The histories of our heritages should all be dissolved into one big mess

Heritage Day, 24 September, is one of the best things about the democratic era. It is an acknowledgement, in principle, that South Africans are a diverse lot and that each group may have its own understanding of their heritage. We need to insert heavy caveats before a discussion.

The African Nationalists (ANC) and the ethno-nationalists of a particular kind (EFF) will – probably with force – have the last say on heritage in South Africa. The rest of us – social democrats, liberals, conservatives and even political-religious types – may tap into the histories of our heritage and settle on some identity qua heritage which should make us feel good about ourselves, about our past and the future…

Before they have their way – and they will, to be sure – we can reflect on the value and benefits of diversity, multi-culturalism (I’m not comfortable with the way “multiculturalism” is thrown about), and the hybridity among sections of the country.

I am not a specialist in identity politics. I am, also, not interested in the politics of race and racial politics and have some distaste for minority politics. One does not have to be a Jew to oppose antisemitism, or coloured to be critical of racial discrimination and attempts at marginalising people whom the African nationalists, like their Afrikaner predecessors, have classified as “coloured”, and whom the ethno-nationalists would wish away, or dissolve into some nativist acid.

The problems I have tried to identify in commentaries about the coloured community were driven, in the first instance, by social justice. After that my concern is about the effort by the African nationalists in power to present an official story, or to abuse heritage, race and identity politics, shaped by an ill-conceived nationalism. These are ambitions that the ethno-nationalists, the EFF, share. The EFF are more brazen, though, and would drift closer to Benito Mussolini’s conception of nationalism.

Mussolini was adamant that “the nation is a history of sentiments, traditions, language, culture, and race” (this needs careful consideration). Turning to calls for social justice, he suggested that concerns for the poor – he referred especially to class struggle – is rampant among “a people that has not integrated itself into its proper linguistic and racial confines”. (See Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism, page 192).

People are living there

Multiculturalism can be a terribly misleading concept and is often misused to conceal cultural biases and chauvinism.

One good way to break with this distinctly liberal view of diversity (and multiculturalism) is to think of diversity as disruption and resistance.