The Dialectics of Xenophobia and Cultural Creolisation in Post-Apartheid South Africa

The persistence of the late 1880s labour migration patterns from the rest of Africa into South Africa in the postapartheid era has fermented xenophobic conflicts between South African nationals and migrants over space, services and livelihoods (Landau 2005: 1115). However, emphasis on the xenophobia narrative neglects the role of cultures that immigrants embody as intangible heritage (Logan 2007). This chapter focuses on the Nigerian dish kwasakwasa as an entry point in making sense of the possibilities afforded by intangible heritage in the formation and sustenance of multicultural communities in Johannesburg, South Africa.