- Title
- Lessons for South Africa's national identity: the political writings of Aggrey Klaaste
- Creator
- Sowaga, Dulile Frans
- Subject
- South Africa -- Politics and government
- Subject
- Democracy -- South Africa
- Subject
- Multiculturalism -- South Africa
- Subject
- Nationalism -- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2012
- Date
- 2012
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MPhil
- Identifier
- vital:8359
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021077
- Description
- This study is a content analysis of political writings of Aggrey Klaaste (1988-2002). Six theoretical themes suggest that Klaaste’s Nation Building philosophy can help deal with racial and social divisions in the country. These historical divisions are the source of racial tensions, lack of inter-racial socialisations and cause separate living. Lack of social cohesion makes it impossible for post apartheid South Africa to achieve much-needed single national identity. The process of nation building proposed by Klaaste starts with breaking down what he refers to as ‘the corrugated iron curtain’. Social curtaining is deliberate actions by people of different racial groups, religious formations and social classes to build psychological, physical, institutional, political, economic and religious boundaries around themselves to keep others outside their living spaces. These conscious barriers result in unstable democracy as the majority (black population) get frustrated with shack dwellings - as symbols of poverty - while the white population and the middle class blacks move to white suburbs. Moving to upmarket suburbs does not necessarily make race groups to cohere and share a common national identity. Instead informal settlements breed social ills such as poverty, crime and drug substances abuse. This status quo can cause serious political instability which will affect everyone – black and white. Klaaste argues that for collective survival all race groups need to enter into politics of action. For this he proposes specific processes and actions through Nation Building. It is argued that political solutions have failed to unite people and leaders from all sectors of society should emerge. Blacks cannot moan and hate forever. Whites will be affected and must actively support the rebuilding process. This treatise proposes nation building as a process to help everyone to find uniting issues free of political ideologies to create new brotherhood and Ubuntu.
- Format
- v, 105 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Arts
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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NMMU School of Governmental and Social Sciences
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