Politics 1 A

Siphamandla Zondi
&
Dr Mabutho Shangase
Head Tutors:
Johannes Sekgololo
& Lesego Mosweu
Tutorial programme ….

Mentorship programme …
What is politics?
Source: Cartoon Stock
Source: The Cartoon Movement
Source: DW
Source: Satish Acharya

Source: India Today

Source: Zapiro
Source: KQED
Politics is every day
experience with pwer
relations

The good…the bad .. the ugly

What is political science?
Racism says it is a
white man’s gift to the
world
 It says Greece was the birthplace
It says 2 white men (Plato & Aristotle) are fathers

It says European industrial revolution developed

pol sc
It says Western experiences are the only history of
pol sc
It says western concepts are the concepts to use,
the only theories are voices of white men
Textbooks present pol sc as a narrative of
the superiority of whiteness & Europe.

Be vigilant about this.. Be able to distinguish

facts from fiction in texts you read
This means there is politics in how pol sc
is written about. Don’t be naive
 But

Reality is the study of how

politics works comes from
all parts of the world
Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan, ‘Why is There No Non-Western
International Relations Theory? An Introduction’, International of Asia
Pacific, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2007), pp. 285–86.

They argue for diversity .. Recognition of

non –western contributions
Robbie Shilliam. 2021. Decolonizing Politics: An
Introduction.. Polity.

Robbie’s research found racial prejudice in the

works of major political scientists.
The discipline abled slavery, colonialism &
capitalist exploitation… but it does not admit. It
simply moves on
Siphamandla Zondi. 2020. Decolonising Relations and
Its Theory:

Zondi found that pol sci is about voices of white

males and the silences of many others whose
voices remain ignored.
It is about the dominationof Europe over others,
so discipline is complicit in colonialism
 Gurminder Bhambra. 2017.Thinking The
Politics Of 'Race’.

Social sciences embedded in racialized views

of the world. They aligned with the empire.
Perpetuate racialized inequality.
 Political science is in need of
decolonization

To enable diversity and

This dialogue

means It needs to better understand

lives outside the west

It requires critical minds…

questioning minds