The pervasive legacy of our colonial and apartheid past is deeply embedded not only in our unequal racialised economy and landlessness, but also in our social fibre. As Vail (1989) expresses, the root of the creation of tribalism in Southern Africa is closely linked to colonial devastation. The architecture of Bantustans as mechanisms of confinement and zones of exclusion merely cemented tribal identities that had already been cooked in the pot of coloni alism. Today, this legacy continues to serve as a mechanism of exclusion and of denying Black people their legitimate claims to citizenship.
Apartheid spatial planning ensured, even in townships where Black people were concentrated, that the template for tribalism would still be employed. A perfect example of this is Soweto, the biggest township in South Africa by population, comprising of just over thirty townships (Soweto is an acronym for south-western townships – several townships on the south-west of Johannesburg [Statistics South Africa, 2017]. They are referred to in their collective name as Soweto, but for this argument, it is important to note that these are in fact different townships converged as one). The townships in Soweto were segregated by the apartheid regime along tribal lines. For example, on the far west, you had Dobsonville designated for Batswana; Zola and Emndeni designated for AmaZulu; in west and central Soweto you had Moletsane, Molapo, Tladi, Mapetla and Naledi designated for Basotho; in the south you had Chiawelo designated for VaTsonga and in the north-east Noordgesig designated for Coloureds. But these divisions did not end only at township level. Even within the townships, areas were divided along tribal lines. For example, Meadowlands, one of the biggest townships in Soweto, is divided by zones, and these zones were historically divided along tribal lines. Zones 1, 2 and 3 were predominantly for Basotho, while zones 4 and 5 were for VaTsonga. Zones 6, 7 and 10 were for AmaZulu, while zone 8 was for VhaVenda and zone 9 for Batswana. In zone 8, a main road, Maseru Street, cuts across the north and south of the zone. The north side is known as zone 8 ko Basothong (zone 8 for Basotho) and the south as zone 8 ko MaVendeng (zone 8 for VhaVenda). This racialised and tribalised spatiality had an impact on the way in which Black people in the townships saw themselves, but also the ways in which they related with each other.
Having grown up in the township of Meadowlands, in the part of zone 8 designated for VhaVenda, Mahlatsi (co-author of this chapter) was confronted with many incidents in which blatant dehumanisation was meted out on those around her who belonged to so-called minority tribes. A Mosotho herself, she was often insulted by those in other zones who spoke a different language and would only be treated decently once it was established that though she lived in a Venda dominated area, she was in fact Mosotho. Statements such as "Ne re nahana o leVenda"3 (we thought you were Venda) were common in conversation and were used to dehumanise and exclude. These sentiments are also expressed by Morifi (co-author of this chapter) who grew up in the Limpopo province where tribalism continues to define existence. The VhaVenda and VaTsonga people in particular, are on the receiving end of the deeply embedded tribalism in our country, making their sense of belonging, precarious.
The devastating wave of the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa laid bare the deadly sins of tribalism as engineered by our colonial past. According to Mail & Guardian (2008), of the 62 people who perished in the violence, 21 were South African citizens and according to the Human Sciences Research Council (2008), these were mainly VaTsonga and other minority language groups.
The killing of people solely on the grounds that they did not appear "South African enough" demonstrates that while all South Africans are theoretically equal, some South Africans are more equal than others (Mail & Guardian, 2008). This indicates vividly that claims to citizenship are unequal even amongst Black people who are collectively excluded from the architecture of the South African nation. Citizenship is clearly defined as "the state of being a member of a particular country and having rights because of it", and yet, the most fundamental rights of the citizens who were killed in this xenophobic violence were blatantly violated. Their constitutionally enshrined rights to human dignity, to equality, to security, to belong to cultural and linguistic communities, to life itself, were disregarded, and in that way, their sense of belonging, their legitimate claims to citizenship in South Africa, denied.
It is important to understand tribalism in South Africa as a colonial and apartheid design aimed at the birthing of antagonism between Black people. While the isolation theory is often used only in the analysis of xenophobia (Harris, 2002), it is just as applicable in the question of tribalism in South Africa because apartheid isolated Black people internally through spatial mechanisms such as Bantustans. The foreignness with which different tribal groups in South Africa view each other, but particularly how the VaTsonga and VhaVenda groups are viewed, is partly situated at the heart of the hostility that gives rise to tribalism and xenophobia.
It is evident that colonialism and apartheid, in the creation of zones of exclusion that were rooted in structural racism, set parameters for the continued ostracisation of Black people from the South African nation, not only through structural racism, but through the architecting of tribalism.