The politics of philanthropy and race relations : the joint councils of South Africa, c.1920-1955 (2024)

Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa: Contested Histories and Current Struggles, 2021

This is a draft of a chapter that was published in Land, Law and Chiefs. Click here to find the book and the final version of the chapter: https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/land-law-and-chiefs-in-rural-south-africa/

Mobilizing for Peace, 2002

American Economic Review, 2003

RACE, POWER AND DEMOCRACY: SYNTHESIS OF SELECT PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS FOLLOWING KEY FLASHPOINTS , 2014

~Maggie Potapchuk, MP Associates "We invite funders and activists to reflect upon some of this history to perhaps learn more about work that might have taken time to take hold, or perhaps recognize missed opportunities that nevertheless might still inspire future work for racial justice. … "The great force of history," James Baldwin wrote, "comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do" ~From "We are here because of the shooting death of Michael Brown, which sparked some small violent responses, which were then responded to by police. We gather here today to address this issue, and to encourage people to step back and look at this in a broader view; and to consider how we respond to the needs of the community. The ability of our movement to marshal the resources to respond to each flashpoint in advance is quite beyond our boundaries today. So how do we respond to these emerging issues around the country? … Is there something different about people's push for democracy, is there something different about emergency management-like curfew, and other responses like those in Katrina and South Africa and Detroit? What kind of democracy will we have? Inclusive or exclusive? I propose we look at tangible ways to build power, and how we prepare for backlashes using Ferguson as a case study... It's time for us to begin to discuss how we frame what the future looks like-what inclusive democracy looks like-and what's the path forward?" In reviewing the critiques, lessons and recommendations from a range of reports over the past 22 years, some themes emerged for philanthropy to address, which are highlighted below. These themes are not new; they have been discussed at many meetings, though this synthesis report is another reminder of the ongoing consequences of these issues not being addressed, especially in the context of these flashpoints. We know there will be more flashpoints, so how can we-philanthropy and racial justice activists-work collectively to ensure these persisting issues are resolved. Below are some themes that emerged across the lessons, recommendations and critiques as well as some reflections: Truly Investing in Justice Work Demands Increased Risk-Taking: Almost all of the reports were consistent in highlighting philanthropy's risk aversion, which actually clashes with the principles of crisis management. To address the complexities and history of structural racism, foundations need to support creativity, experimentation, and bold acts. Philanthropy is primed for an infusion of courage so collectively it can embrace and endure risk in its commitment to racial justice, given that progress toward racial justice has never come without struggle, setbacks and danger.

Journal of Historical Geography, 2002

The imposition of modern urban regulations and standards in rapidly industrializing cities outside the imperial heartland challenged the simplistic colonial planning regime of administrative and trade centres. In Johannesburg in South Africa the adoption of racial segregation provided the state with the ideological basis to restrict investment by providing unequal living conditions within the city, while securing a stable supply

Journal of Southern African Studies, 1995

This dissertation demonstrates the existence of a broad and varied socialist movement in South Africa and examines its attempts to mobilize a social base across color lines in a rigidly divided society. South Africa's industrial capitalist system and urban working class would seem to provide the basis for the development of a proletarian-based socialist movement, but historically there has been no sustained working-class mobilization on a socialist program. This study considers various hypotheses concerning segmented and divided labor markets to identify those factors which illuminate the policies and practices of South African socialist groupings.The study begins with an historical analysis of the origins and development of the racially-divided working class. It challenges functionalist explanations which attribute racial policies and practices to the influence of particular classes or groupings, demonstrating instead that the roots of the racially-divided working class lay in the racial pattern in which the processes of proletarianization and urbanization unfolded. This racial pattern of development laid the basis both for the turbulent labor struggles of the early twentieth century and for the racial policies promoted by different social classes, notably white labor and capitalists, and institutionalized into state policy. The study then focuses on the interaction between socialist theory and practice and the movements for non-collaboration, black unity and African self-reliance which flourished from the 1930s through the 1950s, and it examines their internal class dynamics to explain why radicals failed to maintain the initial mass support mobilized by these movements. It analyzes the theoretical frameworks which socialists used to explain the articulation of class and color and compares them to the actual conditions of working class development and political consciousness in South Africa. The study concludes with a comparative overview of Communist and Trotskyist strategies and tactics in the face of common objective constraints.

New Contree: 2014 No 71

Psychology in Society, 2021

Using psycho-political analysis as a method of seeing and interpreting, this essay meditates on why and how Frantz Fanon's observation that 'the Black is not a [hu]man' is true in (post)apartheid South Africa. In particular, the essay is concerned with the histo-political circ*mstances that make Fanon's observation true for poor black people. And to this end, the essay argues that local and international white-monopoly capital orchestrated a psycho-political defeat and co-option of the ANC well ahead of the 1994 democratic elections. Consequently, South Africa transitioned from apartheid into recolonisation as a satellite of the empire of capital thus, closing all prospects of a decent and dignified life for poor black people. Using a newspaper article as an illustrative example, the essay analyses the lived experience of poor black people as a consequence of the ANC's psychopolitical defeat and custodianship of capital imperialism in South Africa. In this, the essay shows the violence of the ANC government on poor black people and the fate of the latter as a disposable population of the empire of capital.

City & Community, 2021

Transitions to democracy promise equal political power. But political ruptures carry no guarantee that democracy can overcome the accumulated inequalities of history. In South Africa, the transition to democracy shifted power from a racial minority in ways that suggested an unusually high probability of material change. This article analyzes the limits of public power after democratic transitions. Why has the post-Apartheid local state in Johannesburg been unable to achieve a spatially inclusive distribution of public goods despite a political imperative for both spatial and fiscal redistribution? I rely on interviews and archival research, conducted in Johannesburg between 2015 and 2018. Because the color line created a sharp distinction between political and economic power, traditional white urban elites required non-majoritarian and hidden strategies that translated their structural power into effective power. The cumulative effect of these “weapons of the strong” has been to disable the capacity of the local state to countervail the power of wealthy residents’ associations and property developers. Through these strategies, elites repurposed institutional reforms for redistribution to instead reproduce the city’s inequalities.

The Journal of African History, 1995

If ever mission councils in South Africa had a purpose, they had outlived it by the time of the formation of the bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (bPCSA) in 1923. However, autonomy in this case was relative and the South African mission Council endured until 1981. It was an anachronism which served little purpose other than the care of missionaries and the control of property and finance. It was obstructive insofar as it hindered communication between the bPCSA and the Church of Scotland and did little to advance God's mission, especially through the agency of black Christians. During this period blacks were co-opted onto the Church of Scotland South African Joint Council (CoSSAJC) but they had to have proved their worth to the missionaries first by their compliance with missionary views. This article will examine the role of the CoSSAJC in pursuance of its prime aim, " the evangelisation of the bantu People " (bPCSA 1937, 18), mainly from original sources.

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2011

The legacy of socio-economic injustice which was inherited from the Natives Land Act of 1913 continues to haunt the majority of black South Africans. The land dispossession of the indigenous people of South Africa under this Act caused poverty which is still prevalent in our country today. Many South Africans, especially black South Africans, are trapped in a cycle of poverty that emerged as a result of our history of colonialism and apartheid. The interrogation of the unsettling discourse on land in South Africa as well as the continuous poverty cycle is fundamental for offering empowering possibilities for the poor. As such, the role played by the South African churches to support and/or oppose the Natives Land Act of 1913 cannot be ignored. The main question engaged with in the present text is: if the issue of poverty, as foregrounded in the discourse of land and within the ecclesial discussion, is engaged with from a historicoecclesiastical 2 perspective, could the discourse pro...