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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Fancy Dress: Concealment and Ideology in South Africa
Author:Myers, JasonISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa
Issue:30
Pages:30-46
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:covert operations
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Politics and Government
External link:https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/292/OBJ/download
Abstract:This article deals with strategies of concealment and ideology in South Africa, taking as example two large-scale proxy organizations inside South Africa's borders: 'Marion', aimed at utilizing the counterrevolutionary potential within Inkatha in KwaZulu, and 'Katzen', an effort to replicate 'Marion' in the ANC's Eastern Cape stronghold with the creation of a 'Xhosa Resistance Movement'. Both were deeply entwined with the machinery of separate development, the grandest and most destructively farcical masking of all. The first question that these strategies of concealment present is one of ideology. What is seemingly important is the name a grouping is given, the imagery it deploys, the particular signifiers with which it identifies and, more importantly, justifies its actions. This immediately brings out the second critical issue here, that of legitimacy, for ideological claims, ideological contests, are about legitimacy: who does a particular grouping represent, who does it act and speak for? Finally, the question of ideological contestation for legitimacy should give some account of its own relevance. How strong an element is ideology or legitimacy in State/society cohesion? Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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