Interpretation of Data
4.3 Analysis of Interviews
4.3.3 Interview 3 (Appendix 8)
J: Because it's making me think ofthings I'd rather not.
I: Is it better not to think of these things?
J: Yes.
I: Why?
J: 'Cause what's the use of thinking about it? It will do nothing.
I: A lot of people pray. Have you thought about exploring that side of your life?
J: Yes, but it doesn't help. (She cries again)
(Appendix 7: v)
J: Gangsters just..the guy that's there ... that's running the show, miss.
He can send you miss, he got power over everyone, miss. But like a friend, miss, he's just a guy that's doing the things, miss. He can't send everybody.
I: So friends can engage in illegal activities ...
J: Yes miss
I: Okay, but a gangster controls them.
J: Yes miss.
I: So Nolan, what are you?
N: Haai, miss, I'm not a gangster. People say gangsters are bad ...
I: Hmmm ...
N: ... but it's like ... let me give you an example ... two dogs ... it's like putting a Rottweiler on a person..it'll bite. But putting a pitbull on a person, it'll eat him. So like the gangsters are like the pitbull. You can't get on the wrong side, 'cause they're bad, that's just the way they are, mISS
(Appendix 8: iii)
James is positioned as a follower, who looks up to Nolan because of his independent personality: "I look up to him miss, because he's his own person" and later:
1: You could say, miss, Nolan is a leader, not a follower.
N: A leader? Where? Where?
J: No, I'm saying, he can say miss, basically, he's a leader not a follower miss, so his friends will do what he's doing, miss.
I: He's a good gangster, apparently!
N: I'm not a gangster.
I: Okay, what are you?
N: I'm just a good boy.
I: You're a good boy who sits with gangsters.
N: You can't judge me, only God can judge me.
(Appendix 8: ix)
An awareness of their social identity was very apparent, with James showing a desire to reinterpret the definition of a gang, which he knows is viewed negatively in the area, in order to gain the approval of the general community. However, Nolan is very strong in his argument, constantly repeating himself in an effort to make James see how wrong he is. James' final comment reveals that he has acquiesced, although he does not say so in so many words!
1: John ... although he's ... he's ... I would say you and your friends are a gang ... a group of boys doing things ...
J: Not a gang, miss.
N: Your'll are ... your'll are!
I: What's the difference? What's a gang?
1: Miss a gang's a group of people that got a title.
1: So . . . you're an untitled gang?
J: Yes.
Laughter
N: They are a gang!
J: We're just a group of friends.
N: So you mean to tell me if we're moving together and you see someone hitting me you're not gonna jump?
J: We'll jump.
N: So that's a gang!
J: No, we're united.
N: You're a gang!
J: Miss, what they say ... together we stand, divided we fall.
Appendix 8: ix)
James thinks that he can leave off smoking drugs whenever he wants to, but Nolan contradicts him often. When asked to define what makes him an individual, he was teased by Nolan as being a "smoke bud", who would be unable stop.
1: Will he be able to stop, Nolan?
N: No he won't, miss. It's the game.
I: It's the game?
N: That's what they say, Miss.
I: What's the game?
N: What you in, Miss.
I: What do you mean?
N: He's in the drugs, miss.
J: Drugs?
1: How do you play in the drug game?
J: You play a role miss.
N: For what you can get.
1: What role do you play in the drug game, James?
N: He just goes with the flow.
I: Smoking as Nolan said?
N: It feels like he gets respect more, am I right?
1: What do you mean?
N: He feels like, they check him smoking, he can sit with them, they'll get along. AmI right?
J: No, not really. I don't smoke in front of the XYZ gang and gangsters.
Once they see you doing that they want you to supply them.
(Appendix 8: vi)
Nolan's very perceptive remarks above position James as someone whose identity and personality is fixed within the parameters of the Enlightened subject (Hall, 1992).
His identity is dependent on the context in which he is positioned. In this case, the social group of the gang dictates the expected role that he must play if he hopes to fit in and gain their respect. In a sense, he becomes a "looking glass of social expectations" ,presenting a performance in this social drama of the gang sub-culture, and constantly seeking the approval of others. Even his attempt at defending his position is weakened by the fact that it is only fear of having to supply the stronger gangs which stops him from smoking drugs in front of them.
The power of the school is viewed in typical Foucauldian terms, as an institution that observes and records the characteristics of its subj ects through "surveillance".
Both boys believe that teachers should therefore not know anything about their lives outside the discourse of the school, since they will categorise them as gangsters and lose respect for them.
I: Hmm, so the school has put you into a little category according to your actions?
N: I don't like people to put me down, miss, that's when I lose my respect for them. They think they can just say you're a gangster. .. the respect is lost ....
J: ..in other words, they're judging you.
I: But children would respect somebody associated with activities such as yours, isn't it?
N: Yes, in this suburb . . . anywhere where there's a lot of gangsters.
They'll look up to you.
1: Okay, and in a school, the teachers wouldn't look up to that kind of thing.
N: No, not in a school.
I: Why ?What's the difference?
N: How they gonna look up to a gangster fighting, doing his own thing.
But at home ... at school ... you're two.
1: Which person are you more comfortable with, Nolan?
N: At home, miss.
1: And you, James?
J: Same, miss. At home you're free, miss.
N: It's like we live in two worlds, miss. Like in schools the teachers look at you like you an angel, but at home, your friends look at you like, ay . . . that ou.
I So is it easy to try to fit together all those images of yourself that you say these people have of you?
N How you gonna put an angel and a devil together, miss?
(Appendix 8: x)
Clearly, the conflict between the Discourse of the gangs and the school in these cases has resulted in the construction of decentred subjects, whose identity is multifaceted.
However, they are not equally comfortable with the identity they have had to construct for participation within the discourse of the school, preferring to be "free"
like they are at home. Their language positions them as subjects who actively construct their own identities, but the preference for the free self at home presents them as having a kind of double consciousness, where their preferred self actually monitors the performance of the social self at school, controlling and manipulating it to ensure that whatever is said or done does not meet with the disapproval of the people in power within this Discourse. The conflict between the home and school Discourse is metaphorically linked to living in two worlds, as living out the roles of a devil and an angel in each world respectively. These ways of being in both worlds are incompatible and cause conflict.
The environment in which they live impacts on their identity since they portray themselves as helpless to avoid the pitfalls of gangsterism because the area gives them no choice. Nolan walks around the area with his pitbulls , in order to gain the respect of the people. He describes the area as being about "dogs" and when pressed, explained that he used it as a metaphor for the gang activities. He refers to these as a gang, from which one can never escape, unless one gets saved, which also is not permanent.
N: Caliban is just about dogs.
1: What do you mean?
N: Gangsterism ... drugs ... it's a bad place.
I: So if you're walking around ...
N: Next year I might go to Durban, stay with my eldest sister. But I still think wherever we go, we'll find the same kind of people. You can't run away from trouble, it'll always find you. There's no way out the game, once you start you can't stop.
(Appendix 8: viii)
The genre of gangsta rap music is something that Nolan identifies with. He discusses part of it with James, who explains the disturbing extent to which this music has positioned both of them. The Discourse of war is disturbingly evident in their admiration for rappers like Tupac (a notorious rapper who died violently) who survived in the war-like environment of the ghettoes. Faced with a similarly merciless environment, they reveal themselves to be survivors, trying to emulate the way in which Tupac managed to overcome the threats which he faced by transforming himself into something larger than life. However, the tragic death that Tupac experienced does not manifest itself as a deterrent to living a similar lifestyle.
N: Life .... you have to party, hey John ... (inaudible) 1: What does that mean?
J: He shoulda been killed while he was still innocent miss. That's the way he feels miss. They should have shot him when he was born. . N: That's why I listen to gangsta music. There's always a meanmg
behind the song.
I: Such as?
N: Like Tupac, when he sings about his mother. I like that ... .like the way I see my mother ... I can clash, I can connect.
I: Do you identify with Tupac?
N: Yah.
I: Does he say a lot of things that you agree with?
N: Yes.
I: And his lifestyle?
1: Lifestyle ... 1 agree with his lifestyle.
N: I don't.
I: What kind of lifestyle, James?
J: He lived the life of an outlaw, Miss, he was a gangster.
I: Do you like that kind of life?
1: Miss, he had to. The place where he was living in was a war.
I: So places make you who you are?
J: Yes miss, the environment.
N: That's why I don't want to live in this suburb.
I: Is there no way to be okay in this area, to live normally?
J: Ay, you can't.
N: You can't.
(Appendix 8: viii)