Intercultural Communication Study in South Africa

Abstract This entry deals with issues related to intercultural communication in South Africa. The focus falls first on the state of the discipline and issues related to teaching and research. Attention is then given to the nature of South African society and the implications of culture and group membership in determining intergroup communication. Issues related to language and identity as well as the extent and nature of contact and interaction between groups are discussed, and attention is given to the African worldview and its emphasis on human connectedness. The entry examines various barriers to intercultural communication such as nonverbal communication and paralinguistics, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia as well as contrasting communication styles, and then concludes with a call to local and international researchers to tackle the largely unexplored terrain of communication within African contexts and to assist in solving the manifold problems associated with intercultural communication in those settings.