Looking back to look forward: re-humanization through conspicuous consumption in four African masculine sartorial subcultures – from diamond field’s dandies to Izikhothane

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that the Via Daveytons, a sartorial subculture of Izikhothane from South Africa, which is infamous for its supposedly brazen destructive conspicuous consumption practices, can be rather usefully read as articulating practices that seek to rehumanize members amidst lives that are otherwise bereft of dignity. Among other conspicuous practices, Izikhothane behavior involves purchasing expensive designer clothing labels and favorite foods which are subsequently destroyed in full view of an audience, in ritual mock battles. In South Africa, it will be argued that the Izikhothane subculture can be interpreted as evidencing a resurgence of conspicuous conmsu merist cultures that include the South African ‘diamond field’s dandy’ of the mid-1880s in Kimberly and Johannesburg migrant Zulu miners called Oswenka of the 1950s. It can also be read to be related to the practices of other conspicuous consumerist cultures such as those of the Sape of the Congo. The study draws on relevant literatures on conspicuous consumption and rehumanization, tying these to Tullock’s tripartite structure of style-fashion-dress. It does this in order to make the argument that Izikhothane rituals and norms are communicative practices that rehumanize otherwise marginalized and discarded humanities.