Discourses of Gender and Political Violence in South Africa

Politically violent women are regularly muted or made exceptional. Yet, underplaying women’s involvement in political violence obscures the systemic nature of such violence. We employ a discursive psychology analysis of an in-depth interview with a South African woman who has been involved in decades of political activism, and identified two discourses: Gendering Politically Violent Symbols and Enactments, where political violence was wielded as a symbol, and Gendering Political Organizing, wherein feminist agencies were directed against political structures. Together, these discourses indicate how gender identity is simultaneously consistent and at odds with political identity and how gender intersects with political violence.

The Sounds of Silence – As Heard through Patriarchy

It is the drive from work that transmogrifies her even more. She is a black, South African woman. At work, she adapts to meet expectations of her professional competence. At home, she adapts and shifts to her husband and/or father’s expectations of a woman in their culture. Within herself, she shifts her needs, emotions, and aspirations to fit into these contexts. Through it all, she carefully chooses what can be spoken, and what remains unspoken. Many factors influence this inner debate, chiefly patriarchy, race, religion, and culture. This article reflects on the premise that many black women are deprived of their spontaneous and natural being, because they have to evaluate their conversations and contexts at all times. Through the lens of patriarchy, the article seeks to identify some of the factors contributing to this inner debate, followed by real-life evidence of the shifting adaptations made by selected black, South African women. These women volunteered to share their stories by answering a questionnaire. The data they provided was then analysed through phenomenology and critical theory. These are the sounds of their silence.

Narratives of Post-Apartheid Gender Deconstruction

This essay aims generally at examining the relationship between literary discourse and nation-building. In specific terms, the aim has been to show the place of the post-apartheid South African woman in the development and progress of her nation. Using the theoretical paradigm of liberal feminism, the premise is defended that woman in post-apartheid society, as she is depicted in None to Accompany Me, Red Dust, and Playing in the Light, is not a passive observer of political and social issues in her society. Rather, she is a veritable partner for national development, nation-building, and social progress. Consequently, she also participates in the development of South African society alongside her male counterpart. The above authors thus portray the South African woman at the nucleus of policy-making and decision-taking in her society. This affirmative portrayal reinforces the view that gender construction is an old dogma and should be discarded for meaningful development to flow in the post-apartheid context.