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100% Zulu Boy

Mark Sanders

in Learning Zulu: A Secret History of Language in South Africa

This chapter examines how the trial of Jacob Zuma, former deputy president of South Africa. spawned questions of “Zulu” as a pure language and Zuma as “100% Zulu Boy.” After Zuma was implicated in ... More

This chapter examines how the trial of Jacob Zuma, former deputy president of South Africa. spawned questions of “Zulu” as a pure language and Zuma as “100% Zulu Boy.” After Zuma was implicated in corruption, he was dismissed by President Thabo Mbeki. In November 2005, he was indicted for rape. His supporters, demonstrating outside the Johannesburg High Court, wore t-shirts with the slogan “100% Zulu Boy,” and Zuma himself explained his actions in terms of Zulu culture. Judge Willem van der Merwe, who opened his address in Zulu. acquitted Zuma. The chapter considers how, during Zuma's trial, the codes of ilobolo (bridewealth) and inhlawulo (forfeit, fine) reduce everything to a set of heterosexual assumptions, functioning within a patriarchy, but more importantly—like the idea that if one is raped one must be a lesbian—they tend in practice to leave aside, or negotiate away, the matter of consent.Less

The Politicization of Sexuality

Claire Laurier Decoteau

in Ancestors and Antiretrovirals: The Bio-Politics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Whereas Thabo Mbeki reconfigured racial politics in his attempt to avoid financing antiretroviral provision while simultaneously promoting an African renaissance, President Jacob Zuma’s reign has ... More

Whereas Thabo Mbeki reconfigured racial politics in his attempt to avoid financing antiretroviral provision while simultaneously promoting an African renaissance, President Jacob Zuma’s reign has been characterized by a certain sexualization of politics which are analyzed in this chapter through a comparison of the ‘traditional’ sexuality performed by Jacob Zuma and the complex practices of sexuality in the communities where research was conducted (including the practice of transactional sex). This chapter also illustrates how shifts in the political economy have instigated transformations in gender ideologies and sexual practices in the post-apartheid era. Although theories of masculinity in crisis have become popular in contemporary African studies, this chapter argues that the sexualization of politics signifies and masks deep-seated concerns about the ‘success’ of liberation.Less

Men ‘Not Feeling Good’: The Dilemmas of Hyper-masculinity in the Era of HIV/AIDS

in Cultured Violence: Narrative, Social Suffering, and Engendering Human Rights in Contemporary South Africa

This chapter examines the question of male agency in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that fear of the shame brought about by entry into the domain of the speakable and the subject's ... More

This chapter examines the question of male agency in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that fear of the shame brought about by entry into the domain of the speakable and the subject's simultaneous bearing witness to her desubjectification offer insights into men's specific, complex vulnerability within the post-apartheid setting. This vulnerability can result either in violence or positive resilience. In order to understand the power of deeper psychological anxieties and wider social structures that promote domination and subordination in contemporary South Africa, the chapter analyses narratives of masculine vulnerability by looking at the constitutional declaration of women's rights and the challenges presented by the phenomenon of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It also discusses the politics arising from the combination of liberal economic policy, the African Renaissance, and the AIDS denialism of South African President Thabo Mbeki. Finally, the chapter focuses on Phaswane Mpe's 2001 novel Welcome to Our Hillbrow and considers Jacob Zuma, former Deputy President of South Africa, as an explicit representative of a particularly highly profiled image of Zulu masculinity.Less

Postscript: Melancholia in the Time of the “African Personality”

Thomas Blom Hansen

in Melancholia of Freedom: Social Life in an Indian Township in South Africa

This concluding chapter reflects on how much of the situation described in the book may have wider applicability across community, location, and class in South Africa. It also speculates briefly on ... More

This concluding chapter reflects on how much of the situation described in the book may have wider applicability across community, location, and class in South Africa. It also speculates briefly on how Jacob Zuma's presidency is altering predominant styles of politics and public culture toward a more ordinary, imperfect, but also culturally intimate style of political performance that may lead to naked majoritarianism but that also may prove hospitable to the country's many minorities. A combination of cautious hope, cynicism, and nostalgic fantasies of an authentic, wholesome, or meaningful past seems to define South Africa in 2011. The key question is whether—and how—a new, inclusive, but also less heroic form of public culture may develop that can address the many glaring inequalities in the country.Less

Colonial Nostalgias and the Reinvention of Culture

Jason Hickel

in Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa

This chapter explores an emerging trend in Durban-area townships: people seeking to learn ritual practice in a bid to reconnect with their ancestors. Set against the backdrop of neoliberal ... More

This chapter explores an emerging trend in Durban-area townships: people seeking to learn ritual practice in a bid to reconnect with their ancestors. Set against the backdrop of neoliberal deindustrialization, the chapter focuses on the story of a woman who tries to make sense of why her family’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. Beset by anxiety about her family’s lack of relationship to the ancestors, she attempts to secure their allegiance by performing a ritual that ends in disaster. Her narrative reflects a deep disappointment with modernity and a strange nostalgia for apartheid—township residents longing for the 1960s as a time of supposedly greater social order and more stable gender relations. At the same time, they wonder if, in their excitement for modernity, they might have abandoned their ancestors too quickly, and so they seek to recover certain elements of “tradition” and “African identity.” This trend not only illustrates the syncretism that links urban and rural worlds, it also helps explain the surprising outpouring of support for Jacob Zuma, which has to do with his image as a patriarch who provides for his wives and children.Less

“This Lesbian Issue”: Navigating Public Visibility as Lesbian Movement Organizations

Ashley Currier

in Out in Africa: LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa

This chapter discusses the strategy of Namibian and South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement against anti-lesbian hostility. The Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) ... More

This chapter discusses the strategy of Namibian and South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement against anti-lesbian hostility. The Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) and Sister Namibia cultivated different strategic orientations to visibility as lesbian movement organizations. The FEW developed an orientation towards public visibility that protected black lesbians and the organization’s public reputation as violence against black South African lesbians in Johannesburg intensified, while Sister Namibia devised ways for the public to regard lesbian rights as women’s rights. The chapter recounts the protest of black lesbian activists against Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa who was accused of raping a female activist.Less