Respectability – Armour Against Inferiority

Abstract

Respectability has been a significant feature of status in the Cape, shaped by racial dynamics that have their foundation in slavery and colonialism and later formalised in apartheid legislation. The issue of representation is central to the paper and draws on the work of Stuart Hall who suggests that the concept of representation plays a more active and creative role in how we think about the world and our place in it. Drawing on oral history and personal family photographs taken during apartheid, I postulate that, through acts of performance such as dressing up and sitting for photographs, people who were classified coloured, attempted to take control of the way they were represented. In so doing, they actively resisted their dehumanisation and racial subjugation. In this regard I argue that the photographs defy and resist the memories that we have of apartheid and testify to a will to freedom and humanity.