GROUP DISCOURSES AND IDENTITIES
5.3 BEHAVIOUR ADAPTATION AND IDENTITY RECONSTRUCTION The environment of the University of Natal is new to all categories of students
5.3.6 Decisive Females (DF)
This was a group of eight foreign African female students from Kenya (KENY), Uganda (UGD), Nigeria (NIG), Cameroon (CAM), Ethiopia (ETHP), and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In spite of this diversity, these respondents had a large number of common concerns.
NIG: Here most people tend to associate by race and then by ethnicity, the first thing you observe is the racial division.
KENY: The different groups behave to you differently, some can be very rude, others are a little nicer.
ETHP: The Indians are ruder in their approach to you. They don't even know you are there, you don't even matter, and they even go to lengths to be rude to you.
CAM: I have noticed for example, once in the library looking for books there was this white woman who went looking for the books for us. I had example of an Indian administrator who was very nice to me. But with the students the space is there, they don't even recognize that you exist more.
KENY: In fact I was thinking if I were to come down to the campus naked no one will notice [others laugh] because no one looks at you.
DRC: If you walk along you see that people are divided along racial groups here, and so when you walk along you are simply treated alongside all the other blacks, whether you exist or don't exist. So you are unconsciously drawn to the blacks.
UGD: You are still having problems there too; you are still not accepted there.
So you think I'll go to black, I'm black, there are blacks and we are together in this thing. No way it's not that way, you still an outsider just because you are not Zulu.
Racial and national groups are prevalent in the university, and appear to be one of the first things the decisive females notice: For instance, Indian students are in their own world to one another, they are friends with one another, it is very hard
to tear somebody from that group, and they are so close together. The women feel pushed away by the Indians. They use strong phrases such as you don't even matter, they don't even recognize that you exist more, and if I were to come down to the campus naked no one will notice, to show how the Indian students seem untouched by their presence or absence, which for them is a very impolite attitude. Consequently, they assume that they are being treated that way because of the colour of their skin (you are simply treated alongside all the other blacks);
as a result they feel pushed toward the black South Africans, so you are unconsciously drawn to the blacks. However, their association with black students is also problematic. As explained by one of the foreign sisters, they are not accepted by the blacks either, who treat them like outsiders, because 'you are not Zulu'.
KENY: Everybody expects you to talk Zulu, and even when you tell them you don't understand they still insist and continue talking especially the older ones.
Like where I stay in the residence, there is a cleaner who usually does our corridor and who insist even when you tell her excuse me I don't understand, talk to her in English but still insist and it seems to me that she's upset when ever you tell her you don't understand what she is saying, she just continues
responding back in Zulu. And I found out later that she understands and speak English. Well, in Kenya, if you are a foreigner they really embrace you, they want you to feel comfortable, but here you have to find your way around.
NIG: They make you lose interest in learning Zulu by their attitudes, it is very rude. Because of their attitude I didn't bother to learn. We don't enforce language on each other where I come from and definitely not on a foreigner.
ETHP: Even the little that I had picked up, I deliberately don't speak it, they are very inconsiderate, instead we speak the little we know among ourselves.
The women feel very strongly about their Zulu counterparts wanting to enforce the Zulu language on them and they put up resistance.
The lack of a common understanding about language between these women and their Zulu counterparts leads them to conclude that their host students are inconsiderate and perhaps not friendly. They compare this with their own
country's hospitality to foreigners. The choice not to speak the language Zulu they have picked up is a strategic way of showing that they have taken offence.
By not wanting to learn the language they seem to be saying that they would rather not interact with Zulu-speakers.
ETHP: It is interesting; they think that you are here to take advantage somehow.
NIG: I remember a Zulu classmate (female) telling me once that she is very surprised that we have befriended her because most of the foreign students prefer white South Africans. She was very surprised that we are interested in her, so when they see you walking with whites they say definitely you must be a foreigner.
KENY: My friends from other African countries tell me that they have lots of white friends who come to their room and do things together and the South African blacks find it shocking.
UGD: I remember a Zulu classmate telling me that their English is not as good as mine and I said you shouldn 't think of it like that we started learning English earlier and had access to resources that you didn 't.
The group noted that they sense that black South Africans see them as wanting to take advantage and respond by being on the defensive and protective of their own interests. On the other hand, there is an appreciable level of interaction between these foreign students and their white hosts. The surprise voiced by the Zulu classmate confirms a Zulu preconception that foreign students definitely do not want to know anything about them, are not interested in them, that they only wish to make friends with white students. This myth which alienates Zulu and foreign African students is perhaps a good example of 'black on black' student stereotypes. The fact that foreign African students tend to speak better English doubtless also contributes to this. Of course this is mere perception (though often true), but it can greatly influence interpretations of the actions of people involved, as in this case. Relationships with other foreign students, on the other hand, appear to be achieved effortlessly. As the group explained, there is a strong connection (as foreign students) between them all, irrespective of the part of world they come from.
KENY: It's easy to make friends with people from other parts of Africa and even countries you've never heard of before. It's because you are all in together and facing perhaps the same challenges away from home, you are perhaps homesick.
ETHP: That is a bonding experience for all international students.
DRC: When they know you are foreign and refuse to talk Zulu you turn to another foreigner like you and together you understand the situation.
The bonding among foreign students is very strong. In spite of the diversity of their languages and sometimes skin colour, their foreign identity brings them closer to one another, especially since the challenges faced are similar, irrespective of the part of Africa they are from and the language spoken. Shared experiences are a bond that ties the students from numerous communities in Africa together. The decisive females' experiences as foreign African students in South Africa become a strong identity marker in this context. This shared experience as described by the participants includes the loneliness that they feel at being away from their homes and the circumstances they face at the university, based on their situation as foreign students.
It is part of being a foreign African student that at times they need to accommodate others in their frame of references. Treasured values, if not recognized in the new context, are done away with for the period of stay in South Africa. While these decisive females are similar to the diverse males in the ways they respond to issues and to people in terms of allowing room for differences, yet they tend to differ from the diverse males in ways in which they deal with these issues. These women appear to be more flexible than the diverse males in terms of the way they deal with their own cultural practices and beliefs.
NIG: There is no sense of orderliness or closeness, for instance, I find it so rude for somebody to be tapping my back asking to collect money. It is not my area of
business to be collecting money from people, it is accepted here. I had to change ways, I see, most times if I have to enter buses and not feel bad about it. And you enter library and they push you and the way people feel you had done anything wrong passes and I stand and laugh because they will be pushing me along the
way at least no matter how tight it is, I say sorry and I say sorry and nobody even bothers to hear what I'm saying.
CAM: The funny thing is most of the time when I am pushed I say sorry at least there should be an acknowledgement that somebody has said sorry. So I have learnt not to bother if they push me, I just wait and give way and no longer go around apologizing.
These decisive females have come to realize that even though all black Africans may look alike, ways of doing things may be rather different, for instance, the manner in which requests are made or when an apology is appropriate. In order to accommodate these differences, the women note that they have had to change their approaches. They are having to redefine themselves in their new environment, to enable themselves to function and interact in daily encounters.
And as they redefine themselves, some aspects of their identity are distorted, at least for the period that they are residing at the university: / just wait and give way and no longer go around apologizing. When no acknowledgement is received for doing what they term the 'right thing', they assume that the environment does not appreciate such politeness and tend to abandon the practice. The sense of 'right' or 'wrong' behaviours with which they entered the country is gradually being modified towards the majority sense of 'right' and
'wrong'.
The decisive females enter their new environment with enthusiasm but soon have to change. They come to the University of Natal with high expectations of their hosts (black, white and Indian). When the expectations are not met, the women change their attitudes. Unlike the diverse males, their home culture becomes less of a focus; their concern is more for acceptance by their host. When they sense hostility, they respond by playing along with their host. They present themselves as flexible and determined, in terms of their adjustment to their new environment, and by the ways in which they are ready to change their approach in order to maintain their sense of worth. In this process, the decisive females develop new skills which enhance their performance and confidence. These women have come to terms with the new challenge and see change as the way forward: / had to change the ways I see things most times, even though it is
making a sacrifice to stop doing what is culturally right: / have learnt not to bother if they push me. I just wait and give way. These flexible women have devised ways to cope with their new situation, by not being rigid in their beliefs and opinions; their response is dependent on the situation.