Abstract
This address critically examines two paradigms that historically
characterised inter-racial relations in South Africa. The (mis)application of
intercultural communication concepts during apartheid to manage labour
relations is contrasted with the contemporary use of ubuntu, a purportedly
unique African concept that promotes the communitarian idea of human
interconnectedness. Both concepts are critiqued as forms of
inclusion/exclusion. Power, usually absent from discussion of either practice,
is here injected into the analysis. Some thoughts on crime as a uniquely
Western paradigm are offered. The argument shows how language and
intercultural communication concepts can fail in the academy when they are
used to promote essentialist agendas, including the claim that crime is a
Western paradigm. The paper concludes with some thoughts on cultural
studies, drawing on the above context, as manifested in the 2015 Intercultural
Communication Studies Conference organised by IAICS and CAFIC.