Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa

by Roger Southall

The liberation movements of Southern Africa arose to combat racism, colonialism and settler capitalism and engaged in armed struggle to establish democracy. After victory over colonial and white minority regimes, they moved into government embodying the hopes and aspirations of their mass of supporters and of widespread international solidarity movements. Even with the difficult legacies they inherited, their performance in power has been deeply disappointing. Roger Southall tracks the experiences in government of ZANU-PF, SWAPO and the ANC, arguing that such movements are characterised by paradoxical qualities, both emancipatory and authoritarian. Analysis is offered of their evolution into political machines through comparative review of their electoral performance, their relation to state and society, their policies regarding economic transformation, and their evolution as vehicles of class formation and predatory behaviour. The author concludes that, while they will survive organizationally, their essence as progressive forces is dying, and that hopes of a genuine liberation throughout the region will depend upon political realignments alongside moral and intellectual regeneration. ANC South Africa SWAPO Namibia Zanu-PF Zimbabwe Roger Southall is Professor Emeritus in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand and a Research Associate of the Society, Work and Development Institute. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Swaziland): University of KwaZulu-Natal Press

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Farai Gorden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger managed to capture all the truisms about how movements that fought for independence ended up being everything everyone thought they would be not. Its a truly insightful book and I would welcome an updated version post the falling of Mugabe, who was probably the last strongman standing, from these movements.

[Leo Zeilig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a book of such encyclopaedic detail and scope, elegantly written and carefully analyzed it may seem churlish to focus on a criticism. Though the book makes a convincing and nuanced argument for the degeneration of NLMs (National Liberation Movements), Southall could have benefited from a deeper analysis of an earlier wave of continental independence in the 1960s. What does the decay of these brutal popular fronts tell us about the crucial element in each NLMs? However, Southall’s important volume should become essential reading to anyone hoping to unpick the failures of liberation in Southern Africa, and from the ashes develop a radical and far-reaching way out of the poverty and underdevelopment that continues to blight the region.

[Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cogent and sobering analysis of the state of the national liberation movements in Southern Africa at present. As South Africa heads to the polls this year, readers would be well served reading this book. It is dense in parts but it's well worth wading through for the nuggets of insight Southall offers the reader.