Books by Ndumiso Dladla
Here is a Table A Philosophical Essay on History and Race Ism in South Africa , 2020
The text first published in 2017 is a treatise on the nature of a racism as a political-historica... more The text first published in 2017 is a treatise on the nature of a racism as a political-historical phenomenon. The book's central argument is that the failure of liberal theorisations of racism predominant in South African public and juridical discourse is the insufficient attention such accounts give to the historicity of racism. Taking history seriously shows that racism is properly speaking White Supremacy and cannot be undone discursively but requires the rearrangement of political and economic reality. In the case of South Africa this means nothing less than the restoration of title to territory and sovereignty over it to the indigenous conquered people. Until this is done we shall have to remain speaking of whites and Blacks, of conquerors and the indigenous people conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation. Far from mere names these are descriptors of a sustained historical antagonism which continues to lead to death in the case of the former and parasitic and unjust life in the case of the latter.
The purpose of this work is two-fold. First, it is to address particularly the philosophical prob... more The purpose of this work is two-fold. First, it is to address particularly the philosophical problems underlying the mistaken diagnosis that the identification and resistance of racism by its victims is itself a form of racism. Second, this work intends to provide a philosophical account of racism based on the South African experience. Our approach to this task will consist of several legs.Understood in one way this book’s primary theoretical aim can be characterised as an exposition of the synonymy between racism and white supremacy through a philosophical critique of a-historical conceptions of racism. The central contention advanced by this book is that an attempt to ahistoricise racism and represent it as such subtracts experience and meaning from it and so also robs it of truthfulness. It also reduces white supremacy to one of racism’s mere contingencies and ends up, for example, incorrectly equating epiphenomena such as anti-whiteness to white supremacy.
Our argument throughout the book is that a correct understanding of racism is necessarily historical and that dislocating racism from its historical basis, purpose and development necessarily produces untenable results bothhermeneutically and ethically.
Papers by Ndumiso Dladla
African Economic History, 2024
African Economic History, 2024
The right of conquest is a doctrine in the theory of international law
in terms of which victory ... more The right of conquest is a doctrine in the theory of international law
in terms of which victory in war entitles the victor both to the title to territory of the vanquished as well as sovereignty over them. Far from being a mere event, however, conquest is an ongoing process, structure, and relation of domination. Despite the widely celebrated “transition to democracy” and the supposed triumph of popular sovereignty in South Africa in the past three decades, we argue that South Africa’s “democratic” constitutional order remains firmly rooted in the dubious right of conquest asserted since the defeat of its indigenous people in the unjust wars of Western colonization, which began in the mid-seventeenth century. In this article we critically reflect on South African historiography by asking “Who conquered South Africa”? The question is necessary because sovereign power is both misunderstood and obfuscated in South African contemporary history and
public discourse. We argue that conquest, and its attendant concepts of sovereignty and war, are deliberately underemphasized in South African historiography despite being at the root of problems regarding economic sovereignty. Our argument considers the problem of succession to conquest, in terms of which both the title to territory and sovereignty over the conquered is transferred from the conqueror to another party who then enjoys these entitlements and powers. We trace various successors in title to Conquest South Africa, and show that their economic power originates in the right of conquest. Their ownership of South Africa’s natural resources originates in the title to territory acquired through its disseisin following the conquest of the indigenous people, and in the same way their continued de facto sovereignty over that population now takes the form of the wanton and relentless exploitation of their labor power.
Our understanding of racism is that it is the systematic doubt concerning the humanity of the oth... more Our understanding of racism is that it is the systematic doubt concerning the humanity of the other. It is a means to an end, namely, to pursue the dehumanisation of the other for one’s sole and exclusive benefit. The doubt is in itself ethically indefensible. Yet, it ultimately acquires the status of an incontrovertible truth around which economic and political life is organised and conducted. This has been and continues to be the reality in South Africa today. The hypothesis of this book is that a philosophical-historical study of racism will reveal that it has only ever been and continues to be white supremacy. In South Africa the actuality of the doubt is that it has always arisen from one side (“whiteness”) and directed itself against the other (“blackness”). Our purpose is to show that racism properly speaking is white supremacy and that it cannot be properly understood without African philosophy.
Theoria
Even though the Pan Africanist Congress was formed in 1959 after departing from the African Natio... more Even though the Pan Africanist Congress was formed in 1959 after departing from the African National Congress at a point marking out the irreconcilability of the Azanian ‘faith’ with the other interpretations of the struggle within the ‘broad church’ of the Congress Movement, it was only six years later, in 1965, that it modified its name to the PAC of Azania. The name Azania is supposed to have been suggested by Nkrumah at the All-African Peoples’ Conference in 1958 attended by the Africanists even before the inauguration of the PAC (Diaz 2009: 239; Hilton 1993: 5). The Azanian tendency in ‘South African’ history can arguably be said to have existed from the earliest times of resistance by the indigenous people against the unjust wars of colonisation (see Dladla 2020: 71–108).
Theoria: A journal of Social and Political Theory, 2021
A brief introduction to an open access Special Issue recently published by Theoria. The special i... more A brief introduction to an open access Special Issue recently published by Theoria. The special issue traces the Azanian Tradition in its various guises and tries to work out its implication both for knowledge and action today. Beginning with the archeology , geography and history of Azania where the tradition gets its name. The issue then moves to political philosophy, the sociology of knowledge, the foundations of the social sciences, the politics of contemporary philosophy, Ideology and historiography of "South Africa" and concludes with an essay on aesthetics. The issue is an invitation to other researchers to move beyond the fields examined and of course to deepen the examination of what is here only just opened up. Please see https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/theoria/68/168/theoria.68.issue-168.xml where the entire special issue is available for free and includes essays by Athi Mongezeleli Joja, Felix Chami, Anjuli Wesbster ,Bryan Mukandi, Terblanche Delport, Tsenay Serequeberhan and Joel Modiri,
South African Journal of Human Rights , 2018
(The following article appears as part of a special issue edited by Joel Modiri based on a selec... more (The following article appears as part of a special issue edited by Joel Modiri based on a selected collection of papers which were presented at a conference at Wits University in May 2017 on Conquest and Constitutionalism. )
In this article we will argue that beyond its general status and identity as the supreme law of South Africa, the 1996 constitution (hereinafter the constitution) is also a historiographical paradigm. We shall begin by providing general description and overview of Azanian critical philosophy focussing on its relationship to the constitution. This will be followed by a discussion on the nature of history itself and the relationship between historical knowledge and power. We will then turn to the history of South Africa in particular, which is understood both as a history of conquest as well as the conquest of history. The final parts of the article will argue that the wholesale resumption of the history of liberation is the most crucial possibility condition for the liberation of history itself.
The article is a post-script to Racism and the Marginality of African Philosophy. Seen one way, i... more The article is a post-script to Racism and the Marginality of African Philosophy. Seen one way, it is a biography of the earlier article detailing its prepublication history. It contains an analysis and discussion of some of the reviews and dynamics which befell the article in South Africa prior to its publication there. Its argument is that African Philosophy is not simply Marginal but MarginalISED. In large part by the racial power politics of the academic establishment and wide-spread commitment to ignorance of white professors, supervisors, reviewers and other gatekeepers who continue to enjoy immense power over a discourse and people which they not only know little about but wish even less to learn about.
The following article begins with a brief discussion on the continuity of white supremacy in Sout... more The following article begins with a brief discussion on the continuity of white supremacy in South Africa, despite wide attempts by the institutions of opinion (public discourse, journalism and academe) to represent the present time as non-racial or post-racial. After a discussion of the contemporary context the focus turns specifically to the relevance of race and racism to philosophy and the implications this has for African philosophy in particular. The article then briefly examines the history of Western education and the practice of philosophy in South Africa from the point of view of African philosophy and its marginality in South Africa.
South Africa since 1994 is widely represented as a society which has broken both historically and... more South Africa since 1994 is widely represented as a society which has broken both historically and politically with white supremacy. One of the central discursive pillars sustaining this representation is the appeal to the most recent South African constitution Act 108 of 1996, the founding provisions of which declare that South Africa is founded on the value of non-racialism. The central argument of this article is that an examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the non-racialism of the constitution can give us a better understanding of why and how South Africa remains a racial polity despite the coming into effect of the constitution. We will conclude the article by considering the ethical and political demands which must be met before the actuality of non-racialism may be experienced.
Although 1994 is popularly represented as a year of major transition from an oppressive society t... more Although 1994 is popularly represented as a year of major transition from an oppressive society to a democratic one in South African history, it did not mark the end of White Supremacy but instead its evolution from one constitutional form into another. This is because the so-called “right of conquest” remains affirmed in South Africa by the much celebrated constitution Act 108 of 1996. Since the early 90s, Ubuntu has been employed by the elite parties involved in the “negotiations” for the transition to the “new” South Africa, to justify the new society. This perverse employment of Ubuntu has been largely supported with the aid of sophistic academic posturing by the largely white academic establishment in South Africa and its network of international allies. Using African philosophical hermeneutics as a method, we will ground another interpretation of Ubuntu which stems from two interrelated roots. The first root is a firm understanding of and engagement with the Bantu languages and cultures which are its primordial philosophical basis (and thus crucial) on the one hand. The second is the study of the history of Ubuntu as lived and living philosophy responding to the challenge of the conquest of the indigenous people in the unjust wars of colonisation. Towards this end we will draw from the experience of Ubuntu-inspired movements in the history of the wars of resistance and the struggle for liberation ongoing since 1652.
In this German translation done by Franz Martin Wimmer, We engage in a discussion of work we've b... more In this German translation done by Franz Martin Wimmer, We engage in a discussion of work we've been engaged in over the past 3 years, we examine the continuity of colonial racism in academic philosophy in South since 1994 and the advent of the "new" South Africa. We do this by comparing the present to the past of philosophical teaching and practice. Our argument is that the marginalisation of African philosophy is correspondent to the elsewhere political and social reality of the marginalisation of the indigenous people conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation. This occurs most tangibly through the outstanding resolution of the restoration of sovereignty over the territory and title over it to the indigenous people.
We proceed firstly through a detailed and sympathetic examination of the contents of the text's c... more We proceed firstly through a detailed and sympathetic examination of the contents of the text's chapters, welcoming the fact of the rarity of the critical examination of white liberalism from an African point of view. We then turn critically towards the author's suspected deliberate ignorance of famous critical work done by the ANC's liberation others (The PAC and BCM). We conclude by problematising the author's glossing over the ANC's own liberal complicity which finds highest expression in the liberal constitution the ANC regularly claims as a liberation achievement.
Book Chapter by Ndumiso Dladla
Decolonisation: Revolution and Evolution, 2023
of the right of conquest in Western philosophy and its historical application
in South Africa, we... more of the right of conquest in Western philosophy and its historical application
in South Africa, we will discuss the political ontology of Blackness
by focusing upon the question of time. We show that around the world,
wherever Blackness exists, it is accompanied by its own horology, which
we will examine by focusing on three of its components: ‘lifetime’, ‘age’
and ‘free time’.
The Tenacity of Truthfulness: Philosophical Essays in Honour of Mogobe Bernard Ramose, 2019
Appearing as a chapter in Yitah and Lauer's (2019) The Tenacity for Truthfulness: Philosophical E... more Appearing as a chapter in Yitah and Lauer's (2019) The Tenacity for Truthfulness: Philosophical Essays in Honour of Mogobe Bernard Ramose, the chapter is a revised version of an article published in 2017 in Filosofia Theoretica under the title: Towards an African Critical Philosophy of Race : Ubuntu as Philopraxis for Liberation.
In South Africa since the early 1990s, Ubuntu has been employed by the elite parties involved in the “negotiations” for transition to justify the new society. This perverse employment of Ubuntu has been largely supported with the aid of sophistic academic posturing by the largely white academic establishment in South Africa and its network of international allies. However, Mogobe Ramose’s body of work on Ubuntu, at least since the publication of his 1999 African Philosophy Through Ubuntu, marks an altogether different and relatively rare tendency within the discourse to understand Ubuntu as a philopraxis for liberation. In this article we exposit Ramose’s interpretation of Ubuntu which has ts basis in two interrelated roots. The first root is his firm understanding of and engagement with the Bantu languages and cultures which are the philosophical basis of Ubuntu. The second is the history of Ubuntu as lived and continually living philosophy, responding to the challenge of the conquest of the indigenous people in the unjust wars of colonisation.
The essay itself means to treat the way in which the general suppression and marginalisation of ... more The essay itself means to treat the way in which the general suppression and marginalisation of the African perspective in South African Education is an affirmation of an age-old philosophic racism and a confirmation of the pre-dominance of the white-supremacist power structure in South Africa. Our method will be to briefly treat the general history of racism with specific reference to the contact between Europeans and Africans, more specifically indigenous South Africans some time after the expeditions of conquest and settlement of the European invaders. We will then focus on this racism in the domain of education, focusing particularly on higher education and using the discipline of philosophy as a case study both because it is the area of training of the present author as well as because philosophy pervades all other disciplines and so our focus should have a specific as well as a general appeal. After arguing that very little has changed in the culture and practice of universities in South Africa since 1994, we will finally show how this condition of our universities, presents a serious obstacle to both Historical Justice and true liberation for the indigenous African people of the country.
Popular Media by Ndumiso Dladla
a short response to a newspaper article published in the Sunday Independent in which commentator ... more a short response to a newspaper article published in the Sunday Independent in which commentator Imraan Buccus accuses student activists of the Fees Must Fall movement of theoretical confusion
Uploads
Books by Ndumiso Dladla
Our argument throughout the book is that a correct understanding of racism is necessarily historical and that dislocating racism from its historical basis, purpose and development necessarily produces untenable results bothhermeneutically and ethically.
Papers by Ndumiso Dladla
in terms of which victory in war entitles the victor both to the title to territory of the vanquished as well as sovereignty over them. Far from being a mere event, however, conquest is an ongoing process, structure, and relation of domination. Despite the widely celebrated “transition to democracy” and the supposed triumph of popular sovereignty in South Africa in the past three decades, we argue that South Africa’s “democratic” constitutional order remains firmly rooted in the dubious right of conquest asserted since the defeat of its indigenous people in the unjust wars of Western colonization, which began in the mid-seventeenth century. In this article we critically reflect on South African historiography by asking “Who conquered South Africa”? The question is necessary because sovereign power is both misunderstood and obfuscated in South African contemporary history and
public discourse. We argue that conquest, and its attendant concepts of sovereignty and war, are deliberately underemphasized in South African historiography despite being at the root of problems regarding economic sovereignty. Our argument considers the problem of succession to conquest, in terms of which both the title to territory and sovereignty over the conquered is transferred from the conqueror to another party who then enjoys these entitlements and powers. We trace various successors in title to Conquest South Africa, and show that their economic power originates in the right of conquest. Their ownership of South Africa’s natural resources originates in the title to territory acquired through its disseisin following the conquest of the indigenous people, and in the same way their continued de facto sovereignty over that population now takes the form of the wanton and relentless exploitation of their labor power.
In this article we will argue that beyond its general status and identity as the supreme law of South Africa, the 1996 constitution (hereinafter the constitution) is also a historiographical paradigm. We shall begin by providing general description and overview of Azanian critical philosophy focussing on its relationship to the constitution. This will be followed by a discussion on the nature of history itself and the relationship between historical knowledge and power. We will then turn to the history of South Africa in particular, which is understood both as a history of conquest as well as the conquest of history. The final parts of the article will argue that the wholesale resumption of the history of liberation is the most crucial possibility condition for the liberation of history itself.
Book Chapter by Ndumiso Dladla
in South Africa, we will discuss the political ontology of Blackness
by focusing upon the question of time. We show that around the world,
wherever Blackness exists, it is accompanied by its own horology, which
we will examine by focusing on three of its components: ‘lifetime’, ‘age’
and ‘free time’.
In South Africa since the early 1990s, Ubuntu has been employed by the elite parties involved in the “negotiations” for transition to justify the new society. This perverse employment of Ubuntu has been largely supported with the aid of sophistic academic posturing by the largely white academic establishment in South Africa and its network of international allies. However, Mogobe Ramose’s body of work on Ubuntu, at least since the publication of his 1999 African Philosophy Through Ubuntu, marks an altogether different and relatively rare tendency within the discourse to understand Ubuntu as a philopraxis for liberation. In this article we exposit Ramose’s interpretation of Ubuntu which has ts basis in two interrelated roots. The first root is his firm understanding of and engagement with the Bantu languages and cultures which are the philosophical basis of Ubuntu. The second is the history of Ubuntu as lived and continually living philosophy, responding to the challenge of the conquest of the indigenous people in the unjust wars of colonisation.
Popular Media by Ndumiso Dladla
Our argument throughout the book is that a correct understanding of racism is necessarily historical and that dislocating racism from its historical basis, purpose and development necessarily produces untenable results bothhermeneutically and ethically.
in terms of which victory in war entitles the victor both to the title to territory of the vanquished as well as sovereignty over them. Far from being a mere event, however, conquest is an ongoing process, structure, and relation of domination. Despite the widely celebrated “transition to democracy” and the supposed triumph of popular sovereignty in South Africa in the past three decades, we argue that South Africa’s “democratic” constitutional order remains firmly rooted in the dubious right of conquest asserted since the defeat of its indigenous people in the unjust wars of Western colonization, which began in the mid-seventeenth century. In this article we critically reflect on South African historiography by asking “Who conquered South Africa”? The question is necessary because sovereign power is both misunderstood and obfuscated in South African contemporary history and
public discourse. We argue that conquest, and its attendant concepts of sovereignty and war, are deliberately underemphasized in South African historiography despite being at the root of problems regarding economic sovereignty. Our argument considers the problem of succession to conquest, in terms of which both the title to territory and sovereignty over the conquered is transferred from the conqueror to another party who then enjoys these entitlements and powers. We trace various successors in title to Conquest South Africa, and show that their economic power originates in the right of conquest. Their ownership of South Africa’s natural resources originates in the title to territory acquired through its disseisin following the conquest of the indigenous people, and in the same way their continued de facto sovereignty over that population now takes the form of the wanton and relentless exploitation of their labor power.
In this article we will argue that beyond its general status and identity as the supreme law of South Africa, the 1996 constitution (hereinafter the constitution) is also a historiographical paradigm. We shall begin by providing general description and overview of Azanian critical philosophy focussing on its relationship to the constitution. This will be followed by a discussion on the nature of history itself and the relationship between historical knowledge and power. We will then turn to the history of South Africa in particular, which is understood both as a history of conquest as well as the conquest of history. The final parts of the article will argue that the wholesale resumption of the history of liberation is the most crucial possibility condition for the liberation of history itself.
in South Africa, we will discuss the political ontology of Blackness
by focusing upon the question of time. We show that around the world,
wherever Blackness exists, it is accompanied by its own horology, which
we will examine by focusing on three of its components: ‘lifetime’, ‘age’
and ‘free time’.
In South Africa since the early 1990s, Ubuntu has been employed by the elite parties involved in the “negotiations” for transition to justify the new society. This perverse employment of Ubuntu has been largely supported with the aid of sophistic academic posturing by the largely white academic establishment in South Africa and its network of international allies. However, Mogobe Ramose’s body of work on Ubuntu, at least since the publication of his 1999 African Philosophy Through Ubuntu, marks an altogether different and relatively rare tendency within the discourse to understand Ubuntu as a philopraxis for liberation. In this article we exposit Ramose’s interpretation of Ubuntu which has ts basis in two interrelated roots. The first root is his firm understanding of and engagement with the Bantu languages and cultures which are the philosophical basis of Ubuntu. The second is the history of Ubuntu as lived and continually living philosophy, responding to the challenge of the conquest of the indigenous people in the unjust wars of colonisation.