From a historical point of view, the position of the Afrikaner community in South Africa and on the global stage has undergone a major transformation. This means that a balance must be created between the phenomenon's agency (or subjectivity) and the structural background on which it is realized. Globalization is considered here as one of the foremost explanations for the structural rearrangement and possible reconfiguration of Afrikaner identity.
Although a global political economy analysis highlights only certain aspects of transition, it is argued that it draws attention to a sphere that has been largely overlooked in the study of identity politics. Especially in the economic field, there is not much that can be distinguished from the later years of the previous dispensation.
THE AFRIKANER NATIONALIST PROJECT
The next three decades were perhaps the most critical in the formation of the Afrikaner nationalist project. Indeed, disturbing and divisive tendencies threatened to undo the hard-won cohesion of the nationalist alliance. These incremental but final shifts in power underscored a similar transformation in the legitimizing ideology of the nationalist project.
This split signaled the beginning of the end for the nationalist alliance and popular nationalist project that had begun during 1948. This time there would be no renewal of the hard-won volkseinita (unity of the people).
THE NATURE OF CONSENSUS IN THE ‘NEW’ SOUTH AFRICA
45 It is beyond the scope of this study to reveal the consequences of these openings for the majority of the ANC's electorate. The ambiguity of the popular hegemonic project is readily apparent in the fragmentary and often discordant roots of the ANC hegemony itself. Although economic policy gradually leaned towards neoliberal orthodoxy, the capitulation of the ANC and its more progressive allies was incomplete.
No single factor can explain the unlikely appeal of the dominant economic discourse to the ANC's leadership. At the forefront of the tools intended to help craft this scenario were the Constitution and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
CONTEMPORARY
MANIFESTATIONS OF AFRIKANER IDENTITY IN AN ERA OF
INCREASING GLOBALISATION
Nevertheless, the terms of the debate have shifted paradigmatically and the challenge is formidable. Hall foresees a shift in the cultural politics of minorities to a "politics of representative relations." The nature of the constitutional arrangement and the majoritarian democratic system it contains is a significant achievement.
Now that the political endgame has been reached, dialogue between elements of the former Afrikaner establishment and the government continues. 81 agenda.46 Much of the initial impetus came from the ranks of the ANC itself. The status of the Afrikaans language and the protection of cultural diversity remain contentious issues.
The development of the African identity project demonstrates that there is a special historical connection between the structure of capitalism and the African community. So far, the terms of this cooperation have largely been implemented within the parameters of the neoliberal economic consensus. The support of African capital elites for government macroeconomic policies is widespread and deep.
In the wake of the BEEC report, however, a more assertive version of empowerment has begun to take shape. 97 public and private sectors under the Broad-Based Black Empowerment Act (53 of 2003). Whether this is a continuation of the conflict within Africanism as a whole over the merits of economic growth that began in the 1970s remains to be seen.
THE ‘LOGIC OF THE LOCAL’
IN CONTEMPORARY AFRIKANER IDENTITY POLITICS
Here, too, the Broederbonden played an important role, although this was dampened by the size of the province. This similarly reflected the very different (personal and provincial) interpretations of the nationalist project which also affected the NP; actually. There is no doubt that 'large numbers of Afrikaner workers, farmers and civil servants in the lower income groups [were] disaffected'15 by the systematic fragmentation of the nationalist alliance.
The nature of the link between (national and provincial) politics and culture – the definition and essence of Afrikanerdom – was a central point of THE 'LOGICOFTHE LOCAL' 105. Today it remains at the heart of the debate on the interpretation and defense of Afrikaans language and culture in the new South Africa. The nationalist establishment was thus seen as the single and authentic voice of the Afrikaner community.
To understand these identifications, each cultural, economic and political sphere must be carefully examined. The price of this conformity exacted a heavy toll on the "new Afrikaans policy". As to the nature and extent of this connection, much depends on one's interpretation of today's political scene.
Members of the younger generation have historically been perhaps the most visible proponents of this new tradition. Different Afrikaans speakers have responded very differently to the fate of the Afrikaans language and the younger age group is no different in this regard. Incoherence remains perhaps the defining feature of the character of identification among contemporary African speakers.
RENEWING THE CONSENSUS IN A POST-APARTHEID ERA?
The global character of the current world order has had a major effect on the political economy of post-apartheid African identification with the uneven consolidation of the liberal project in contemporary South Africa. Broader structural changes were linked to changes in identification within grouping elements by analyzing the links between social forces in South Africa and the globalized economy. In this case, the historical context of the transition and the uneven consolidation of the liberal project were evaluated.
It has been argued that among these critical constituents, the dirigiste direction of traditional Afrikanerdom has been overtaken by a hegemonic common sense of the role that South Africa should play in the new global order. Most importantly, these constituent parts were empowered to varying degrees by the character of the transition and the neoliberal turn that followed. A concentration on the status of the Afrikaans language and the accompanying argument for cultural space created an agenda plagued by contradictions.
What it is impossible to ignore is that both share an uncritical understanding of the current environment. What is clear is that the singular nationalist discourse of the past has all but disappeared as a new Other takes shape. Because it is on the basis of the structural background of the global economy and the closely linked ideology of globalization that the dynamics of identity politics and Africanness can now be best understood.
It has been shown that the acceptance of the global neo-liberal consensus in the domestic sphere has largely defeated and destroyed the ethnic slant of the social coalitions and sentiments that previously fueled African solidarity. It includes an echo of the class divisions that have affected the community since the 1960s. This is a result of the changing structure of opportunities that must be set against the structural background of globalization and the character of the hegemonic project itself.
NOTES
41 S Cornelissen & S Horstmeier "The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape Province" Journal of Modern African Studies. 65 H Marais South Africa: Frontiers for Change: The Political Economy of Transition in South Africa Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press. 54 For a comprehensive overview of the contradictions of the apartheid economy, see: S Gelb (ed) South Africa's Economic Crisis.
4 T Koelble The Global Economy and Democracy in South Africa New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 30 J Michie & V Padayachee in: J Michie & V Padayachee (eds) The Political Economy of South Africa's Transition: 11. The author offers a brief discussion of identifications among the Afrikaans 'community' in the new South Africa.
138 D Randall 'Prospects for the Development of a Black Business Class in South Africa' Journal of Modern African Studies. 60 S Cornelissen & S Horstmeier ‘The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape province’ Journal of Modern African Studies. In today's South African sub-group identities have become important elements in support of national identity.
65 S Cornelissen & S Horstmeier 'The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape Province' Journal of Modern African Studies. 68 S Cornelissen & S Horstmeier 'The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape Province' Journal of Modern African Studies. 71 S Cornelissen & S Horstmeier 'The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape Province' Journal of Modern African Studies.
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