English Version

The Burgundy region has for a long time maintained privileged relations with South Africa, in particular with the Western Cape Province within the framework of what has been an especially enriching form of decentralised collaboration.
The idea of a colloquium devoted to South African democracy at the University of Burgundy, in partnership with the Burgundy Regional Council, seemed to be relevant, in that it would take place within the context of this experience of exchanges by shedding light on the social realities of South Africa but also by prolonging the year of South Africa in France in 2013, which the Regional Council participated in fully.
In addition, since the fifth national elections of the democratic period will be held in South Africa in April 2014, it will be an ideal time to examine this young democracy.
For 20 years South Africa has opened up to democratic rule in a socio-economic context that continues to feel the weight of the legacy of apartheid and colonialism and is subject to the constraints of integrating into market-based globalisation.
While politically and constitutionally – after a relatively successful and short transition period — there has been undeniable progress around the establishment of a progressive Constitution, a political landscape that is dominated by the ANC but is evolving, and rule of law that is still facing a number of challenges but based on values said to be shared by everyone; the fact remains that South African democracy cannot be reduced to this political and institutional dimension. Not only because the framework itself is affected by abuses and perversions rendering South Africa’s democracy uncertain, but also because this democracy is intrinsically linked to the distribution of social power, to the (re)construction of the nation and to the improvement of all citizens’ lives.
All of these dimensions are part of the democratisation of the country and it may be in fact useful to analyse its various characteristics and tendencies at the 20-year mark. However, rather than suggest a summation, undoubtedly full of reservations, it seems more relevant to probe the contours and content, from the starting point of the struggles that have continued since 1994, which serve to remind us of the obvious: democracy is a process requiring constant attention and vigilance in order not to leave aside its emancipatory logic aimed at the fulfilment of all.
Without pretentions of covering all aspects of this country, this colloquium is an invitation to question democracy in general, understood not as only a formal and institutional process, involving the participation of the people often resigned to regular open elections that change nothing, but rather as a process that allows for the real sharing of social power among all members of the community without exceptions or limits.
In this perspective which is necessarily multidisciplinary, the methodological position of this colloquium will therefore be to question the (young) South African democracy  not ‘from above’ but ‘from below’ by looking at the social and political struggles, forms of resistance, as well as social movements that the country has experienced and continues to experience, especially since South Africa’s history is one of a struggle for freedom, whose links are clear with the struggles that have emerged since the apartheid period.
Understood broadly as “a collective undertaking of demands and contestations that aim to make the widest possible public impact and are based on organisations, networks and forms of solidarity or are created for particular circumstances (such as new social movements and whose goal is to bring about changes that have variable importance in the social and/or political structure through recourse to different repertories of institutionalised or non-institutionalised action”, these struggles or movements can be observed both as revealing recurrent problems that can subvert the democratic ideal or render it fragile (one part of which reflects the country’s commitment to unbridled capitalism) but also as indicators of a dynamic and living democracy, at the risk of being recuperated politically or the victim of state repression, the source of much social discontent. The various social struggles and movements in South Africa (civics, community associations, new movements, etc.) are part of this perspective as much through the dimension of immediate demands as through the means used to express them, the aims being pursued or the risks being taken.
In doing so, these movements and struggles, which have been affected by different episodes of these 20 years of democracy (political socialisation, loss of social status, neutralisation and renewal protests) have created the conditions for South African democracy in which at least three features linked to the country’s history can be seen:
–as an instrument of peaceful settlement of conflicts using mechanisms set up or through cases of institutional regulation, or non-regulation;
–as a place in which two legitimate types of authority face off, one coming from the people or the base, and the other from the politics of the ANC and its Alliance, fuelling tensions and struggles within the very structures of power;
–as an interplay of scale in the relationship between actions and the convergence of these movements’ demands internationally with other struggles (such as the mobilisations in 2001 and 2002 for example).
From this point of view, these various social movements and struggles therefore provide fruitful and rich material for reflection contributing to repositioning the debates on the future and democratic stakes in this country.
This colloquium will gather approaches and methods from several different fields in order to compare points of view and analyses in the aim of developing multifaceted reflection, reflecting also the country’s diversity.
To do this, this colloquium proposes to organise these reflections around three main thematic areas that are part of South Africa’s democracy.
The first will be devoted to political and legal struggles in South Africa that have highlighted the tensions between the formal character of democracy and the principles that underlie it, political struggles that broadly mobilised the people to end apartheid.
The second concerns the socio-economic and labour struggles and conflicts around the slogan, ‘A better life for all’, which has not had a great deal of resonance for many South Africans.
The third theme will question the ‘rainbow nation’, symbolized by the desire for reconciliation, through socio-cultural struggles organised around unity in diversity and often connected to other struggles.
Scientific Committee
Raphael Porteilla, University of Burgundy
Pierre-Paul Dika, University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon
Judith Hayem, University of Lille
Marianne Severin, University of Bordeaux IV
Jean-Claude Fritz, University of Burgundy