ESTADO, CULTURA E NAÇÃO NA ÁFRICA DO SUL DEMOCRÁTICA.

Abstract

In the recent history of South Africa, the State has sought to formulate and implement public policies in the field of culture considering the diversity of the peoples of the region. This coincides with South Africa, whose formal political system is democracy. Thus, through different governmental actions, a series of public policies have been promoted aiming at the promotion and valorization of culture. It is observed in the field of cultural policies the identification and valuation of some material and immaterial heritage, consubstanciando a sort of heritage of policy. In this perspective, in the present work, which consists of an exploratory research of bibliographical and documentary character, the relationship between State and Culture in the construction of the Rainbow Nation is analyzed, epithet by means of which this country of the south of Africa, historically marked by the segregation and by Apartheid, intends to redefine itself. Post-Apartheid South Africa has sought in heritage policies a new sense for the nation when it comes to the renaming of streets, the transformation of buildings into museums, and the holding of events reminiscent of the characters who fought against racial segregation. These actions of renations, transformations and praises institutionalized by the State are inserted in the field of public policies. Thus, it is problematic how the State appropriates the culture and the heritage for the construction of its project of nation. The official projects and plans for post-Apartheid South African cultural and heritage policies are centered on building a nation marked by its ethnic and cultural diversity, and it seems to be this multicultural and multiethnic heritage that should become a symbol of the Rainbow Nation. Of course, this is a complex process marked by tensions and ambiguities.