A New Cosmopolitanism

South Africa's overthrow of institutionalized racism and its attempt to build a diverse democracy ought to speak more loudly than it currently does in world-historical debates. This, at a time when political interventions are promoted and justified, using the language of cosmopolitanism and democratic humanitarianism, on the grounds that ailing or incompetent national states have failed to measure up to the levels of good practice that merit recognition as civilized. This article takes up the challenge and argues that South Africa has the potential to generate ‘an alternative sense of what our networked world might be and become, a new cosmopolitanism centred on the global south’. Yet, despite some influence of the truth and reconciliation process, South Africa remains marginalized in international debates on humanitarian and cosmopolitan governance. The challenge is to animate the meanings and significance of South Africa on a worldly scale, a process which may depart from its local significations.