Carolyn E. Holmes. The Black and White Rainbow: Reconciliation, Opposition, and Nation-Building in Democratic South Africa. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020. xi + 251 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-472-05463-3; $75.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-472-07463-1.
Reviewed by Jacob Ivey (Florida Memorial University)
Published on H-Africa (September, 2023)
Commissioned by David D. Hurlbut (Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University School of Theology)
The image of South Africa as the “Rainbow Nation” is perhaps one of the most indelible and inspiring of the late twentieth century. However, as the nation of South Africa moves further and further away from Mandela’s image of such a nation “at peace with itself and the world,” questions have arisen about the truth within this vision. Taking a cue from an image from the world-famous South African political cartoonist Zapiro, Carolyn Holmes’s The Black and White Rainbow confronts this notion in a compelling book that ask several fundamental questions about the future of South Africa as a nation-state in the twenty-first century. Centrally, Holmes attempts to understand “how the social divides of the past, specifically those of race, are being re-inscribed in democratic South Africa” and how such divides can be bridged within the nation (p. 13). Fundamentally, Holmes is asking the simple question: “Do South Africans exist? Have they ever?” (p. 27).
To accomplish this goal, Holmes conducted extensive fieldwork across South Africa from 2012 to 2013. She interviewed primarily Afrikaans and isiZulu speakers in Bloemfontein (Free State) and Durban (KwaZulu-Natal) over this period. The purpose behind these locations lies in their longstanding history within South Africa, with Bloemfontein as the founding place for the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC) and the National Party, and Durban’s importance as a cultural center for the nation and an epicenter of South African political life for the ANC and IFP (p. 17). In all, over one hundred people were interviewed for this book from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Though not a complete demographic cross-section of the people of South Africa, Holmes’s detailed explanation of her methodology provides a fascinating lens into her research process and helps to explain the voices that appear in the volume overall.
The structure of the book focuses on a series of themes in each chapter, beginning with an insightful analysis of the historical trajectories of identity politics in South Africa and moving to a discussion of how components of the political transition, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), created “both ahistorical and historically reconstructive symbols—associated with remembering and forgetting” (p. 23). The following chapters deal with democratic contestation and the concept of “exit” from politics, along with the project of nation building. In both these cases, race and belonging are central to the process. Finally, the book concludes with chapters on the politics of place and space and the connections between language and identity in postapartheid South Africa.
In all of these chapters, Holmes successfully introduces the theory behind these concepts and the greater historical context critical to understanding the relevant themes. While an attempt to understand the divide that currently exists within South Africa is nothing new, Holmes gives an insightful and detailed approach to the topic of nation building, critically bringing the personal into larger issues of how we define South Africa today. Holmes argues that the building of a postapartheid South Africa was not just about the implementation of electoral democracy. In fact, nation building “is more than the cessation of hostilities” but instead in constant tension with democratization (p. 187). Both of these elements, according to Holmes, ask “former enemies to forget … not only histories of violence, but perceptions of threats and senses of fear associated with others” (p. 95). This process is enormously personal, and the interviews conducted by Holmes show the enormous complexity of navigating such engagement in the postapartheid era. Sadly, Holmes reveals in her interviews that those living in this new state define their community as “still fundamentally predicated on racialized and gendered subnational groups” (p. 115). Though not groundbreaking, Holmes succeeds in showing how such definitions still permeate all aspects of South African life.
One of the more exciting sections of this book focuses on the issue of everyday life and the ceremonies and performances that define nationhood and identity. Using the idea of cultural ritual as an identifying marker for nationhood, Holmes outlines three classes of events, including “strictly defined ethnocultural rituals” (such as the Day of the Vow and the Reed Dance), “affiliative rituals” (including sporting events and cultural festivals), and “open rituals” that bring in, supposedly, the whole nation, including Heritage Day (remade into National Braai Day) and Reconciliation Day (p. 119). The Day of the Vow and the Reed Dance, both performances not intended for outside audiences, are argued to be, just like affiliated rituals, still performed in largely segregated spaces. Ironically, this signaling of communal identities associated with these rituals continues to “remind South Africans who participate in them about the boundaries of their social imaginary, and the lines that continue to divide the national community” (p. 141).
The real strength of Holmes’s book comes from the interviews that fill each chapter. They provide the primary weight to these arguments, articulating the voices within this “New South Africa” dealing with the changing dynamics of race, power, identity, and politics. The detailed appendix provides clarity as to the interviewees’ background (including languages spoken and recent electoral participation), and the sample introductory and open-ended questions (such as "What makes a person South African?") give a clear understanding of Holmes’s baseline of information as she entered these interviews. While none of the accounts are groundbreaking in their analysis of South African social composition, the variety of voices that appear among these interviews provides an insightful snapshot of a variety of perspectives on history, race, the TRC, emigration, and memory. For any scholar who has visited South Africa in recent years, the conversations are very familiar. The repeated insistence of “I am not a racist” from the Afrikaner interviews is a constant refrain in many discussions, along with the frank comments on the legacy of the “rainbow nation,” including the terse statement “It is bullshit,” which Holmes admits was a view “shared by many participants, both Afrikaans and Zulu speakers” (p. 51).
If there are any limitations to Holmes’s overall argument, it is the unfortunate fact that the answers to her thesis continue to remain fluid. Since its publication in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to call into question the future of the “Rainbow Nation.” Economic inequality within the nation continues to fester, as the divisions within South African society were on full display with the violence in KwaZulu-Natal during the summer of 2021. Holmes cites the actions of President Zuma as an example of how the conduct of political parties “seems to reinscribe the identity politics of race” (p. 79). The issue of corruption remains a constant theme in many of these interviews. However, Zuma’s role in the violence of 2021 illustrates the continued power of such ideas of racial separation and conflict. None of this is the fault of the author, who, like all of us, continues to wrestle with the enormous repercussions from the pandemic and its uncertain future.
The simple truth of the matter, as Holmes rightly concludes her work, is that South Africa and its future is complex. Electoral democracy has “been insufficient for many South Africans to feel their lives have been changed,” and the passage of time may not be sufficient to change such feelings (p. 190). Yet the institutions of government remain intact, even after the violence of 2021. Thankfully, this book provides a blueprint for understanding that future and the continued difficulties in forming a postapartheid state in South Africa. It should be read by all students and scholars of South African history, politics, and society.
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Citation:
Jacob Ivey. Review of Holmes, Carolyn E., The Black and White Rainbow: Reconciliation, Opposition, and Nation-Building in Democratic South Africa.
H-Africa, H-Net Reviews.
September, 2023.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56337
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