Citation

Mosselson A. J. South Afr. Stud. 2010; 36(3): 641.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/03057070.2010.507570

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The xenophobic violence of May 2008 is symptomatic of the politics of belonging and contestation for citizenship that has taken root in post-apartheid South Africa. The violent exclusion of foreigners is one of the central ways in which the new South African political community is being fashioned. This practice has been established first and foremost by the state, through the entrenchment of extra-legal and, in some cases, overtly illegal ways of dealing with foreign nationals. The establishment of an extra-legal order as a way of governing societies is what Agamben terms 'the state of exception'. The state of exception, it is argued, has emerged as the dominant paradigm through which non-nationals are dealt with by the South African state. This practice has been central in defining the South African political community and establishing the grounds for inclusion and exclusion in the nation. It is thus a central mechanism through which the politics of belonging is mediated in post-apartheid South Africa. At the same time, because this extra-legal order has established non-nationals as being outside the political community, they have emerged as targets upon which segments of the citizenry are able to act in order to assert their own political rights to belong. The xenophobic attacks are symptomatic of this process and need to be understood as manifestations of the state of exception in South Africa and the type of politics of belonging that this has given rise to. This article thus attempts to contribute to the understanding of the attacks as well as the broader socio-political context by which they have been shaped.