Buhle Zuma (Khanyile) | University of Cape Town (original) (raw)
Papers by Buhle Zuma (Khanyile)
Firstly, I would like to extend my appreciation to the former liberation soldiers who volunteered... more Firstly, I would like to extend my appreciation to the former liberation soldiers who volunteered to be part of this study and without whom the study would not have been possible. Although I cannot thank you by name for reasons of confidentiality and anonymity, let me thank you all for your time, honesty and trust before, during and after the research process. Secondly, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory (DACPM), in Woodstock, Cape town for facilitating and supporting me in meeting with former liberation soldiers. Specifically I would like to thank Michael Abrams (DACPM), Lizo Ndzabela (DACPM), Yasir Henri (DACPM and University of Michigan) and Desmond van Niekerk (Hearts of Men). Thirdly, and also very importantly I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Zimitri Erasmus, for guiding me through the research process, from the beginning right to the end, with a gentle heart and a sharp mind. Thank you. I would like also to thank my mother and my sisters for their unconditional support even when they have never fully understood what it is that I've been doing for the past two years. Thank you very much. Thanks also go to Thierry Luescher for the questions he posed during our lunch breaks that forced me to think more critically about my work. Thank you Thierry. Lastly, this study was made possible by the generous funds from the National Research Foundation.
This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and expe... more This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, embodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring attention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it examines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa’s past and current experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about violence less as an aberration to our peaceful existence but rather argues that violence might shape our very existence. It concludes by offering “existential violence” as a concept to help think through the relationship between existence and violence in a more nuanced way.
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd eBooks, Mar 17, 2017
Theory & Psychology, Feb 1, 2014
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the paper calls for a re-examination of the place and role of prejudice in Contact Theory and in turn a re-evaluation of the theory itself.
Social Dynamics, 2023
Decolonising the Neoliberal University is a tightly arranged set of responses to Jacqueline Rose&... more Decolonising the Neoliberal University is a tightly arranged set of responses to Jacqueline Rose's lecture, "The Legacy," given at the University of Cape Town in 2017, in the wake of the #Rhodes Must Fall and #Fees Must Fall protests. Rose confronts her audienceand, now, her readers-with the question of what it would mean to deny a movement, particularly one that extends the lessons of black consciousness, an unconscious. The volume as a whole poses the question of what psychoanalysis can bring to the decolonisation of the university. In enabling dissensus over questions concerning the university to come, the volume is a triumph'-Dr Ross Truscott, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape.
The social psychological study of desegregation has been guided by contact theory and championed ... more The social psychological study of desegregation has been guided by contact theory and championed by contact research for over fifty years. During this time great inroads have been made both in theory and methodology. This paper argues that notwithstanding these developments, social psychology has, to a large degree, left the meaning of 'desegregation' poorly conceptualised. The paper argues that this conceptual poverty can be traced back to the manner in which early social psychologists conceptualised segregation. Consequently, and through a 'reductionist imperative', social psychology equates intergroup contact with desegregation, which the paper argues is both historically and politically misinformed. In the South African context, such an understanding is a disservice to the people who suffered as a result of segregation that was at the centre of colonial and apartheid regimes. Scholarly debate on the meaning of desegregation is needed.
University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be h... more University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be human?
Souls, 2018
The article has three movements. First, it draws out some of the contours of historical trauma su... more The article has three movements. First, it draws out some of the contours of historical trauma suffered by Black and Brown people in South Africa since the 17th century as “bodily and psychic wounds.” Second, the article argues that 1994 did not signal the end of racial domination in South Africa but rather, marked the advancement of racial domination in new and nuanced techniques hidden in place sight. Third, the article attempts to imagine what freedom, as a way of living beyond of a liberal democracy framework, might look like in South Africa from the psychological perspective of Black and Brown people.
The Wiley Handbook of Group Processes in Children and Adolescents, 2017
Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine, 2012
Theory & Psychology, 2014
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Psychology in Society, 2021
Using psycho-political analysis as a method of seeing and interpreting, this essay meditates on w... more Using psycho-political analysis as a method of seeing and interpreting, this essay meditates on why and how Frantz Fanon's observation that 'the Black is not a [hu]man' is true in (post)apartheid South Africa. In particular, the essay is concerned with the histo-political circumstances that make Fanon's observation true for poor black people. And to this end, the essay argues that local and international white-monopoly capital orchestrated a psycho-political defeat and co-option of the ANC well ahead of the 1994 democratic elections. Consequently, South Africa transitioned from apartheid into recolonisation as a satellite of the empire of capital thus, closing all prospects of a decent and dignified life for poor black people. Using a newspaper article as an illustrative example, the essay analyses the lived experience of poor black people as a consequence of the ANC's psychopolitical defeat and custodianship of capital imperialism in South Africa. In this, the essay shows the violence of the ANC government on poor black people and the fate of the latter as a disposable population of the empire of capital.
This thesis explores the contexts in which combatant masculinities were constructed: (a) in apart... more This thesis explores the contexts in which combatant masculinities were constructed: (a) in apartheid South Africa through mass mobilization and politicization; (b) in exile through military training; and (c) in post-apartheid South Africa through cultural concepts of manhood and non-governmental organisations' (NGOs) initiatives. This qualitative study, based on six in-depth interviews, follows through the three different contexts, the narratives of the same group of ex-combatants ofUmkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). These men went into exile as part of the 1980 generation. It concludes that the different contexts facilitated the construction of different masculinities. During resistance to apartheid, civilian struggle masculinities were made. Military training made militarised masculinities. Post 1994 marks the creation of masculinities in transition. Among the key factors shaping each of these masculinities are: political structur...
The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies
This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and expe... more This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, embodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring attention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it examines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa’s past and current experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about viole...
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies, 2020
and Keywords This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenom... more and Keywords This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenome non and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, em bodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring at tention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it exam ines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa's past and cur rent experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about violence less as an aberration to our peaceful existence but rather argues that vio lence might shape our very existence. It concludes by offering "existential violence" as a concept to help think through the relationship between existence and violence in a more nuanced way.
Firstly, I would like to extend my appreciation to the former liberation soldiers who volunteered... more Firstly, I would like to extend my appreciation to the former liberation soldiers who volunteered to be part of this study and without whom the study would not have been possible. Although I cannot thank you by name for reasons of confidentiality and anonymity, let me thank you all for your time, honesty and trust before, during and after the research process. Secondly, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory (DACPM), in Woodstock, Cape town for facilitating and supporting me in meeting with former liberation soldiers. Specifically I would like to thank Michael Abrams (DACPM), Lizo Ndzabela (DACPM), Yasir Henri (DACPM and University of Michigan) and Desmond van Niekerk (Hearts of Men). Thirdly, and also very importantly I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Zimitri Erasmus, for guiding me through the research process, from the beginning right to the end, with a gentle heart and a sharp mind. Thank you. I would like also to thank my mother and my sisters for their unconditional support even when they have never fully understood what it is that I've been doing for the past two years. Thank you very much. Thanks also go to Thierry Luescher for the questions he posed during our lunch breaks that forced me to think more critically about my work. Thank you Thierry. Lastly, this study was made possible by the generous funds from the National Research Foundation.
This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and expe... more This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, embodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring attention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it examines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa’s past and current experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about violence less as an aberration to our peaceful existence but rather argues that violence might shape our very existence. It concludes by offering “existential violence” as a concept to help think through the relationship between existence and violence in a more nuanced way.
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd eBooks, Mar 17, 2017
Theory & Psychology, Feb 1, 2014
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the paper calls for a re-examination of the place and role of prejudice in Contact Theory and in turn a re-evaluation of the theory itself.
Social Dynamics, 2023
Decolonising the Neoliberal University is a tightly arranged set of responses to Jacqueline Rose&... more Decolonising the Neoliberal University is a tightly arranged set of responses to Jacqueline Rose's lecture, "The Legacy," given at the University of Cape Town in 2017, in the wake of the #Rhodes Must Fall and #Fees Must Fall protests. Rose confronts her audienceand, now, her readers-with the question of what it would mean to deny a movement, particularly one that extends the lessons of black consciousness, an unconscious. The volume as a whole poses the question of what psychoanalysis can bring to the decolonisation of the university. In enabling dissensus over questions concerning the university to come, the volume is a triumph'-Dr Ross Truscott, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape.
The social psychological study of desegregation has been guided by contact theory and championed ... more The social psychological study of desegregation has been guided by contact theory and championed by contact research for over fifty years. During this time great inroads have been made both in theory and methodology. This paper argues that notwithstanding these developments, social psychology has, to a large degree, left the meaning of 'desegregation' poorly conceptualised. The paper argues that this conceptual poverty can be traced back to the manner in which early social psychologists conceptualised segregation. Consequently, and through a 'reductionist imperative', social psychology equates intergroup contact with desegregation, which the paper argues is both historically and politically misinformed. In the South African context, such an understanding is a disservice to the people who suffered as a result of segregation that was at the centre of colonial and apartheid regimes. Scholarly debate on the meaning of desegregation is needed.
University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be h... more University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be human?
Souls, 2018
The article has three movements. First, it draws out some of the contours of historical trauma su... more The article has three movements. First, it draws out some of the contours of historical trauma suffered by Black and Brown people in South Africa since the 17th century as “bodily and psychic wounds.” Second, the article argues that 1994 did not signal the end of racial domination in South Africa but rather, marked the advancement of racial domination in new and nuanced techniques hidden in place sight. Third, the article attempts to imagine what freedom, as a way of living beyond of a liberal democracy framework, might look like in South Africa from the psychological perspective of Black and Brown people.
The Wiley Handbook of Group Processes in Children and Adolescents, 2017
Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine, 2012
Theory & Psychology, 2014
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Psychology in Society, 2021
Using psycho-political analysis as a method of seeing and interpreting, this essay meditates on w... more Using psycho-political analysis as a method of seeing and interpreting, this essay meditates on why and how Frantz Fanon's observation that 'the Black is not a [hu]man' is true in (post)apartheid South Africa. In particular, the essay is concerned with the histo-political circumstances that make Fanon's observation true for poor black people. And to this end, the essay argues that local and international white-monopoly capital orchestrated a psycho-political defeat and co-option of the ANC well ahead of the 1994 democratic elections. Consequently, South Africa transitioned from apartheid into recolonisation as a satellite of the empire of capital thus, closing all prospects of a decent and dignified life for poor black people. Using a newspaper article as an illustrative example, the essay analyses the lived experience of poor black people as a consequence of the ANC's psychopolitical defeat and custodianship of capital imperialism in South Africa. In this, the essay shows the violence of the ANC government on poor black people and the fate of the latter as a disposable population of the empire of capital.
This thesis explores the contexts in which combatant masculinities were constructed: (a) in apart... more This thesis explores the contexts in which combatant masculinities were constructed: (a) in apartheid South Africa through mass mobilization and politicization; (b) in exile through military training; and (c) in post-apartheid South Africa through cultural concepts of manhood and non-governmental organisations' (NGOs) initiatives. This qualitative study, based on six in-depth interviews, follows through the three different contexts, the narratives of the same group of ex-combatants ofUmkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). These men went into exile as part of the 1980 generation. It concludes that the different contexts facilitated the construction of different masculinities. During resistance to apartheid, civilian struggle masculinities were made. Military training made militarised masculinities. Post 1994 marks the creation of masculinities in transition. Among the key factors shaping each of these masculinities are: political structur...
The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies
This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and expe... more This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, embodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring attention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it examines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa’s past and current experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about viole...
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now c... more Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis has been greatly advanced over the decades into what is now called Contact Theory. The application of the theory toward the improvement of intergroup relations has had the effect of concealing the fact that Contact Theory is fundamentally a prejudice theory and not a theory of intergroup relations. This article focuses on the concept of prejudice by following the ways in which Allport worked with the concept prior to and after the publication of The Nature of Prejudice. The focus is not on the definitional correctives of prejudice that have been offered but on the metaphysical and moral perspectives that Allport adopts in his conception of prejudice. The exploration of these issues reveals a number of challenges and implications for Contact Theory that contact researchers have yet to contend with. The paper also poses an epistemological question to the theory asking: how was prejudice selected as the source of intergroup strife? Taken together the...
Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies, 2020
and Keywords This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenom... more and Keywords This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenome non and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, em bodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring at tention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it exam ines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa's past and cur rent experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about violence less as an aberration to our peaceful existence but rather argues that vio lence might shape our very existence. It concludes by offering "existential violence" as a concept to help think through the relationship between existence and violence in a more nuanced way.
Institute fro Humanities in Africa (HUMA), “Conspicuous Consumption in Africa”, University of Cap... more Institute fro Humanities in Africa (HUMA), “Conspicuous Consumption in Africa”, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 4-5 December 2014.
Panelist in a controversial debate. 20th South African Psychological Congress (PsySSA), “A Time o... more Panelist in a controversial debate. 20th South African Psychological Congress (PsySSA), “A Time of Celebration and Reflection”, Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, Durban, South Africa, 16-19 September 2014.
In this essay, I would like reflect on my observations and analysis of the unspoken grievances an... more In this essay, I would like reflect on my observations and analysis of the unspoken grievances and duress that sparked student political activism in 2015. My remarks are personal reflections and are consolidated from my experiences and reflections as a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT) between 2003 and 2012 and as a lecturer there between 2013 and 2016. I had originally intended to write these reflections at the end of 2015, but there was too much happening around me then and its echoes were still too loud in my head and heart.
The Kokesto Sechane Shop, Cape Talk Radio
Cape Talk Radio 702, Talk@Nine with John Webb. 30 June 2013
Power FM 98.7, Power Lunch with Azania, 13 October 2014.
SAfm, Afternoon Talk with Ashraf Garda, 19 January 2015.
Hectic Nine9, SABC 2, 2 March 2015
University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be ... more University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January 2014. Racial bondage. What does it mean to be human?
The human experiences of oppression and colonisation of black people raised a set of questions am... more The human experiences of oppression and colonisation of black people raised a set of questions among black people themselves such as: what does it mean to be human? What is freedom? How can we create a new genre of the human other than that given to us by Western colonial modernity?
In this talk I would like to share with you two current projects that are under preparation—Imagining Freedom Then and Now and Disposable Black Lives: From Apartheid Neoliberalism. Underpinning both projects is the following set of questions: what is ‘post’ in post-apartheid South Africa? What might freedom, imagined from the vantage point of poor black people rather than the current capitalism version of ‘consumer freedom’, look like? In what ways does the historical current of violence (physical, symbolic and structural) and nihilism continue to shape the life opportunities and experiences of black people in South Africa today? What forms of labour (psychological, political, economic and cultural) do we need to perform as conditions of possibility for the imaginative project called the “Rainbow Nation”?
• Masculinities, Leadership and Gender Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa’ training course; Sonke Gend... more • Masculinities, Leadership and Gender Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa’ training course; Sonke Gender Justice Network; Leadership workshop, 25 September 2013, University of Cape Town.
UCT Summer School, “Who are We? Shifting Identities in Post-Apartheid South Africa”. University o... more UCT Summer School, “Who are We? Shifting Identities in Post-Apartheid South Africa”. University of Cape Town, South Africa, 22 January.
This lecture will form part of a series that focuses on how the creative arts represent trauma an... more This lecture will form part of a series that focuses on how the creative arts represent trauma and memory – and how these representations may ultimately pave the way to healing historical wounds. University of the Free State, South Africa, 26 March 2015.