Confronting the settler legacy: Indigenisation and transformation in South Africa and Zimbabwe Stefan Andreasson * School of Politics International Studies and Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast, 21 University Square, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK Keywords: South Africa Zimbabwe Indigeneity Colonialism Sovereignty Transformation abstract This article examines attempts to negotiate a perceived residual dominance of settler populations in South Africa and Zimbabwe by means of developmental and cultural policies deemed necessary to restore sovereignty to Africans. Indigenisation has become a preferred strategy for reconstructing post- colonial states in Africa: indigenisation of the economy as part of a Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe and Black Economic Empowerment in the socio-cultural context of Ubuntu in South Africa. These are issues arising from the regional legacy of contested and uneven transitions to majority rule. Identifying how governments frame the ‘settler problem’, and politicise space in doing so, is crucial for understanding post-colonial politics. Indigenisation in Zimbabwe allows the government to maintain a network of patronage and official rhetoric is highly divisive and exclusivist although couched in terms of reclaiming African values and sovereignty. Revival of Ubuntu as a cultural value system in South Africa facilitates a more positive approach to indigenisation, although Black Economic Empowerment displays elitist tendencies and cultural transformation remains controversial and elusive. The perceived need to anchor policy in socially acceptable (i.e., ostensibly indigenous/traditional) contexts has become a prominent feature of post-colonial politics and is indicative of an indigenous turn in Southern African politics. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Africans will not transform this country through previously dominant foreign rules, values or cultures. No dominant group ever transforms society through subservience and alien val- ues. now that Africans are dominant we must Africanise and not apologise for our Africanness. When we say “Mayibuye iAfrika” we mean it and mean business. dMalegapuru Makgoba (2005), Vice-Chancellor of the Univer- sity of KwaZulu Natal. Let them remember that indigenization does not, and shall never, mean empowering crooks who cut business corners and thrive on dirty deals. Certainly, it does not mean putting your shameless indigenous finger into the national till. dRobert Mugabe (2004), President of Zimbabwe. Introduction A common feature of policymaking in Zimbabwe and South Africa, both profoundly shaped by the legacy of settler colonialism, is the need for indigenisation to accompany developmental policies. This entails shifting participation in politics and in the formal economy away from historically dominant white minorities towards indigenous peoples, principally black Africans. Economic indigenisation has been pursued by most African governments during the post-colonial era. While indigenisation projects have met with varying degrees of success, they are hampered by what have generally become ‘highly politicized’ processes of African business class development ‘highly dependent on political support and sponsorship’ (Craig, 2002: 571). Beveridge’s (1974: 488) study of indigenisation in Zambia traces problems that resurfaced in South Africa and Zimbabwe, namely that indigenisation usually comes with some developmental cost and with increasing inequality among the indigenous population while, on the other hand, ‘the attraction of attempts to assert indigenous control is powerful’. In addition to the more concrete aspiration to transform the racial make-up of politics and the economy, transformation includes a third pillar of cultural transformation. Titus Mafolo, founder of South Africa’s Native Club, a think tank aspiring to ‘explore and promote African identity’ (Carroll, 2006), notes that despite political transformation and ongoing, if piecemeal, economic transformation there is resistance to the notion of cultural transformation: * Tel.: þ44 28 9097 3051; fax: þ44 28 9097 5048. E-mail address: s.andreasson@qub.ac.uk. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Political Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo 0962-6298/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2010.10.003 Political Geography 29 (2010) 424e433