The Horror of the Mob

Abstract

Images of uncontrolled mob violence continue to influence political concerns and float media reportage in South Africa. The images resemble those of angry and destructive black `struggle' youth toyi-toying in front of burning tyres, cleansing the township of its enemies and attacking state officials during the apartheid era. Today, such actions are portrayed as the manoeuvres of a lost generation destroying the fruits of democracy and undermining their own black government. Nevertheless, the image of the angry, uncontrolled mob has its roots in resistance to both colonialism and apartheid, where large crowds and mobs descended on cities or operated in the city's Other (its adjacent black townships). This article explores the ways in which the images and horrors of uncontrolled mob violence continue to haunt the imagination of the new democracy. Further, it links collective fantasies about mobs to the constitution of sovereignty.