Mwandayi, CanisiusCanisiusMwandayi2024-08-192024-08-192024978-3-98989-012-1https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/96594The advocacy in Western nations of embracing all the new cultures that have moved into Western countries in recent decades (defined here as multiculturalism) is not just a Western phenomenon but is what actually underpins African philosophy expressed in the Zulu maxim “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (“a person is a person through other persons”). In recent years, however, a number of world leaders have come to speak out against multiculturalism, expressing concerns about integrating immigrants through multiculturalist policies. Africa too, has not been left out; the eruption of xenophobic attacks in South Africa is enough proof that multiculturalism is also failing even on the African continent. What boggles my mind is what to say of multiculturalism, has it really failed, can it be regarded as not divinely willed? That multiculturalism appears not to be God’s design for humanity finds support in some biblical passages: God confusing people’s languages (Gen. 11:1–9) and Acts 17:26 which says God “has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26). But can one really conclude that it is God’s intention that different ethnic groups should not stay together? Concluding so, however, appears to militate against the other biblically accepted position that “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:54). Paul in Eph. 2:14–17 talks of Christ’s death as a unifying element between Jews and gentiles. It is against these vexing positions that this article, using a cosmopolitan approach, seeks to interrogate the relevance of multiculturalism in this contemporary ageengAfricaDiasporaGodImmigrantsMulticulturalismWestern world230bookpart