Review of Mamdani’s Neither Settler Nor Native 

Sandile Ngidi

APC MA student Sandile Ngidi recently published a book review of Mahmood Mamdani‘s latest book, Neither Settler nor Native in the Mail & Guardian’s arts section, “Friday.”

Neither Settler Nor Native delves deeply into varied historical and normative aspects of identity-formation and nation-state formation in the building of modern states. Mamdani continues his critique of the British system of indirect rule in India, Sudan, and South Africa, arguing that the bloodied footprints of this system resist enduring erasure. He rightly accuses the British of making natives believe their difference of language and other cultural features justified ethnic-based national aspirations – and in 1994 in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing.

Mamdani provides a coherent historical reading and profiling of some key political currents and actors in the shaping of South African democracy. Given the fact that Neither Settler Nor Native was published in 2020, four years after the birthing of the Fees Must Fall movement, it is regrettable that Mamdani is silent about this tide in the country’s increasingly turbulent seas. What were some key political triggers of this movement? Did it mark a revival of the Black Consciousness Movement spirit of the 1970s? Was the Fees Must Fall movement a fleeting force, or an important catalyst in the reconfiguration of liberatory and expanded notions of nativism and settlerhood?

Read the full review at: https://mg.co.za/friday/2021-08-20-review-mahmood-mamdani-on-the-non-national-state/