An ethnography of voting queues in Cape Town: memory, frustration, and hope in 30 years of democracy

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic account of fieldwork conducted in voting queues during the 2024 national elections in Cape Town, South Africa, the year in which the country’s democracy marked its 30th anniversary. Since the first democratic election, in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela’s party, had secured the majority of votes. This time, the possible loss of this hegemony circulated widely in public debate. Interviews with people standing in voting queues reveal different points of view, forming a mosaic of local impressions about this election and, more broadly, about the country’s democracy. Memory, frustration, and hope run through the narratives of people from different generations and with diverse racial and gender affiliations.