Skip to main content
Radboud University Press

Rainbow Nationalism as a Philosophy of National Unity in South Africa: Interpellation and Disillusionment

Chapter of: Beyond the Spirit of Bandung: Philosophies of National Unity: Secular or Religious?

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
      Cannot generate record: Missing PDF URL
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: Missing Language Code(s)
  • ONIX 2.1
    • EBSCO Host
      Cannot generate record: No PDF or EPUB URL
    • ProQuest Ebrary
      Cannot generate record: No PDF or EPUB URL
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
    Cannot generate record: Missing Landing Page
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
TitleRainbow Nationalism as a Philosophy of National Unity in South Africa: Interpellation and Disillusionment
ContributorOlerato Kau Mogomotsi(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.54195/FLRI3273_CH09
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
PublisherRadboud University Press
Published on2023-11-30
Long abstractRainbow Nationalism is a Post-Apartheid South African philosophy of national unity. The South African state, and its emergent national elites, sought to mend divisions of a racially oppressive past to successfully construct a nation unified in its diversity, and beyond its previous adversities. As a philosophy of national unity, Rainbow Nationalism is premised on a country unified behind a narrative of <i>triumph over adversity</i> through a principled commitment to reconciliation, non-racialism, liberal democracy, and respect for universal human rights. The South African state’s commitment to building national unity, from a divisive and oppressive Apartheid past, can be located more broadly in the plight of countries in the Global South to also build their respective unified national consciousnesses, after battling a colonial and contentious history. Interestingly, as a normative orientation and shared political philosophy for states in the Global South, the <i>Bandung Spirit</i> can be seen to encapsulate some of the key values manifest in Rainbow Nationalism. Worryingly, attempts to encourage the South African public into assuming Rainbow Nationalism as a normative orientation have been met with continued disillusionment. I contend that the disillusionment that philosophies of national unity like Rainbow Nationalism face results from their inability to maintain a clear distinction between treating the philosophy as a <i>present ontological state</i> and as a <i>teleology</i>. I argue that the ability to make the teleology of the philosophy of national unity compatible with and in service to the social reality of nations is what may make a principled commitment to the Bandung Spirit exempt from the challenge of self-effacement.
Keywords
  • Rainbow Nationalism
  • Global South
  • Bandung Spirit
  • ontology
  • teleology
Contributors

Olerato Kau Mogomotsi

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5941-3676

Olerato Kau Mogomotsi is an Ethics lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, University of Cape Town. Here he is completing his PhD on Hegel’s social theory. Mogomotsi’s research focuses on social philosophy, social ontology, epistemic injustice, existential phenomenology and African philosophy. One of his recent publications is ‘On the Object of History and Doing History in the Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa’ (Philosophia Africana, 2022).