Reproducing the Conqueror’s South Africa: An Azanian Critique of the Constitutionalist Endorsement of Assisted Reproductive and Reprogenetic Technologies

Abstract

Discussions on the use, regulation, and development of assisted reproductive and reprogenetic technologies are dominated by rights discourse, primarily paying attention to how these technologies can give effect to or violate individual or group rights within the current liberal human rights framework. South Africa has played a prominent role as Africa’s representative in this global discussion pertaining to the ethics of genetic and reproductive technologies; undoubtedly attributable to it having what is described by many as “one of the most progressive constitutions in the world.” One popular perspective presupposing the legitimacy of the 1996 constitution and prevailing human rights norms, argues for the relaxation of restrictions on these technologies to allow for the effective exercise and realisation of constitutionally protected rights. In this article I explore the use of these technologies from a constitutional abolitionist perspective espoused by the Azanian Philosophical Tradition. By understanding the 1996 constitution as the constitutionalisation of conquest, I contemplate the ways in which these technologies function in service of (global) white supremacy and settler domination in conqueror South Africa. The article argues that in a world ordered by bio-logic, these technologies effectively (re)produce the society envisioned by the conqueror; begging the question as to whether these technologies can indeed be used in service of a post-conquest South Africa.