Abstract
Today’s world is characterised by multiculturalism. The diversity of cultures and conflicting ethnic groups sharing the same territory pose a threat to both local and world peace. We have come to the end of the ‘nation’ and the end of the ‘state’, two homogenous entities which are increasingly being emasculated by an instrumental reason in the form of techno-science and economic globalisation. Ethnic diversity is simultaneously a source of wealth and a threat to African societies. African unity in the form of an ubuntu-ethic offers a model for dealing with polyethnicity. Ethnocentrism is biologically rooted and operates through prejudice. As a coping mechanism for dealing with diversity, prejudice has its value and its limitations. It must be contained where it leads to xenophobia, ethnophobia and war. Polyethnic coexistence is a prerequisite if Africa is to attain its developmental ideals as expressed in the NEPAD programme. In this paper, I look at the way in which ethno-philosophy and ethno-theology can help this process.
Highlights
Globalism enabled nation-states in the West to tolerate a greater diversity within their boundaries
Most countries in the world have to deal with multiculturalism, and, depending on the context, multiculturalism may become a sociopolitical time bomb
There is a worldwide reaction to the influence of mass culture and its valueintegrative effect
Summary
Instrumental reason: Economic globalisation, technology and the death of cultural communities and cultural plurality. The ubiquitous presence and use of technology and instrumental reason identifies technology as the main component of mass culture This threatens the diversity of everything produced by all cultures of the past. Mass culture brings along with it the death of society with the endless production of copies for which there is no original, where the world is endlessly duplicated through simulation in the video-sphere (world of images: television/ video/film) (see Baudrillard 1998). Diversity in this context implies that we have lost control, that both subject and society have been decentred. The NEPAD programme will have to meet these requirements in order to place Africa on the global economic map
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