Being and belonging as Deaf South Africans: Multiple identities in SASL poetry

ABSTRACT

This article explores the theme of identity in terms of ‘being and belonging’ in South African Sign Language (SASL) poetry through the close reading of five SASL poems. Previous studies on the literature of other sign languages almost exclusively focus on the construction of an essentialised Deaf identity and the discovery of ‘Deafhood’. The notion of a transnational Deaf identity based on the shared experience of oppression in the hearing-dominant society has been prioritised in the discussion of sign language poetry.

However, we claim that, due to the impact of apartheid, Deaf South African poets tend to identify themselves as belonging to both their Deaf and their local hearing communities. Being Deaf is not necessarily their primary concern, and Deaf poets actively seek allies with hearing people in difficult situations resulting from apartheid such as forced removals and living in segregated townships. We also highlight the importance of a physical, geographical sense of ‘home’ in SASL poetry. While the majority of the signed poems studied abroad revolve around the search for an imaginary Deaf land, South African Deaf poets show a strong sense of attachment to the immediate surroundings. We conclude that the identities that emerge in sign language poetry can be constructed not only in terms of a global Deaf identity, but also in terms of the history and politics specific to each country.

KEYWORDS:

• sign language poetry
• Deaf identity
• Deafhood
• apartheid
• ‘being and belonging’

Acknowledgements

This article could not have been written without the wonderful works by Deaf poets (Atiyah Asmal, Carmen Fredericks, Brian Meyer, Modiegi Moime & Nodumo Same, in order of appearance). We thank SLED for their permission to use the poems and their pictures. The majority of this article was written on a writing retreat sponsored by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). We are very grateful for the advice we received from Professor Susan van Zyl on the earlier drafts of our article.

Notes on contributors

Ruth Morgan is a lecturer in the SASL department in the School of Literature, Language and Media at Wits University where she teaches sign language poetry and Deaf cultural studies.

Michiko Kaneko is a lecturer at the SASL department in the School of Literature, Language and Media at Wits University. She teaches sign linguistics and sign language literature.

Notes

1 We use a hyphenated spelling for the post-modern use of the notions of be-ing, be-longing and be-coming to focus on them as interlinked aspects of a process whereby be-longing to – or be-ing a member of – a community involves emotions and encapsulates the politics of be-coming in relation to resisting histories of oppression and reclaiming spaces of power (Kannabiran Vieten & Yuval-Davis 2006). According to Donna West: ‘The concept of “becoming” is viewed in a new light; a continuous rhizomatic life-journey … Doors open, paths spiral, identities grow, morph, fade and intertwine’ (2012: 180).

2 See Russo, Giuranna & Pizzuto (2001) for Italian Sign Language; Blondel & Miller (2000, 2001) for French Sign Language; Vollhaber (2007) for German Sign Language; Blondel, Miller & Parisot (2009) for Quebec Sign Language; Sutton-Spence & Müller de Quadros (2005) for Brazilian Sign Language.

3 Paddy Ladd (2003) coined the term Deafhood to capture the process of being or becoming a fully cultural Deaf person, as opposed to deafness, which is a term used by the medical establishment and focuses on the lack of hearing.

4 Except Deaf residential schools and Deaf clubs, which offer a certain sense of geographical home for Deaf people.

5 We do not think that this scholarly focus on poems related to Deaf identity influences the nature of the poems created by sign language poets in South Africa or elsewhere.

6 The signs DEAF SAME can be roughly translated as ‘Deaf like me’ indicating they are both Deaf.

7 All the pictures that appear in this article are given permission by SLED.

8 In order to describe each sign, we follow the convention of ‘glossing’ in sign linguistics. Each sign is ‘glossed’ using an English word or words (in small capitals) that best correspond to its meaning. But readers should be aware that in creative sign language, signs can have various meanings, and the glosses we offer are just one of many possible interpretations.

9 Although this is not overtly stated in the poem, it is implied that Asmal considers her aunt to be a significant role model.

10 See, for example, the commentaries on a series of poems on the theme of ‘home’ in BSL at <www.bristol.ac.uk/bslpoetryanthology>.