The Coloniality of Death: A Postcolonial Analysis of the Marikana Massacre in South Africa

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Page: 1626-1630

Koketso Sophia Letsoalo¹ and France Khutso Lavhelani Kgobe² (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rosebank College, South Africa¹ and The Independent Institute of Education, Varsity College, Pretoria, South Africa²)

On 16 August 2012, the South African government executed one of its most brutal acts of post-apartheid violence when police opened fire on striking mine workers at the Lonmin mine in Marikana, in the North west Province. Killing approximately 34 people, more than 70 people were injured and 250 people were arrested for damage and destruction of property. This massacre was marked as the deadliest use of force by the government since the end of apartheid and continues to expose the unfinished business of decolonisation and the racialised architecture of death in South Africa. Despite the mining sector contributing over 8% of South Africa’s GDP and employing more than 400,000 people, mostly black men from historically marginalised communities, the mining sector remains a key site of social and economic inequality. The mortality rate for miners is among the highest in the country, and the Marika Massacre serves as a stark reminder that post-apartheid South Africa has not dismantled the colonial logics of disposability. This study draws on postcolonial theory, particularly Quijano’s (2000) notion of the coloniality of power, to frame the massacre as a site of continuity between colonial governance and contemporary state violence. Using a qualitative case study, the study seeks to conduct document analysis to uncover how the convergence of extractive capitalism and racialised labour created the conditions for the government to legitimise mass death. This study argues that the massacre must be understood not as an aberration, but as part of a broader deathscape structured by the coloniality of power.