Title: Oomen, Barbara. Chiefs in South Africa: Law, Power and Culture in the Post-Apartheid Era
Abstract: Oomen, Barbara. Chiefs in South Africa: Law, power and in the Post-Apartheid era. Oxford: James Curry, 2005. 272 pp. That thing [traditional leader] is really part and parcel of our black culture; it should be retained. Even if some of us originally grew up on farms outside the tribal areas. Paying the traditional leaders, however, would be overdoing it. These people are just like us. They should go out and look for a job. After all, they are not really serving us with anything and just demand tribute from the community. (Middle aged male from a populated area) Oomen, p. 164. The mention of South Africa brings to mind the brutal crime of European colonization, the expropriation of land and resources, the marginalization of Black African populations to townships and the worst lands, and the horrific exploitation and repression inflicted on generations of an entire first nation, indigenous Black African population. Colonialism evolved into apartheid. With the end of the latter in 1994 celebrations abounded, speeches for peace and justice were made, revenge killings took place, and Afrikaners took flight or scrambled to re-evaluate options. The indigenous turned toward cultural rediscovery, re-appropriation of traditional practices, assertion of rights, and a renewal of the spirit. The wounds of collective trauma would be healed through culture, tradition, and language. Such a renaissance included the revival of traditional leadership in a post-apartheid context, although as Oomen points out, chieftaincy bore a startling resemblance to past paradigms that formed the building blocks of indirect rule and apartheid polities (p. 12). For some, chieftaincy was a reminder of the ruler and the ruled. Would such a traditional resurgence challenge the ideal of group rights with equality for all, an idea that formed the basis of Mandela's struggle against any domination, Black or White? Historically, legal documents were the foundation of apartheid's homeland policies. Here, the Bantu peoples of South Africa--Black South Africans were at times officially called Bantu--were not considered a homogenous population, instead they formed national units on the basis of language and culture (Oomen, p. 13). These separate units contained systems of law and governance, in need and capable of official recognition (p. 13). Such differences in and customary law, which included chiefs, literally divided first nation, indigenous collective strength. This practice resulted in fragmentation of the Bantu homeland; ten ethnic Bantu regions were classified as minority rule. In general, traditional native authorities, chiefs, were valued by both colonial and apartheid governments in their function as agents of local rule and part of the government machinery. Their value came in their ability to assert native authority, supported by military apparatus, in the interest of colonial rules and regulations, a practice relatively parallel to British indirect rule. A divided first nation facilitated the argument that it was difficult to establish democracy in a context where a homogenous Black majority was absent. Barbara Ommen's Chiefs in South Africa: Law, power, and in the Post-Apartheid era, is a smoothly written book based on the complex relationship between the legitimacy of chiefs, tradition and socio political interaction and dialogue. The book is based on multi-sited ethnographic research, focusing on Sekhukhune, or Bopedi, the heartland of Pedi identity, cradle of its customs and bearer of a proud identity (p. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-09-22
Language: en
Type: article
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