Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty‐first century South African townships

Abstract

Tsotsitaal is a linguistic phenomenon which is inseparable from a style adopted by many youth living in urban townships in South Africa. The style is signalled by the unique and innovative lexicon of Tsotsitaal, and additionally indicated by clothing and other identity markers. Features of the style are ‘urban‐ness’, consumerism (in terms of brand names) and cultural iconography, such as music and sports. While many of these items are influenced by, or even drawn from, global cultures (particularly in the diaspora), they are transformed into uniquely South African cultural currency by a process of recontextualisation in township spaces and between individuals. There has been a dialogue between the Tsotsitaal style and the global since at least the 1940s, which should put to rest fears that increased global influence since the end of apartheid will diminish the integrity of local South African cultures.

Keywords:

• Tsotsitaal
• globalisation
• local culture
• youth identity
• style
• South African townships

Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to Professor Raj Mesthrie for his help and guidance during the research, and to the other members of the SANPAD/NRF research team, particularly Zukile Jama for his assistance with translations. I would also like to thank: the South Africa‐Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) for financial contributions towards the research during 2006–2007, under the project leadership of Professor Raj Mesthrie; the University of Cape Town Postgraduate Funding office for the conference travel award, which allowed for the presentation of this paper at the African Studies Association (ASA) Annual Meeting in New York, 2007; and Baileys African History Archive for permission to reproduce the photograph.

Notes

1. Sophiatown was a racially mixed freehold township in close proximity to the inner city of Johannesburg during the first half of the twentieth century (approx. 1899–1963) (Glaser 2000, p. 95).

2. Soweto (an abbreviation of ‘South Western Township’) is a residential area which was populated partly through the eviction of black Africans from suburbs close to the city, including Sophiatown (Glaser 2000, p. 10). The Sophiatown forced removals took place between 1955 and 1963, following the entrenchment of Apartheid through policies such as the Group Areas Act, which segregated racial groups (based on Apartheid categorisations) in separate residential zones.

3. There is much discussion over the relationships between Tsotsitaal and other forms of township speech, such as Flaaitaal and Iscamtho. The development of the variety is discussed more fully elsewhere (see Mesthrie 2008, and Mesthrie and Hurst under review). Herein, Tsotsitaal will be used as a descriptor for all related varieties.

4. Mapantsula was the ‘city slicker streetwise … subculture of the 1970s’ (Mokwena 1991, p. 2), while com‐tsotsis refers to criminals who ‘masquerade[d] as political activists’ during the 1980s and 1990s (Mokwena 1991, p. 15).

5. The research was funded by The South Africa‐Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), was headed by Professor Raj Mesthrie and run by Associate Professor Ana Deumert, both members of the Linguistics section at the University of Cape Town. The data formed the basis for my PhD thesis, Style, Structure and Function in Cape Town Tsotsitaal (Hurst 2008).

6. For literature on violence and gendered violence in South Africa’s townships, see the website of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR 2007): http://www.csvr.org.za/.

7. This article is based on information gathered between March 2006 and March 2007 in 13 interviews which took place in Gugulethu, Cape Town, and three focus groups on the University of Cape Town campus. In total the focus groups and interviews involved a total of 46 respondents. Original speech in Xhosa/Tsotsitaal is presented in italics; translations and English responses are in regular font. The interviewers are represented by the figure Q (1, 2, etc.). Respondents are identified by their initial only, for reasons of anonymisation.

8. Respondents tended to see the identities of Tsotsitaal speakers unproblematically as representative of what one respondent referred to as ‘Cape‐borners’, although of course many of the individuals adopting an urban style may have migrated originally from elsewhere.

9. Laweyi means ‘that thing’; ek sê (literally, ‘I say’ in Afrikaans) is similar to ‘you see’; umoj means ‘brother’; and Joe is used in Tsotsitaal in a similar way to ‘man’ in American slang.

10. The difference in ways of walking was a favourite method of identifying a ‘city type’. This was previously noted in Calteaux (1994, p. 19) with regards to a swaying type of walk (called bumper in her study) associated with Tsotsitaal speakers.

11. Pantsula is a dance style originating in the black townships in the 1980s. Here, the speaker may be referring to the style of the mapantsula subculture rather than the dance itself (see note 4).