Transcultural affinity: thoughts on the emergent cosmopolitan imagination in South Africa

Abstract

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the ex-chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), made international headlines when he announced that he would rather go to hell than worship a homophobic God. He further stated that he was as passionate about gay rights as he ever was about opposing apartheid. Tutu is not alone in promoting tolerance and openness to diversity in South Africa. Contemporary thinkers, writers, and poets are also striving to establish new moral topographies whose goals are to encourage an open society through forms of social solidarity that transcend race, gender, and religion. Njabulo Ndebele, Antjie Krog, Sarah Nuttall, Achille Mbembe among others, come to mind in this respect. This article examines this new mode of living, and argues that in South Africa, there is evidence of an emergent cosmopolitan landscape that seeks to deal with the legacies of apartheid and the challenges of an increasingly fractured, globalized world.