Book speaks to struggle for emancipation

THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE AND THE AFRO-ARAB SPRING: A SEASON OF REBIRTH? Edited by Charles VillaVicencio, Erik Doxtader and Ebrahim Moosa UCT Press

THE ramifications of the socalled “Arab Spring” half a decade ago still reverberate throughout the Pan-African landscape. The comparative insights and implications of the North African uprisings for the rest of the continent have not been interrogated in any depth prior to this timely volume edited by Charles VillaVicencio, Erik Doxtader and Ebrahim Moosa.

This book compares and contrasts the popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, in 2011, with South Africa’s transition to a constitutional democracy in 1994.

It assesses the common thread that links the two events and processes, namely an attempt to transform authoritarian regimes and midwife the birth of free societies – in which democracy, the rule of law and a commitment to human rights would become entrenched. This book therefore speaks cogently to the continuing struggle for human emancipation from oppressive subjugation and the timeless quest for human dignity.

The 12 chapters compiled by a combination of North and South African, as well as international, analysts and scholars, including a foreword from former president Thabo Mbeki, address a broad range of issues, including, as Shamil Jeppie describes it, “the dilemmas of revolution” (p.2).

The book engages with the theme of the extent to which South Africa’s transition delivered the political and economic freedoms that were fought for, and whether the lives of its citizens have been transformed for the better. Widely considered to be one of the world’s pre-eminent “miracle” models of political transition, VillaVicencio argues, in his chapter, that South Africa’s transition was in many ways “flawed”, evident in the persistence of “residual forms of racism… extending from personal bias to institutional discrimination, and material privilege which continues beyond the abolition of apartheid” (p.44).

Don Foster’s engagement with these themes suggests that, even though the focus has been on the material conditions of transition, South Africa has not yet effectively dealt with the “deep psychological realities that impede positive development” (p.28). Helen Scanlon analyses the South African story through a gendered lens and concludes that after 21 years of democracy the country remains imprisoned in its past due to the failure to adequately confront and deal with the pandemic of gender-based violence. This is a theme that Katherine Marshall explores in the North African context with an emphasis on how transitions can create the “unprecedented opportunity for constructive reforms and the kind of dialogue that can reshape attitudes in positive directions” (p.151). Abdulkader Tayob lauds South Africa’s progressive constitution and the religious freedoms that it has promoted, but appropriately warns us that the permissive environment created by this openness can also lay the foundations for the subversion of constitutional order.

The 2011 disruptions in North Africa were motivated by a desire for greater freedom and the overthrow of oppressive despotic regimes. For Ibrahim Sharqieh the Tunisian experience provides an alternative model of transition, from a popular movement to a political process and a concerted effort to deal with the past as well as lay the foundations for “reconciliation” (p.67). On this basis, the Tunisian model is a useful interlocutor to the South African transition. In contrast, Asif Majid demonstrates how the Libya transition was deadon-arrival specifically due to the corrupting influence of the Nato intervention and the selfinterested regime change agenda of Western countries, notably the US, UK and France, to topple Gaddafi and access the country’s oil deposits (p.78).

Today, instability reigns in Libya and the de-facto fragmentation of the country continues unabated. Egypt’s experience revealed what happens when a revolution is consumed by a reactionary counter-revolution. Egypt’s inverted revolution, which was co-opted by the Muslim Brotherhood and subsequently negated by the military, has left the country in a state of still-born revolution.

One issue that the book could have delved into more is the emergence of extremist violence across the African continent, and in North Africa in particular, which looms large as a potential threat to future efforts to consolidate political transition. In 2014, a museum which was hosting tourists was attacked by as yet unidentified extremist elements, which struck a blow to one of the industries that are vital for the country’s eco- nomic development. Ebrahim Rasool and Ebrahim Moosa touch upon this theme tangentially by emphasising the importance of consistently pursuing secularism as a necessary foundation for freedom and democracy (p.94).

Chris Landsberg suggests the failure of states to deliver on democratic governance is a Pan-African challenge (p.168). Consequently, the book has filled a gap in literature by juxtaposing and contrasting the North African experience with the South African transition.

The perils of failed transitions in Africa are all too evident in the migratory pressures that have recently witnessed refugees risk their lives to make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, in a quest for an illusionary elysium that Europe is supposed to offer. The exodus of African citizens is an indictment on the as yet unfulfilled promise of PanAfricanism, and as Doxtader reflects the continent’s highfalutin leaders who, despite their propensity to wax lyrical about their unity, are still to demonstrate a genuine commitment to continental solidarity.

Along these lines, the book interrogates the theme of South Africa’s potential relapse to authoritarianism, which is evident in the behavior of the executive branch of government in asserting its primacy over other state institutions which were designed to ensure a separation of powers.

Villa-Vicencio laments that we are increasingly witnessing “the mindset of the former regime periodically seeping into the present government and its security officials who demand acquiescence and obedience” (p.45).

The book’s relevance and utility is in its cautionary tone, rather than positing the South African experience as a way forward for North Africa, it problematises the lived reality of political transition.

Both North and South Africa are susceptible to experiencing freedom betrayed, due to the rise of the securocrats and their nefarious assault against democracy. This book offers important lessons, through its emphasis on the fact that the chaos which has engulfed parts of the north of the continent serves as a forewarning to the impending deeper fragmentation that South Africa will endure unless it genuinely re-engages with its troubled past, upholds democratic governance and urgently addresses the deep economic divisions of the past.

Dr Murithi is Head of the Justice and Reconciliation in Africa Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Africa’s International Relations, @tmurithi12 This book will be launched at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, 105 Hatfield Street, Gardens, from 5pm to 7pm on Thursday June 18.

Both North and South Africa are susceptible to experiencing freedom betrayed