The #MustFall movements and traditions of national liberation in South Africa: Political continuities and ruptures in theory and practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT The #MustFall campaigns attacked symbols of the past – physical but also mental legacies of the colonial and apartheid periods – using specific disruption mechanisms along with ideological frameworks that are sometimes consciously and/or unconsciously borrowed from previous generations of South African students. In that respect, the students claim a continuity of their present day struggle with that led in the 1970s under the banner of Black Consciousness. All the while, the born-frees completely reject the main outcome of the struggle for National Liberation – that is, the negotiated settlement signed by Nelson Mandela and F.W De Klerk in the 1990s, which could appear paradoxical. The aim of this article is to shed light on both the continuities and ruptures between the #MF campaigns and traditions of national liberations in order to discuss the political practices they entail in a post/decolonial context. Theoretical shifts in #MF notably through the engagement with concepts such as intersectionality, non-racialism and decolonization had certainly a great impact on their modes and means of protest. This comparative analysis may lead to a deeper understanding of the different interpretations of decolonization in practice between generations and the nature of the discrepancies not only between but also within political traditions of liberation .