Yonela Mlambo and Dugan Brown
Cape Town - Decades after his seminal book, Citizens and Subjects, Mahmood Mamdani decried the dominant dual phenomenological analysis post-Cuban revolution buttressed in Marxist analysis in its varying degree of analysis.
The post-Cuban revolution analysis assumed that history and society is moving in a unilinear evolution.
Prominent to Mamdani criticism of post-Cuban Revolution analysis was that it created a binary opposite with “modern”, “industrial”, and all the different factors associated with modernity accorded the value and universal state.
On the other side was the residual factor, denied its uniqueness and defined by what it lacked. What Mamdani decried about qua dual phenomenological analysis was not something new.
For instance, the Asian states in the 1950s were already cognisant that dual phenomenological analysis deprived the residual factor of its uniqueness thus in 1955 organised the Bandung Conference. This conference brought together 29 African and Asian states to discuss the “Third World” contribution to economic growth, development, and decolonisation.
The most prominent resolution from the Bandung conference was non-alignment. The non-alignment sought to isolate the Asian states, and by and large African states, from the West-East conflict qua the Cold War.
The principle of non-alignment was a good resolution as it sought to isolate Asia from proxy war.
Nonetheless, it was not absolutely possible for Asia to isolate itself from the West-East war, thus some Asian states strategically positioned themselves through aligning themselves with the US, and therefore utilised what we refer to as “pork barrel” benefits to their advantage, and thus witnessed massive development.
Without replicating dualist phenomenological experience analysis and cognisant of its repercussions, however, and because of little space to manoeuvre and that decolonisation in and of itself is a contingent phenomenon on colonisation, African and South Africa can learn invaluable lessons from Asian states.
For instance, there’s primitive unravelling attempts by the East block,that is, Russian, China and BRICS, that endeavours to dismantle the Euro-American dominance in the international system.
South Africa can therefore strategically position itself with Russia China rising and BRICS nation states through being unequivocally about its stance towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant of arrest for Putin in an intertwined and in an undistinguishable concatenate manner with the respect of sovereignty of nation states.
To pacify the Euro-American block, South Africa can signify the patronising liberal “values” of dialogue in conflict resolution the Euro-American allies “value” towards the Russia-Ukraine war while thinking anew of strategies and reasons to withdraw from ICC. Dr Naledi Pandor needs to be more vocal about this position.
South Africa can further rethink the re-tabling of the ICC Crimes Bill recently withdrawn by the executive because the impetus which led to the introduction of the bill has not vanished; therefore, Pretoria needs to be decisive with its intentions of withdrawal from the ICC.
The ICC continues to have selective prosecution; for instance, African heads of states and senior government officials continue to be sought after by the court.
Furthermore, South Africa is the emerging global power and a leader in Africa, and therefore cannot afford to effectively forge diplomacy if it continues to be a member state of the Rome statute.
The warrant to arrest President Vladimir Putin and former president Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir among many others are perfect case studies.
History students will tell you about the imperative of pacifying the Euro-American allies so that hegemonies don’t disintegrate overnight, therefore the Euro-American hegemony would not fall overnight lest you are Susan Strange-type docile apostles.
BRICS might have a quarter of the world population, with prospects of increasing its population with the earmarked states to join in the August summit, and with China being the second-largest economy in the world, however the South African economy needs the Euro-American partners.
South Africa should deepen its relationship with BRICS allies and reject any attempts to frogmarch it in proxy wars.
The BRICS summit to be held by South Africa is going to be a turning point in determining South Africa’s relationship with the bloc.
Whether Putin attends or doesn’t attend, or the hosting nation is changed to other BRICS state members, it is going to be a barometer for BRICS member states to determine their co-operation and regionalisation efforts with South Africa.
Critical and smart international relations students can tell South Africa about the precarity and repercussions of arresting a sitting head of state and the importance of building trust in a regionalised region.
The ICC allowed itself to be a geopolitical witch-hunt institution for non-Euro-American allies and thus lost international hegemony and legitimacy, in particular from Africa. The ICC has not issued a warrant of arrest for George W Bush and Tony Blair for human rights crimes in Iraq.
Mlambo is a freelance socio-political commentator and Brown is a final-year Bachelor of Social Science student at UCT.
Cape Times