This study explores models of culture and identity. It provides a tripartite model of cultural identity with reference to freedom of translation. It establishes three main ideal ‘daisy charts’ where petals from the Centre spread out to the Periphery in post-colonial societies The first model represents a multicultural society, where the minority group identity (the petals of the daisy) is preserved but kept separate, and translation is intra-group (i.e. Hebrew and Yiddish translation in Anglophone contexts); the second model features an overlap of petals where all groups are interconnected and integrate and translation is inter-group (i.e., Xhosa into Zulu, in South Africa), and a totalitarian regime where there is no identification and freedom of expression and translation.