‘SURVIVING THE FUTURE’

Since liberation in 1994, the meaning of ‘South African’ has undergone change. Theoretical terms need to be developed in order to talk about culture and identity in the ‘new’ South Africa. There are rich traditions on which a South African cultural studies could draw, in the context of the Anglo-American domination of the field of cultural studies. However, the complexities of undertaking any kind of cultural studies in the context of the country's history, its inherited and ongoing structures, both material and conceptual, make clear the imperative to localize any theory. A South African cultural studies vocabulary has to forge something that is informed by the past even as it seeks to transcend it. Current attempts to develop a South African cultural vocabulary, such as the African Renaissance and the metaphor of the ‘rainbow nation’, are inadequate, especially in the context of the commodification of the hopes for ‘newness’ of the ‘new’ South Africa. A South African cultural studies vocabulary has to n...