Producing post-apartheid space : an ethnography of race, place and subjectivity in Stellenbosch, South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the end of Apartheid, many scholars of South Africa celebrateddemocratisation and offered optimism for the end of racial segregation. Racial segregation,however, still exists in South Africa and in Stellenbosch each residential place is dividedalong skin colour lines. Such a pattern is far from the position of optimism and seems tosuggest that race continues to manifest itself materially through space in Post-ApartheidSouth Africa, even if such segregation is not imposed by Apartheid laws. This thesisdescribes how different individuals, especially foreigners, enter historically designated racialareas - 'African', 'Coloured', 'White' – and are 'interpellated' into particular racial categories.It aims to grasp the process of abstraction at work when the attempt is made to constructforeigners in these racial categories, and how these individuals come to perceive South Africa.The study suggests that at the points in which the interpellation of race fails are precisely themoments in which we see the possibility for the formation of a truly post-ApartheidSubjectivity.The thesis is cognisant of the particularity of place: focusing on Stellenbosch in theWestern Cape necessarily involves engaging specificities of the historical construction ofrace that mark place in the present, especially in this province. Whilst the discovery of gold inthe former Transvaal drove the exploitation of African mine workers and was important inthe formation of race there, in the Western Cape the importance economically of the slaveand later free labour of Coloured farm workers is important in grasping racial formations inStellenbosch. At the same time, however, I present the case of an unemployed South Africanwomen who is unable to live in any areas previously designated by race, and through her tale,suggest that relationships between race and labour might be being undone, even as thisundoing is fraught and not producing subjects who can feel comfortable in democracy.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University