ABSTRACT
All these cultural practices and forms of representation have the black subject at their centre, putting the issue of cultural identity in question. There are at least two different ways of thinking about 'cultural identity'. The first position defines 'cultural identity' in terms of one shared culture, a sort of collective 'one true self', hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed 'selves', which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common. There is, however, a second, related but different view of cultural identity. This second position recognises that, as well as the many points of similarity, there are also critical points of deep and significant difference which constitute 'what the peoples really are'; or rather – since history has intervened. Cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made, within the discourses of history and culture.
