Incomplete institutional change and the persistence of racial inequality: The contestation of institutional misalignment in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansellia Adams ◽  
John M. Luiz
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Racial Inequality

In The Wake of Okwui Enwezor

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (48) ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
Natasha Becker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Art World ◽  
African Art ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Gender Culture ◽  
Analytical Potential ◽  
Curatorial Practice ◽  
The Status ◽  
Practical Guidelines

This article takes a critical and intimate look at Okwui Enwezor’s work in South Africa during the 1990s and asserts that the international exhibition he curated in Johannesburg in 1997—the Second Johannesburg Biennale, Trade Routes: History and Geography—is an important lens through which to explore Africa’s entangled histories. Trade Routes mattered as much for the discourse it produced as for the artworks it presented. The exhibition checklist features extraordinary works that were made between 1989 and 1997 by artists whose critical acclaim we take for granted today but who were at that time still underappreciated or emerging. Trade Routes not only challenged the status of the existing canon on African art but also proposed a new counter-canon. Additionally, Trade Routes and Enwezor’s concept of the meeting of worlds might have greater analytical potential as a metaphor for the meeting point of two indecipherable South Africas. Under apartheid, Johannesburg was two “countries,” and people lived in two different realities, depending on one’s history, geography, race, ethnicity, class, gender, culture, education, and opportunities. Enwezor constantly confronted the legacy of racism in small and big ways in South Africa. He was at the center of critical debates about race and representation. While there are all kinds of practical guidelines for how to talk about racism within the larger culture, we still do not have one for talking about racial inequality and racism in institutions, exhibition histories, curatorial practice, and the commercial art world. Instead, we have Okwui Enwezor to accompany us on our quest and to remind us to keep consulting both histories and imaginaries, theories and practices, and to continue to interrogate how cycles are reproduced or radically ruptured.

scholarly journals The Role of Status in the Emergence of Pro-White Bias in Rural Uganda

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Marshall ◽  
Anton Gollwitzer ◽  
Kellen Mermin-Bunnell ◽  
Tara M Mandalaywala
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Community ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Black Children ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
White Children ◽  
Black African ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Status Cues

Research investigating the early emergence of racial prejudice has been largely limited to contexts in which racial prejudice is most likely to emerge—multiracial societies that have pronounced racial inequality (e.g., United States, South Africa). The present study assessed whether pro-White racial bias is also early emerging in a homogenous Black community that has little exposure to modern media and where children presumably experience less overt discrimination than in past samples (e.g., South Africa). Black African children (N = 214) between 5- and 12-years-old living in rural Uganda exhibited substantial pro-White racial bias, preferring White over Black children 78% of the time. Ugandan children also judged White children as higher status than Black children, and these status judgments predicted their degree of pro-White bias. Our results indicate that pro-White racial biases can emerge even in a homogenous Black community and that, in some contexts, minimal status cues are sufficient for the early development of racial prejudice.

scholarly journals Property rights, institutional change and development in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Schirmer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
South African ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Universal System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shed Light

Orientation: This article examined the link between property rights and development in the context of South Africa. Research purpose: The article sought to unpack the implications of Hernando De Soto’s work and the broader institutional economics literature for the policy challenges that South Africa currently confronts. Motivation for the Study: Hernando De Soto’s call for a property rights system accessible to all has had a limited impact in South Africa even though his arguments linking poverty to limited property rights systems seems highly relevant here. This is a legacy of Apartheid that has not yet been properly tackled. At the same time, South African realities may raise questions about De Soto’s conclusions and his policy recommendations. Research design: The article provided a textual analysis of De Soto’s work and then applied it to an investigation of South African poverty and the policies that have been implemented since 1994. The article also drew on seminal contributions to institutional economics to shed light on the process of institutional change, and then showed how this perspective fits with much of what De Soto has written about transforming property rights systems. Main findings: This article argued that extending property rights to all is vital for development and for overcoming a major legacy of apartheid. However, moving from a restricted to a universal system requires fundamental institutional changes that are difficult to achieve. Contribution: While De Soto has often advocated a top-down, overly simplistic policy approach in the past, this article showed that the necessary changes can only come about via an incremental, bottom-up approach. To this end, it is particularly important to strengthen the accountability and capacity of local government.

Maps and Cartography in the History of South Africa: From Print to Digital

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Etherington
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World War I ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Volatile Element ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

The first well-attested maps showing Southern Africa date from the late 15th century. Before the 19th century, maps provided little information about the interior but depicted coastlines in great detail, thanks to the requirements of seaborne navigators. Information about the inhabitants was scanty and skewed by misconceptions about the nature of African societies. Land-based exploration activity increased dramatically in the 1830s but the poorly trained and equipped human agents made many errors that had significant historical consequences. Accuracy in the mapping of physical topography improved with the advent of skilled civil and military surveyors, but entanglement with advancing forces of European colonialism resulted in biased representations of the nature and distribution of the indigenous people. Competition among European invaders during the so-called Scramble for Africa in the last decades of the 19th century made cartography a volatile element in the general mix of combustible material. Continual war among Europeans and Africans also affected the production of maps. The impact of African resistance to colonial surveys and land seizures on map making was for too long neglected by historians. By the end of World War I, the geopolitical boundaries of the region assumed their present configuration, marking off South Africa from its neighbors. The imposition of European rule, racial inequality, and segregation introduced cartographical distinctions between areas in which land was held in freehold title by members of a ruling racial elite and so-called African reserves and locations where land was held communally under the surveillance of traditional authorities. Decolonization beginning in the 1960s swept away the colonial racial order but did not abolish its legacy of boundaries, inequality, and parallel systems of land governance. The advent of geographical information systems, digital mapping, and satellite imaging has revolutionized cartography.

scholarly journals The Influence of Racial Differences in the Demand for Healthcare in South Africa: A Case of Public Healthcare

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (14) ◽  
pp. 5043
Author(s):  
David Mhlanga ◽  
Rufaro Garidzirai
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Access To Healthcare ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Household Survey

The study sought to analyse the influence of racial differences in the demand for public healthcare in South Africa, using the 2018 General Household Survey (GHS) data. This was completed to understand if race still plays a role in access to healthcare in post-apartheid South Africa. Logistic regression analysis revealed that race significantly explained the variance in demand for public healthcare, with White populations having the lowest probability of demand for public healthcare compared to other races. Consequently, the study noted that racial differences still play a critical role in affording one access to healthcare after assessing the situation obtaining in public healthcare. Therefore, the study recommends that the government of South Africa should create policies that encourage equal access to basic services in addressing racial inequality in the country.

Settling on a Shared Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanie du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Peace Accord ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Reality

This chapter challenges the assumption that a society should first deal with its past before moving on to a new future, arguing instead that settling on a shared future provides the basis for dealing with the past. A key question is what kinds of processes can take reconciliation forward and turn it into a political reality characterized by durability and deep-seated institutional change toward inclusivity and fairness. I highlight four mechanisms created during the South African transition that I consider the most important and relevant to reconciliation. These platforms—the National Peace Accord (NPA), the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum (MPNF), and the TRC—carried out vitally important work, expanding the political transition across lines of political conflict. Analyzing the first three mechanisms in terms of their inclusivity and fairness occupies most of the chapter, as well as to understand how they built on, and complemented, one another.

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