Publication

This paper focuses on the problem of understanding political violence in South Africa in contemporary, historical and discursive perspectives. The author argues that an understanding of political violence in South Africa needs to be located with respect to the pre-modern context of frontier conflict; the modernizing period of centralized state-formation; the post-1948 period of apartheid and resistance to apartheid; and the current transitional period on the verge of a post-apartheid South Africa. By giving an overview of the macro-narrative the paper provides a framework for further research.