Introduction to Southern African Politics

Diaspora musing: observations from an African American political scientist.

Southern African Politics is my observations of the political behavior of South Africans in particular and Southern Africans in general. I will also discuss the African American expatriate community in Southern Africa, our relationship with the United States and our host state (s).  

I’m in South Africa on sabbatical from Morehouse College. I’ve been here approximately one month. It is by happenstance that I arrived right into the briar patch of Southern African political struggles. 

Southern Africa is critical to understanding all of the African continent and the role that Europe and the West play in African and developing world politics.  South Africa is the political-economic linchpin in Southern Africa. 

Here are some of the political items I will be observing and writing on in the future: 

• The political battle between the ANC Executive Committee and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leadership. The key political actors are President Zuma, and Julius “Juju” Malema, President of the ANCYL. 
• Julius Malema’s singing the liberation song “Shot the Boer” and the social and political reaction here 
• The ongoing violent explosions over the poor quality and the poor delivery of municipal services in South Africa
• President Zuma , the African Union and Libya
• The large gap between the have and have-nots in South Africa
• The breadth and depth of corruption in the South African public sector
• The crisis of the last monarchy on the African continent – Swaziland
• The elections and their aftermath in Zambia 
•  China’s political economy in Southern Africa 
• Africa is the only continent that has so far resisted a formal and permanent American military presence will Botswana be the first 
• Bishop Tutu’s call for a “wealth tax” to be imposed on all white South Africans and that members of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet to sell their “expensive cars”

There is much to discuss and this just the beginning.