## FEELING THEIR WAY

Emotions and Structural Logics of Difference in the South African English-Speaking Community at the Height of Apartheid

by: Jagger Andersen Kirkby, MA in History

ABSTRACT: In  a  bid  to  step  away  from  a  history  of  apartheid  centred  on  African  and Afrikaner  nationalisms,  the  article  redirects  attention  towards  the  white  South  African English-speaking community. An analysis of the emotional practices employed in the South African English-language press on Rhodesian unilateral independence in 1965 define the emotion work these practices carry out. The article concludes that this emotion work creates certain emotional narratives, which nuance a conventional view of the English-speaker as 'unknown'  and  his  attitudes  towards  the  racial  dilemma  in  South  Africa  as  aloof,  thus revealing a hitherto unprecedented proactivity in the English-speaker.

Keywords: apartheid, emotions, English-speaking South Africans, Rhodesia

## Introduction: Revisiting an Epic Struggle

Recent  years  have  seen  the  emergence  of  several  historical  studies  (Thörn  2009; Adhikari 2005; Mendelsohn and Shain 2008) that contest the conventional narrative of the broader apartheid epic. These studies have been bids to step away from a tale of racial  oppression  and  segregation  that  predominantly  highlights  the  deeds  of  the oppressor (e.g. Giliomee 2011)  and/or the oppressor's main antagonist's  struggle for freedom (e.g. Welsh 2009). These latter studies are crucial to our understanding of how

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and why the differential nature of South African society came to be, and arguably, has been  broken  down,  since  South  Africa's  transition  to  a  democracy  in  1994.  Whilst admirable in their endeavour to explain the emergence of the apartheid system as well as its fissures, and ultimately its failure, these studies contribute to a narrative that is centred on Afrikaner and African nationalisms (Lambert 2009b: 599). This leaves the historian with a sense of nonfulfillment as to the role played by those individuals and groups within the South African societal conglomerate who do not identify as Afrikaners or Black Africans.

Indeed,  the  'apartness'  that  apartheid  prescribed  was  not  only  a  question  of  the subordination  of  black  individuals  to  white.  Rather,  it  encouraged  the  separate development  of  not  only  the  racial  groups  established  with  the  introduction  of  the Population Registration Act,  but also of those clusters that differed from each other within  them,  thus  enforcing  a  wide-ranging  logic  of  difference.  The  redirection  of attention  away  from  Afrikaner  and  African  nationalisms  and  towards  other  ethnic groupings or subdivisions complicate the larger apartheid picture in a beneficial way, and can only contribute to a greater understanding of a harrowing past with which South Africans of all affiliations are still grappling. The study to follow centres on one of these groups,  namely  white,  English-speaking  South  Africans,  of  British  descent,  the  goal being to challenge the notion of their group identity as being  fundamentally conglomerate.

In the following, I argue that the predominant view in the scarce research on Englishspeaking  South  Africans,  which  portrays  them  as  an  'unknown  people'  and  their identity as thoroughly composite (Lambert 2009: 600), can be contested by including emotions as a historical variable. In my previous work (Kirkby 2016) I have argued that specific political and societal events that took place in South Africa in the period from 1960 to 1966 were of particular importance vis-à-vis the emergence of a less composite English-speaking identity. Indeed, these six years would see South Africa transitioning into a republic, cutting its formal ties to the United Kingdom, leaving the Commonwealth  of  Nations,  and  Rhodesia,  ruled  by  a  white  minority  also  of  British descent, unilaterally assume independence (UDI). My assumption is that these events are crucial in shaping a re-evaluation amongst English-speakers of their identity and sense of self. In this article, I highlight the issue of Rhodesian independence as a case example.

Concretely, I  analyse  the  emotional  practices  that  emerge  from  debates  in  the  South African English-language press on Rhodesia's UDI in 1965. I then discuss how these emotions nuance conventional views on the English-speaking community.

Preceding this, I  first  elaborate  further  on  the  content  of  the  introduction  through  a discussion of existing research relating to the above research question, as well as present my  theoretical  and  methodological  framings,  and  briefly  elaborate  on  my  source material.

## 'An Unknown People'

Descriptions of South African English-speakers are often put in quite unflattering or, at least, colourless terms, adding to an attributing of cultural anonymity to the community, and  their  identity  is  often  perceived  as  being  thoroughly  composite  (Sparks  1990; Schlemmer 1976; Worrall 1976; Lambert 2009a).

Scholarship on the English-speaking community throughout the apartheid era is scarce. Some scholars, however, have attempted to nuance and challenge this fact in various ways, especially in recent years (e.g. Conway and Leonard 2014; de Villiers (ed.) 1976; Dubow 2009; Lambert 2000; 2005; 2009a; 2009b; Saunders 2006). Here, I touch upon and synthesise these scholars' main approaches and findings, as well as further clarify my own approach to this contested field.

Some have placed English-speaking South Africa in the broader imperial narrative of the British Empire (Garson 1976: 21). This article, however, seeks to explore the Englishspeaking community in its own right, albeit acknowledging the potential importance of 'Britishness' to its sense of self and identity. As such, I am interested in the Englishspeaker  in  ethnic  terms  rather  than,  say,  other  groups'  reactions  to  him  and  his 'Britishness'  (e.g.  Dubow  2006;  Saunders  2009).  Garson's  study  of  the  'British connection' ends abruptly in 1961, implying that this connection no longer played any role after South Africa became a republic. By doing so, Garson seemingly renders the

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English-speaking  community's experiences thereafter  irrelevant.  Yet,  it  is  exactly  his omission of an English-speaking history after 1961; the insinuation that the community throughout this period of time underwent a transition from having a history to having none that implies a dynamic throughout this period of time. It is this dynamic that this article seeks to uncover by highlighting English-speaking attitudes towards Rhodesian UDI in 1965 as a case example.

Others have instead highlighted the societal marginalisation of English-speakers that accompanied the rise of Afrikaner nationalism throughout the first half of the twentieth century. After the Afrikaner Nationalist Party (NP) came to power in 1948, it carried out an  implementation  of  strongly  nationalist  measures,  for  example  job  reservation  for Afrikaners, as well as its promised policy of enforced systematic racial segregation that would  become  known  to  the  world  as  apartheid.  This  nationalist  struggle,  with  its ultimate goal of afrikanerdom (Maylam 2001: 210f.), would be the dominant political and  cultural  and  in  turn,  historiographical,  focal  point  for  much  of  the  twentieth century. As such, there seemed to be no room for the role of or identity inhabited by the English-speaker  in  a  politically  and  culturally  Afrikaner-dominated  country  (Lever 1978: 17).

The joint contribution of the papers in English-Speaking South Africa Today (de Villiers (ed.) 1976) presents an assessment of this at the time marginalised and rigid political and cultural position of the English-speaking community, which can be summed up as '… a sense of political 'suffocation' or 'dismemberment' …' (Schlemmer 1976: 96). It fails,  though, to actually address the issue at hand. Rather, the quality of the studies presented appears to be their expression of disillusionment with the fact that Englishspeakers have been ostracised (Temple 1977: 67), which in itself can be seen as a call for re-conferring on them a historical value.

English-speakers were in effect 'caught in the middle' in two regards: between loyalties to South Africa and to Britain, and between the Afrikaner and the African (Macmillan 1963), especially after the introduction of apartheid. The compositeness of their identity, I believe, can be attributed to their 'in-betweenness' throughout South African history. Unlike  the  monolithic  Afrikaner  nationalist  and  African  struggles,  English-speakers have not in the same way had to fight for survival or for their right to exist. A lack of cohesiveness in an English-speaking identity is in this way understandable, as nothing has forced them to come together in a 'sense of mission' (Sparks 1990: 47). At the same time, English-speakers have throughout comprised a minority of a minority, resulting in a different relationship with the 'mother country' and a lack of a national identity, which  by  contrast  did  flourish  in  other  similar  settlements  where  descendants  from Britain  comprised  a  majority  and  held  a  foundational  role  in  society,  for  example Australia,  Canada  and  New  Zealand  (Ward  2001;  Buckner  2005;  Darian-Smith, Macintyre and Grimshaw 2007).

Thus, English-speakers in South Africa have been more dependent on their relationship with Britain, at least until 1961, as they have never had the need nor been bestowed with the  opportunity  to  identify  fully  with  their  country  of  settlement.  Yet,  the  particular demographics and political situation in South Africa have served as a reminder that they were indeed not mainland Britons either, which the events of 1960-1966, and especially Rhodesian independence, highlight. These events generated highly emotional debates on allegiance, power, identity and race, issues at the forefront of the English-speaker's mind when revising his triangular relationship with the Afrikaner and the African.

Within this complex ménage-à-trois, Anglo-Afrikaner relations during the apartheid era are  readily  traceable  and  ripe  for  analysis,  as  are  Afrikaner-African,  both  due  to  the monopoly of power held by Afrikaners. Anglo-African relations, however, appear to be the single strand within the tripartite melee of apartheid South Africa that remains to a degree obscure.

English-speakers' attitudes towards apartheid and the 'racial question' in general are not only a sensitive issue, but also a question to which there is no clear answer. The main synthesis among those who have touched upon it, however (Conway and Leonard 2014: esp.  154-156;  Stone  1973),  is  one  of  the  English-speaker  as  aloof,  indifferent  to,  or accepting of, apartheid. Tellingly, this complex standpoint in which the English-speaker is  aware  of  and  informed  by  the  racial  situation,  yet  acquiescent  through  his  own passivity all but confirms his position as the 'Third Man' (Sparks 1990: 45) of South Africa and adds to the image of him as difficult to entangle.

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The ethical dimension of racism means that an untangling of the role of the Englishspeaker, whether he stands out as an anti-apartheid activist, as mitigating or supporting apartheid,  naturally  and  importantly  informs  the  larger  picture  of  the  apartheid struggle.  Yet,  the  English-speaker's  role  and  identity  seem  somewhat  obscure  and divergent. In the next section, I suggest that the inclusion of emotions to a historical study may offer us clearer methods with which to untangle this complexity.

## Common Repertoires of Feeling

Considering  the  emotional  character  of  South  Africa's  traumatic  past,  it  seems remarkable that the subject of emotions has yet to arise from it as an area worthy of serious historical scrutiny. The historiographical 'cultural turn' of the 1980's took place predominantly  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  At  this  time,  South  Africa  was preoccupied with a racial and ideological 'war' that was played out in all spheres of society,  including  the  academic  world.  The  white  nationalist  project  was  reflected  in many  researchers'  work  on  one  side,  whilst  the  opposing  side  became  increasingly engaged with attempting to give the oppressed majority a voice. At a time of war, there seemed to be no space or time for sentiment. Thus, when dealing with the history of apartheid South Africa, emotions appear to be a topic ripe for investigation. Emotions have  lingered  in  full  visibility  under  the  surface,  but  have  yet  to  be  dealt  with  in  a comprehensive manner (van Zyl-Hermann 2012).

I  suggest  that  scrutinising  emotions  may  not  only  result  in  arriving  at  a  greater understanding of South Africa's emotionally charged past, but also that operating with emotions  as  a  historical  variable  may  offer  a  way  in  which  to  comprehend  the experiences  of  and  role  played  by  English-speakers  during  apartheid.  This  means scrutinising their relations within the triangular relationship consisting of Briton, Bantu and Boer. An analysis of their emotional character may moreover be a key to accessing a more uniform component of their identity.

I uphold the view that emotions contain a historicity worthy of analysis when regarded as  to  a  degree  intertwined  with  culture  and  social  life  (Rosaldo  1984).  This  involves rebutting  the  view  of  emotions  as  being  irrational,  universal  and  inaccessible  (as championed  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  by  for  example  Febvre  1941;  Stearns  and Stearns 1985; Reddy 1997).  Instead, I introduce a  dynamic that can be investigated historically by regarding emotions as something that is practised instead of something we possess or inhabit and consequently may or may not be able to scrutinise in depth.

Emotions should then be seen as products of social and cultural life. Discourse may be an optimal way of accessing them (Lutz and Abu-Lughod 1990). The source material, that  is,  newspaper  articles,  chosen  for  the  following  analysis,  thereby  prescribes  an approach resembling a discourse analysis. The theoretical ideas behind the relationship between discourse and society and, in turn, emotions, in a critical discourse analysis frame my readings of the newspaper extracts I have singled out.  Discourse is then both constitutive  and  constituted,  and  a  social  practice  that  contributes  to  the  shaping  of social  relations,  identities  and  systems  of  knowledge  and  vice  versa  (Jørgensen  and Phillips 2002: 61ff.). In this relationship, emotions exert influence on discourse as well as  the  opposite,  suggesting  that  structures  exist  outside  of  the  discursive  realm.  I therefore  employ  Monique  Scheer's  notion  of  emotional  practices,  which  locates emotions  ontologically as in-between  discourse and  practice. With  that, bodily emotional experiences can also be 'read'. Instead of concentrating on what emotions are,  Scheer  suggests  reading  emotions  as  'a  practical  engagement  with  the  world.' (Scheer  2012:  193).  Scheer  introduces  emotions  as  expressions  from  a  mindful, conscious body, which neutralises those historians' insistence that we can only identify their expression, as opposed to experience, and then only through norms or discourse. Concretely, emotions-as-practice functions not only as a means of identifying otherwise 'veiled' emotions in the debates on Rhodesia's UDI but also allows the historian to trace changes  in  the  emotional  practices  English-speakers  employ.  To  understand  these changes,  Scheer's  concept  works  even  more  to  an  advantage  when  linked  with  the question of not just how emotions are practised, but what emotions do (Vallgårda 2013: 104).

To  further  inform  the  concept  of  emotional  practices,  I  introduce  two  additional approaches to theorising emotions, namely historian Barbara Rosenwein's emotional communities (Rosenwein 2002; 2010) and culture theorist Sara Ahmed's emotion work (Ahmed  2004a;  2004b).  Ahmed,  similarly  to  Scheer,  views  emotions  as  a  form  of

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cultural practice. Through an analysis of public texts, a source material similar to my own, she argues that these texts  'perform'  emotion.  Here,  she  argues  that  emotions establish collectives that are demarcated by the way the collectives in question feel about other  'bodies,'  these  often  being  other  people.  In  this  way,  emotions  generate  and maintain  a  constant  alignment  of  some  subjects  with  others  against  other  'others' (Ahmed 2004a: 25ff.).

Barbara Rosenwein makes a related path of argument to Ahmed's with her concept of emotional communities, which she likens to other social communities. Her concept is particularly useful, as it advises the historian to

'… uncover systems of feeling; what these communities (and the individuals within them) define and assess as valuable or harmful to them; the evaluations [and] the nature of the affective bonds between people that they recognize …' (Rosenwein 2010: 11)

Thus, it is my hypothesis that a more uniform component of identity may be attributed to the English-speaking community if the role of emotions is taken into account. In the case  example  to  follow,  I  analyse  debates  on  Rhodesia's  UDI  in  1965.  The  critical discourse  analysis  prescribes  that  discourse  and  the  social  are  mutually  constituent, which  inspires  my  reading  of  the  debates.  Emotions,  however,  are  not  necessarily exclusively discursive, as Scheer argues. By making use of Scheer's emotional practices and Rosenwein's emotional communities, the goal is to evoke a common repertoire of feeling, in effect conjuring up what I call an emotional narrative of the English-speaker that  arises  from  the  debates.  To  explain  why  and  how  these  emotional  narratives emerge, I turn to Ahmed's concept of emotion work. Emotions expressed in the debates are presumed to have an affect on and shape those who read them, in this case Englishspeakers themselves. The key challenge thereupon lies in identifying those subjects that align themselves with each other and alienate themselves from others by virtue of the emotions that are conveyed. I do, however, make the reservation that some emotions may remain more or less embedded in the individual. That is, some 'basic' emotions may be universal, yet the way they are felt and expressed depends on cultural standards as  well  as  on  individual  circumstances  (Vallgårda  2013:  103;  Scheer  2012:  205;  211; Rosenwein  2002:  836f.).  They  do,  though,  create  an  opportunity  for  attachment  or change, regardless (Bønnelycke 2015). In order to evoke a more transparent Englishspeaking identity, then, the challenge is, as Ahmed prescribes, to identify those subjects that do emotionally align and the processes through which they do so.

Before turning to my analysis, I briefly reflect on my source material, the South African English-language press.

## The South African English-Language Press

The almost complete lack of contact between different racial groups during apartheid meant that South Africans were dependent on the media to obtain news and information about  other  groups  (Potter  1975:  164).  The  South  African  English-language  press  is generally considered to share the same values as its counterpart in the Anglo-American world, such as an adherence to the concept of free press (Hachten and Giffard 1984: 95). This liberal outlook prescribed the recognition of the existence of all groups in apartheid South African society, on whom it did not fail to publish reports. Yet, this recognition was not necessarily equal to the conveyance of an acceptable picture of these groups, nor  was  the  quantity  of  information  about  different  groups  balanced.  Its  primary concern  was  the  white  English-speaking  group  whose  interests  it  duly  represented (Potter  1975:  165;  Lambert  2006:  39;  Mervis  1989:  453).  Compared  to  its  Afrikaner counterpart, however, the English press did publish unbiased reports on the horrors of apartheid  (Potter  1975).  To  the  historian  seeking  access  to  the  English-speaking community, then, the English press offers an independent, assorted and unrestrained bulk of information on South African current affairs, whilst its opinions mostly reflected those of its main readership, English-speakers.

## English-Speakers and Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

After  longstanding  negotiations  between  the  British  and  white  minority  Rhodesian governments, the Cabinet of Rhodesia unilaterally declared Rhodesia independent on 11 November 1965. No country recognised Rhodesian de jure sovereignty and international

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sanctions  ensued  with  support  from  the  United  Nations.  Whilst  South  Africa  had officially recommended against independence before UDI, it did not support sanctions and indeed circumvented them by supporting Rhodesia economically after UDI. It has been  argued  that  for  the  South  African  English-speaking  community,  the  United Kingdom's stance against Rhodesian independence (to which many English-speakers were  sympathetic  due  to  the  cultural  similarity  between  the  white  English-speaking communities in both countries), caused a change in their mutual relationship that '… caused  a  bewilderment  that  amounted  almost  to  trauma,  and  this  in  turn  bred  a resentment  towards  Britain.'  (Heard  1974:  152).  This  case  example  explores  this emotional perplexity.

## For Love of Country

Views  in  the  South  African  English-language  press  on  then  impending  UDI  were sympathetic to the situation of the English-speaking community's Rhodesian kin, yet advised strongly against independence. The editorial in the Cape Times on October 14, 1965, for example, noted the following on rumours that South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd privately desired independence for Rhodesia:

'We trust that this is not so. We hope that it is only the runaway enthusiasm of certain of Dr. Verwoerd's propaganda henchmen that gives this unfortunate appearance of wanting to make something like a political catspaw of the White South Africans' sorely tried White cousins beyond the Limpopo. For our own part we are not eager to have reckless policies of action tested at other people's expense, nor to see the White Rhodesians take a step which may truly destroy all that they and their forbears have built up ...' (Cape Times, 11 October 1965).

In the above, the emotional practice of communicating sympathy, or love of their 'White cousins beyond the Limpopo' is prevalent and functions as a stimulus to advise against the  'recklessness'  of  declaring  independence  and  destroying  the  'progress'  of  white Rhodesians.

The same attitude is found in a letter to the editor on November 11, 1965, which links sympathy with Rhodesians to the question of colour:

'Although fully sympathizing with Mr. Ian Smith [the Rhodesian Prime Minister, ed.] in his efforts to avert premature 'Black rule' in Rhodesia, there comes a stage where reason should  prevail  over  sentiment  …  He  might  serve  Rhodesia  better  if,  recognizing  the inevitable,  he  played  for  time  during  which  the  future  Black  rulers  might  possibly  be trained to be more reasonable ...' (Cape Times, 11 November 1965)

Here we are presented with an 'other,' in Ahmed's words, namely 'the Black'. Whilst debates on the republic referendum and Commonwealth membership are linked to the question  of  Afrikaner  nationalist  dominance  (Kirkby  2016),  the  Rhodesian  question seems  to  open  up  a  new  flank  for  interpretation  within  the  South  African  tripartite relationship,  namely  that  between  English-speakers  and  black  Africans.  The  above quotation offers a paternalistic view of the native insofar as the 'Black rulers must be trained'. Before this, majority rule would be 'premature'.

Exploring how feelings of love 'work,' Ahmed highlights their ambiguity by connecting them to feelings of hate (Ahmed 2004b: 42ff.; 122ff.). Whilst her primary focus is right wing hate groups, I argue that her argument is applicable to the racial dimension of the debates on Rhodesian UDI, albeit the structures in this case may appear blurred.

By  sympathising  with  the  white  Rhodesian  minority,  in  effect  considering  them members of their own emotional community, English-speakers restructure themselves as a group that emotionally identify actively with Rhodesia as a nation. Indeed, we find other stances in the debates that verify this. An observer at a United Party  rally remarks that  the  party  leader's  support  for  Rhodesia  after  UDI  was  declared,  provoked  a rapturous applause that '… shows where the hearts of the greater part of the electorate lie'  (Cape  Times,  12  November  1965,  my  italicisation),  implying  a  bond  of  love  and fraternity between English-speakers in South Africa and their namesakes in Rhodesia.

Yet, if we turn to Ahmed's analysis of love, we understand that this narrative works to conceal its  own  point.  English-speakers'  tentative  attitude  towards  the  native  is  now renamed  as  'support  of  equality  before  the  law'  and  sympathy  for  'sorely  tried' Rhodesians. In this way, as Ahmed argues, '[The group comes] to be defined as positive

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…  we  love  rather  than  hate.'  (Ahmed  2004b:  123).  To  juxtapose,  English-speakers' sympathy for the white Rhodesian minority works to conceal their animosity towards a majority rule alternative. At the same time, what Ahmed describes as a 'pull of love' (Ahmed 2004b: 124) towards Rhodesia is transferred towards the collective minority as a whole, expressed as a desire for an ideal (Ahmed 2004b: 124) of togetherness between English-speaking whites, Rhodesians included, with no place for the African.

Whilst we find no dissenting voices in the debates advocating for UDI, it is clear that the United  Kingdom  and  English-speaking  South  Africans  advocate  against  UDI  for different  reasons.  The  United  Kingdom  refuses  granting  independence  to  Rhodesia before  majority  rule  has  been  established.  English-speakers,  however,  advise  against UDI out of fear that it will cause majority rule since the United Kingdom at this time has already withdrawn from other '… former possessions in Central Africa and handed over White settlers to African control without either facilitating their exodus or adequately safeguarding their future.' (Cape Times, 9 November 1965).

Here the English-speaking community attributes the notion of 'otherness' to  another figure,  namely  the  United  Kingdom.  The  above  suggests  that  the  only  two  options English-speakers consider viable in relation to the decolonization process are either an exodus,  or  local  protection  from  the  African.  This  both  illustrates  clearly  that  the English-speaker considers the African a figure with which he either cannot co-exist or only co-exist with precautions in place, marking an irreconcilable position between the two.  The  British  government  is  accused  of  not  recognising  this  fact  and  its  apparent ignorance of the White settlers' position in Africa means that they too are becoming increasingly estranged, that is, 'unloved':

'The  methods  which  the  British  Government  employed  in  an  attempt  to  coerce  White Rhodesians  to  hand  over  their  country  to  African  rule  fills  [English-speakers]  with bitterness because it proves to them that … they too are 'written off' …' (Cape Times, 9 November 1965).

This frustration with the 'mother country' is also foreboded in editorials on the then on going  negotiations  between  Smith  and  UK  Prime  Minister  Wilson.  The  Cape  Times implies that the United Kingdom's position on the Rhodesian question is too aggressive and an assertion of unwarranted imperial power (Cape Times, 26 October 1965), again indicating a growing disunity between the 'mother country' and its 'subjects,' not only in Rhodesia, but in South Africa as well. After UDI, the Cape Times moreover publishes an  editorial  analysing  ways  in  which  the  South  African  Republic  may  help  Rhodesia circumvent  impending  economic  sanctions  from  especially  the  United  Kingdom  (see also Cape Times, 15 November 1965; 16 November 1965). Whilst the Cape Times refutes a reader's allegation of supporting 'treason,' by declaring the word '… meaningless in the  Rhodesian  context,'  (Cape  Times,  19  November  1965)  it  nevertheless  draws attention to the press's apparent double standards on the Rhodesian question.

The few dissenting opinions appear to be voiced by either the small Progressive Party (Cape Times, 23 November 1965) or a small number of its readers (see e.g. Cape Times, 16  November  1965).  An  emotional  narrative  here  emerges  of  the  English-speaking community opposing UDI in fear of its consequences for its own status as a privileged minority in South Africa, and of Britain's disregard or 'non-love' of White Rhodesians as causing 'trauma' to it.

## When Love is Lacking

English-speaking  South  Africa's  disillusionment  with  Britain's  position  on  UDI  has already  been  clarified  in  the  above  section  and  is  concisely  explained  by  political scientist Ken Heard:

'… the punitive measures [sanctions, ed.] which she [Britain, ed.] did adopt were seen by the whites of South Africa as proof that Britain had gone over into the camp of the 'enemy'.' (Heard 1974: 152).

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I  would  here  like  to  return  to  how  love  or,  rather,  the  lack  of  it,  'works,'  in  order  to clarify how the above is sufficient to provoke a vocal disenchantment.

Using 'the nation' as an example of the object of love, Ahmed reasons that love is crucial to  the  formation  of  group  identities  (Ahmed  2004b:  130ff.).  This  argument  bears similarities  to  that  of  Rosenwein,  who,  as  we  recall,  would  argue  that  emotional communities exist by virtue of 'the nature of the affective bonds between people that they  recognize  …'  (Rosenwein  2010:  11).  In  the  case  of  UDI,  it  is  exactly  the  white minority settler nation that is under threat. English-speakers, in turn, feel an affinity with their kin in Rhodesia, juxtaposing that nation with their own community in South Africa.  Indeed,  Sparks  argues  that  the  counterfactual  image  of  an  Anglicised  South Africa  without  the  Afrikaner  did  in  fact  already  exist:  Rhodesia  (Sparks  1990:  49). Britain's  'punishment'  of  Rhodesia,  then,  was  regarded  as  an  attack  on  Englishspeaking South Africa as well, as proof that the 'mother country' no longer regarded their nation as compatible with her own.

Ahmed suggests that love comes into being as a form of reciprocity and as surviving the absence of reciprocity. Love is a demand for reciprocity; we want to be loved in return, yet if we are not, we may intensify our own love. In the case of the nation, she argues:

'We can see how love then may work to stick together in the absence of the loved object, even when that object is 'the nation'. Love may be especially crucial in the event of the failure of the nation to deliver its promise for the good life. So the failure of the nation to 'give  back'  the  subject's  love  works  to  increase  the  investment  in  the  nation.'  (Ahmed 2004b: 130f.)

In  the  context  of  Rhodesian  independence,  I  suggest  that  'the  nation'  consists  of Rhodesia, the United Kingdom and the English-speaking community in South Africa. Rhodesia's love for the United Kingdom, who has not delivered its 'promise for the good life,' is not returned. Rhodesia indeed came to exist through British colonisation and was founded on some liberal values, yet also on the domination of one racial group over another. In a decolonising world, this is no longer compatible with 'the nation'. Thus, the subject, the Rhodesian, increases his investment in the nation by attempting to force it  to  come  to  exist  through  independence.  The  same  is  then  the  case  with  Englishspeaking South Africa, as it sees Rhodesia as the model society that it could not achieve with the Afrikaner present (see e.g. Kirkby 2016: 25-34). Recognising that this model society  is  irrevocably  untenable;  that  the  love  of  it  is  not  reciprocated,  the  Englishspeaker then increases his investment in it. In this case this happens quite literally by supporting aid to Rhodesia to circumvent sanctions. In this way, the subject 'stays with' the nation and loves it 'more,' '… out of hope and with nostalgia for how it could have been.' (Ahmed 2004b: 131)

Ahmed claims that this hope and nostalgia requires an explanation for the failure of return of love. Because one has invested work and time in the nation, one invents these explanations to defend the subject against the injury that would be caused if one simply 'gave up' the object of love (Ahmed 2004b: 131), here the ideal of an unperturbed white settler society and the nation from which this ideal was born. As is clear both in South Africa and Rhodesia, the African is seen as the explanation. With the African present, the English-speaking South African and the white Rhodesian construct the fantasy that without the African, the love of the nation would finally be returned. Ahmed puts it thus:

## 'The failure of return is 'explained' by the presence of others, whose presence is required for the investment to be sustained. (Ahmed 2004b: 131)

With this, the nation itself also becomes a construct in that it only exists so long as it is invested in, that is as long as the African remains 'the other' that gives the Englishspeaker a reason to invest in the nation and hope for his love of it to be returned.

To conclude in short on the above analysis, then, we find that the emotional practices employed in debates on Rhodesia's UDI in the South African English-language press uncover an English-speaking sympathy for the situation of white Rhodesians. I decipher this  as  articulations  of  love.  An  interpretation of the  emotion  work that love induces reveals  an  emotional  narrative  of  the  English-speaker  aligning  himself  with  the Rhodesian, in effect creating a common emotional community. The United Kingdom is excluded  from  this  community  due  to  a  relationship  of  increasingly  unrequited  love between the mother country and its subjects. Furthermore, we learn that the bond of

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 -DQXDU

love  between  English-speakers  and  their  Rhodesian  namesakes  works  to  conceal  an underlying common animosity towards the African, an 'other' from whom the Englishspeaker requires safeguarding.

Next, in conclusion, I briefly discuss how this narrative nuances existing research on English-speakers and the broader apartheid narrative.

## Conclusion: Informing Existing Interpretations

With the above, I argue that an 'emotional' reading of the debates on Rhodesia's 1965 UDI imply that the English-speaker proactively inhabited a desire to uphold existing societal and racial structures in place in South Africa at that point in time, at the expense of the United Kingdom and the African. Consequently, this image of the English-speaker exists in opposition to that of the 'aloof,' or 'benign' English-speaker who usually 'does not want to know' about the racial dilemma, or is regarded as having done something 'rather reprehensible' if he lets his true opinion on it be voiced (Sparks 1990: 47) or has been coerced by the Afrikaner into passive acquiescence (e.g. Giliomee 2012).

The apparent degree of emotional solidarity between English-speakers on the issue of UDI furthermore suggests that a less composite element of an English-speaking identity may be identifiable when including emotions as a historical variable,  as well as contests the notion of the English-speaker as 'unknown'.

This affirms the relevance of exploring strands of apartheid history outside of Afrikaner and  African  nationalisms  and  interpretations.  Furthermore,  it  shows  how  taking different  conceptualisations  of  the  theory  and  history  of  emotions  seriously,  may contribute to a nuancing of a historical narrative.

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