the line of racial exclusionism.^69 The intimate experience of this racial subjugation made
poignant by the agency of state power especially in its apogee during the apartheid
dispensation explains why Lewis Nkosi, by way of retrospection, comments on what he
considers the exposition of the unpalatable in Cornell West’s book:
When Cornell West published a book Race Matters it was not to elevate Race to a new
status but simply to mention the unpalatable fact that is one of those nebulous categories
which are used conveniently to divide people up according to colour, place of origin or
religion, a sentiment which acquires a deadly reality from its very use as myth. (Stephen
Meyer 2004:127)The extremism of the institution of racism in the forced evolution of the South African
nation also produced perhaps the world’s longest and fiercest resistance and liberation
struggle. And because it produced a long-drawn battle between the state and the various
groups suppressed by the imposition, South Africa, especially in the last quarter of the
20 th century, was designated as fighting the last battle against the Western imperialist
project in which the continent was embroiled since the institution of racial slavery which
has since produced a prominent Africa diasporic culture and identity, although brutalized
and agonizing. It is for this reason that the inauguration of a democratically elected
government in 1994 headed by Nelson Mandela is seen by many as signalling the end of
Africa’s struggle against Western racial and imperialist hegemony.^70 Pallo Jordan, for
instance, remarks that:
When Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first democratically elected Head of State in
1994, in every part of the world his inauguration was hailed as marking the official end of the
system of institutionalized racism that had assailed the dignity and human worth of every
person of African descent for five hundred years of interaction between Europeans and
Africans (qtd. in Thomas Olver and Stephen Meyer 2004: 1).But between the period of resistance and inauguration of the said democratically elected
government a plethora of atrocities had been committed. Needless to say, the horrendous
crimes committed against the subordinated groups and individuals, which cut across races
69
When South Africa was granted independence the black were excluded in that they were not recognized
in the constitution of the Union especially with regards to citizenship rights the way the Europeans were. 70
However, it must be admitted that this is an optimistic view which glosses over the challenge of South
Africa’s and indeed Africa’s long march towards true liberation from Western imperialism. Specifically,
the institution of democratic rule in the wake of the official dismantling of apartheid may be better gleaned
as signaling the beginning of the struggle for emancipation from apartheid.