South African Culture Research Articles

Soka Gakkai International in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This paper analyzes the activities of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in South Africa, a largely Christian country with the presence of very strong African Independent and Pentecostal churches, where Buddhism has mostly attracted the attention of a small minority of white middle-class people interested in meditational practices. By focusing on SGI South Africa, which has been able to reach out to a significant number of black, and, to a lesser extent, Coloured and Indian/Asian members, this ethnographic study aims to contribute to the understanding of Buddhism’s interplay with a broader cross-section of post-apartheid South African society, and, secondarily, to add to the existing literature on this Japanese new religious movement overseas. After a brief overview of the historical development of SGI in South Africa, my analysis focuses on SGI South Africa’s main ritual, social, and missionary activities; its interplay with local religions; its attempts to establish a meaningful link with South African culture; and, finally, on the religious experiences and narratives of SGI’s South African members.

Romanticising the “Boer”: Narratives of White Victimhood in South African Popular Culture

Summary In this article, I present a critical reading of a purposive sample of popular cultural expressions from various sites as they relate to the emergence of narratives of white victimhood in South Africa. The particular focus falls on the resurgence of nostalgic appropriations of the construct of the Afrikaner Boer imaginary, and the concomitant utopian farm ideal. The argument is that this resurgence, in conjunction with popularised, yet unfounded, claims of “white genocide” as it pertains to the murder of white farmers in South Africa, is employed as a means of restoring white hegemony. I contend, moreover, that the globalisation of the genocide-narrative gives nationalist, Afrikaner whiteness – which has historically been regarded as a “lesser whiteness” (Van der Westhuizen 2018) – access to global, normative whiteness, thereby legitimising its hegemonic ideals. A counterargument, however, is that these narratives result in the hypervisibility of whiteness, negating its normative invisibility and creating the potential to subvert and decolonise whiteness as a dominant ideology. The research is theoretically situated within critical whiteness studies and, following a deep description of the context, presents analysis and interpretation alongside concrete examples of popular cultural expressions.

Assessments and perspectives on stem rust resistance in South African malting barley

The production of malting barley under dryland and irrigated environments in South Africa (SA) has increased recently, making it the second most important winter crop after wheat. To assess the potential vulnerability of adapted barleys from SA to wheat stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, Pgt, race PTKST) and rye stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. secalis, Pgs, isolate UVPgs1), 50 accessions were evaluated as seedlings and as adult plants. The same barley germplasm was tested against Pgt and Pgs cultures from the USA that have proven useful for detecting the stem rust resistance genes Rpg1 and the rpg4/Rpg5 complex. The possible presence of these resistance genes was assayed using molecular markers and sequence analysis. Barley accessions exhibited mostly resistant infection types (ITs) to the South African cultures, whilst field data revealed that several of the barley varieties displayed high severities in combination with more compatible host response types to race PTKST. The barley accessions exhibited mostly high ITs to cultures from the USA. None of the seedling IT data was sufficiently distinct to reliably postulate the presence of possible resistance genes. This result was corroborated from the molecular assays for Rpg1 and rpg4/Rpg5. Except for one line that tested heterozygous for the Rpg1 gene, none of the test entries contained this gene or a functional rpg4/Rpg5 complex due to the prevalence of mutations in the rpg4/Rpg5 + carriers. Susceptibility among barley varieties to wheat stem rust race PTKST under field conditions in the present study is of concern.

Asymmetries

In introducing this special issue on South African and Irish literature and culture, this essay offers a critical overview of the field of comparisons between these two former colonies. Though the cultural output of both sites is often figured as exceptional or incomparable, there is a constant drumbeat of popular comparisons between South Africa and Ireland, and the disciplines of history, political science, and conflict resolution have long compared Irish and South African trajectories in the twentieth century. Comparisons often rely on an assumed solidarity or affinity based on a shared colonial history, but the radically different economic and political realities of the two sites make such assumptions unstable. This introduction suggests it is time for a more nuanced set of comparative studies that recognize the profoundly asymmetrical relations between South Africa and Ireland, as well as the potential limits of comparative practice, and yet the gains from bringing together two anomalous postcolonial case studies. Drawing on the work of Peter D. McDonald, the essay makes a case for listening carefully to the idiosyncrasies of a “tangled archive” of South African–Irish relations in order to shed light on what postcolonial comparison might look like in the twenty-first century.

Intercultural Communicative Component (ICC) in the English Second Language (EL2) Curricula: Trends and Challenges of Transformation in South Africa (SA) and the Global World

Globally, universities are tremendously pressurised to improve throughput rates, intercultural proficiency, and academic transformation. However, at some universities, educators often neglect the ICC component in EL2 teaching. This article analyses the feasibility of integrating the ICC component into the EL2 courses, to enhance curricula decolonisation, intellectual and cultural freedom in South African universities. From a socio-cognitive perspective, the article argues that in SA, understanding ecological, ideological, affective and sociolinguistic elements, based on the Ubuntu philosophy (a humanness spirit that embodies (South) African culture) is significant for global IC and learning. Innovative integration of plurilingualism perspectives into the Humanities curricula may have implications for academic success, especially in English and ICC, global trade, democracy and social transformation.

The influence of culture on maternal attachment behaviours: a South African case study

AbstractIt is widely accepted that culture is a contextual factor that can affect mother–infant attachment. Cultural beliefs are translated into child-rearing patterns that influence maternal responsiveness to infant attachment behaviours and could thus affect sensitive caregiving that lies at the heart of secure attachment. This article reports on the findings of a study that explored the influence of culture on maternal caregiving behaviours in the multi-cultural South African context. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews conducted with participants from three study samples to ascertain their perceptions of socio-cultural influences on attachment. Two samples consisted of mothers and mental health professionals, respectively, who represented different South African cultures (Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Coloured, Indian and White). The third sample consisted of experts in the field of attachment. The research findings indicate that culture could influence maternal caregiving behaviours. Although all the participants valued good caregiving, some maternal responses to infant attachment behaviours varied among participants from different cultures. The research emphasises the importance of considering local contexts in understanding attachment and maternal sensitivity.

DISMANTLING THE STATUS QUO: PROHIBITING UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION ON THE GROUNDS OF POVERTY UNDER CAPITALISM

The first part of this paper discusses the approach of the South African courts to socio-economic rights, arguing that it has resulted in limited progress in alleviating poverty. The Equality Court’s incorporation of equality law into socio-economic enquiries in Social Justice Coalition v Minister of Police could strengthen the case of claimants and override certain factors that cause the courts to defer to the executive, thus compelling the State to provide more immediate relief. This section also attempts to apply the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of poverty to commercial entities. By understanding discrimination as the denial of advantages or opportunities, the argument that the economy and private companies depend on discriminating against the poor to function is advanced. The second part of the paper discusses the requirement that discrimination be unfair in order to be prohibited. It assesses the likelihood of courts finding that budgetary constraints and profit incentives are legitimate purposes served by discrimination on the grounds of poverty. Finally, the last part of this paper discusses whether antidiscrimination law is an appropriate tool for the eradication of poverty. Several criticisms of transformative constitutionalism, human rights discourse and anti-discrimination law are engaged with to show that anti-discrimination law, as it currently exists, will at most target incidents of poverty-based discrimination using moderate forms of relief that allow for the continuance of an oppressive capitalist order rather than creating systemic change. The courts will have to make radical decisions, which depart from conservative South African legal culture if the decision in Social Justice Coalition v Minister of Police is to have far reaching impact.

Using an International Experience to Bridge the Gap Between Culture and Science Literacy

Today’s agricultural industry is charged with feeding a growing population, which means producing larger quantities of food and marketing the food worldwide. Future employers seek graduates that have global perspectives. To mitigate students’ lack of international knowledge, many higher education institutions are providing students an opportunity to participate in study abroad programs. The purpose of this study was to explore how an international experience in South Africa impacted participants’ perceptions of South African culture, global agriculture, and science. Seven reoccurring themes emerged from the data: a) adaptability (pre-experience), b) enhanced communication skills (both pre and post experience), c) an attainment of diverse/broadened academic agricultural knowledge (both pre and post experience), d) risk taking (post-experience), e) intercultural competency and global awareness (both pre and post experience), f) critical thinking skills (post-experience), and g) career enhancement (post-experience). Findings indicate an international experience should integrate cultural learning, academic learning, and should be applied to the participant’s future career. Keywords: international experiences; science literacy; cultural learning; study abroad

The ideal homes competitions of the 1930’s. Architectural setting for a South African white middle-class

This article investigates the Rand Daily Mail Ideal Homes Competition (1934) and the Argus Ideal Homes Competition (1937) as representations of white South African middle-class culture in the 1930’s. Drawing on Amos Rapoport’s use of ‘setting’, it explores how this group’s cultural values and beliefs where encultured in these competitions. It tells the story of a recently regulated architectural profession’s attempt to, with architects at the same time competing with one another and working together, promote their skills and values to the public. The limiting of this ‘public’ to a white middle-class is related to broader cultural, social and spatial orders of a racially segregated South African society. The article shows how norms of good domesticity, ideal family and civil society found a setting in the ideals of the competitions and the white middle-class cultural order.

Affective return: anachronistic feeling and contemporary South African documentary form

ABSTRACTThis paper turns to the critically entangled terms of form and feeling as a basis for exploring post-2012 South African protest and visual cultures. Against the backdrop of a newly ascendant political vernacular characterised by the reluctance to dichotomise emotion and reason in negotiating the terms of contemporary dissent, I examine specifically how the consequences of political disenchantment are affectively negotiated in and through documentary form. Films such as The People Versus The Rainbow Nation Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me Miners Shot Down and Strike a Rock have recently come to exemplify what Rob Nixon calls “the versatile possibilities of politically engaged nonfiction”. Taking Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me and The People Versus The Rainbow Nation as case studies, I trace the historicity and aesthetic structures embedded in those aspects of the post-2012 South African documentary image that might be said not only to move viewers, but to be constitutive of each film’s formal arrangement. The films convey the entanglement of documentary intelligibility and feeling in ways that are particularly pertinent to making sense of the contemporary South African “liberation reimagined”.

Constructions of sexuality and HIV risk among young people in Venda, South Africa: implications for HIV prevention

The study explored constructions of sexuality among young people of Venda in Limpopo, South Africa, and cultural practices that can be used to develop context-specific HIV prevention programmes. HIV prevention can be promoted by including some cultural practices in prevention programmes and changing some aspects of culture that may contribute negatively to health. Six focus group discussions were held with school-going young people (Grades 10 to 12) in urban and rural areas to explore their constructions of sexuality and HIV risk. Four focus group discussions were held with community leaders in the same areas to explore their constructions of young people’s sexuality and cultural practices relevant to HIV prevention. Through discourse analysis, the following dominant discourses that influence young people’s sexual risk behaviour were identified: rite of passage, the male sexual drive discourse (sex is natural and unavoidable); discourse of hegemonic masculinity (sex to prove masculinity); sex as a commodity; non-adherence to cultural practices; and HIV is normalised (AIDS is like flu). Some alternative constructions and shifts in gender norms were noticed, especially among female participants. The constructions of young people were not culture-specific but similar to those identified in other South African cultures. Community leaders identified a few cultural practices that could be considered in HIV prevention, for example, reinstating the rite of passage to provide age-appropriate sex and HIV education (behavioural intervention), and promoting traditional male circumcision (biological intervention). Cultural practices that contribute negatively to health should be challenged such as current constructions of gender roles (masculinity and femininity) and the practice that parents do not talk to young people about sex (both structural interventions).

Niq Mhlongo told us #FeesMustFall, or why the surface matters in <i>Dog Eat Dog</i>

In this paper, I investigate some of the reasons for the relative paucity of scholarly attention given to Niq Mhlongo’s debut novel, Dog Eat Dog. I argue that this text anticipates and articulates themes that are vital to contemporary South African culture generally, and to the academic space of the university specifically. For this reason, I contend that it is a work worthy of consideration, both because of its unusual form (it is a novel of ordeal rather than a Bildungsroman), and its prescient depiction of issues to do with institutional racism and academic exclusion – subjects which were central during the student-led protests on South African campuses in 2015 and 2016. A principal thesis of this article is that one of the reasons for literary study’s unwillingness to engage with the novel is the discipline’s predisposition to a hermeneutics of suspicion, a method of analysis that I show is unsuited to Mhlongo’s text. Instead, I argue for the use of surface reading as a valid and appropriate praxis given the form and the content of Dog Eat Dog.Keywords: Niq Mhlongo, Dog Eat Dog, surface reading, #FeesMustFall, Novel of Ordeal

“Primitivism” in Migration: Ambivalence and Locality in South African Modernism

Modernism in South Africa was not only characterized by the migration of settler artists between the global “periphery” of South Africa and Europe’s urban centers, such as Berlin, London, or Paris, which their parents had left and where they themselves frequently returned to further their careers, but also by the migration of objects and concepts.[1] The late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw a rapidly increasing circulation of African artifacts into the West in various ways—ethically and unethically, some as desecrated religious objects and some specifically produced for trade—and their subsequent appropriation by the European avant-gardes. At the same time, and largely neglected in Western art historical narratives, the aesthetic appreciation of such objects returned to their countries of origin. This was mediated by, often Jewish, immigrants with substantial collections of African artifacts, on the one hand, and Western theory such as Carl Einstein’s Negerplastik (1915) on the other. Departing from this European appreciation of African art, Irma Stern (1894–1966), the so-called pioneer of South African modernism, and the sculptor Lippy Lipshitz (1903–1980) laid the foundations for a specifically South African “settler primitivism.”[2] Stern and Lipshitz can be considered settlers, as they migrated to South Africa early in their lives but kept close ties to their European origins, artistically as well as personally. Departing from Nicholas Thomas’s definition of “settler primitivism,” this article discusses the importance of ambivalence and locality in Stern’s and Lipshitz’s “primitivist” representations of their black compatriots, in which they sought to establish a South African culture distinctive from the English traditions that were formative at the time, furthering their own indigenization in the process. My analysis is based on their artworks, different writings produced by the artists collected from various archives, as well as secondary texts on their works and careers. Before delving into the specific South African context, I will first attempt a brief localization of the terms “primitive” and “primitivism” in relation to the visual arts, as both terms are hugely problematic.

Confronting disillusionment: on the rediscovery of socialist archives in recent South African cultural production

ABSTRACTIn recent years, South African literature, art, and cultural criticism have been registering the feelings of disappointment, nostalgia, and of a general impasse that signify a crisis of postapartheid imaginations. At the same time, we can observe a turn in cultural production toward reexamining South Africa’s socialist archives and reconnecting them to the present-day predicaments and emerging social movements. Reading these processes in Imraan Coovadia’s latest novel, artworks by Haroon Gunn-Salie, and an exhibition by the Stellenbosch Open Forum, this article argues that they confront the feelings of postapartheid disillusionment by critically re-invoking memories of the 1970–80s socialist practices in South Africa and the transnational frameworks they involved. It argues that these changing approaches to the socialist archives can be read as a decolonial critique, which links the described trends in South African culture to other “post-dependence” (and specifically, post-socialist) contexts worldwide.

“I question why I understand what she has said” – Language and decolonial justice in Koleka Putuma’s debut poetry collection ‘Collective Amnesia’

This paper functions as part review, part ethnographic account of the collection’s publication and the conditions in the society that facilitated its success. I seek to articulate the intervention that Collective Amnesia has made into the South African mainstream literary consciousness, a collection which reflects the complex experience of being in, and of, post- transitional South Africa, and reaches back into the long histories in the country’s complicated racial and gender politics. I will explore questions of decolonial justice in relation to Collective Amnesia, particularly with regard to South Africa’s canon and the collection’s position as a cultural text or object in South African popular culture. In 2017 I worked at uHlanga Press as one of only two employees who produced, publicised, and marketed Collective Amnesia. I watched its meteoric rise from a privileged vantage point, and will draw on some of my experiences and observations in my discussion of this collection as a cultural phenomenon. I hope that the duality of my approach, from both cultural and publishing perspectives, speaks to the concerns of the production, study and teaching of “literatures in English” in the post-transitional milieu of South Africa which concerns so many of my colleagues in both industries.

Multilingual Activism in South African Hip Hop

It is difficult to point exactly to the day multilingual activism emerged in South African hip hop culture, though we can arguably state such activism emerged out of a confluence of historical events that involved the oppression of black and coloured people by an aggressively oppressive apartheid regime. This article discusses the tactics and strategies of multilingual activism undertaken by pioneering hip hop groups Prophets of da City at the inception of hip hop in South Africa. It considers the historical transition from apartheid South Africa to the new South Africa and how new and emerging forms of multilingual activism such as the AfriKaaps movement are contributing to redefining what we mean by multilingualism. The article also links these forms of multilingual activism to an alternative politics of multilingual voice being promoted in the public space of the country.

“We sing to touch hearts”: Choral musical culture in Pretoria East, South Africa

The purpose of this study was to explore the culture of choral singing among children and youth in Pretoria East, South Africa. The philosophical underpinnings of the choirs, the roles of choirs within local and national communities, and the perceived values and benefits of participation were examined. This collective case study required the integration of standard ethnographic strategies employed over the course of a month-long period of fieldwork and two shorter follow-up visits. I observed approximately 40 hours of rehearsal and 25 hours of performance, focusing on five choirs in and around the University of Pretoria. I also conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with choristers, directors, staff members, and parents. Participants identified a philosophy of “message bearing” as the primary goal of choral performance. Innovation and diversity in programming and competition were additional emergent themes related to this philosophy. Choirs were found to have multiple roles, including recruiting and marketing, promoting diverse South African musical cultures, and cultivating a national, South African identity. Participants described a wide range of musical, social, educational, and personal benefits associated with participation, with choristers most commonly alluding to choir as a means of “relaxing.” Choir emerged as a source of bridging social capital, encouraging cooperation among participants from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, promoting intercultural understanding and trust, and cultivating a broadened sense of national South African identity.

Structuring dissident desire: representations of same-sex prison contact in contemporary South African culture

The figure of the prisoner, particularly as associated with the Numbers gangs in South African prison gangs, is both a hyper-masculine and (homo-)eroticized character. Prison allows for a state of being queer that, through its subject having already been criminalised, and escapes the stigma of feminization associated with it in the hierarchically gendered society outside of prison. Through the structure of the gang and in the confines of the prison, same-sex desire is at the centre of criminality and masculinity. At the same time, prison allows a space in which same-sex desire is countenanced; it thus becomes a literary setting fraught with same-sex eroticism. This essay considers the extent to which the masculinities of prison have become conflated with notions of an eroticized homosexual threat and the politics and fates of such threat inside and outside the jail walls. It reads a film (Proteus, 2003), non-fiction text (The Number, 2010, by Jonny Steinberg), short fiction (by Jan van Tonder), and play (Tertius Kapp’s Rooiland, 2013).

Living Together, Living Apart: social cohesion in a future South Africa ed. by Christopher Ballantine, et al.

Reviewed by: Living Together, Living Apart: social cohesion in a future South Africa ed. by Christopher Ballantine, et al. Daniel Herwitz (bio) Christopher Ballantine, Michael Chapman, Kira Erwin and Gerhard Maré (eds) (2017) Living Together, Living Apart: social cohesion in a future South Africa The clearest articulation of a working concept of social cohesion in this fine book of brief and pithy essays is given at the beginning of Ahmed Bawa’s contribution: If social cohesion were the production of a society that is uniform in all respects, it would be impossible to achieve. If social cohesion were about the production of a society that buys into a dominant political discourse or culture, it would be a terrible mistake. If social cohesion were the production of a society that succeeded in the removal of social dissent, labour strikes and so on, it would produce a sterile future. For the purpose of this essay, social cohesion is taken to mean the continuous development of a society that progressively builds broad social purpose and action towards the intensification of its human rights and social justice agendas. As such, it is process rather than event, and process rather than outcome. (134) Bawa goes on to refer to the Bertelsmann report on social cohesion: For the social cohesion radar there are three major categories; social connections (social networks, trust in people and acceptance of diversity), connectedness (identification, trust in institutions and perception of fairness), and focus on the common good (solidarity and helpfulness, respect for social rules and civic participation). (136) The question is where South Africa sits with respect to these indicators some 28 years into its democracy, a question not answered head on in [End Page 124] Bawa’s trenchant discussion of the country, nor quite anywhere else in the book, a book which rather chooses to focus on strands of cohesion, proposed, imagined or realised, running through South African culture and society. The focus is highly profitable although politics is strangely absent from this book; political parties like the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance are given short shrift although the fault lines of political culture are undoubtedly crucial to the dis-unification of the country at present, a country split between rural and urban alliances, dramatically fragmented with respect to issues of trust in governance, and equally so when it comes to whose networks include whom, and who remains invisible to such well-formed group alliances. Spiralling inequality does feature as a central trope, and is understood to be a root cause of the failure of social cohesion in South Africa. As it also is in America, Brazil and other countries with soaring Gini coefficients (the measure of inequality in wages and wealth) and with inequality the ensuing politics of resentment inevitably leading to virulent/racist nationalism (America), crime (Brazil, South Africa), corruption (South Africa, Brazil and courtesy of lobbyists also in America), and xenophobia (America, South Africa). Among themes of running interest is the extent to which cohesion is a matter of free choice, of will and decision. To what extend can one simply decide to remake one’s identity in a way that binds oneself to others in the South African context? To what extent is this a fool’s game, given structural constraints on peoples’ lives which insure their apartness? Where does freedom to refashion the self begin and end given the constraints of society, economy, history and politics, of linguistic diversity and education? This theme is given a bold answer in the opening essay of the book by writer, educator and intellectual Njabulo Ndebele who exhorts his readers and especially his black readers that: It is time for South African ‘blacks’ no longer to put a store on ‘blackness’. To continue to do so is to insist on living in a liminal space, in which dream and effort have become disentangled, almost permanently. It is time that the South African ‘black’ began to appreciate the value of aspiring towards the universal and then to live in it, to become a part of it, to add to it the cumulative value of the experience of being free in the specificity of their historical circumstances, where dream...

Waywardness of mood and mode in Love the One You Love and Necktie Youth

Abstract At a time when the reconciliation narratives peddled during the Mandela and Mbeki eras are increasingly coming under stress, a number of South African filmmakers have been offering viewers deeply felt, often autobiographically inflected and experimental filmic engagements with the everyday, affective textures of contemporary political disillusionment. This article reads two films associated with the so-called ‘New Wave’ in South African filmmaking – namely Jenna Cato Bass’s Love the One You Love (2014) and Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s Necktie Youth (2015) – in order to map the contours of waywardness as a mood and mode of cinematic narration peculiar to a particular post-transitional South African political conjuncture. Inspired by a recent flurry of international scholarly activity on the topic of mood, my analysis of these films considers the nuances that a reading of mood bring to understanding the aesthetics of ‘wayward feeling’ in contemporary South African visual culture.