{"title":"Policing the (post)colonial body: The Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa","authors":"Amber R. Reed, Ziyanda Xaso","doi":"10.1080/23323256.2022.2101498","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In March 2020, South Africa enacted one of the world’s most severe lockdowns to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Whilst this action received international praise, its implementation by the armed security forces in many ways mirrored colonial and apartheid-era controls on movement, such as violent policing and curfews. In this article, we explore former anti-apartheid activists’ experiences of the lockdown. We argue two points: lockdown policing triggered memories of state violence among apartheid survivors; and widespread support for the lockdown evidences the ways in which surveillance and the security state apparatus have become normalised in post-apartheid South Africa. We conclude by discussing alternatives to militarised policing during public health crises.","PeriodicalId":54118,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Southern Africa","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anthropology Southern Africa","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2022.2101498","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
In March 2020, South Africa enacted one of the world’s most severe lockdowns to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Whilst this action received international praise, its implementation by the armed security forces in many ways mirrored colonial and apartheid-era controls on movement, such as violent policing and curfews. In this article, we explore former anti-apartheid activists’ experiences of the lockdown. We argue two points: lockdown policing triggered memories of state violence among apartheid survivors; and widespread support for the lockdown evidences the ways in which surveillance and the security state apparatus have become normalised in post-apartheid South Africa. We conclude by discussing alternatives to militarised policing during public health crises.