From hard to soft misplacement: South Africa’s ambivalent African identity

Abstract

Drawing on the layered model of identity change, this paper identifies three layers shaping South Africa’s foreign policy identity and how it is enacted through various roles. The most sedimented, fundamental layer least subject to change involves South Africa’s assertion of its sovereignty and its quest for legitimacy. The middle layer provides more exact demarcations between Self and Other, highlighting South Africa’s role in being a leader, mediator and bridge. Finally, the top, least institutionalized layer reveals that, although Pretoria is no longer subject to the hard misplacement of the apartheid years, South Africans’ sense of exceptionalism to the rest of the continent in the post-apartheid era and other Africans’ deep ambivalence toward South Africa, continue. The article highlights continuities and discontinuities between the apartheid and post-apartheid periods of statehood.