This morning I went to to such an insightful politics lecture that I just had to blog about because it was just that interesting! Today I learnt that the problem plaguing contemporary South African society is that most people are stuck within a redundant and anachronistic "NOMOS". The term Nomos was conceptualised by a theorist called Carl Schmidt (whose Nazi affiliations I am deliberately choosing to ignore). The idea of 'Nomos' was then capitlaised upon by Grant Farred who uses it in his writings. Nomos describes the way the world becomes structured according to certain ideas and trends that are preponderant in specific epochs in history. Usually these ideas are framed within an amnity/emnity binary. Apply this idea to South Africa and one can see the manifestation of this idea in all its shining glory.
South Africa unfortunately ascribes to an outdated Nomos whereby any opposition to the ANC or black organisations, initiatives and black people in general are always framed within this friend/enemy dichotomy, a dichotomy that particularly characterised the apartheid era. Anytime someone raises criticism against the ANC, its policies, etc etc they unfortunately fall victim to this outdated mode of reasoning and are labelled racist.. Helen Zille and the DA are a prime example. Read http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/I-am-a-racist-20120522 to provide you with more clarity.
But the purpose of this post is not to recount my politics lecture as riveting as it was. I think the ideas in Farred's writing are pertinent to the events happening right here and now within our very own university. In particular I think they are really relevant to the current debates regarding Brad Bense's campaign for SRC President and his use of the word "MLUNGU" in his campaign strategy. Once again, black people are up in arms at his choice of the word 'Mlungu" which loosely translated means 'white person'. Once again, Bense is unfortunately grouped into a category that immediately turns him into 'the enemy'. People are accusing him of alluding to the fact that "mlungu" has connotations of black servitude and oppression and therefore implying that he wants to be a stereotypical white authority figure that has charcterised race relations in the past. For example, one comment on the Rhodes SRC Facebook page said:
"Let me remind or inform u that the name "mlungu" means boss for most black ppl who have worked for white ppl in our histry.This is so bcoz white ppl had high positions and owners of large properties while blck ppl were and still garden boys and domestic workers.Even to this day if a blck man is successful and has a blck man working for him he will call his boss"mlungu wam"which means "my boss".So the name "mlungu" does not only define race but also superiority of the other race over the other."
Instead of taking Brad's campaign at face value, people are accusing him of being racist and asking people to vote for him because he is white and wants to represent a stereotypical white authority figure. While I do not want to detract from the struggle or the plight of black people in the past, nor do I wish to relegate the significance of certain words to the periphery, I would like to show how the 'past' nomos is still a hauntingly pervasive feature in today's society and by constantly referring to this racial paradigm we are only contributing to the perpetuation of old-fashioned ideas which actually have no credence in contemporary society. And while I must question whether Bense is aware that the controversy he's sparked by the use of the word 'mlungu' may be of detriment to his campaign, I still wish to highlight the way people constantly try and group people into the friend versus enemy camps without looking at the bigger picture or even the smaller picture.
South Africa unfortunately ascribes to an outdated Nomos whereby any opposition to the ANC or black organisations, initiatives and black people in general are always framed within this friend/enemy dichotomy, a dichotomy that particularly characterised the apartheid era. Anytime someone raises criticism against the ANC, its policies, etc etc they unfortunately fall victim to this outdated mode of reasoning and are labelled racist.. Helen Zille and the DA are a prime example. Read http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/I-am-a-racist-20120522 to provide you with more clarity.
But the purpose of this post is not to recount my politics lecture as riveting as it was. I think the ideas in Farred's writing are pertinent to the events happening right here and now within our very own university. In particular I think they are really relevant to the current debates regarding Brad Bense's campaign for SRC President and his use of the word "MLUNGU" in his campaign strategy. Once again, black people are up in arms at his choice of the word 'Mlungu" which loosely translated means 'white person'. Once again, Bense is unfortunately grouped into a category that immediately turns him into 'the enemy'. People are accusing him of alluding to the fact that "mlungu" has connotations of black servitude and oppression and therefore implying that he wants to be a stereotypical white authority figure that has charcterised race relations in the past. For example, one comment on the Rhodes SRC Facebook page said:
"Let me remind or inform u that the name "mlungu" means boss for most black ppl who have worked for white ppl in our histry.This is so bcoz white ppl had high positions and owners of large properties while blck ppl were and still garden boys and domestic workers.Even to this day if a blck man is successful and has a blck man working for him he will call his boss"mlungu wam"which means "my boss".So the name "mlungu" does not only define race but also superiority of the other race over the other."
Instead of taking Brad's campaign at face value, people are accusing him of being racist and asking people to vote for him because he is white and wants to represent a stereotypical white authority figure. While I do not want to detract from the struggle or the plight of black people in the past, nor do I wish to relegate the significance of certain words to the periphery, I would like to show how the 'past' nomos is still a hauntingly pervasive feature in today's society and by constantly referring to this racial paradigm we are only contributing to the perpetuation of old-fashioned ideas which actually have no credence in contemporary society. And while I must question whether Bense is aware that the controversy he's sparked by the use of the word 'mlungu' may be of detriment to his campaign, I still wish to highlight the way people constantly try and group people into the friend versus enemy camps without looking at the bigger picture or even the smaller picture.
