What's in a name? Racial categorizations under apartheid and their afterlife

Prof. Deborah Posel, director of Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

This paper is an analysis of how race worked under apartheid in particular, the manner in which racial classifications were conducted, the mode of racial reasoning underpinning this classification system, and its effects (politically, culturally and socially). On the basis of this discussion, the paper also reflects on the fate of racial reasoning in the post-apartheid milieu and the extent to which apartheid's racial categories have renewed purchase since 1994.