Folklorisation and Reoralisation in Context: Some Narratives on the Current Challenges facing South Africa’s Migrant Labourers

Mogomme A Masoga

doi:10.4102/apsdpr.v4i2.118

Abstract

This paper evolved as a result of reading a special note of condolences scribed by two women who are in a polygamous marriage situation from Chikhutu village in Malawi, in 2005. The note was signed by these women as ‘Mama Luhanga and Mama Luhanga,’ the wives of Dada Patson Luhanga, a migrant worker, based in South Africa, with a very strong linguistic, social and cultural background of Tumbuka. The note was meant to ‘comfort and support’ the South Africa based widow, Mme Nanabi Kegakilwe, who lost her husband. Dada Patson Luhanga has been staying on the compound of the late Rre Enoch Kegakilwe for more than twelve years. The existing verbal agreement is that Dada Luhanga will work on the Kegakilwe garden every Saturday of the week, while doing other menial jobs on other days around Midrand in South Africa. As per this agreement, Dada Patson Luhanga was offered accommodation at the Kegakilwe compound pro-bono. Expressly, the note reveals and exposes pains, hurts, and frustrations currently experienced by migrant labourers in South Africa. Recently in South Africa, the crisis of xenophobia, or Afrophobia as some critics prefer to call it, and related spates of violence, add to this challenge. The paper aims to discuss some current South Africa’s migrant labourers’ challenges by making use of theories of folklore and orality. It will use a method of discourse analysis in reading the note and analysing its appropriate hermeneutics of power and identity.

Highlights

The current South African socio-political and economic landscaping has become interesting for any human and social science research analysis
Some time ago the country witnessed the sad story of Afrophobia in South Africa, stemming from 2008, with a recurrence in 2015
There is a pervasive air of public corruption

Summary

Introduction

The current South African socio-political and economic landscaping has become interesting for any human and social science research analysis. The latter argument by Blommaert is very intense and critical in a sense that it exposes weaknesses of alphabetization (Blommaert 2004:645), thereby creating a falsified sense of alphabetization as closely liked development; ‘a highly valued, prestige-bearing sense.’ Even in this case Blommaert has seriously taken note of the fact that ‘Paradoxically, ‘nonliterate’ societies have long been considered to be the typical anthropological object of inquiry’ (2004:669); an absurd sense of ‘lingering anthropological prejudice that literate cultures were somehow less authentic, less ‘anthropological’, than cultures that relied strictly on oral communication (Boyarin 1992a:2)’. Even in this case I was aware of my shortcomings – I am not a trained specialist in socio-linguistics In addition to these limitations I need to mention the fact that I experienced financial constraints and I could not travel to Malawi with Dada Luhanga to meet with his two wives who were looking forward to my visit.

The story of note

Reading the note

Concluding remarks