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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'We went to arm ourselves at the field of suffering': traditions, experiences and grassroots intellectuals in the making of class
Author:Bonnin, Debby
Year:1999
Periodical:Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:32
Issue:1
Pages:34-69
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Zulu
working class
griots
Abstract:This article concerns the role of the 'imbongi' or Zulu praise-singers in the formation of class consciousness. Its theoretical analysis uses the concepts of human agency and experience (E.P. Thompson) and the function of intellectuals (Antonio Gramsci). The main figure in this case study is Baba Zondi, 'imbongi' (and shop steward) of the 970 workers at the British Tyre and Rubber (BTR) Sarmcol factory in Howick (120 kms from Durban) in the Kwazulu-Natal midlands in South Africa, who went out on strike on 30 April 1985. It is argued that Zondi and other traditional grassroots intellectuals like him play a crucial role in the formation of consciousness, acting as brokers of the past and controllers of symbolic capital, educating the workers about past struggles and offering interpretations of how the past affects the present. The article stresses the continuity between proletarianization and alienation from the land which many Sarmcol workers had experienced as former labour tenants on white farms; the importance of the common experience of unionization under SACTU in influencing decisions to join the Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU); a consciousness which sees itself as Zulu but has no hint of the narrow ethnicity of Inkatha; and finally, the idea of a struggle, under the leadership of workers in strong alliance with the youth. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in French.
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