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Africa Is a Country ·Behind the news

Celebrating From a Divided Country

by Duncan Nortier

Published 2026-06-26 15:36:00.724000+00:00

Can the same pride that unites a stadium also be used to decide who no longer belongs?

0:00 / 6:18 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

Writing on 26 June 2026, the author looks past the stadium cheers to a deeper friction in South African identity. The national soccer team’s recent success has revived the slogan No DNA, just RSA, but this celebration of belonging arrives alongside a surge in xenophobia. The essay considers whether this soft nationalism is merely a cover for a harder, more exclusionary politics. It reflects on what it means to cheer for a nation that is increasingly defined by the borders it chooses to enforce against its neighbors.

Show notes

An analysis of the tension between South Africa’s sports-driven national unity and the country’s escalating anti-migrant sentiment, tracing how economic stagnation and neoliberal failures have fueled ethno-nationalist movements to target foreign nationals. It situates the mobilization of Zulu identity within the legacy of apartheid-era politics, suggesting that contemporary soft nationalism risks reinforcing colonial borders and reproducing exclusionary logic.

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