The Political Management of Ethnic Diversity with Specific Reference to the South African Constitution of 1996

• Author: Andries Odendaal
• Pages: 295-301

Andries Odendaal 295295

295295

295

The Political Management of Ethnic Diversity,

with Specific Reference to the South African

Constitution of 1996

A N D R I E S O D E N D A A L

Centre for Conflict Resolution,

Cape Town, South Africa

18

Troubled Identities

The political management of diversity is one

of the most serious challenges to governance

in the world today. The populations of the vast

majority of states in the world are diverse in

ethnic, racial or religious terms. Homogeneity

is still the dream of a number of ethnic

entrepreneurs, but it is an increasingly

impossible dream. As the global village is

shrinking in terms of the movement of people

and the intermingling of faiths, cultures and

economies, the exclusivist ideal of a state that

belongs purely to ‘our people’ is not only

unfeasible, but in fact dangerous.

Coupled with the fact of diversity, however,

is the increasingly potent need for identity. The

peoples of the world are increasingly forced

to co-exist, share power and their life-space.

Rather than disappearing, their need for

identity, that is, their sense of exclusive

belonging, deepens. Many factors contribute

to the longing for stability and continuity, such

as the rapid changes we are experiencing,

the sense of a world that is spinning out of

control, the invasion of our private and sacred

spaces by culturally alien forces and our sense

of marginalization from the centres of power

and wealth. We seek for stability and continuity

in the age-old customs of our people. We look

to the future with trepidation and find solace

in that which has withstood the ages.

Identity matters to people. This is not an

ideological or moral statement. It is purely a

statement of social reality. Identity formation,

that is, the establishment and maintenance of

social groups, is as normal as the cooking of

food and stitching of clothes. For the vast

majority of people it is not sufficient to

sublimate this need with a sense of humanity

— belonging to the human race. The need is

for a much more contained and concrete

identity because of the promise it holds of

belonging, sustenance and continuity.

Ideological attempts to obliterate this need by

declaring it a ‘false consciousness’ have by

and large failed.

However, the scars on the collective human

body created by ethnic, racial and religious

enmity are deep and terrible. Identity can be

an utterly destructive force. The genocides

performed in the name of some quest for

ethnic or religious purity are haunting us. We

are, rightly so, utterly terrified of the force

that an identity-based frenzy can unleash.

There are two conditions in particular that

promote the ugly potential of identity conflict:

that of wounded and threatened identities.

A people’s identity has been wounded when

they have experienced some form of

discrimination or oppression on the basis of

their identity. There are often very

unreasonable expectations that such people

should ‘let bygones be bygones’ and move