Marks Monique

This fifth volume in the New South African Review series takes as its starting point the shock wave emanating from the events at Marikana on 16 August 2012 and how it has reverberated throughout politics and society. some of the chapters in the volume refer directly to Marikana. In others, the influence of that fateful day is pervasive if not direct. Marikana has, for instance, made us look differently at the police and at how order is imposed on society. Monique Marks and David Bruce write that the massacre `has come to hold a central place in the analysis of policing, and broader political events since 2012 …’. The chapters highlight a range of current concerns – political, economic and social. David Dickinson’s chapter looks at the life of the poor in a township from within. in contrast, the chapter on foreign policy by Garth le Pere analyses south Africa’s approach to international relations in the Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma eras. Anthony turton’s account, `When gold mining ends’ is a chilling forecast of an impending environmental catastrophe. Both Devan Pillay and noor nieftagodien focus attention on the left and, in different ways, ascribe its rise to a new politics in the wake of Marikana. The essays in Beyond Marikana present a range of topics and perspectives of interest to general readers, but the book will also be a useful work of reference for students and researchers.

Much has been written about South Africa‘s ‘lost generation’ – the generation of politicised youth who dedicated their lives to the liberation of a nation, and who ‘lost’ everything in the process. Young Warriors is about this generation, but it is also a critique of the very concept of ‘lost generation’. While focussing on the lives of the men and women who lived in Diepkloof, a black township in South Africa, it is a narrative of many young black South Africans who ‘grew up’ in the organisations of the ANC-led liberation movement. It is also the story of activists who became leaders, provincial premiers and national ministers in our democratic society. Through extensive interviews and time spent in Diepkloof, Monique Marks documents the tales of a group of Charterist youth during the mid-eighties to early nineties. During this period participating in the Charterist youth movement fundamentally shaped these individuals’ lives and the future of their society. Marks revisits their lives at the beginning of the third millennium in a new democratic South Africa characterised by a radical decline in this social movement. Marks explores, from the point of view of the youths themselves, how and why township youth joined mass-based political organisations and how, through their involvement in these organisations, their lives and identities were shaped in significant ways. She examines in fascinating detail how youth planned and executed acts of political violence, who participated in these acts, and what justifications they offered for their involvement in collective violence. The involvement of politicised youth in acts of collective violence has led to speculation as to whether or not former activist youth are responsible for the increase in violent crime in contemporary South Africa. Young Warriors provides some tentative answers to questions about youth and crime.