Contribution short abstract:

Based on my ethnographic research among land activists in post-apartheid South Africa, I discuss multiple shades within the concept of the ‚activist‘. I argue that the ‚activist‘ is less a state of being than a quality of relating and thus informs a constant becoming of the social in-between.

Contribution long abstract:

Based on my ethnographic research among urban land activists in post-apartheid South Africa, I explore various subject forms through which activists situate themselves and others. The diverse becomings of ‚comrades‘, ‚leaders‘ and members of a political ‚family‘ are paralleled by particular sets of possibilities to engage in political relationships and to navigate different shades of solidarity, belonging and intimacy. This multiplicity reveals different roles within the concept of the activist, each of which invokes its own affective references and political imaginings.

Activist subject forms are particularly interesting in South Africa’s political landscape which is characterized by the transition of the liberation movement ANC into the ruling party. Many contemporary activists are trying to firmly dissociate themselves from the ANC and party politics in general, both of which are often perceived as corrupt and opposed to activist aspirations. When activists draw on the common performative repertoire of the anti-apartheid struggle and simultaneously strive for demarcation, they always negotiate dynamically between rejection, re-appropriation and reconfiguration in order to represent their political stances.

I argue that the form of an ‚activist‘ is less a state of being than a quality of relating and thus informs a constant becoming of the social in-between.