Moving between Ekasi and the Suburbs: the Mobility of Linguistic Resources in a South African De(re)segregated School

Abstract

Recent analyses of youth culture, and of popular culture more broadly, emphasise mobility — of people across global spaces and of global cultural flows. Yet for most youth, physical movement across national boundaries is relatively restricted. In South Africa, there are of course large internal flows of people between urban and rural areas, and significant for the focus of this chapter, a number of youth who travel between their homes in the townships on city peripheries, or inner-city areas, and the previously ‘White’ suburbs in pursuit of quality schooling (Fataar, 2009; Soudien, 2004). Historically ‘White’, now desegregated suburban schools in South African cities are important spaces for the production of an expanding ‘Black’ middle class (Soudien, 2004) as well as for scrutiny of a society in transition. This chapter examines the discursive practices of girls attending a suburban school in the urban metropolis of Johannesburg, South Africa, where ‘Black’ learners have replaced ‘White’ learners, i.e. a resegregated school (Orfield, 2004). It is informed by the view that exploration of complex everyday language practices offers us insights into changing cultural practices as well as into the different kinds of identity work performed by the girls.