Not White Enough, Not Black Enough: Racial Identity in the South African Coloured Community (Ohio RIS Africa Series) [Paperback]

Mohamed Adhikari (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ohio RIS Africa Series | Publication Date: November 17, 2005

The concept of Colouredness---being neither white nor black---has been pivotal to the brand of racial thinking particular to South African society .The nature of Coloured identity has always been a matter of intense political and ideological contestation. Between Black and White: Racial Identity in the South African Coloured Community is the first systematic study of Coloured identity, its history, and its relevance to South African national life. Mohamed Adhikari engages with the debates and controversies thrown up by the identity?s troubled existence and challenges much of the conventional wisdom associated with it. A combination of wide-ranging thematic analyses and detailed case studies illustrate how Colouredness functioned as a social identity from the time of its emergence in the late nineteenth century through to its adaptation to the post-apartheid environment. Adhikari demonstrates how the interplay of marginality, racial hierarchy, assimilationist aspirations, negative racial stereotyping, class divisions, and ideological conflicts helped mold peoples' sense of Colouredness over the past century. Knowledge of this history and of the social and political dynamic that informed the articulation of a separate Coloured identity are vital to an understanding of present-day complexities in South Africa. Mohamed Adhikari lectures in the Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town. His books include Let us Live for Our Children: The Teachers League of South Africa, 1913-1940, and he coedited South Africa's Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Last Generation under Apartheid (Ohio, 2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Ohio University Press; 1 edition (November 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896802442
• ISBN-13: 978-0896802445
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars my randon two cents: mediocre, January 11, 2011

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not White Enough, Not Black Enough: Racial Identity in the South African Coloured Community (Ohio RIS Africa Series) (Paperback)

Years ago, my college newspaper said three South African students were attending that year. Two were clearly black; the other was "of color." He looked Indian to me and I asked him how Indians were treated in his home country. He laughed and said, "In the US, ppl assume I'm Indian, Iranian, Moroccan, and more. But I would be called coloured in South Africa, AND SO WOULD YOU." (I'm an African American with two African-American parents.) I always assumed I knew who was Black and this time I was cleary wrong.
It's great that someone has written a book on those in South Africa who had both African and European ancestries. Still, unlike many scholarly books that emphasize change and social construction, the author said that coloured identity has been fairly consistent for more than a century. Further, his analysis of coloured identity today was dull and inconclusive.
This book just did not strike me as strong. Perhaps if I lived in that country or was born there I'd feel differently. I just think books about multiracial individuals in the US have been sooooo much stronger than this one.
There was something missing here, and a little boring. I can't quite put my finger on it.