South Africa: Cultural and Gender Identities under the Influence of Apartheid

1
South Africa Cultural and Gender Identities
under the Influence of Apartheid

• Njabulo Ndebele, Nadine Gordimer and Antjie Krog 

2
South Africa Map

3
Various Identities
Police
gangsters
The White Masters
Vukanis father
Vukanis mother, Dr. Zwane and his wife
The farm hands
Vukani His sister

• A Women Waiting for her Husband-to-be.

4
Njabulo Ndebele

• Ndebele's writings -- constitutes a return to
  more traditional concerns with narrative
  complexity and literary quality." 
• Fools The township life seen through the eyes of
  a young and sensitive protagonist.   (e.g. The
  Prophetess The Violin )

5
Ndebele on Children

• "South African literature has generally handled
  the images of childhood as social criticism
• an infant abandoned by its mother.
• Friends going against each other.
• the entrance of the young in national politics?
  education affected (I.e. Soweto uprising)
• Reconstruction should begin with the recovery of
  childhood and innocence. (source
  http//www.uni-ulm.de/rturrell/antho4html/Ndebele
  .html )

6
"The Music of the Violin"

• How are the two women (Vukanis mother and
  Beatrice) different from the two men (Vukanis
  father and Dr. Zwane in the opening scene? What
  are they each concerned with?
• How are Vukani and Toboho treated differently?
  How does Vukani respond to having visitors at
  home? Why is he so afraid?
• How is education presented in this story?
• In the two central scenes of conflicts, how are
  the issues of gender and race mixed together?

7
Allusions

• Footprints Bush School
• Designed for primary school children under 12
• Teaches about nature in a fun way(source)

8
Gender Relations

• The men are condescending to the women and their
  Housewives League. (97 98)
• Peace, women of Africa their laughter
• Vukanis father African nationalism. (96-97)

9
Education

• Vukanis homework (104)
• Mabaso the teacher at a bush school
• Ms. Yende 100 red dress violin
• Maseko dog chained dog, hungry dog wandering
  dog p. 101
• Vukanis mother ?turns her son into Mozart Mrs.
  Zwane ? her daughter into ballerina

10
Vukani in between the gangs and the educated

• wanted to escape 97 wish to talk to Toboho
• His anxiety and latent need for rebellion (book
  turned into flame 99 Doksi p. 100)
  sourceschool teachers, parents
• Another source of his anxiety the school kids
• his violin stolen p. 101 inspectors son
• music man pp. 104 Bhuka and the copper
  bangles

11
Nadine Gordimer (1923-)

• Born in South Africa in 1923, the daughter of
  immigrants her father was a Lithuanian Jew, and
  her mother was born in England.
• A chronicler of the history of Apartheid.
• Raised in a segregated town, Spring, outside
  Johannesburg
• The Sharpeville massacre of 1960
• Her comments on P.W. Bothas facing a black
  judge.
• Nobel Prize winner, 1991.

• (image source)

12
"Six Feet of the Country" Allusions

• baas ? leader ? boss
• "Piccanins" -- a somewhat condescending slang
  for small black children.
• Zoot suits were wide-lapelled, high-waisted
  outfits worn by
• "hip" urban blacks in
• the forties.

13
Allusions (2) Rhodesia

• 1890 to 1893 -- the area of Southern Rhodesia was
  conquered settled by the British South Africa
  Company.
• 1923. -- Southern R under Crown rule
• 1953 to 1964 -- Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
  formed part of the Central
• African Federation
• In 1965 its government was unilaterally declared
  its independence as Rhodesia.
• 1980 -- Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe.

14
Rhodesia and Southern Africa
Zimbabwe

15
"Six Feet of the Country"

• Why does the narrator say that they are not real
  farmers? Why do they buy a farm? How are the
  couple related to each other?
• How do they relate to the farm boys? (e.g. p.
  97, their report of the death, the illegal
  immigrants and the death) Are they helpful to
  Petrus in the matter of the family death.
• How are the blacks presented in the story? (e.g.
  the way Petrus speaks, donkey carts p. 102, views
  of money and family death.) How are the blacks
  and the white masters views of money different
  from each other?
• Why do the wife and Petrus look alike to the
  narrator at the end?
• What does the title mean?

16
Husband and Wife

• tension in the city 97
• tension between the couple
• incapacity on the husbands part (97), feel like
  a fool 97 incommunicative 99
• wife seen as plain 99 and messy 101
• Lerice, fits better into the farm life.
• The husbands views have it both ways 96-97.

17
The White Masters and the Farm Boys

• Lerice patronizing 97
• The husband Relationship feudal wrong,
  obsolete, but comfortable. easy-going
  gossipers 102
• Report of Death
• troubled startled a bit Lerice wanted more
  communication
• Husband handles his responsibility but more is
  thrust on him. (a waste to get the body back p.
  101)
• The funeral
• The baas changed? --in his attitude towards the
  authorities,

18
The Black Servants and immigrants

• mutual support not reporting on each other
  relatives going to them to seek a better job
  contributing money for the funeral
• Petrus seems to trust his baas.
• At the end, he cannot even get six feet of the
  country to bury his brother.

19
Antjie Krog
The Country of my Skull a poetry collection
script writer of Long Nights Journey into the
Day.

• "Lovesong After the Music of K. E. Ntsane"

20
Allusions

• K. E. Ntsane, one of the great Sotho poets.
  Sotho one of the languages spoken by Africans.