“For sure you are going to die!”: Political participation and the comrade movement in Inanda, Kwazulu‐Natal

by David Hemson, 1996

The study of Inanda comrades is one of a movement forcibly excluded from the official society of late apartheid and from political participation in the institutions of power: as an insurrectionary grouping the movement was dedicated to initiating and expanding resistance and seizing on the national strivings for power to force an entry into the political realm. By such compelling interference in the politics of apartheid they attempted to destroy it. The movement provides an indication of political participation of an entirely different order from that of voting and conventional politics; in being prepared to sacrifice their lives, the comrades created a local political culture themselves.

The Making of the 'Comrades' Movement in Natal, 1985-91

by Ari Sitas, 1992

Sociologists have largely discussed 'comrades' or 'amaqabane' within the parameters of two broad social indicators: black youth unemployment and 'anomic' behaviour. The first indicator, unemployment, has destroyed the life-chances and aspirations of the majority of youths. Studies like those of the Inkatha Institute emphasise how unemployment led to frustration and how that turned into aggression and violence. The second indicator is that of 'normlessness', the breakdown of values, the breakdown of a communal social solidarity and the anti- social actions that follow. The 'normlessness' school is much favoured by sociologists. Elements of a Durkheimean conception of 'anomie' based on the breakdown of social solidarity, norms, and the family are presented as definitive of black youth behaviour. In what follows I will argue against both indicators.

Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid

by Belinda Bozzoli, Wits University Press, 2004

This is a compelling study of the origins and trajectory of a legendary black uprising against Apartheid – the Alexandra Rebellion of 1986. Using insights from literature on collective action and social movements, it delves deep into the rebellion’s inner workings. It examines how residents of Alexandra – a poverty-stricken, segregated township in Johannesburg – manipulated and overturned the meanings of space, time and power in their sequestered world; how they used political theatre to convey, stage and dramatise their struggle; and how young and old residents generated differing ideologies and tactics, giving rise to a distinct form of generational politics.