6.3 Qaba-tshu [deep darkness in people of ochre] versus white-black (diversity in
6.3.2.4 Authenticity as a commodity
186 Similarly, in extract 23, Kasong‟s criticism of white-blacks reflects his criticism of black subject positioning. Kasong sees the relationship between black and white as lopsided. For example, coconuts are criticised for distancing themselves from blackness and allowing themselves to be integrated into white society. Kasong uses the term „westernised‟ as a contrast to “being proud of being black” to illustrate the ambiguity of black identity as constructed in the discourse of wanting to be white. She says “you never see a white person trying to be black”. Kasong constructs blackness as gradually developing white cultural values. On the other hand, she sees whiteness as not moving towards developing black cultural values. The same hierarchical structure used by coconuts to construct their identity is used here. This happens in one way only:
it is always blackness and not whiteness that thinks of cultural difference in hierarchical ways.
The fact that coconuts are criticised for „looking down‟ on black culture in contrast with „being westernised‟ signals that the white pole is constructed as superior and the black pole as inferior and wanting.
This way of constructing black identity uses the same discourses that were used in constructing white-black differences which aim to essentialise black identity. This becomes a source of conflict, a construction of complexity in black identity, desired by some and rejected by others.
This point of essentialism is a product of colonialism; thinking about what it means to be black is based on differentiation which develops through the encounter with whiteness.
This argument shows how black identity becomes dilemmatic. As demonstrated above the position of black-white is a congratulatory one but at the same time it is a place of ambivalence and undesirability.
187 Extract 24
Zifiki: right now while we‟re in varsity during this time there‟s a whole movement going on its called consciousness of black you are there (mhhm) and therefore you need to go back to your roots and stuff … people these days now everybody‟s got dread locks (yes) and stuff and everybody‟s wearing green and brown and all these earth colours and there are certain things that they‟re not doing that were considered resting that they‟re not doing now because they feel that that‟s the only way they can truly be black (yeah) … but personally I don‟t think that the way I‟m dressed or the way I look needs to reflect who I am inside my thoughts and my beliefs (yes) you know eh the mere fact that okay I also don‟t have relaxed hair you know I‟ve got African hair (yes) and earthly coloured clothes and stuff but the mere fact I have extensions on my hair doesn‟t mean I‟m not black enough you understand you know it shouldn‟t define the person … sometimes I look at these people and I think to myself oh they‟re happy that way you know is it really worth it going out to the world to try to prove to the world who you are and what you are and sometimes I don‟t think its really worth it because I don‟t know I just don‟t see it that way (mhhm) like em it is an identity thing you know we are actually (mhhm) we conscious people tend to like call them as conscious sisters and conscious brothers (ok) that‟s the name you know but its not a way of really going out there and trying to say: „I am African and telling the world its fine to be proud of who you are and telling the world but they take it overboard (mhhm) with them it becomes the whole image thing if you‟re not dressed the way that they dress you if do not do the things that they do then you are not cool that‟s the sad part its not that you‟re not African anymore but you‟re just not cool it‟s all about its all about being cool being African now is about being cool.
Extract 25
Namfi: you can see these conscious sisters and brothers (yes) they all have Afros or Bongo Dreads or whatever and they wear these Rastafarian colours you know (oh) they smoke and they are so cool to be there really that is the new craze and if you not that then you really don‟t know what black is all about (wow) and these are the people who went private schools really they are the cream of the crop and they all went to private schools mostly I think it is a sign of being bored (mhm) it‟s alright to actually express yourself no
188 you can‟t be handsome I‟ve got this relaxed hair and just this cool girl from Sandton who cannot wait to go to the shopping mall you know that‟s just me I wear high shoes and I am very glamorous and with it you know (mhhm) I‟m the Sandton cool girl and because I‟m that and you are this conscious sister now you have forgotten how to be black you express yourself as you wish and inform the people who don‟t know (yes) don‟t think that because I‟m different from you I‟m not what you are inside really I‟m not lying to you know.
Extract 26
Zifiki: yes yeah let me tell you yeah okay its just a whole big movement and another thing is what these deep people do as well is they write a lot you know what I mean (mhhm) they call it a movement its conscious the movement of recognising who they are and basically they just have a lot of things where they write a lot of things that they write on basic kind of these issues but more than anything they concentrate on writing about being black (mhm) to write about our Africa to write about how we feel but I think sometimes with this movement its taken a habit too far where it becomes an image conscious thing and it is not about a true image (mhhm) yeah everybody is going back to the roots no the thing is people are trying to get back to that background the one that has been taken away by the white culture you know they are almost my age group we were so westernized that we are hungry to be black (okay, okay) and stuff if you‟ll see if you notice now you get young girls or young people wearing top shirt and Steve Biko in a fashionable way you know and then Steve Biko‟s face or they have a map of Africa or whatever you know it‟s a whole thing of I am connecting with Africa I am connecting with who I am what used to happen during the apartheid regime and stuff you know ehm but basically that‟s its I mean yeah its in a way it is a movement.
In extract 24, 25 and 26 Zifiki and Namfi construct a version of black people who have a desire to go back to what it means to be black. Respondents construct this new identity version of black consciousness as being motivated by a choice of cultural restitution instead of new cultural hybrid formation. In this regard Zifiki says “you are there and therefore you need to go back to your roots”. Namfi gives background on the “conscious blacks” and describes them particularly
189 as people who have been to private schools and she calls them “cream of the crop” to construct them as almost white and with better status than other black people. Both respondents construct these “conscious blacks” as people who have forgotten how to be black; in this analysis this shows a shift from “black consciousness” to “conscious blacks”, constructing the latter as a return to or reclaiming the past to get to a present identity. This return to the past is also evident in the name “conscious sisters and conscious brothers” and has connotations of the black consciousness movement and „a political identity‟ for solidarity against oppression in the encounter with racism. The similarities with the black consciousness movement also bear resemblance to how the “conscious blacks” wear clothing with Steve Biko‟s face on it, the face of Africa. Respondents also call it a movement.
In these extracts both Zifiki and Namfi construct this version of “conscious blackness” as coconuts struggling to retain blackness, except for making blackness into a consumer product that can be put on and paraded. Zifiki says “these days now everybody‟s got dreadlocks … and everybody‟s wearing green and brown and all these earth colours…” Conscious blacks are constructed as being influenced by whiteness and now want to stand out as different by having braids and clothes that have an „African‟ theme. In an attempt to return to blackness these conscious blacks translate blackness as a dress code. Both Zifiki and Namfi claim that in the construction of this identity, conscious blacks are using the colours, brown, gold, green and the face of Steve Biko to represent their identity as African.
Hair styles like Afros and Bongo Dreadlocks and clothing with a map of Africa and Steve Biko‟s face can also be translated as symbols of Africans; thus symbols of culture translated and rehistoricised anew (Bhabha, 1994). This black conscious movement the second time around is a reconstruction of black identity that entails the rewriting of past history. The encounter with whiteness in this reconstruction of blackness seems to be constructed as a result of insistence on black authenticity, using a change of focus from political identity to a commodity. At this point, whiteness becomes the background of how blackness is constructed and given the meaning.
The idea that whiteness is in the background of black identity construction is clearly articulated by both respondents as identity that is constructed in an encounter with whiteness. The consumer
190 products used in this reconstruction are meant to create the difference between this newly constructed identity and the past hybrid identity. It can also be argued that the act of reclaiming black identity becomes a way of being different but does not give black identity the authenticity it claims. Respondents claim that these are black people who have been assimilated into whiteness and who have forgotten how to be black and now want to go back to their roots. In essence Zifiki is constructing a new political consciousness, which is not traditional, but which is a way to reclaim blackness.
A further suggestion from these extracts is that whiteness is inescapable and omnipresent in black identity construction. For example, in the process of constructing an authentic image of black identity, it is haunted by the white ghost. This is evident in Zifiki‟s way of talking about being black, when in extract 26 she says “we were so westernized that we are hungry to be black”. “Westernised” is a white term which implies being assimilated into whiteness and moving away from traditional ways of being black. It is in this space that the white-blacks find themselves negotiating their identity that is not fixed but occupies a contradictory and ambivalent space. This leaves an ambivalent black identity that was once loved and celebrated in its hybrid status and is now resented and returns to reclaim the „past‟ historically embedded and once rejected black identity. This way of constructing black others as hybrid is similar to the way the coconuts above defend their position as authentic black people. Similarly, the conscious blacks are constructed as black people who resist the hybrid position created by their association with whiteness. In claiming authentic blackness, they are critical of commodification as taking off very easily and involving mimicry of whites and consumerism.
Similarly to the white-black construction, „conscious blacks‟ are in a contradictory and ambivalent space in which „supplementary‟ discourses about make up, dress styles and hair styles preserve their peculiarity. As they were assimilated into white culture and have returned to being imbricated in discourses of the black same, this becomes a space in which blackness as a category is constantly regained, transformed and reformed.
The following show features of the construction of a rural and urban black identity. This construction is no different from the construction of the black other, the criticism of other
191 versions of blackness continues. However, this time the difference is marked by place therefore one becomes a certain kind of black on the basis of where you live.