South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, promoted a "Rainbow Nation"; his successor Thabo Mbeki an "African Renaissance"; so what will be the overarching vision of a Jacob Zuma presidency?
He has not yet outlined one, but the initial signs are that Mr Zuma will promote a new conservatism in South Africa, digging deep into the nation's cultural and religious roots and threatening Western-styled liberal values enshrined in the constitution.
Mr Zuma's supporters showed these traits throughout his long and bitterly fought presidential campaign, offering prayers to ancestors, denouncing same-sex marriage as a "disgrace to God", promising a referendum on the death penalty, condemning political rivals as "witches" and "snakes", and defending polygamy as "African".
For Mr Zuma's critics, he has mixed a deadly cocktail of religion, politics and ethnicity to quench his thirst for power.
"The genie is out. He won't be able to put it back," one critic said.
"Mbeki declared this to be the African century, but we now risk going backwards."
Without singling out anyone for criticism, a stalwart of the governing African National Congress (ANC), Zola Skweyiya, expressed a similar concern in the run-up to the party's conference in 2007.
"The demon of tribalism is rising from every corner and we ignore it at our peril," Mr Skweyiya wrote in Johannesburg's Mail & Guardian newspaper.
"We thought we would not go through what the rest of Africa has gone through, but we are just another African country. There is nothing special about us."
Southern Africa
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