Abstract
This chapter explores ‘coloured’ men’s narratives in constructing a classed, gendered and raced Bishop Lavis in Cape Town. For decades, research on men who identify as ‘coloured’ has not adequately problematised ‘coloured’ masculinities. Young men who identify as ‘coloured’ have been found to be the most likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence, rape and gang rape. It has also been suggested that violence, drug abuse, gangsterism and alcoholism are prominent features of communities in which those who were identified as ‘coloured’ during apartheid reside, one such community being Bishop Lavis in Cape Town, South Africa. These narratives have led to this complex group of people and their communities being reduced to negative stereotypes. In this chapter, we present the findings of a study exploring the lives of young men who identify as ‘coloured’ living in Bishop Lavis, and provide alternative and more nuanced narratives of their identities, communities and spaces. We used Photovoice as a form of decolonial praxis and participatory action research methodology. The findings presented are drawn from the narratives of the participants, collected through individual interviews, photo-narratives and a focus group. The young men who participated in this study spoke of the complex experiences which have been and continue to be shaped by their race, age, class, gender and location.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Operation Prosper saw the deployment of the army on the Cape Flats. It was initiated by South African Police Minister, Bheki Cele, after pressure was applied on national government from communities on the Cape Flats to effectively combat crime and gangsterism. After much debate and engagement, the army remains deployed on the Cape Flats (Hyman, 2019) although it is still not clear that their presence is having any effect on crime and violence in these areas.
- 3.
South Africa law divided the population into four major racial groups: white, ‘coloured’, Indian and African people. African refers to South Africans who are from different ethnic tribes such as the isiXhosa, Nguni, Sotho, and Zulu, to name a few.
- 4.
Lekker is an Afrikaans term which, translated into English, means nice.
- 5.
Kak is a slang word that can roughly be translated into extremely or shit.
References
Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., Laubscher, R., & Hoffman, M. (2006). Intimate partner violence: Prevalence and risk factors for men in Cape Town, South Africa. Violence and Victims, 21(2), 247–264.
Adhikari, M. (2005). Not white enough, not black enough. Racial identity in the South African “coloured” community. Double Storey Books.
Andrews, P. E. (1999). Violence against women in South Africa: The role of culture and the limitations of the law. Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review, 8(2), 425–458.
Ballard, P. (2011). Sidney Warren Lavis.
Bennett, L. (2018). What is the meaning of home? Retrieved from https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/what-is-the-meaning-of-home/
Boddy-Evans, A. (2018). Group Areas Act No. 41 of 1950. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/group-areas-act-43476
Boonzaier, F. (2005). Woman abuse in South Africa: A brief contextual analysis. Feminism & Psychology, 15(1), 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353505049711
Boonzaier, F. (2018). Challenging risk: The production of knowledge on gendered violence in South Africa. In K. Fitz-Gibbon, S. Walklate, J. McCulloch, & J. Maree Maher (Eds.), Intimate partner violence, risk and security: Securing women’s lives in a global world. Routledge Press.
Boonzaier, F., Huysamen, M., & van Niekerk, T. (2020). Men from the ‘south’: Feminist, decolonial, intersectional perspectives on men, masculinities and intimate partner violence. In L. Gottzén, M. Börnholt, & F. Boonzaier (Eds.), Men, masculinities and intimate partner violence. Routledge.
Boonzaier, F., & Kessi, S. (2018). Challenging representations: participatory research engagements with young people in postcolonial contexts. In T. Shefer, J. Hearn, K. Ratele, & F. Boonzaier (Eds.), Engaging youth in activism, research and pedagogical praxis. Routledge.
Boonzaier, F., & Mkhize, L. (2018). Bodies out of place: Black queer students negotiating identity at the University of Cape Town. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(3), 81–100. https://doi.org/10.20853/32-3-2514
Boonzaier, F., & van Niekerk, T. (Eds.). (2019). Decolonial feminist community psychology. Springer.
Boonzaier, F., & Zway, M. (2015). Resisting discrimination and negotiating safety: Young black lesbian and bisexual women represent their experiences through photovoice. African Safety Promotion, 13(1), 7–29.
Bray, R., Gooskens, I., Kahn, L., Moses, S., & Seekings, J. (2010). Growing up in the new South Africa. HSRC Press.
Brydon-Miller, M. (1997). Participatory action research: Psychology and social change. Journal of Social Issues, 53(4), 657–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1997.tb02454.x
Campbell, C. (1992). Learning to kill? Masculinity, the family and violence in Natal. Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 614–628. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.901
Campbell, C. (2004). The role of collective action in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. In D. Hook et al. (Eds.), Critical psychology. UCT Press.
Catalani, C., & Minkler, M. (2010). Photovoice: A review of the literature in health and public health. Health, Education and Behavior, 37(3), 424–451. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198109342084
Carlson, E. D., Engebretson, J., & Chamberlain, R. M. (2006). Photovoice as a social process of critical consciousness. Qualitative Health Research, 16(6), 836–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732306287525
Chadwick, R. (2010). Gender, sexuality and South African childhoods: A child rights approach. RAPCAN.
Choi, S. Y., & Ting, K. F. (2008). Wife beating in South Africa an imbalance theory of resources and power. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(6), 834–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260507313951
Cooper, A. (2009). “Gevaarlike transition”: Negotiating hegemonic masculinity and rites of passage amongst ‘coloured’ boys awaiting trial on the Cape Flats. Psychology in Society, 37, 1–17.
Cooper, A. (2010). “Through a different lens”: Snaps of a soccer photovoice project in Lavender Hill Cape Town. Agenda, 24(85), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130850.2010.9676323
Cooper, A., & Foster, D. (2008). Democracy’s children? Masculinities of ‘coloured’ adolescents awaiting trial in post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa. Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies, 2(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.3149/thy.0201.3
Cornell, J., & Kessi, S. (2017). Black students’ experiences of transformation at a previously “white only” South African university: A photovoice study. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 4(11), 1882–1899.
Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2000). Displacing place-identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39(1), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466600164318
Duncan, N., Bowman, B., Roos, V., Pillay, J., & Naidoo, A. (2007). Community psychology: Analysis, context, and action. Juta.
Elliot, W. (2003). Masculinity: Key South African issues and debates. A Soul city review. Retrieved from http://www.soulcity.org.za/projects/soul-city-series/previous-series/soul-city-series7/literature-review/masculinity-in-south-africa
Epstein, D. (1998). Marked men: Whiteness and masculinity. Agenda, 14(37), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.1998.9675691
Erasmus, Z. (2001). ‘Coloured’ by history, shaped by place: New perspectives on ‘coloured’ identities in Cape Town. Kwela Books.
Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191.
Gieseking, J. J., Mangold, W., Katz, C., Low, S., & Saegert, S. (2014). The people, place, & space reader. Routledge.
Helman, R., Malherbe, N., & Kaminer, D. (2018). To show like the people that there can be good fathers…here in our place. In T. Shefer, J. Hearn, K. Ratele, & F. Boonzaier (Eds.), Engaging youth in activism, research, and pedagogical praxis: Transnational and intersectional perspectives on gender, sex and race. Routledge.
Higgs, B. (1971). The group areas act and its effects. United Nations Centre against Apartheid. Retrieved from http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1971_01
Hunter, M. (2004). Masculinities, multiple-sexual-partners, and AIDS: The making and AIDS: the making and unmaking of Isoka in KwaZulu-Natal. Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 54(1), 123–153.
Hyman, A. (2019). Smiles all round as soldiers finally join the Cape Flats gang war. Retrieved from https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-07-18-soldiers-finally-arrive-on-cape-flats-streets-a-week-after-they-were-sent-in/
Jensen, S. (1999). Discourses of violence: Coping with violence on the cape flats. Social Dynamics, 25(2), 75–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533959908458676
Jensen, S. (2004). Claiming community: Local politics on the Cape Flats, South Africa. Critique of Anthropology, 24(2), 179–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X04042652
Jewkes, R., Sikweyiya, Y., Morrell, R., & Dunkle, K. (2009). Understanding men’s health and use of violence: Interface of rape and HIV in South Africa. Cell, 82(442), 3655–3660.
Keskinen, S. P. (2018). Territorial stigmatization, gendered racism and young people’s agency in a multi-ethnic school. In T. Shefer, J. Hearn, K. Ratele, & F. Boonzaier (Eds.), Engaging youth in activism, research, and pedagogical praxis: Transnational and intersectional perspectives on gender, sex and race. Routledge.
Kessi, S. (2011). Photovoice as a practice of re-presentation and social solidarity: Experiences from a youth empowerment project in Dar es Salaam and Soweto. Papers on Social Representations, 20(1), 1–27.
Kessi, S. (2018). Photovoice as a narrative tool for decolonization: Black women and LGBT-student experiences at UCT. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(3), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.20853/32-3-2519
Kessi, S., & Boonzaier, F. (2018). Centre/ing decolonial feminist psychology in Africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 48(3), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318784507
Kessi, S., & Cornell, J. (2015). Coming to UCT: Black students, transformation and discourses of race. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 3(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.14426/jsaa.v3i2.132
Kessi, S., Kaminer, D., Boonzaier, F., & Learmonth, D. (2019). Photovoice methodologies for social justice. In S. Laher, A. Fynn, & S. Kramer (Eds.), Transforming research methods in the social sciences: Case studies from South Africa. Wits University Press.
Korpela, K. M. (1989). Place-identity as a product of environmental self-regulation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 9, 241–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(89)80038-6
Lamb, G. (2017). Crime stats-the devil is in the detail. Retrieved from https://www.news24.com/news24/analysis/crime-stats-the-devil-is-in-the-detail-20171102
Langa, M. (2010). Contested multiple voices of young masculinities amongst adolescent boys in Alexandra township, South Africa. Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 22(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.2989/17280583.2010.493654
Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Moving to opportunity: An experimental study of neighborhood effects on mental health. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1576–1582. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.9
Louskieter, L. (2018). PSY3005F: What is critical psychology, week 2notes. Retrieved from https://vula.uct.ac.za
Mahalik, J. R., Locke, B. D., Ludlow, L. H., Diemer, M. A., Scott, R. P. J., Gottfried, M., & Freitas, G. (2003). Development of the conformity to masculinity norms inventory. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 4(1), 3–25.
MacMaster, L. L. M. (2009). Resilience of faith communities on the cape flats (SA): A pastoral theological perspective 1. Scriptura, 101, 288–300.
Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007). On the coloniality of being: Contributions to the development of a concept. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 240–270.
Malinga, M., & Ratele, K. (2014). ‘It has changed me from the person that I was before’: Love and the construction of young black masculinities. In S. Petrella (Ed.), Doing gender, doing love: Interdisciplinary voices. Inter-Disciplinary Press.
McIntyre, A. (2003). Through the eyes of women: Photovoice and participatory research as tools for reimagining place. Gender, Place and Culture, 10(1), 47–66.
Moletsane, R., de Lange, N., Mitchell, C., Stuart, J., Buthelezi, T., & Taylor, M. (2007). Photo-voice as a tool for analysis and activism in response to HIV and AIDS stigmatisation in a rural KwaZulu-Natal school. Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 19(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.2989/17280580709486632
Millin, S. G. L. (1924). God’s Stepchildren. Boni and Liveright.
Mthembu, J. (2015). Negotiating masculinities: Studying risk behaviours associated with performances of “‘coloured’s” masculinities. University of Cape Town.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2013). Coloniality of power in postcolonial Africa. African Books Collective.
Pather, R. (2019). Mixed emotions as soldiers return to the Cape flats. Retrieved from https://mg.co.za/article/2019-07-23-mixed-emotions-as-soldiers-return-to-the-cape-flats
Pinnock, D. (1984). The brotherhoods: Street gangs and state control in Cape Town. David Philip.
Pinnock, D. (1995). Gangs, guns & rites of passage: Rethinking youth programmes in South Africa. University of Cape Town.
Pinnock, D. (1997). Gangs, rituals and rites of passage. African Sun Press.
Pretty, G. H., Chipuer, H. M., & Bramston, P. (2003). Sense of place amongst adolescents and adults in two rural Australian towns: The discriminating features of place attachment, sense of community and place dependence in relation to place identity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23, 273–287. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(02)00079-8
Prilleltensky, I. (2001). Value-based praxis in community psychology: Moving towards social justice and social action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(5), 747–778.
Proshansky, H. M. (1978). The city and self-identity. Environment and Behavior, 10(2), 147–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916578102002
Proshansky, H., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place, identity, physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3, 57–83.
Quijano, A. (2001). Colonialidad del poder, cultura y conocimiento en América Latina. In W. Mignolo (Ed.), Capitalismo y geopolítica del conocimiento. El eurocentrismo y la filosofía de la liberación en el debate intelectual contemporáneo. Signo.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Sage.
Robins, S. (2000). City sites: Multicultural planning and the post-apartheid city. In S. Nuttall & C. Michael (Eds.), Senses of culture: South African cultural studies. Oxford University Press.
Salo, E. (2003). Negotiating gender and personhood in the new South Africa adolescent women and gangsters in Manenberg township on the Cape Flats. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(3), 345–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494030063005
Salo, E. (2004). Respectable mothers, tough men and good daughters. Emory University.
Sawyer-Kurian, K. M., Wechsberg, W. M., & Luseno, W. K. (2009). Exploring the differences and similarities between black/African and “coloured” men regarding violence against women, substance abuse, and HIV risks in Cape Town, South Africa. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10(1), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013267
Sernhede, O. (2011). School, youth culture and territorial Stigmatization in Swedish metropolitan districts. YOUNG—Nordic Journal of Youth Studies, 19(2), 159–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/110330881001900203
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books.
Statistics South Africa. (2011). Census statistical release. Statistics South Africa.
Strack, R. W., Magill, C., & McDonagh, K. (2004). Engaging youth through photovoice. Health Promotion Practice, 5(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839903258015
Sonn, C. C., Stevens, G., & Duncan, N. (2013). Decolonisation, critical methodologies and why stories matter. In G. Stevens, N. Duncan, & D. Hook (Eds.), Race, memory and the apartheid archives: Towards a psychsocial praxis. Wits University Press.
Suffla, S., Kaminer, D., & Bawa, U. (2012). Photovoice as community engaged research: The interplay between knowledge creation and agency in a South African study on safety promotion. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 22(4), 517–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10820563
Switzer, L. (1995). Review of Adhikari, ‘Let us live for our children’. The Journal of African History, 36, 338.
van Niekerk, T. J. (2019). Silencing racialised shame and normalising respectability in ‘coloured’ men’s discourses of partner violence against women in Cape Town, South Africa. Feminism and Psychology, 29(2), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353519841410
Wang, C. C. (2006). Youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change. Journal of Community Practice, 14, 147–161. https://doi.org/10.1300/J125v14n01_09
Wicomb, Z. (1998). Shame and identity: The case of the coloured in South Africa. In D. Attridge & R. Jolly (Eds.), Writing South Africa: literature, apartheid, and democracy, 1970-1995. Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peters, S.M., Kessi, S., Boonzaier, F. (2022). Constructing Race and Place in South Africa: A Photovoice Study with ‘Coloured’ Men in Bishop Lavis. In: Kessi, S., Suffla, S., Seedat, M. (eds) Decolonial Enactments in Community Psychology. Community Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75201-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75201-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-75200-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-75201-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)