The denial of the self? Unpacking the “mix” in the “mixed race” experiences and identities in South Africa

• In Event: Poster Session 1

Proposal

The denial of the self?
Narratives of racial experience and identity construction in South Africa

Michael & Loria Mokoena

One of the impacts of racial segregation in South Africa is the assignment of racial and cultural identity to individuals. The bulk of studies in this regard tend to focus on how 'history' and 'space' have shaped social and cultural identities of apartheid subjects: Whites, Indians, Coloureds and Africans/Blacks. With reference to the people of mixed race, this paper narrows down the focus to examine the narratives of racial experience and their implications in the construction of self-identities. In this regard, the paper is about experience, subjectivity and meaning as key drivers in the formation of self-identity - individual self-discovery in a highly racialised and complex society. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of habitus, the paper develops the concept of apartheid social habitus to refer to the social conscience emanating from the apartheid legacy which sets a range of social and individual expectations with profound constitutive role in framing or reframing individual self-identities. Accordingly, members of the different racial groups are expected to behave in a particular way, speak a specific language and display particular features in so far as physical traits (e.g. texture of hair, shape of the nose, body shape) and everyday life preferences (e.g. spending leisure time, friendships and social networks, and relationships with people of the various racial groups). However, these expectations not always depict the choices and expectations at the individual level, which very often translate into the denial of the Self, with unique, interesting and sometimes very painful experiences. Aggravating these experiences is the fact that people of mixed race are torn between being accepted or being rejected across the racial and political spectrum (not white enough for the white community and not black enough for the black community), and materially between opportunity and deprivation. Important lessons can be extracted from this peculiar aspect of the South African society. Understanding these narratives and racial dimensions embedded in them would certainly help to heal tensions and frustrations that the reproduction of apartheid race relations is causing in society.

The paper is rooted in the tradition of narrative inquiry – what Goodsonand Sikes (2001) coin ‘learning from lives’. Narrations of lived experiences offer opportunities to interpret the relations among past, present and projected events in individuals' lives. They have the advantage of providing ‘entrées into the black box of subjectivity by exploring its … social [and cultural] dimensions’, hence their significance to self-identity construction.

Authors

• Michael Cross, University of Johannesburg

• Loria Mokoena, University of Johannesburg