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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Bafokeng, Inc.: power of the nation/corporation amalgam |
Author: | Kriel, Inge |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | Anthropology Southern Africa (ISSN 0258-0144) |
Volume: | 33 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 44-54 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | Bafokeng enterprises identity ethnicity |
Abstract: | The concept of 'Ethnicity, Inc.' so thoroughly conjoins the ethnic nation with the ethnic corporation that it becomes increasingly difficult to think of one without the other. The author analyses the chameleon-like character of Bafokeng, Inc. against the backdrop of her own experiences of this nation/corporation in South Africa, having stayed in a Bafokeng village for seven months in 2006. The Royal Bafokeng Nation's (RBN) ownership of land proved to be very valuable when, in 1924, platinum was discovered in its area. Presently, the RBN is considered 'the richest tribe in Africa'. The author shows how power brokers play the boundaries, skilfully blending, equivocating, mediating, and otherwise working the spheres of nation and corporation, of bureaucracy and market. The strength of Ethnicity, Inc. organizations lies in significant part in their ability to adopt different statuses in the context of a politics of recognition and representation. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |