Fundamentalisms

This chapter examines religious fundamentalism in South Africa. The vast literature on religious fundamentalism influenced South African understandings of fundamentalism just as an increasingly polarized geopolitics had affected religion in South Africa. From the 1970s up to 1990, every decade saw a crisis of fundamentalism, which dramatically differed from one another. For instance, Christian fundamentalism during the 1970s was used to oppose the apartheid state; ironically, by the 1980s this fundamentalism was used to legitimate the apartheid system. Meanwhile, during the 1990s, Christian fundamentalism was used to resist the new democratic dispensation. In addition, during the 1990s, South Africa was dealing with Muslim fundamentalists who opposed the apartheid state and the postapartheid democracy.