Answer to Question #234890 in Political Science for KJ JEVU

Question

South Africa is a “non-racial” country with serious problem of race relations. Analyse the barriers and propose strategies to forging a sense of common nationhood/social cohesion in South Africa. Your proposal should be grounded in political theory and include successful examples applicable to certain countries in the world. 

Answer 1

South Africa, despite its diversity, has yet to come together to establish a country founded on shared values, traditions, and history. Both ethnically and racially, it remains split. This does not imply that South Africa's democracy is broken. It simply asserts that South Africa continues to confront problems in building a unified nation, as seen by concerns of class, ethnicity, race, and identity (Cooper, 2020). For instance, the issue of class divides and politics in Kenya is usually mistaken for racism. After decades of racism, tyranny, and economic divides, South Africans enthusiastically embraced the end of apartheid. Notwithstanding a constitution that is widely regarded as among the most gradual in the world and the integration of various legislative initiatives and programs, many people believe that more needs to be done to recognize the assurance of basic human rights and to lessen income disparities, economic hardship, human lack of development, and unequal availability of essential services. Socioeconomic and historical racism is to blame for insufficient of development, impoverishment, inequalities, and unequal access to fundamental amenities. For instance, racial minorities’ poverty in the US is usually because of historical colonialism and racism (WILLIAMS, 1999). Another indicator is that the failure to discuss racism in a manner that tackles the racist imbalances the nation inherited from apartheid and has been worsened by 17 years of neoliberal ANC government. In South Africa, there is a dearth of political establishment emerging to drive this discussion. Instead, racism is discussed in a primary, simple, and undemocratic manner. This paper thus aims to clarify the aspect of “non-racial” in South Africa.

References

Cooper, S. (2020). Racism is personal. South African Journal of Psychology, 50(3), 301-303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246320948438

WILLIAMS, D. R. (1999). Race, socioeconomic status, and health the added effects of racism and discrimination. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896(1), 173-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08114.x