This book reflects on the complex and contested idea of South Africa, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. The book covers themes including identity formation, modernity, race, indigeneity, autochthony, land, gender, intellectual traditions, language, popular culture, and national development planning.

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and Visiting Research Fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Johannesburg.

Busani Ngcaweni is Director-General of the National School of Government, Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits School of Governance, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg and Visiting Adjunct Professor at Soochow University in China.

Foreword Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, SC Part 1: Major Debates on the Contested Idea of South Africa Chapter 1 Introduction: Why is the Idea of South Africa Contested, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Busani Ngcaweni Chapter 2 The Idea of South Africa: Opening the Pandora's Box Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni Chapter 3 Towards a Closer Union: Race, Citizenship and the Contested Idea of South Africa Bongani Ngqulunga Chapter 4 In Search of Indigeneity: Autochthony, the Colonial Construction of Identity and the Politics of Post-Apartheid Ethnicity Tlhabane Dan Motaung Chapter 5 The Foundations of South African Modernity Kenneth Tafira Part 2: The Idea of South Africa in Intellectaul Imaginations Chapter 6 The Intellectual Sigularity of H.I.E. Dhlomo in the Evolution of the Idea of South Africa Ntongela Masilela Chapter 7 Mafeje and Magubane: Two Concepts of the 'African Revolution' Bongani Nyoka Chapter 8 Achille Mbembe on the Idea of South Africa Tendayi Sithole Chapter 9 Prose and Poetry: Shining Light on the Popular Imagination of the Idea of South Africa Athol Williams PART THREE: On Spatial Justice and Land Reform Chapter 10: Ideologies, Discourses and Vectors of African Urbanism in the Making of South African Cities Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane Saka Langwenya Chapter 11: Land Expropriation with Compensation: A Case of Social Justice? Muxe Nkondo Chapter 12: The Idea of a 'Rainbow Nation' and the Persistence of Agrarian Injustices in Post-Apartheid South Africa Grasian Mkodzongi and Clemence Rusenga Chapter 13: Theorising Ethnic Nationalism within the KZN Rural Land Tenure Debate Fundi Skweyiya PART FOUR: Social Cohesion and its Discontents Chapter 14: The Question of Coloniality of Gender in the 'New' South Africa Akhona Nkenkana Chapter 15: Ethinicity and Politics of Belonging in South Africa: The Case of the Ndebele Identity Sifiso Ndlovu Chapter 16: Negotiating Meaningful Citizenship in the Zone of Exclusion: The Impact of Racism on Belonging in the New South Africa Kgabo Morifi and Malaika Lesego Samora Mahlatsi Chapter 17: The NDP and the Idea of South Africa: Incongruities and Prospects for Social Inclusion Busani Ngcaweni and Anver Saloojee