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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Tribalism and South African Violence
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, May 9, 1991
South Africa: Tribalism Said 'Important Element' in Violence
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[Article by Patrick Laurence: "Ethnic Thread in Tangled
Fabric." Johannesburg THE STAR in English 7 May 91 p 14]
</p>
<p> [Text] Zulus are attacked "just because they are Zulu
people," Inkatha Freedom Party [IFP] leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi
declares of the latest violence in Soweto.
</p>
<p> It is a matter of ongoing and even acrimonious debate
whether Chief Buthelezi is sombrely warning his tribal kinsmen
on the reality of anti-Zulu hostility, or whether he is
expediently trying to drive Zulus into the IFP.
</p>
<p> Either way his accusation against African national Congress
[ANC] forces underlines once again that there is an
ineradicable tribal dimension to the fighting.
</p>
<p> Yet there is a curious reluctance in radical and even
liberal circles to recognise the power of tribalism or, to use
a more respectable term, ethno-tribalism, as a factor in the
intra-black conflict.
</p>
<p> Tribalism, like apartheid, is a dirty word in South Africa.
Tribalist is a label of abuse, used to hang around the necks of
political foes or rival political organisations.
</p>
<p> It is associated with bigotry and often serves as a synonym
for collaborator. The link between apartheid and tribalism has
been built up over more than four decades.
</p>
<p> The legacy of apartheid lives on in the midst of President
de Klerk's attempts to discard the past and excise racist laws
from the statute book. He has reserved--or wants to reserve--places at the negotiating table for leaders of the 10 black
"nation states" recognised under the Bantu Self Government Act,
an archetypical apartheid law.
</p>
<p> His strategy is seen by supratribal movements, primarily the
African National Congress, as a shrewd manoeuvre to deploy
tribalism to weaken their influence.
</p>
<p> Thus when tribalism surfaces in the political arena, it is
seen as the product of sinister divide-and-rule machinations by
Mr de Klerk's security forces. Marxist theory, with its
emphasis on class interests, is often used to explain tribalism
away or, at least, to downplay it.
</p>
<p> Marxism, influencing the ANC's ideological outlook via its
alliance partner, the South African Communist Party, blurs
reality. The reluctance to comprehend fully the failure of the
socialist economic system is matched by disinclination to
recognise the power of ethnicity.
</p>
<p> The rise of ethnically based nationalisms in the Baltic
states and the prevalence of inter-ethnic conflict in vast areas
of the Soviet Union, is often glossed over.
</p>
<p> Closer to home, the intra-black violence which has swept
through black townships around Johannesburg since August last
year, claiming at least 1,000 lives, is not regarded as
intrinsically tribal; it is perceived as the product of a
sinister strategy by a state-linked "third force" aimed at
weakening the ANC.
</p>
<p> An ANC discussion paper on the violence draws attention to
the calculated revival of tribally based political parties in
the "homelands" as the prospect of all-party talks on a new
constitution becomes more tangible.
</p>
<p> But the conflict in townships around Johannesburg has an
unmistakable tribal colouring. At its blood-strained cutting
edge, it has pitted Zulu migrant workers, proclaiming loyalty
to the IFP, against Xhosa-speaking people.
</p>
<p> Men have been slain because of their tribal affinity.
Ideological loyalty has been immaterial. Tribal tensions are
unfortunately and perhaps ineluctably fuelled by structural
factors.
</p>
<p> The IFP started life as a specifically Zulu movement but has
since undergone two important changes: first it opened its
ranks to all blacks and then, only last year, it invited people
of all races to join. But even after its latest metamorphosis
Inkatha remains--for the time being, at any rate--a
predominantly Zulu organisation.
</p>
<p> The ANC is a supra-tribal organisation with a long and proud
record of non-racialism. But most of its important national
posts are occupied by Xhosas.
</p>
<p> Its president, deputy president, secretary-general,
international affairs supremo and information chief are all
Xhosas. So, too, is the chief of staff of its underground army,
Chris Hani. Its effective leader and deputy president, Nelson
Mandela, is a member of a royal Xhosa family. The two strongest
contenders to succeed him are Xhosas, Mr Hani and Thabo Mbeki.
</p>
<p> Xhosa pre-eminence in the ANC's top leadership is matched by
the small number of Zulus in its upper ranks. One of the few
prominent Zulus on the ANC national executive is Jacob Zuma,
the ANC intelligence chief.
</p>
<p> The imbalance--the more than 6 million Zulus constitute
the biggest ethnic group in South Africa--explains why some
Zulus are suspicious of the ANC as "a Xhosa organisation."
</p>
<p> The ethnic skewing of Inkatha generally and the ANC at
leadership level means that Inkatha-ANC rivalry tends all too
easily to degenerate into inter-tribal animosity. Rhetorical
statements occasionally resonate with tribal undertones or even
overtones.
</p>
<p> Thus, where the ANC has specifically demanded the
dissolution of the KwaZulu "bantustan", it has a cosy
relationship with the leader of the Xhosa "bantustan",
Transkei's General Bantu Holomisa. The contrast has been noted
by Inkatha leaders and interpreted as evidence of tribal bias
against the Zulu people.
</p>
<p> In moments of stress Chief Buthelezi has deployed the
language of tribalism. Thus he had accused the ANC-aligned
Congress of Traditional Leaders of being a "spear thrust into
the heart of the Zulu nation".
</p>
<p> But it is as misleading to magnify tribalism as it is to
deny its existence. Tribalism or ethno-nationalism is an
important element in the conflict, one which may be particularly
amenable to manipulation by the security forces. But, in the
end, it is only one of several factors in a complex political
equation.
</p>
<p> In Natal the savage conflict between ANC-aligned forces and
Inkatha loyalists has been intra-Zulu. The divide has been
ideological, not tribal.
</p>
<p> In the Transvaal there has been a class factor in the
conflict. The Zulu fighters with their distinctive red
bandanas, have been drawn largely from the ranks of migrant
workers living in the hostels.
</p>
<p> Armed with their "traditional weapons", they have fought
savage battles while some of their Zulu kinsmen, living
permanently in the townships, have either been neutral or have
even sided with ANC forces.
</p>
<p> After the ANC's national conference in July, and the
infusion of "new blood" from the men who manned the front ranks
of the United Democratic Front during the 1980s, the ANC will
almost certainly reflect a more balances ethnic mix.
</p>
<p> Inkatha, too, is broadening its ethnic and racial base and,
according to its spokesmen, is now recruiting Xhosas in the
eastern Cape, Tswana in the western Transvaal and whites all
over South Africa.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>