ABSTRACT

Archbishop Desmond Tutu evocatively called South Africa the ‘Rainbow Nation of God’ to show how, despite the doomsayers who predicted racial civil war, under the guiding hand of Nelson Mandela in 1994, South Africa had adopted a path of reconciliation and non-racialism. A quarter-century on, this optimism is on the wane as ‘racial’ incidents make national headlines virtually daily. This broader context frames this article, which examines the historical and contemporary relationship amongst Muslim South Africans who constitute around two percent of the country’s population. They are mostly composed of Indians, Coloureds, and Black Africans, as defined in the South African census. This article examines the histories of race (and their logics) among Muslims in South Africa, especially between Africans and Indians, including social intimacies and boundary-making. It does so against the background of changing social, political, economic, and cultural conditions, which include an influx of Muslim migrants from Africa and South Asia, rising racial nationalism, widespread poverty and unemployment, and the dissemination of new ideas. While focusing on intra-Muslim relations, the article makes a critical contribution to a broader discussion about race in post-apartheid South Africa.

摘要

德斯蒙德·图图（Desmond Tutu）大主教高声地称南非为“彩虹之国”，以示尽管预言家们预测种族内战，但在1994年纳尔逊·曼德拉的指导下，南非如何采取了和解与非种族主义的道路。四分之一世纪以来，由于“种族”事件几乎每天都成为国家头条新闻，这种乐观情绪正在减弱。本文的背景更为广泛，考察了占该国人口约2％的穆斯林南非人之间的历史和当代关系。根据南非人口普查的定义，他们主要由印第安人，有色人种和黑人非洲人组成。本文研究了南非穆斯林之间，特别是非洲人和印第安人之间的种族历史（及其逻辑），包括社会亲密关系和界限。这样做是在不断变化的社会，政治，经济和文化状况的背景下进行的，其中包括来自非洲和南亚的穆斯林移民的涌入，种族民族主义的加剧，贫困和失业的普遍蔓延以及新思想的传播。在关注穆斯林内部关系的同时，这篇文章为关于种族隔离后的南非种族的广泛讨论做出了重要贡献。