Preaching as a means to deconstruct the existence of apartheid discourses within the post-apartheid reformed tradition

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis is a discourse analytical research that studies the way social power are reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. Racism and discrimination are discourses that have been a global problem since time immemorial. Australia, America, the United Kingdom and many countries in Europe have been considered much attuned to racism. Australia and North America’s history have similarities with regard to the fact that they were inhabited by a group of ‘foreign conquerors’. This set the pace of racism, distinguishing the conquerors as superior to the inferior conquered ones. Racism is not something outside of the individual or group but an internalised frame of reference. It has also, like social, political and religious ideas, systems of ideas shared by a social group. Since the early years of the South African history, the relationship between the black inhabitants and the white settlers (the rulers i.e. English, Dutch and later Afrikaans speaking people) has been characterised with white superiority and dominance over blacks. This class domination takes the form of “hegemony”.