Le concept de lieux et de formes de pouvoir

I am going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power. First, I would like to give a definition of power. Power is is the ability to control others and to make things happen despite obstacles, resistance, or opposition. This of course leads to conflict between those who have and exercise power and those who have none or little of it. As a consequence, the exercice of power within a community requires that its members accept a complex system of laws and respect symbols such as specifics places especially court, parliament and prison. To illustrate this notion, I have chosen to focus on South African places and forms of power. How can people from different cultures live together in harmony ? First I will show how apartheid was put in place and I will highlight the opposition of this forms of power. Eventually, I will related the burying of apartheid and the difficult creation of an harmonious nation in spite of different cultures.

First, we studied the establishment of Apartheid in south Africa. It was set by the National Party, which won the election in 1948. It led to a brutally codified segregation where Blacks, Asians, Coloured persons and Whites were separated. Many Afrikans, who did not work for white people where packed in Bantustans, which were poorly equipped and were far away from the major cities. Those who worked for Whites had to leave in townships such as Soweto and needed passbooks to get into “white cities”. This law aimed at creating a separate nationhood.

Moreover we interpreted a picture taken in the 1960s where black South Africans are burning their passbooks, which have come to represent white domination and seems relieved as if they were regaining their freedom. By the same token, a demonstration in Sharpeville where people protested against passbooks and for increase of their incomes, turn into a slaughter. Indeed 69 black persons were killed so that Sharpeville began a symbol of the unfair white power. Nelson Mandela, which represent a counter power because he struggled tireless for egalitarianism, was put in jail and regarded as a political prisoner.

When Mandela walked out of jail and became the first democratically elected president in 1994, he aimed at building a new South Africa that would be democratic, non racist and non-sexist. He wrote a new constitution which claims the recognition of black people’s rights and set Truth and Reconciliation Commission which highlights his insistence on forgiveness over vengeance and his will to create a unified Rainbow Nation. Since his mandate, a black middle-class have been emerging. Besides politics is no longer the preserve of the whites.

To conclude, people from different cultures can nowadays live together in harmony thanks to a long and painful fight for equality leading by honorable persons. It is true that there have been major political and social advances in South Africa however it still remains problems about both corruption and fraud. Furthermore economic power is still unequally distributed, it still exists a widening gap between the rich and the poor as we could see in the district of Cape town area.

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