Nationalism can have both positive and negative effects. Positively, nationalism motivated many countries to gain independence from foreign rule and build unified nation states. However, it can also lead to violence during liberation struggles and conflict between ethnic groups competing for dominance within countries. Nationalism in South Africa played a role in both the oppression of apartheid and the later reconciliation and nation building after apartheid ended.

1. THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
FEATURES OF NATIONALISM
Grade: 11
Term: 3
Topic: 4 – NATIONALISMS – SOUTH AFRICA, THE MIDDLE
EAST AND AFRICA
Sub-Topic: CHAPTER 6 – THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
FEATURES OF NATIONALISM: SOUTH AFRICA
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2. Debates and critiques about
nationalism
• Has nationalism been a force
for good or for evil in thefor good or for evil in the
changes during the 19th and
20th centuries in Europe and,
later, in Asia and Africa?
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3. When is nationalism beneficial and
when is it destructive?
The positive side of nationalism
• It motivates millions of people to get rid of their
foreign oppressors.
• It makes them want to rule themselves according
to their own ideas, use their own languages andto their own ideas, use their own languages and
elect their own people to make the laws that suit
them best.
• The South African case study showed an aspect of
nation-building - the way that we have been
reconciled and brought together as a nation in
South Africa.
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4. The negative side of nationalism
• The liberation process is often violent, involving wars and civil
conflict, which leave bitterness and destruction behind.
• Once nationalist governments achieve power, they do not
always manage to hold on to it. They may be challenged by
other powerful forces such as the military, or ideologies like
communism or fascism (takes nationalism to an extreme).
• A state cannot be a state unless it covers a defined territory and
has national borders or frontiers. In countries where several
different ethnic groups live side by side, conflict can break out if
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has national borders or frontiers. In countries where several
different ethnic groups live side by side, conflict can break out if
they start fighting for dominance or struggle to break away and
form their own states.
• National feelings are often so powerful that people will commit
atrocities against people they consider ‘different’, or sacrifice
themselves without hesitation and destroy everything around
them, in order to bring about a state in which they can rule
themselves according to their own ideas.

5. The role of nationalism in liberation
struggles - EUROPE
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6. The role of nationalism in liberation
struggles - EUROPE
• Nationalism became a force in Europe after the French
Revolution and during the 19th century led to the
unification of Germany and Italy.
• In Germany’s case this happened without any great
struggle. The 38 German states saw that it made sense to
unite, not only because they all spoke the same language,unite, not only because they all spoke the same language,
but because their economies were growing at a fast rate
and they would be richer if they united.
• Italy was different. Some Italian states were ruled by
foreigners. The strong feeling that all Italians belonged in
one state, under an Italian ruler inspired many Italians to
rise up and in the course of one rebellion (1848) and two
wars, to throw out their foreign rulers and unite.
• By 1871, both Italy and Germany were fully united.
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7. The role of nationalism in liberation
struggles - AFRICA
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8. The role of nationalism in liberation
struggles - AFRICA
• In 1900, only Liberia and Ethiopia were independent states. By
1999, there were 54 fully independent states in Africa. The
whole continent was free of foreign rule.
• Nationalism played a big part in African liberation struggles in
the 20th century.
• Anti-colonialism was by nature nationalist. Educated elites with• Anti-colonialism was by nature nationalist. Educated elites with
knowledge of their own history and experience of the wider
world could ‘imagine’ their colony as an independent state in
which the people, even if they were ethnically diverse as they
often were, could submerge their identities into the larger one
of the state.
• Kwame Nkrumah managed to weld together the four parts of
the Gold Coast into one viable country. Ghana is still a united
country today.
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9. How did nationalist governments
behave when in power?
• If we look at the examples of South Africa and Ghana, we
see that, despite there being many different ethnic groups
within their borders, the governments have managed to
unite them and keep the country together. This has not
always happened. Once nationalist leaders were in power,always happened. Once nationalist leaders were in power,
nationalism often became a negative force.
• Many nationalist governments have oppressed national
minorities, causing people to flee into exile.
• In extreme cases, nationalism has caused wars and
massacres between national groups which governments
either cannot control, or do not want to.
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10. Many different ethnic groups within
borders
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11. HOLOCAUST
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12. Why does nationalism persist?
• Nationalist feelings persist everywhere because our
national identity is an important part of who we are.
• In countries where everyone speaks one language
and most of their ancestors have lived there for
generations, national identity is simpler.generations, national identity is simpler.
• In a state like South Africa, which has many different
ethnic groups, it is more complicated.
• Do you consider yourself a South African first and
only after that a member of your particular ethnic
group? Or is it the other way around? There is no
easy answer.
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13. Having a sense of national identity
does no harm in itself, although
prejudice and discrimination are
always a danger
• PREJUDICE: preconceived opinion that is not• PREJUDICE: preconceived opinion that is not
based on reason or actual experience.
• DISCRIMINATION: the unjust or prejudicial
treatment of different categories of people,
especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
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14. PREJUDICE:
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15. DISCRIMINATION:
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16. Nationalism may become a negative
political factor if:
• There are economic problems. It was Germany’s humiliation in
World War One, followed by the Great Depression, which rallied
people to Hitler and Nazism. Hitler said the Jewish minority was
the cause of all Germany’s problems. The eventual result was
the Holocaust. The more prosperous and peaceful a country is,
the more wealth is evenly distributed across the population, the
less nationality seems to matter.
the more wealth is evenly distributed across the population, the
less nationality seems to matter.
• If the country has a very mixed population, even the best of
governments have a hard task to keep the peace between the
majority and various minorities, giving all of them a good
reason to live as equals. Our constitution explicitly outlaws
discrimination in South Africa.
• If a government wants to find an excuse to go to war, a sense
of national pride or of national revenge is a powerful tool to
rally people in support of the war.
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17. The negative side of nationalism: How
do people remember their past,
especially when it is painful?
• In many countries, there are museums
which remind people about the mistakeswhich remind people about the mistakes
of the past. In South Africa, we have the
Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and
the Holocaust Museum in Cape Town.
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18. Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg
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19. Holocaust Museum in Cape Town
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20. The positive face of nationalism:
South Africa
Reconciliation and nation-building in South
Africa:
• South Africa had first been a colonial society• South Africa had first been a colonial society
under the Dutch and then the British and,
from 1910, a white-ruled self-governing state
within the British Empire.
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21. • After 1910, South Africans who were not white
were subjected to ‘segregation’ laws.
• After 1948, the National Party government
introduced the policy of Apartheid, which took
segregation a step further.
• Apartheid involved separating South Africans
into racial groups - black (African), coloured,
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into racial groups - black (African), coloured,
Indian and white - and denying most rights to
all but the white community.
• Many discriminatory laws were passed and
black people were further divided into tribal or
‘national’ groups.

22. • Apartheid made South Africa into the most
fractured and repressive of all post-colonial
countries.
• Despite strong resistance to Apartheid it lasted
until 1990.
• At that point the National Party government was
forced to agree to negotiations which would lead
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forced to agree to negotiations which would lead
to a new and non-racial South Africa.
• Political prisoners like Nelson Mandela were
released from jail, political exiles were allowed
back into South Africa and banned political
parties like the ANC and SACP were allowed to
operate.

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24. • The multi-party negotiations went on for more
than three years, during which there was a
great deal of violence, but at the end of 1993 it
was agreed that free elections would be held
on 27 April 1994.
• The ANC won 62.7 per cent of the vote and a
Government of National Unity was formed
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Government of National Unity was formed
with Nelson Mandela as the first president of a
free South Africa.
• From the beginning, he made national
reconciliation and the building of national
unity his first priority.

25. • His vision was of a nation in which all of us
would feel that we belonged together and
that we had a common identity as South
Africans, regardless of colour or language.
• Many problems lay ahead, but in general,
nation-building in South Africa shows how
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nation-building in South Africa shows how
nationalism can be used in a positive way
to build a common national pride and
identity.

26. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Archbishop Desmond
Tutu’s spiritual and moral
leadership during the
Apartheid period made
him the natural chairman
for the Truth and
him the natural chairman
for the Truth and
Reconciliation
Commission established
in 1997. After the
Commission had finished
its work, the Archbishop
remarked that:
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27. • ‘Quite improbably we, as South
Africans, have become a beacon of
hope to others locked in deadly
conflict that peace, that a just
resolution is possible. If it could
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resolution is possible. If it could
happen in South Africa, then it could
certainly happen anywhere else. Such
is the exquisite divine sense of
humour’.

28. New national symbols
• New national symbols, such as OUR
National Anthem, the South African
flag and the new National Coat offlag and the new National Coat of
Arms replaced the old ones.
• These have helped to build our
common South African identity.
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29. National Coat of Arms
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30. SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG
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31. SOUTH AFRICAN ANTHEM
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