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The following seminar will be presented in Pretoria, and may be concurrently attended via video conference in Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal (See Details below). The Business of Being Bafokeng: the Corporatization of a Tribal Authority in South Africa Presented by Susan E. Cook, Research & Planning Executive, Royal Bafokeng Nation Venues in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town: see below Date: Tuesday 1 September 2009 Time: 12H15 for 12h30 – 13H30 Entrance free TO RESERVE A SEAT, KINDLY RSVP BY 25 AUGUST 2009 This essay seeks to explore the tensions and contradictions inherent in the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s status as both community and corporation. As one of South Africa’s approximately 750 “traditional communities,” the Royal Bafokeng Nation is an example of South African-style democracy, wherein a parliamentary democracy governed by a liberal Constitution nevertheless recognizes and protects indigenous forms of governance that support patriarchal rule and communal forms of land tenure. As one of South Africa’s leading community-based investment companies, the Royal Bafokeng Nation, through its holdings company, channels revenue derived from significant mineral deposits into a broad investment portfolio that in turn funds an aggressive social development program in the 29 Bafokeng villages. What tensions arise when an ethnically-based polity seeks to maximize its financial standing by becoming a player on the global commodities stage? What contradictions inhere in a communally-organized and administered “tribe” using the mechanisms of the market to secure a measure of autonomy from state structures? Does the “ethnic corporation” become less “traditional” as it starts to deploy the tools and techniques of corporate governance alongside patriarchal governance? These are some of the questions posed in this essay. Professor Cook is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the anthropology of corporations, chiefs and democracy, and language policies in South Africa. Cook was previously Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pretoria from 2003-2008. She served as Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University, and was a visiting assistant professor in the Global Security Program at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies from 2001-2003. Professor Cook’s publications include “Street Setswana vs. School Setswana: Language Policies and the Forging of Identity in South African Classrooms.” In The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for Language Awareness, Multilingual Matters. (2009) She is currently working on “The Business of Being Bafokeng: Corporatization in a Tribal Authority in South Africa,” an article for a special issue of Current Anthropology on “Corporate Lives: New Perspectives on the Corporate Form.” She is also planning a book-length study of the same topic. Cook also published “Chiefs, Kings, Corporatization and Democracy: A South African Case Study” (The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume 12, No. 1, 2005); and Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: New Perspectives (Transaction 2006). Cook is currently Research and Planning Executive in the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where she oversees research, communications, and strategic planning for the Bafokeng Nation. Cape Town: HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street , Cape Town . Contact Vuyokazi Ngxubaza, Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Cell: 082 0508453. Durban: First floor HSRC board room, 750 FRANCOIS ROAD, Ntuthuko Junction, PODS 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Johannes Khoele, Tel (031) 2425400, Cell; 084 2406 003 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Pretoria: HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Bookmark this article:          |
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