Sifiso Ndlovu

Prompted by the observation that ethnic identities, previously foregrounded as a regime of belonging to sustain an exclusive Afrikaner nationalist project continue to feature in the South African polity, the book project seeks to delve deeper into how the myth of the ‘rainbow nation’ continues to legitimise ethnic mobilisation today. It examines ethnicity, national identity and cultural diversity in post-apartheid South Africa through a study of the Ndebele ethnic group and its constitution within the politics of the ‘rainbow’ nation. The book seeks to explore the specificities and complexities surrounding the notion of articulation of Southern Ndebele ethnic identity with the emergent South African national identity. Through a critique of post-apartheid South Africa’s politics of rainbowism that tries to carry along disparate identities into one nation, I will elaborate on the politics of simultaneously belonging to a mutually constitutive national and ethnic identities and the navigation of both identities