Proletariat of South Africa today harkens back to Rome, not 19th-century Europe

At a recent African Studies Center lecture, Professor James Ferguson provided an alternative view of the proletariat in South Africa.

“Those who likened Zambia and European coal workers were applying a complex historical analogy that when taken too literally, had enormous potential to mislead and confuse.”

by Samantha Fletcher (UCLA 2016)

UCLA International Institute, February 25, 2016 – As a part of the ongoing African Studies M.A. Seminar Series of the African Studies Center (http: ////www.international.ucla.edu/africa), Stanford University Professor of Anthropology James Ferguson recently provided an interesting comparative perspective on the current working classes of South Africa.

Rethinking Western social science discourse on development economics, Ferguson suggested that perhaps the original interpretation of the term proletariat — from Roman history and tradition — is better suited than the Marxist version to the political economies of the South African region today.

The speaker discounted analogies that have been made by scholars of the global economy in which the term proletariat is based on a nineteenth-century, Marxist misappropriation of the word. Looking back to the Roman definition, in which the working class lives off of and for the state, Ferguson claimed that the economic and social situation of the contemporary poor in South Africa seem to recall the characteristics of the proletariat of Rome, just as much as, if not more than, those of nineteenth-century Europe.

The Roman proletariat and South Africa today

The proletariat of Rome was characterized not only by lack of property, but also by a type of political membership in which “the key social power did not lie in the capacity to labor, but in other capacities, especially the capacity to offer a following and instill fear,” he said. One of the main tasks of the proletariat in Roman times was to praise the elite, as Roman leaders needed followers.

Ferguson’s argument suggests that there is more going on in South Africa than simply the development of capitalism. High levels of urbanization throughout the region are creating industrial cities. Previous mining towns have now completely shifted to become nearly complete industrial cities, characterized by state employment. These profoundly political cities can be compared to Rome, in which the working-class proletariat was the basis of political support and activity.

In addition, Ferguson noted the parallels to structural unemployment between Rome and current South Africa, saying that the “30 to 40 percent unemployment estimate [in Rome] would be quite at home in current African cities.” He then turned to payments made by the state with the goal of acquiring political influence. In South Africa, such payments are similar to those of ancient Rome, where money was given to the caretakers of children and the old. Even the poorest, propertiless citizens in South Africa, as in Rome, are able to retain certain power because they offer both political followers and instill fear. These relations of dependence, social structure and extreme inequality provide a comparison that transcends time, observed Ferguson.

A new understanding

Ferguson argued that the dependency of subsistence communities on systems of social assistance in South Africa, as in Roman times, represented the central political relationship of the poor and middle classes. It's not just a matter of people being exploited as wage laborers, he said, they are being exploited by being denied even the means to work. The speaker believed that wealth in South Africa is also perceived as it was in Roman times, that is, the wealthy elite is perceived has having an obligation to share with the community at large.

The speaker concluded by saying, “[T]hose who likened Zambia and European coal workers were applying a complex historical analogy that when taken too literally, had enormous potential to mislead and confuse.” Comparing past developments in Europe to contemporary South Africa, he said, may in fact distort what is happening in the region.

While Ferguson claimed that this “ancient analogy seems weirdly relevant,” he was also quick to note that “historical analogy imposes limits and creates blind spots.” Rediscovering the definition proletarian will not solve any modern problems, he said, but by seeking analogies outside of accepted wisdom, we can discover new and noteworthy comparative points of analysis.

Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2016