Clearing the air

The cognitive inflexibility of South African (black) voters has been a long lamented fact, more so now with cloying creative chaos within the ANC (African National Congress). Opposition parties are trying to think of best ways to feed on the carrion of ruling party infightings. Is it still a certain thing that the ANC will win the next election with a big, albeit diminishing, margin? Many are hoping for the break up of the ANC to give voters alternative and spell what is called ‘the normalisation of our politics’, meaning full multiparty, or at least two party, democracy. Helen Zille, the leader of DA (democratic Alliance) said as much: “We have to bring party formations in line with the new reality, the real political divisions of our time. The biggest barrier to this process is the democrats in the ANC who believe their party is redeemable. It is not."

Forgetting a while about know it all liberal attitude, and mistaken assumptions that people do not know what’s good for them; let’s look closer at the psychological reasons (I believe they are the major stumbling block) why black people in South Africa don’t seem too eager to join in the so called political realities of our times. Certainly the element of nostalgia, of regarding the ANC as the author of democracy in this country, is present. But alone, I believe, this is not enough reason holding people back. Economic policies too play a part, after all, to paraphrase Charles Péguy's dictum, everything does end up in politics, or, as the case may be, economics. More than that, South Africa seems to be among countries that make nonsense out of Fukuyama thesis that “There are no serious ideological competitors left to liberal democracy.” The rise of China’s state capitalism in communist creed, the revanchist Russia, and native Venezuelan democracy, being few other examples.

The DA, for instance, is a liberal party, which means that its gestalt is largely Millian. In a nutshell, John Stuart Mill’s promoted a society which at best would be peaceful, open, and creative place, where diverse individuals respect each other's rights and law, while banding together voluntarily to help those in need. He believed in laws for the common good and freedom of association according to vested interests. That, in essence, is a liberal view and what has, quintessentially, come to be known as a social contract. What it does not offer, even at its best, is a deep sense of belonging. This is why the liberal view does not appeal to a black man’s collective mind. Also the liberal view tends to neglect the issue of class struggle, something ingrained in the collective struggle of Africa, hugely influenced by Marxism.

The African view does not regard the individual as the basic social unit, but family structure as a model for all institutions. It respects hierarchal authority, which is why you mostly hear that the ANC is not just an organisation but a home. Individuals in African societies are born into strong and constraining relationships. This sometimes profoundly limit their autonomy—something adverse to the liberal mind—but gives a sense of belonging. “Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free himself from all social pressure is to abandon himself and demoralize him." Africans share this view with Emile Durkheim.

African societies strive to be stable networks composed of many nested and overlapping groups that socialize, reshape, and care for individuals who, if left to their own devices, would fall into abjectness. Their shortcoming, for instance, is this collective support can easily fall into suborn cronyism and patronage on those with public authority or social power. The liberal view too has its own short-coming; when left to its own devices, without regulation, for instance, it tends to become a pursuit of shallow, carnal, and selfish pleasures (something the liberal view tend to confuse with freedom of expression).

I chose the psychological underpinnings to avoid Max Weber’s cultural determinism (the wrong belief that culture is the cornerstone of economic development. Weber thought Confucianism was incompatible with economic growth, yet South Korea and Taiwan has put paid to that theory. His followers today say Islam impedes development but do not know how to explain Turkey and Indonesia). If everything sooner or later ends in economics then the majority of South Africans do not believe market forces can deliver optimum result for social interests of the majority. They want the state to legitimately intervene and endorse some form of wealth redistribution in ensuring a minimum standard of living for all. Perhaps opposition parties will do well in harping on these points, until, at least, the psychological ambience and historical baggage is cleared.