Berkley Center

Across all cultural boundaries, politics has varying levels of importance in people’s lives. From the greatly invested to the intensely apathetic, people find a pleasing balance between caring for their own lives and caring for the governing of the state or nation in which they live. At times, those who become greatly concerned with the affairs of the government follow all parts of politics faithfully and diligently, without fail. In my observation, I see that politics can serve as their religion in the absence of a faith tradition in their lives. For these people, legislative decisions, public speeches, and policy debates serve as modern-day divinely inspired texts, sermons, and disputes on the only truth upon which to base the governing of the country. Just as God serves as the truth for me and other Christians and as traditional healers are the truth to some South Africans, the political philosophies and viewpoints people ascribe to serve as their undeniable truth.

A central example of politics embodying religion in South Africa is the state of the African National Congress (ANC). From the first meeting of my seminar run by my program, my teacher said that you cannot understand South Africa without understanding the ANC. And it is the truth: South Africa's history greatly features the ANC and its purpose and importance in fighting apartheid. The African National Congress was founded in 1912 and quickly began to serve as a platform for dissent and reform of the South African political state, petitioning against policies and legislation that disadvantaged the black majority. Then after its participation in resistance campaigns, the party was banned in 1960, sending its leaders and followers into exile, having their resistance against apartheid and discrimination substantially lessened. A strong loyalty was required for the party to remain unified, as exiled members continued to have meetings in private in order to sustain and continue the party's purpose and objectives.

Once the ANC was incorporated back into South African society, the same actions and behaviors that required loyalty in exile were unnecessary as leaders and members could publicly meet to discuss its plans. Under President F.W. de Klerk, the South African government formally recognized the ANC, being able to participate in and publicly comment on policy reform and creation. The original purpose of the party began to fade, as the supporting voices of apartheid were lowered and the black majority regained the right to vote. Once 1994 came, the dream was realized. The ANC was not the renegade party anymore as it took the helm of the government.

As this happened—and continues to happen, as the ANC garnered 60 percent plus for the past four elections—the purpose of the ANC has struggled to switch from being reactive to being proactive. The main thing is that in the face of alternative parties with other policies, the ANC continues to gain a sizeable majority. This is a manifestation of the loyalty many still feel for the ANC. Even though its original purpose is no longer necessary, people still vote for the party in the vein of its past days as the main dissenting voice against apartheid. For many of those who continue to support the ANC, they feel that a vote against the party is a vote against any prospective success of the majority. Many do believe that the ANC does share their viewpoints outside of the apartheid era, but some simply vote for the party because it fought against apartheid and represents the ultimate advocate for the black majority. They follow the party with such a great faith and allegiance that it so likens to a religion.

It reflects an overall South African identity where one's sense of self is rooted in the group or family to which they belong. As a result, loyalty to those who support you—or to those who have ensured your success—is very essential and customary. Though such allegiance is not unfamiliar, such loyalty to a political party without examining its solutions to more current issues is a little out of the norm as far as American politics go, but is very much the normal in South Africa. It is definitely not the norm for all people, as many of my friends have abstained from any loyalty to any party as they have yet to see any to truly represent their values, both in politics and in personal standards.

I feel that such a history rooted in fighting for respect, rights, and success for one's individual self and one's group cannot be easily forgotten, even when that success has materialized. And when that success has only existed for 15 years, it is very much harder to break from constantly recognizing and honoring the efforts that have made your reality much more different than what it could have been. South Africa is a country significantly and inextricably tied to its history, where its past is not as distant as other democratic nations.

Due to such a limited span of time from a environment full of discrimination and allocation of resources drawn across racial lines to a state where equality is touted but not as emphatically manifested, the country'’s enfranchisement of all people leads its citizens to tie the policies of the past to the parties of today. And now that everyone can use politics as a vehicle to exert concrete change in society, more and more people of the majority have grown to become greatly invested in the government to ensure that their livelihoods and the livelihoods of those they care for continue to prosper, just like the motivation of the ANC when it fought for the same goal. In addition, since the same environment is still apparent where blacks are still suffering to succeed economically after the equality that was to come in 1994 failed to arrive as imagined both surprisingly and inexplicably, the ANC continues to represent the fight against the unseen enemy that oppresses and prevents them from reaching the success promised to them in the Constitution.

South Africa is a country in transition, moving forward in some aspects yet remaining stagnant in the most appalling way: disproportionate wealth. Until that changes for the better, politics will remain based in the past since the people are still facing the same issues and social problems that faced them before, essentially viewing politics in the vein of the past to solve the troubles of the past. Both the citizens and the leaders of the country must recognize this in order to truly move into the future they all desire and the future meant for them—a future that is, hopefully, prosperous, beneficial, and thriving for all.