Agency and affordability: being black and ‘middle class’ in South Africa in 1989

Abstract

This article analyses a 1991 documentary about the ‘black middle class’ in South Africa, called Nowhere to Play: Conversations with Sowetan Golfers, commissioned by Channel 4 (UK). Drawing on interviews with the filmmaker, Angus Gibson, and one of the individuals featured in the documentary, Peter Vundla, the article critically discusses the film's representation of the black middle class at a crucial point in South Africa's liberation struggle. Examining the discursive construction of the ‘black middle class’, as well as its claims to agency and affordability, the article contributes to broader debates on class, race, consumption and empowerment in the South African context.