Historical origins of non-racialism and multi-racialism in the Western Cape. Between internationalization and nationalism as a struggle strategy

EFRON LAURA

Port Elizabeth

Congreso; Conference on non-racialism in South Africa. Past, present and future: Debates and controversies; 2015

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

The aim of this paper is to recover the historical origins of the non-racialism and multi-racialism as political projects in the Western Cape. During the early XX century both ideas were used as synonyms, not having a clear definition. The advancement of the Russian Revolution and World War I, the instauration of the Union of South Africa and the implementation of wider discriminatory racial norms, all created a complex context in which the these concepts began to be discussed and defined as apolitical project of resistance. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the links between the left and the non-European organizations in the Cape during the first decades of the XX century and their ideological and political debates. Left ideas contributed in a profound way to the formation of the struggle strategies of the non-European organizations. But they also promoted huge debates, fragmentations and conflicts between their members. Recovering the historical roots of these concepts should help us to rethink them and their political uses in the present days.