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The State of Secularism: Religion, Tradition and Democracy in South Africa

The preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 begins with a declaration, ‘We, the people of South Africa’ and concludes with a prayer, ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ (God bless Africa). These incipits are neither ornamental nor convenient drapery for a country’s founding legal document. Rather, they are visible evidence of a deep contestation inherent to post-apartheid South Africa with respect to law and religion. On the one hand, the opening makes clear that the traditional sovereign has been divested and dispersed into the ‘will of the people’, but on the other, it appears that the sovereign remains; ‘his’ protection and favour are invoked. To ask then ‘how did we get here?’, at once eliding the traditional while at the same time seemingly re-affirming it, is to ask a series of timely questions, such as: what is ‘the state of secularism’ in South Africa? ‘What kind of secularism does the country have?’ Given its historical saturation in religious politics and dependence on religion’s institutions, ‘how is it possible for a new post-apartheid state to find itself without [this] authority’? In Dhammamegha Annie Leatt’s book, the answers to these questions are sought primarily through extensive historical examination. Employing the double genitive in her title, Leatt articulates an account of secularism that pays special attention to the mode of relations between the state, religion and tradition, and to attend to the current ‘state’ of these relations. Through a concise and scrupulously researched study (yet presented without overly forensic jargon), Leatt narrates the complex development of political secularism through the history of colonialism, followed by its normative impossibility under apartheid ‘church theology’ into the arduous negotiations of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and finally culminating in the political and legal compromises that led to the formation of South African democracy. In short, Leatt’s book is an attempt to demonstrate how South Africa became ‘secular,’ and to characterise the nature of this secularism. It will be of great interest for scholars and students alike in the fields of political theory, critical legal studies, religious studies, as well as theology. Leatt’s opening chapter is a necessary exercise in delimitation and definition. It rapidly traces the emergence of secularism in early modernity and its dismantling of authority in the Christian West. It then suggests a model for understanding political secularism through ‘a coherent, normative account of what place religion should have in a nationstate.’ Secularism does not mean ‘no religion’ but is rather the very ability to determine the position it occupies. This model allows Leatt to distinguish various versions based on institutional relations between religion and state (what she calls ‘establishment secularism’, ‘American First Amendment secularism’, French and Turkish laïcit e, and militant Marxist