Racist accusations in contemporary South Africa: lessons from studies of witchcraft

Abstract

By international consensus, racism features as one of the major evils of our time. Unsurprisingly, therefore, no one wants to be branded a racist. There currently seems to be an epidemic of accusations of racism in South Africa, not altogether unlike the witch ‘craze’ of 16th and 17th century Europe. This paper draws on anthropological literature on witchcraft to shed light on racist accusations in contemporary South Africa. Referring to examples from the printed media, it argues that, like witchcraft, racism can, at least in certain senses, be viewed as the ‘personification of evil’, and is invoked as an ‘explanation of misfortune’. Rather than operating as a ‘mechanism for social control’, racist accusations both reflect and exacerbate existing conflicts and tensions. Finally, the paper emphasises that ‘racism’, like ‘race’ is a social construct and proposes further avenues for anthropological research on the topic.