GCRO RESEARCH REPORT # NO. 05 PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM July 2017 Edited by Caryn Abrahams Contributions by Caryn Abrahams, Kira Erwin, Christian Hamann, Jacqui the Poet, Rendani Nemakhavani and Luke Spiropoulos A PARTNERSHIP OF PATHWAYS TO ANTIR ACISM JULY Project Partner: Ahmed Kathrada Foundation ISBN: 978-0-6399364-7-5 Design: Breinstorm Brand Architects Editor: Caryn Abrahams Cover image: Tyson Dudley Contributing editor: Richard Ballard Copyright 2017 © Gauteng City-Region Observatory Copy editor: Lee Smith Published by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Contributors: Caryn Abrahams, Kira Erwin, Christian (GCRO), a partnership of the University of Johannesburg, Hamann, Jacqui the Poet, Rendani Nemakhavani the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, the and Luke Spiropoulos Gauteng Provincial Government and organised local government in Gauteng (SALGA). Pathways to Antiracism For Owen Russel Erasmus who would have taught us more about antiracism than a study on it. - C.A. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The contributing authors are grateful for the leadership and guidance of Neeshan Balton (AKF), Melissa Steyn (Wits Centre for Diversity Studies), Danaline Fransman (Department of Justice), David Everatt (Wits School of Governance), Richard Ballard (GCRO), Guy Trangos (GCRO) and Rob Moore (GCRO) on the project as a whole. The project partner organisations (AKF and GCRO) are also grateful to the artistic contributors and authors, to the many interviewees whose considerations have informed our work and practice, and to the editors who assisted in the completion of the report. The GCRO, as project lead, is grateful to Luke Spiropoulos (previously with the AKF) and Kira Erwin (Urban Futures Centre and commissioned author of the two central outputs of this project), both for their contributions and their amazing collegiality in seeing this publication through to completion. PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM Photograph by Lesedi Mogale 002 PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM CONTENTS CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... 004 PREFACE .............................................................................................................................................. 007 1. INTRODUCTION (Caryn Abrahams) ................................................................................................................. 008 View from the streets I: perspectives on race and racism (Caryn Abrahams, Christian Hamann and Rendani Nemakhavhani) ................................................................................................................................................................... 014 2. ANTIRACISM IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA (Kira Erwin) ............................................................... 022 View from the streets II ...................................................................................................................................................... 058 3. DOING ANTIRACISM WORK: SEEING THROUGH RACIAL SUBJECTIVITIES (Caryn Abrahams) ............... 062 View from the streets III .................................................................................................................................................... 076 Poem: If Truth be told then let me bold (Jacqui the Poet) .................................................................................................. 087 View from the streets IV .................................................................................................................................................... 088 4. GLOBAL ANTIRACISM STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE (Kira Erwin) .............................................................. 094 View from the streets V ...................................................................................................................................................... 117 Asikhulumeni Nge Race (Let’s Talk about Race) Dialogue ................................................................................................. 122 View from the streets VI .................................................................................................................................................... 124 5. THE BIRTH OF THE ANTIRACISM NETWORK OF SOUTH AFRICA (Luke Spiropoulos) ............................... 128 View from the streets VII ................................................................................................................................................... 131 Poem: Today I saw these clouds (Jacqui the Poet) ............................................................................................................... 136 View from the street VIII ................................................................................................................................................... 137 AFTERWORD (Luke Spiropoulos and Caryn Abrahams) ..................................................................................... 149 LIST OF INTERVIEWS AND PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE .............................................................. 150 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 152 003 PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM Photograph by Anna Kyriacou LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AKF Ahmed Kathrada Foundation ANC African National Congress ARNHE Anti-Racism Network in Higher Education ARNSA Anti-Racism Network of South Africa ARW Anti-Racism Week BEE Black Economic Empowerment CANRAD Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy CAPAR Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism CERD Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination CONAPRED Consejo Nacional para Prevenir La Discriminación (National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Mexico) CSVR Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation DCC Diakonia Council of Churches DDPA Durban Declaration and Programme of Action DDP Democracy Development Program ECRI European Commission against Racism and Intolerance FBO Faith-Based Organisation GCRO Gauteng City-Region Observatory HEI Higher Education Institution 004 PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS ICERD International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination IJR Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo (Argentina) INADI Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo (Argentina) LICRA Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism) (France) NAP National Action Plan NFAR National Forum Against Racism NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NMMU Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights SAHRC South African Human Rights Commission SEPPIR Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality) (Brazil) TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission UK United Kingdom UN United Nations US United States WCAR World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance WiCDS Wits Centre for Diversity Studies 005 LIST OF FIGURES Photograph by Clem Onojeghuo 006 LIST OF FIGURES PREFACE PREFACE This publication aims to contribute to the vexing with the AKF, began working on an antiracism question of how we undo the effects of racism and research project. This project was designed to inform racialisation in South Africa. This is a long-standing the Department of Justice’s National Action Plan to concern of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia (GCRO), whose founding executive director, David and Related Intolerances. The papers published in Everatt, is the author of The Origins of Non-Racialism: this research report were commissioned as part of this White Opposition to Apartheid in the 1950s (2010). In project and have been presented at various fora. They 2011 the GCRO partnered with the Ahmed Kathrada have also been used as part of the rationale for the Foundation (AKF) on a research project on non- inception and formation of the Antiracism Network racialism, which saw 18 focus groups across the of South Africa. country with ordinary South Africans – cutting This work is informed by a moral imagination that across class, age, gender and racial categories. holds that intervention is possible in the racialised The rich material from the focus groups was circulated sociopolitical landscape in South Africa. This to a number of researchers and intellectuals, resulting publication could thus be considered one of many in a conference and two publications on non-racialism, contributions to the interventionist antiracism project one a special journal issue in Politikon1 and the in South Africa. We trust that this document will other an edited collection based on the special provide food for thought, add to the current debates issue (Everatt, 2014). The partnership between in South Africa and inform and inspire the multiple the GCRO and the AKF was strengthened through strategies used by organisations and individuals sharing research ideas, and through jointly hosting across the country to strive towards a united the Democracy +20 seminar event at Wits Club in antiracist country. September 2013. In 2014 the GCRO, in collaboration 1. Volume 39, Issue 1, 2012. 007 PATHWAYS TO ANTIRACISM Section 1 Introduction CARYN ABRAHAMS The papers published in this report are a product of a