Paper short abstract:

How did violent conflict affect the legitimacy of chieftaincy and political culture in KwaZulu-Natal? The paper analyses commemoration ceremonies and explains how chiefs make us of them in order to legitimize their rule and what this means for political culture in democratic South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

How did the period of violent conflict (called "udlame" in isiZulu) from the early 1980s until the late 1990s affect the legitimacy of chieftaincy and political culture in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)? The present paper tries to answer this question by applying the concept of "basic legitimacy". My argument is that the acceptance of chiefs is based on the accumulation of basic legitimacies and specifically on the "basic legitimacy of violent resistance". It refers to resistance against a political order that is perceived as arbitrary and unjust and it provides the organizers with compliance by their subordinates even beyond the original phase of violent resistance. The significance of the basic legitimacy of violent resistance becomes clear in commemoration ceremonies, which are a common feature of political culture in KwaZulu-Natal in the post-apartheid era. The paper illustrates and analyses such commemoration ceremonies and explains how chiefs make us of them in order to legitimize their rule and what this more generally means for political culture in democratic South Africa.