2025 Transformation special issue Call

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa

Unweaving the Rainbow

Twenty-seven years ago, the controversial evolutionary biologist and public intellectual Richard Dawkins published a treatise with the title Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for wonder. The primary aim of this work was to show that rather than being opposed to one another, the sciences and the arts exist in a complementary wholeness. The title itself came from his defence of the natural philosopher Isaac Newton from the charge of the poet John Keats in his poem “Lamia” that Newton had destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colours. Dawkins instead argued that this had enhanced its wonder rather than diminished it.

In respect of South Africa, the metaphor of the rainbow is one of the sustained myths underpinning the new South Africa drawn from the Nobel laurate Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s theologically inspired description of South Africa as “God’s Rainbow Nation”. Theoreticians of the Black Consciousness Movement have long made the observation, contrary to the hopefulness it inspires in Christian Theology, that—for Black Political Thought—on the one hand, the rainbow is an apposite metaphor for a multi-racial state rather than a non-racial one and, on the other hand, that the rainbow is after all as Newton showed (but now as political metaphor metaphorically) a result of the refraction of white light through a prism. The rainbow as the refraction of white light cannot contain black (that is, the absence of light) among its colours. In this metaphor, the argument is that at a political level the rainbow itself is merely a mask of White supremacy which is the possibility condition for its appearance.

The purpose of our special issue is to examine Tutu’s “Rainbow Nation of God” from the critical perspectives of the humanities and the social sciences. We take the optimistic kind of perspective presented by Dawkins that the rigorous and scientific examination of our phenomenon of interest might yet reveal more wonder than if the rainbow was left unexamined. This is a hope rooted in the belief that a more complete understanding of the Rainbow Nation phenomenon edifies rather than rob us of appreciation – a position in opposition to the impulse to leave us to worship an ill-understood “beauty” on the basis of a superstitious commitment to ignorance about it.

A careful examination of the Rainbow Nation is well-overdue. Tensions and contradictions in the Rainbow Nation narrative have long been a theme in political commentary since the early years of the democratic dispensation, as seen in the work of the political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (better known by his pen name Zapiro). Moreover, recent developments in South African discourse already suggest that the rainbow is becoming unweaved by the passage of time, the shining of the light being dimmed by the outstanding exigency of historical justice, admonished by the isintu proverb “icala aliboli,” which literally means that “a crime does not rot”. What this means in this African tradition of thought and the philosophical perspectives upon which it is based is that the passage of time does not remedy injustice.

One recent development signalling the possible unweaving of the rainbow unfolded in January 2022 when Lindiwe Sisulu, then the Minister of Tourism, wrote a series of articles beginning with one entitled “Whose law is it anyway?”. In that article, she questioned whether the latest South African Constitution (108 of 1996) was really the law of Black South Africans, and whether it might not be time to revisit the political and juridical foundations of South Africa itself. The debate which followed in the pages of the newspapers and television stations included not only other politicians, political commentators, journalists, and academics. It also included within the debate the then Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola and even the then acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo who called a press conference in order to defend the integrity of judges (an act which itself was the subject of much controversy). Shortly thereafter the then Premier of KwaZulu Natal and the present Minister of Public Works Sihle Zikalala called for a debate about whether or not South Africa should revert to parliamentary supremacy instead of the current set-up in which the Constitution is supreme. The result was the same in the public discourse with most commentators dismissing this as madness without examining the theoretical, ideological, and historical terms of the proposition.

At the root of these debates is really far more than whether or not the Constitution ought to be amended or whether new laws should be passed to transform South Africa. The questions which arise are really about fundamental aspects of the foundations of society itself and a question about whether the “new” South Africa is so new at all. This has ramifications, as a number of recent works have argued for race, class and gender justice.

Despite the angry and dismissive responses which were inspired from the ruling elite by Sisulu’s articles in 2022, the same ruling elite in 2025 proposed a controversial National Dialogue in response to the crisis of legitimacy which the South African constitutional project appears to be undergoing in part as a measure to save the ideal or myth of the Rainbow Nation and its constitution. The year 2025 has also seen the president of the Republic of South Africa being summoned by the president of the USA to answer to charges of a White genocide and the supposed oppression of Afrikaners following the international campaigning by White political groups in South Africa and the USA who are in opposition to legislation designed to address the country’s racially skewed inequality and land distribution patterns first established during the colonial period. The conglomerate of White pressure groups which inspired the USA’s response consists of research agencies, business interests, White personalities, political parties, and non-governmental organizations whose claims are supported by ideologically inspired research in the humanities and social sciences on racial legislation, crime statistics and media studies.

Following the 2025 Black August conference of the Azanian Philosophical Society in which these themes were addressed, this is a call for papers for theoretically focused papers in any discipline of the humanities, social sciences and law dealing with these themes in broad terms. Examples of some of the framing of the research questions that might direct contributions include the following:

·      Is there sense in maintaining a distinction between politics and law in light of South African history? What are and should the contours of this distinction be?

·  Is the latest South African constitution a product of democracy or a usurpation of the ‘general will’ as some commentators have argued?

·      Does South Africa have a colonial political- legal system or is the present constitutional order a product of a liberated popular will?

·      In light of the arguably unlawful and immoral historical accumulation of wealth (as human capital, land, minerals, finance, fishing rights, etc.), how long into the past should a legal order’s legality stretch?

·      What relationship, if any, is there between gender-based violence and other forms of violence throughout South Africa’s history since colonialism? What are the theoretical implications for the delimitation of violence this way?

·      Can and should legislation be used to solve the problem of racism in South Africa?

·      Why did South Africa adopt constitutional supremacy once electoral democracy was extended to Black people?

·      Did the negotiated settlement compromise too much as far as historical justice towards Black people?

·      Was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission an effective method of addressing the historic injustices of South Africa?

·      What insights can intellectual biographical readings of some of South Africa’s historical political figures (activists, negotiators, politicians, families, heads of corporations) offer in interpreting the present?

·      How have African intellectual traditions and intellectual traditions with a history in Africa understood the relationship between law, history and power and what is their relevance to the contemporary period (these could include the Charterist Tradition, Marxism, Liberalism, Pan-Africanism, Black Consciousness, Feminism, De- coloniality, Afropessimism among others)?

·      Of what consequence is the growing role of unelected individuals and organizations in negotiating trade agreements and government policy with foreign powers on behalf of the South African people? What do the recent government policy and trade related delegations to the White House by unelected right-wing organizations mean for South African democracy and state sovereignty?

·      To what extent are the humanities and social science and their epistemological paradigms, research agendas suitable and useful for the treatment of the problems of the contemporary?

The enumerated themes are not meant to be exhaustive but to set out broadly the sorts of considerations that papers may touch upon. The editors of this special issue encourage the submission of texts from the social sciences, law, and the humanities that engage with the theoretical, methodological, and philosophical aspects of these themes and the questions that they raise.

Abstracts should be submitted by 1 December 2025 and after receiving confirmation to proceed, final papers should be submitted by 28 February 2026.

Any queries about the Special Issue can be addressed to Dr Phila Msimang (msimangp@sun.ac.za) or Dr Ndumiso Dladla (ndumiso.dladla@up.ac.za)

Please visit the following URL to familiarise yourself with the style guide of Tranformation: https://transformationjournal.org.za/author-guidelines/

Founded in 1986, Transformation is an established journal serving as a forum for analysis and debate about South and southern African societies in transition. The journal provides an exchange of theory and practice between academics, researchers, and practitioners. Recently, Transformation has shifted its primary focus from economic and development studies toward a wider range of areas relevant to understanding transitions in the region, such as art and literature, policing, and land affairs, and to providing more internationally comparative material while retaining a commitment to the southern African region.