Launch of 'South Africa, Settler Colonialism and the Failures of Liberal Democracy'

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

WiSER and Wits University Press invite you to a book launch and discussion of nationalism and the geography of power after apartheid.  

In 2000, Thiven Reddy published Hegemony and Resistance: Contesting Identities in South Africa. His new book, South Africa, Settler Colonialism and the Failures of Liberal Democracy, deepens his earlier critique of conventional approaches to democratisation. In particular, he reinterprets South African political dynamics in reference to two “publics” - the formal constitutional  arena of modernist institutions, regular elections, political parties and social rights; and the domains of what he terms “the extraordinary”, that is, the infatuation with threats and actual use of violence, the re-racialization of identities and the proliferation of various forms of protest.

To debate his hypothesis and to assess the pertinence of his findings in the context of the ongoing shifts and realignment within the South African polity, the author will be in conversation with Achille Mbembe, Research Professor in History and Politics (WiSER), and Zimitri Erasmus, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. Chaired by Shireen Ally, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. 

RSVP by Tuesday, 20th September to info.witspress@wits.ac.za 

All welcome.