need of services. Third, the avoidance of majority–minority distinctions is increasingly challenged by the political salience of racial inequalities in land ownership, to which the ANC has struggled to respond. The ANC's approach challenges common accounts of nationalism, such as liberal nationalism, multicultural nationalism, and post‐nationalism
Democracy · Diversity (politics · Militant · Multiculturalism · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · South African History and Culture
Liberal Nationalism and Its Critics
Do South Africans Exist?
Rethinking the South African Crisis
Rethinking Multiculturalism
The Origins of Non-Racialism
White Nation
The impossible concept
Immigrants, Nations, and Citizenship
National identity in South Africa
Religion and Political Parties in South Africa
Understanding Non-racialism as an Emancipatory Concept in South Africa
Nationalism is dead, long live nationalism! In pursuit of pluralistic nationalism
Imagined communities
Multiculturalism and nationalism
The concept of belonging
The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa
Irony of Citizenship
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |