ABSTRACT
South Africa is a society that comprises many linguistic, racial and ethnic identities – differences which were exacerbated and exploited by the apartheid state, and which have been equally reifi ed in a post-apartheid context with regards to racial quotas in sport, affi rmative action legislation and Black Economic Empowerment policies, to name a few. It is perhaps not altogether surprising that institutions of state and civil society in post-apartheid South Africa have been largely preoccupied with national identity and social cohesion – rather than with the integration of foreigners – when confronted with the question of diversity. In a society whose recent history is characterised by racial segregation, it is ironic yet inevitable that the ending of apartheid would be accompanied simultaneously by a celebration of non-racial democracy and ‘a resurgence of research into racial identities, attitudes and behaviour in South Africa’ (Seekings 2008: 1). South African society remains obsessed with these categories, going so far as to aggregate census data in these terms. Despite the ceremonial fl ag-waving that accompanies events such as the hosting of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, South Africa remains a deeply divided society – although contours of division are neither the same, nor perhaps as obvious, as they once were.
