Who is (South) African? A re-reading of Thabo Mbeki's ‘I am an African’ speech in the context of the banned (later unbanned) Nando's ‘diversity’ television commercial

Abstract

In 2012 flame-grilled chicken company, Nando's, released a 52-second advert showing people of various races and ethnicities vaporising into thin air, one after the other, leaving a lone San Bushman wearing a xai who declares: ‘I'm not going anywhere. You f*#@ng found us here.’ Broadcasters SABC, DStv and etv initially banned the advert, citing fears of a xenophobic backlash. In 1996, former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who was deputy president at the time, delivered what has become known as the ‘I am an African’ speech at the adoption of the South Africa Constitution Bill. In the speech Mbeki appears to codify ‘Africanness’ into a consciousness not just of history, but a shared history. The conceptual reach of his speech seems to imply that everyone who may share South Africa's history is somehow South African and African. This article argues that the Mbeki speech and the Nando's advert, taken together, draw attention to the simultaneous richness and poverty of citizenship in South Africa, and the potential benefits and contradictions of claiming citizenship in the sense preferred by the two texts. The context is supplied by a sampling of 22 randomly selected online comments centering on the censored advert.     

冷战后的中国—东盟关系探析:身份政治的视角

冷战结束后,中国—东盟关系得到了极大的改善和发展。冷战后东亚地区认知结构的变化及中国对东盟规范的内化使中国有了新的身份定位,在这种身份定位指导下的国际实践加深了东盟对中国新身份的重构和认同。中国身份定位的温和与理性及中国自我利益的不断扩大是导致东盟认同中国新身份的重要因素。身份政治理论在给我们提供新视角的同时,其学理性还需要进一步完善,以便更好地解释和指导国际实践。     

俄罗斯民族认同中的政治文化指向

俄罗斯民族和国家形成的过程也是俄罗斯民族认同形成的过程，东正教和专制制度分别为民族认同提供了文化和政治方面的基础。在这个过程中，俄罗斯民族的思想也逐渐成熟，以东正教和专制制度思想为特征的政治文化是其中的重要内容。俄罗斯民族正是依靠这种独特的政治文化基础，形成内部自我认同，确立外部自我形象，在众多认同标准中以此为主要指向。     

Voting void? Young South Africans,elections and the media

In May 2014, many of South Africa’s young citizens had the opportunity to vote in national elections for the first time. Youths who were born post-1994 (often referred to as the ‘Born Frees’) are the first generation of South Africans who live in a democratic country and hold no individual memory of life under apartheid. These young South Africans were born during a period of democracy, a time of transition and of great hope for the future. As a result of having been born outside the confines of apartheid racial segregation, they are expected to be racially integrated with their peers. The expectation which comes with the freedoms fought for by previous generations is that the youth will take up formal democratic practices, such as voting and engaging with parliament. However, during the recent national elections, the youth turnout revealed surprising differences amongst the 18–29-year age group. Young people aged 18–19 opted not to take up the right to vote – in fact, only 31 per cent of them had registered. This article interrogates the attitudes and actions of young South Africans within the political sphere, specifically by examining a group of young South Africans who are eligible to vote, as well as the role of the media in aiding or deterring voting engagement and perceptions. The central argument is that the local media fail to engage young people with content which advances their political identities. Despite high levels of media consumption, youths are engaging with formal politics as a result of pressure from family or due to socio-economic limitations, rather than a desire to add value to their citizenship.     

小泉八云异文化理解中的归属意识

小泉八云于1890年赴日,后加入日本国籍。他的作品洋溢着对日本古老文明的赞美、怀念以及对西方文明的辛辣批判。这使得他在当时倡导和魂洋才的明治日本中期成了日本文化发现的恩人。经历了从英国、法国、美国、再到日本的流离生活,使得他对异文化有着自己独到的理解,本文将从比较文化论角度通过分析小泉八云对日本文化的受容及其文学作品,探究小泉八云对异文化以及自身归属问题的认识。     

复合身份政治：西亚大国参与阿富汗安全事务的三重维度

“阿拉伯之春”爆发以来,西亚伊斯兰大国土耳其、伊朗和沙特阿拉伯(简称“沙特”)形成了复合身份。教派争端导致三国在西亚地区的战略博弈阵营化;阿富汗弱政府、强社会的权力结构使三国的战略博弈代理人化。作者提出“复合身份政治”概念,认为土耳其、伊朗和沙特以三重身份参与阿富汗安全事务。从族群和教派身份看,土耳其与阿富汗北部乌兹别克人和土库曼人等突厥语族群形成特殊关系;伊朗与中部哈扎拉人和塔吉克人形成特殊关系;沙特与南部普什图人形成特殊关系。从区域身份看,土耳其借助突厥语国家委员会,伊朗借助经济合作组织,沙特借助伊斯兰反恐联盟,三国在“向东看”过程中分别将阿富汗纳入各自主导的多边机制,形成了制度均势。从全球身份看,土耳其以北约的名义参与在阿富汗的军事行动,伊朗加入上海合作组织,沙特利用伊斯兰合作组织,三国与世界大国形成了议题联系。复合身份政治使土耳其、伊朗和沙特构筑相互交错的次体系,稀释了世界大国主导的阿富汗问题安全倡议,阿富汗安全格局由“多极”走向“多中心”。     

韩中女性参政对两国社会发展的影响

女性的政治参与是指提高女性的政治意识、社会意识、历史意识,培养女性政治家,使女性获得进入议会内阁以及行政各部门的权利。第四次世界妇女大会召开后,韩中两国女性的政治参与度都有不同程度的提高,韩国的女性国会议员人数和中国两会女代表人数均有增加,但女性的参政议政依然呈现三多三少现象,处于核心领导层的女性很少,这种情况不但在中国存在,韩国也是如此。为了改变这种现象,首先要从法律层面使女性参政制度化,其次要通过教育培训培养女政治家,再次要积极促进持续的文化交流,取长补短,提高女性自身的本领,担当起促进东北亚,乃至世界女性发展的重任。     

Who Speaks for Women? Print Media Portrayals of Feminist and Conservative Women's Advocacy

Feminists have frequently accused media outlets of not giving them enough coverage and/or portraying them negatively. Conversely, conservative women have argued that media suffer from liberal biases. While some studies have addressed the larger question of media and ideological prejudices, none have examined how media report women's activism in comparative terms. Since feminist and conservative women's organizations vie with one another over who represents women's interests, how media portray them has implications for how well they achieve this goal. Using data gathered from four major national newspapers, this study analyzes how print journalists depict feminist and conservative women's activism over a 14-year span. In so doing, it provides information about frequency of media coverage, as well as how advocates are labeled, on which issues they are getting visibility, and whether or not media present feminist and conservative women's organizations as being in direct conflict with each other. Implications for understanding women's political efforts, broadly speaking, are also explored.     

Autocratic legitimation in Iran: Ali Khamenei’s discourse on regime “insiders” and “outsiders”

The article analyses Ali Khamenei’s discourse on insiders and outsiders in the Islamic Republic of Iran, arguing that it shows the leader of an electoral revolutionary regime striving to counter elite fragmentation and growing democratic demands. It studies identity demarcation as a tool of autocratic legitimation. In a political system where the possibility to access political positions depends on supporting a belief-system, all cadres share a basic identity, which rulers can exploit to draw boundaries between “us” and “them”. The analysis reveals how Iran’s leader capitalizes on the existence of an insider-outsider divide to promote ideas about an imagined “we” of the regime. The “we” is portrayed as an Islamic we, fully committed to his rule. The article maintains that Khamenei developed this discourse in response to the challenge of the Iranian reform movement. It analyses, first, the context in which the discourse emerged and, second, the discursive strategy itself, to substantiate the claim. It concludes that the discourse had two essential aims in the containment (1997–2003) and crushing (2009–2010) of the pro-democracy reformist and Green movements: to de-legitimate Khamenei’s opponents through othering and to legitimate the counter-mobilization of repressive agents.     

乌克兰危机的民族政治解读

乌克兰危机是民主政治、大国地缘政治博弈、民族政治等要素杂糅并复合互动的产物,作者从民族政治的角度对之加以解读。第一,历史上的民族积怨与对立是导致乌克兰危机的重要历史根源,但它在当下如何被“记忆”与“重新发现”才是理解这一根源的关键。第二,在乌克兰二十余年国家建设中,出现了国族主导与主体民族主导两种路径的张力与冲突,这是导致当前乌克兰危机的深层次国内政治根源。第三,在乌克兰民主实践中,出现了现代政党政治与传统民族政治合体的趋势,这一合体包含了内在张力,实际上是乌克兰国家转型不成熟的标志,这是当前乌克兰危机爆发的政治制度与政治文化根源。第四,不恰当地运用民族自决权,则是乌克兰危机迈向国际危机的重要根源。第五,从国内政治角度看,乌克兰危机源自国家建设的失败,其民族政治更应从国家建设意义上加以审视。鉴于乌克兰危机短时间难有转机,面对危机发酵以及后危机时代的冲突治理,民族政治因素的负面作用仍不容忽视,民族政治在未来的乌克兰政治生活中仍将是一个棘手的对象。     

Widening the Protection Gap: The 'Politics of Citizenship' for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, 1948-2008

Lebanon has been a reluctant host to Palestinian refugees since1948. A mainstay of Lebanese policies vis-à-vis the Palestinianrefugees has been preventing their permanent integration andsettlement in the country. The question of naturalizing refugeesis one of the most contentious political issues in Lebanon today.Palestinian refugees tend to live in conflict-ridden environments,often at the margins of the host society. This first of allapplies to the camp-based refugees, who languish in dilapidatedand overcrowded camps. Unable to return to Palestine and marginalizedby the host society, they are caught in a legal limbo. In orderto understand the complex legal regime that governs their refugeestatus, it is necessary to examine their rights as refugeesin international law, regionally as hosted by Arab League statesand nationally as residents of Lebanon. The rights regime iscomplex and contributes to a critical ‘protection gap’for the refugees. This article demonstrates how this protectiongap was created and widened by historically contingent, international,regional and national legal rights regimes.     

国家认同与族群认同:以马来西亚为例

国家与族群具有不同的结构与功能,因而国家认同与族群认同的要素,特别是二者的认同基础存在较大的差异。正是这种差异决定着二者关系的基本形态。国家的公共性要求它不应该将政治政策偏向任何一个族群。族群平等是国家认同与族群认同的平衡点,否则,可能会导致政策所损害的族群对国家存在意义的质疑。马来西亚独立后,特别是20世纪70年代后,实施的正是偏向马来人的政策,从而造成非马来人对国家的不满。