The Transformation of Masculinity in Contemporary Black South African Novels Nonhlanhla Dlamini

203 Pages·2015·1.54 MB·English

The Transformation of Masculinity in Contemporary Black
South African Novels

Nonhlanhla Dlamini

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the
Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements of degree of Doctor of
Philosophy

Johannesburg, 2015
Declaration
I declare that this is my own unaided work submitted to the Faculty of
Humanities, University of Witwatersrand for the fulfilment of the Doctor of
Philosophy degree. It has not been submitted before for examination in any
other university.

Parts of chapter two and four have been submitted as part of conference
proceedings to Postmable Volume 9.1 and Journal of African Literature
Association, JALA.

Signature _______________________ Date_____________________

Nonhlanhla Dlamini

Johannesburg, 2015
Dedication

For our son, ‘Mpetha’ and my mother Nomcebo Mfimfane Ndlangamandla with heartfelt love
and gratitude.

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Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude and thanks go to my supervisor Professor Dan Ojwang for his
mentorship during the entire period of my postgraduate studies at the University of the
Witwatersrand. Thanks are also due to all the members of the African Literature Department
at Wits for their valued support and input during the four-year period of my study. I am also
grateful for the financial assistance afforded me by the Postgraduate Merit Award, Harold
and Doris Tothill Award, and PhD Completion Grant.

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Abstract

The ways in which we have come to know the world through expressions and performances
of dominant versions of masculine and feminine gendered identities is challenged, refracted
and altered on a daily basis through social interactions. This work situates itself within the
various spheres of dominant masculinity production such as neo-traditional African cultural
practices, sexuality, the family unit, race and class, as well as other contributory factors such
as migration and lack of social advancement opportunities. Through the use of the novelistic
genre, this work examines how contemporary black South African novels of English
expression engage with the production of dominant masculinity, in order to critique the
taken-for-granted access by dominant men to social power over other men, women and
children. Not only does this study concern itself with the extent to which core elements of
dominant masculinities are being transformed, it tracks transformation in literary figurations
of men, and is interested in the alternative masculine identities that these novels proffer. This
works’ search for alternative identities is predicated on the primacy of a symbiotic
relationship between strategies of self re-presentation, personal agency and the power of
social structures. This study concludes that the central codes of contemporary dominant black
masculinities are forced to change because their legitimising narratives are put under
scrutiny. Fluctuating social, political and economic factors also mediate their constant
breakdown and recreation. However, the development of the alternative gendered identities
imagined in these novels is thwarted by the prevailing socio-cultural practices of the
contemporary era.

Authors studied: Kgebetli Moele, Kopano Matlwa, Zukiswa Wanner, Sello Duiker, Thando
Mgqolozana and Niq Mhlongo.

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Contents

Declaration................................................................................................................................... 2
Dedication.................................................................................................................................... 3
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................... 4
Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Contents ................................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 8
1.1. Aim and Rationale of Study ................................................................................................ 8
1.2. ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Masculinities: Lineages, Convergences and Departure .............................. 15
1.3. Imagined and Alternative Masculinities ............................................................................. 23
1.4. Chapter Breakdown .......................................................................................................... 36
Chapter Two .............................................................................................................................. 40
Ironies and Contradictions of ‘Traditional’ Xhosa Masculinity in Thando Mgqolozana’s A Man Who
Is Not a Man .................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1. Introduction ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2. Biographical Data, Genre and the Novel’s Reception .......................................................... 44
2.3. Masculinity, Body and Ulwaluko....................................................................................... 60
Chapter Three................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Femininities and Masculinities in Zukiswa Wanner’s The Madams, Behind Every Successful Man and
Men of the South............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 70
3.2 Biographical Data and Techniques of Literary Representation .............................................. 71
3.3 Class, Race, Family Relations in The Madams (2006) .......................................................... 74
3.4 Manhood and the Delimits of Tradition in Behind Every Successful Man (2008).................... 83
3.5 Domesticity, a Bottleneck for Women? Gender Inversion in Men of the South (2010) ............ 89
Chapter Four .............................................................................................................................. 98
Negotiating legitimacy: Writing Black Male Homosexuality through Mythopoeia, Madness and
Surrealism in Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams .......................................................... 98
4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 98
4.2 Plot Summary ..................................................................................................................100
4.3 Delegitimising the ‘Legit’: Dislodging Violence from Dominant Masculinity Constitution....104
4.4 Black Homosexuality Socio-Cultural Inscription through History and Mythology ................113
Chapter Five..............................................................................................................................130
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Race, Social Mobility and Contemporary Masculinities in Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut ...................130
5.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................130
5.2 Novel Appraisal and Plot Structure ....................................................................................133
5.3 Racialism and the Father-Son Dyad ...................................................................................141
Chapter Six ...................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Masculinity Re-creation in the Post-Apartheid City Novels of Kgebetli Moele and Niq Mhlongo: Dog
Eat Dog, After Tears and Room 207................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
6.2 Dog Eat Dog and After Tears - Plot Summary and Thematic Concerns ................................152
6.3 Hustling Soweto ...............................................................................................................160
6.2. Room 207’s appraisal and plot structure ............................................................................165
6.3 The Hustler’s Agency in Room 207 ...................................................................................174
Chapter Seven ...........................................................................................................................178
Conclusion ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
References.............................................................................................................................187

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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1. Aim and Rationale of Study
Mongane Serote’s debut novel, To Every Birth Its Blood (1981), closes with a suspended
denouement, where the reader witnesses a symbolic, but nameless birth. The nameless birth
narrated by Tsietsi Molope, the main narrator in the novel, is symbolic of South Africa’s
(un)certain future in the sense that Tsietsi paints a word picture where a woman struggles to
give birth whilst the onlookers urge her to push. The above birth motif succinctly captures
and describes what Peter Horn and Anette Horn (2012:99) term an ‘interregnum’ state
‘wherein the old is dying and the new cannot be born’. Nardine Gordimer (1982) is the first
scholar to use the notion of the interregnum in relation to the South African social and
imaginary realms. She attributes it to Antonio Gramsci. The state of being or living in the
interregnum is also witnessed in the South African social and literary/imaginary spheres with
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regards to the performances, expression and composition of male masculine subjectivities .
South African scholars of gender (Gqola 2009 ; Strauss 2009 ; and Ratele 2006) situate the
state of interregnum within the disconnect ion between dominant masculinity’s expressions of
manliness as well as sexual preference and the gender ideals espoused in the constitution of
the country, South Africa. The above scholars use President Jacob Zuma’s rape trial and his
response to this allegation to gauge where public opinion is and where the constitution would
like South Africans to be with regards to notions of morality, dominant/cultural sexual
practices and gender equity – all of which are encapsulated in the type of masculinity Zuma
embodies and performs in the national theatrical platforms of the judiciary and the media.

Strauss (2009) uses Mr Zuma’s response to the rape allegations to question a web of social
and political relations that have a negative effect on the realisation of gender equity.
Strauss’s (2009) article also unearths the intricate relationship between guilt, shame,
complicity, speech and silence and how they are appropriated by dominant masculinity in

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Subjectivity is widely used in gender and literary studies. In this research project I use it to refer to the
‘condition of being a subject: the quali ty of possessing perspectives, experiences, feelings, beliefs, desires
and/or power’. In other words, it is the collection of the perceptions, experiences, expectations, personal or
cultural understanding and beliefs specific to a person’ (Robert 2005:900) . Roberts’ definition of the term
amply fits in this context because it takes into consideration that culture and subjectivity shape and influence
each other, thus opening possibilities of cultural and subjectivity transformation over time and space; and i n
relation to other entities such as the economy, political and gender institutions, communities as well as the
natural world.
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order to distort culture, embarrass and intimidate opponents and to garner public sympathy
and loyalty. She juxtaposes her critique of Mr Zuma’s response with Mtutuzeli Nyoka’s I
Speak to the Silent (2004) and suggests that gender equity and responsibility in dominant
masculinity could be attained through the destabilisation of family alliances, silence and
cultural modes of shame. She points out that the narrator’s, Hambile Kondile, narration of
events that culminate to the murder of Mbete, the Janus-faced icon of the antiapartheid
struggle; Sindiswa’s (her daughter) involvement in the struggle for freedom and her sexual
violation which led to her death in Mbete’s hands; as well as the subsequent admission of
guilt and complicity in crime by Mbete’s wife (Zodwa) are necessary steps towards the birth
of responsible masculinities and femininities. In a way, Strauss (2009) suggests that gender
equity begins with a certain code of conduct and responsibility that masculinities with social
legitimacy or currency ought to embrace in order to effect change in gendered practices.

In addition, Gqola (2009) uses Mr Zuma’s response to the alleged rape in order to enter into a
discussion that seeks to distance expressions of dominant masculinity from a spectacular
display of violence or recourse to it as exhibited by Mr Zuma’s supporters in a bid to
intimidate and demonise the alleged rape victim. Gqola suggests that the tactics used by the
president and his sympathisers make the task of normalising freedoms enshrined in the
constitution difficult to achieve. Lastly, Ratele (2006) uses the alleged rape incident and
dominant masculinity’s outlook on sexuality (desire and sexual practices) to express doubt on
its ability to carry out the daunting task of ensuring a better life for all if it regresses from the
protection of women’s rights and minority sexualities through the categorisation of ‘normal’
and abnormal sexual practices. The bruising of the public’s trust and deterioration of national
moral fibre expressed in the rape trial, soaring levels of gender based violence, a burgeoning
youth underclass, service delivery protests, soaring corruption, contemporary era racism and
escalating Xhosa initiates’ death toll form the background of the study’s engagement with the
strategies of representation that contemporary South African writers use to engage with
detrimental aspects of dominant masculinity in order to make them amenable to change.

South African literary and cultural spheres shed off blackness as a collective identity used to
challenge white minority rule when apartheid officially ended. The aftermath of the
democratic elections and the adoption of a progressive constitution marked the beginning of
an era where the mask of homogenous blackness yielded to previously effaced and sidelined
differences based on gender, sexuality, class, and cultural practices. The debates on these
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topics do not only problematise and destabilise these categories, but also signal for their
transformation or the birth of ‘newer’ ways of understanding difference, defining, performing
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and expressing black cultural notions of being a black South African man and woman in the
social and literary spheres. Gesturing at and lobbying for attitud inal c hanges within the black
South African sex and gendered practices has led to the splitting of debaters in to two camps:
one acting as a midwife for the birth of the ‘new’ black South African man and woman,
whilst the other defends and contests the nature and form of transformation of the gender
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order in the ‘post apartheid ’ era.

This study is informed by and sandwiched between two contrasting forces. One side
critically engages with dominant masculinity construction in order to ask questions that
involve blackness as a collective identity in the contemporary era, whilst acknowledging the
fault lines of this unity in order to create heterogeneous masculinities and femininities unified
at the seam by culture and/or language. The second side defends ‘idealised’ expressions or
performance of black manhood with the belief that it is under attack or a crisis of sorts. These
two contrasting voices are captured in the novels under study and are to be treated with
caution since they are a reflection of societal views on the subject of masculinity creation.
The clash of interest resides in dominant masculinity’s deployment of ideologies that
underpin the terrains of its reproduction such as the body, family, cultural practices, class,
race, sexual division of labour, and sexuality. These are sites that ruling masculinity uses to
propagate itself and to determine the amount of social power that men and women access and
share (un)equally amongst each other.

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This work’s usage of the term black/blackness is in line with Brock’s (1999) definition of blackness. She points
out that it should not be ‘ treated as an identical essence of being, but rather as a constituted, and
constitutive, performative entity, a socially, culturally and historically contingent representation of the self and
self-location’ (Brock, 1999: 15).

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In thi s study, ‘post aparthied’ is used as short hand to refer to the period after the official demise of
segregation. The term is used with caution in the study of the black South African social and imaginary realms
because of the uneven development. The juxt aposed representation of the Tuscan Villa (Sandton) in Kopano
Matlwa’s Coconut (2007) and the zozo , township shack built from corrugated iron sheets or any cheap building
material, in Niq Mhlongo’s After Tears (2007) is a testimony of the unevenness of mod ernity which Cooper
(1998) describes as the incongrous positioning of the village and the city world views. In addition, the term is
not used to signify a decisive break with the oppressive regimes of colonialism and apartheid, but it is used to
denote an engagement with ‘complexity and difference’ in terms of social -economic backgrounds and
masculinity constitution. In other words, the term points at a ‘space clearing gesture that challenges earlier
legitimating narratives’ of a collective of blackness and homogenous gender identities (Magubane, 2005: 131).

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