South African club tries to reclaim word 'native'

Under white rule in South Africa the word "native" was an insult, a way to describe and demean black people. As a legal term it was used to distinguish European settlers from the indigenous inhabitants, a different category of people deemed inferior and uncivilised.

Now a group of black intellectuals has stirred controversy by trying to reclaim the word as a badge of honour. They have founded the Native Club, a thinktank to explore and promote African identity.

Based in Pretoria at the Africa Institute of South Africa, the club has inspired acclaim, ridicule and some nervous questions: Who are its members? How much influence do they have? How do you define native?

The club, funded partly by the South African department of arts and culture, and launched two months ago, is seen as close to the African National Congress. President Thabo Mbeki denied the organisation was his brainchild, but observers note that its chairman, Titus Mafolo, is an adviser to the president.

Mr Mafolo outlined the club's agenda in an article: "Though we are Africans, many South Africans seem to have an identity crisis. Through our dress, music, cuisine, role models and reference points we seem to be clones of Americans and Europeans."

Supporters welcome the Native Club for tackling the inferiority complex of some black people, the legacy of centuries of oppression. Inverting a once pejorative term, they say, reflects the liberation of mind and body since the ANC ended apartheid and swept to power in multiracial elections in 1994. But critics say that promoting racial exclusivity will undermine the country's "rainbow" ethos.

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