Invisible Girls and Violent Boys: Gender and gangs in South Africa (original) (raw)
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In South Africa, gang violence continues unabated particularly in black and coloured townships. The question addressed in this paper is why youth continue to be involved in gang violence despite South Africa being deemed the most developed African country. The response to this question goes just beyond economic reasons and includes young men and the expression of their masculine power. In this paper we reveal the ways in which young men continue to be involved in gang violence and their consequences. The paper is based on an ethnographic study from 2017 to 2018. It draws on two black townships of Gugulethu and Nyanga East in Cape Town South Africa. Keywords: South Africa, Gang, Youth, Violence, Masculinity Godfrey Maringira, Senior Postdoctoral, University of Western Cape, Email: gmaringira@gmail.com Tyanai Masiya, Lecturer, University of Pretoria, Email: masiyat2008@gmail.com
The Coloured township is seldom investigated beyond notions of poverty and gangsterism. The prevailing focus in gang-township research is to identify two distinct and dichotomous agents namely the gang organisation and the community. However much of the existing research errs in not locating these criminal organisations within and therefore as an intrinsic part of the community but rather distinct from it. A focus on gangs in the former Coloured townships is predominantly on the violence and the depravity, as well as their increasing economic success in the illegal economy rather than a focus on the construction of social identity in these communities. The question posed is how does identity construction and social cohesion in an abnormal environment correlate to the persistence of gang membership and socialisation? The objectives of the paper are to assert that violence, the community and racial identity in these townships are intertwined rather than separate concepts to be isolated and thus remedied. The aim is to demonstrate that the social relations in the former Coloured townships remain located in the racially defined past and in a perverse sense of social cohesion. The conclusions are that the salience of the gang structures in the normal framework of township society defines social behaviour, identity structures and perceptions of greater South African society. Due to the structure of community boundaries these townships remain marginalised, physically and psychologically, isolated from the rest of the country and operate as islands of poverty, violence and despair. Self-imposed perceptions of community exclusion create disconnections and distortions in terms of awareness and relevant information.
The Cape Flats youth gangs: violence and the intersectionality of race, class, gender and age.docx
Introduction: Race, gender and class are thought to be three separate models of oppression, but looking at them as interlinking with one another can give us a clearer view of the struggles that South Africans face in their daily lives. In this essay I will be exploring Cape Flats’ youth gangs by analysing how race, class, gender and age intersect with one another in the lives of these youth gang members. I will do this by looking at the intersectionality of race, class, gender and age and how it connects with the historical background of the Cape Flats.
Organized crime scholars have paid scant attention to gender and stereotyped roles of women in the commission of organized crime activities. Traditionally, organized crime is seen as a form of criminality perpetrated by men only. Women are usually portrayed as victims of organized crime or as “mean girls”, girlfriends, wives, lovers of brides of notorious gangsters and mobsters. In the southern African context, little historical or comparative data is available on the role of women in organized crime. Existing data is basic and proceeds on the assumption of gender-neutrality or the implied male composition of organized crime groups. The link of women to organized crime is one of suffering and exploitation. However, in reality women fulfill varied roles and functions within transnational organized crime networks in the region. In some instances, they are the foot soldiers of drug and human trafficking syndicates. Sometimes they are the intermediaries or powerful matriarchs at the apex of transnational organized crime networks. Reliant on empirical findings undertaken for a regional 3-year project on organized crime trends in southern Africa, this paper will examine the dynamism of the role of women in organized crime in the region and argues that women play a multifaceted role with implications for themselves, their families, society and organized crime. Gender mainstreaming within scholarly literature and policy research is in nascent stages, this paper pleads for a more gender-sensitive approach to organized crime analysis.