Abstract
Timothy Gibbs’ first book, Mandela’s Kinsmen: Nationalist Elites & Apartheid’s First Bantustan (2014), provides us with a unique contribution to the field of contemporary South Africa history. It is the first study that emphasises ‘the hidden history of the ambiguous interconnections between the nationalist movements, the chieftaincy and the Bantustan bureaucracy’ in South Africa (p. 4). Unlike the majority of contemporary histories of ‘The Struggle’ in South Africa, which emphasise the significance of mass politics in the urban areas, Gibbs provides us with an account that shifts our focus away from the dynamo of urban politics and places it on what he calls the ‘notable politics’ in the former Transkei Bantustan. Gibbs uses the terms ‘notable politics’ and ‘Mandela’s kinsmen’ as a shorthand throughout the study in reference to an intricate web of interconnected and regionally focused ‘kinship, marriage, mission school and professional links’ that played a fundamental role in establishing an African elite during the first half of the 20th century (p.2). Writing against the grain of a number of both radical and liberal historical accounts of the nature of society and politics in South Africa, Gibbs argues that the notable networks of the early 20th century, which had shaped ‘Mandela’s kinsmen’, were not eclipsed by the mass politics of a younger generation of activists during the apartheid period and were significant in the ending of apartheid as well as shaping the political landscape of post-apartheid South Africa (p.2).
At the core of the book lies Gibbs’ attempt to ‘find a language that goes beyond the narrative of “Bantustan stooges” and “nationalist liberation movements”’ in order to comprehend the ambiguous interconnections among the nationalist movements, the chieftaincy and the Bantustan bureaucracy that came to shape elite politics during the apartheid endgame (p.6). Gibbs first explores this ambiguous relationship through an examination of the networks of elite schools, universities and professional institutions that were established by the Bantustan bureaucracy. In so doing the book provides a nuanced account of the University of Transkei and St John’s College in Umtata – adding to the number of historical works detailing the histories of Clarkebury College, Fort Hare University and institutions of local government – and highlighting the role these spaces played in shaping the intellectual and political formations of African elites. Gibbs illustrates how these institutions, and the elite networks they fostered within the Bantustan, played a fundamental role in producing key leaders of the nationalist liberation movements – with a specific focus on charismatic leadership figures within the African National Congress (ANC), such as Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani. However, the reader is constantly reminded that the institutions which played a fundamental role in producing dissident elite nationalists were also simultaneously the spaces in which Transkei security forces were being schooled and trained to fight their peers in the struggle against apartheid.
While the elitist character of the ANC, especially the early ANC, and the connections between national liberation leaders and chiefs has long been recognised in South African history, Gibbs’ study is the first to explore these connections and networks in detail. Maintaining a consistent emphasis on the sphere of elite politics Gibbs explores important instances, particularly during the 1980s, in which the lines between ‘opposition and collaboration, Bantustan and nationalist loyalties’ became blurred and the significance of this in relation to the apartheid endgame (p.6). Perhaps the most effective illustration of this point is provided in the discussion of the rise to popular prominence within the ANC of Bantu Holomisa – who was a Bantustan general trained to fight with the Transkei Defence Force against ANC guerrillas – during the early 1990s. Drawing on an impressive number of first-hand accounts and previously unexplored archival sources Mandela’s Kinsmen exposes aspects of the history of elite nationalism in South Africa, which have been largely neglected within mainstream urban-biased historiography. Specifically, the extent to which notable politics in the former Bantustans has played, and continues to play, an important role in shaping the socio-political landscape of South Africa as well as the political orientation and practices of certain African elites in positions of national power (such as government officials as well as constitutional and high court judges).
However, it is not just South Africa with which Gibbs’ study is concerned. A fundamental aspect of his historical narrative at both the outset and conclusion of the book is the way in which the lived experience of elite nationalists in the Bantustans paralleled that of other political leaders elsewhere on the continent. Furthermore, Gibbs demonstrates how transnational kinship and friendship networks tied South African liberation leaders with other elites involved in the anti-colonial struggles across Africa. By bringing to the fore of our historical conception of contemporary South Africa the prominence of these regional elites, and the interconnections that unite them, Gibbs has illuminated how the often neglected or marginalised rural regions of South Africa are of great historical and political importance to the ANC, and its hegemony in present day South Africa. While this contestation of the marginalisation of the rural is of fundamental importance, and a point for which Gibbs’ study must be commended, the unwavering focus on elite politics must be seen as the central limitation of this book.
If we are to take seriously the task of illuminating aspects of the national history that have been silenced within the post-apartheid moment, and that are useful for understanding the current political landscape of South Africa, we cannot focus exclusively on the realm of elite nationalist politics to the neglect of the popular politics and the agency of ordinary people involved in struggles articulating the national question in a myriad of different ways – both past and present. This limitation is made evident in the book’s discussion of the Mpondo revolts in the 1960s, a moment of vast importance in South Africa’s history of popular politics with important connections to contemporary struggles such as the Marikana strikes of 2012. As a result of Gibbs’ commitment to a narrow elitist perspective the significance of the Mpondo revolts, and the politics it involved, is missed within the book and instead the focus is kept above the heads of ordinary people and politics on the ground and placed firmly on the movements of local elites, chiefs, headmen, Bantustan technocrats and certain prominent individuals within the ANC. Furthermore, in seeking to transcend the binary drawn between ‘national liberation leaders’ and ‘Bantustan stooges’ Gibbs appears at times to dismiss important and legitimate critiques about the conservative role of chiefs and Bantustan leaders too readily, especially in the present context of post-apartheid South Africa. Mandela’s Kinsmen is a welcome contribution to the contemporary historical canon in South Africa. However, hopefully it will be incorporated into a much broader project that seeks to place our developing elite nationalist history on an equal footing with our lesser known but equally important subaltern history of rural resistance.