Unfortunately, many South Africans, blacks and whites, see their country in exceptionalist terms, as an outpost of European civilization in Africa. That's why they sometimes say they are "going to Africa" when they're going to another African country. That mindset leads to unrealistic political expectations and to melodramatic lamentations on Zuma as an African monster who is destroying their country or turning it into another African basket case. It is of course a racist discourse founded on a racist axiom. I agree however that the writer's premise is the same flawed exceptionalism that informs the lamenters' attempt to contrast their country with the rest of the continent and to liken their country to other African countries when they feel things are going badly. Dysfunction and political disorder, for them, are congenital African phenomena.
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> On Jan 4, 2018, at 8:28 AM, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso <jumoyin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> While I understand sarcasm as this writer's style, I reject the essentialist, even racist notion that "Africa north of the Limpopo" is naturally cursed and irredeemably incapable of governing its people in a developmental manner. By drawing this parallel between Zuma and the rest of Africa, The author himself is hostage to the arrogant South African exceptionalism that he wishes to condemn.
>
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