‘Us’ and ‘Them’: the discursive construction of ‘the Other’ in Greenmarket Square, Cape Town

Abstract

This paper is based on research done on intercultural communication at Greenmarket Square in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa. The Square is well known as a market for informal traders (mainly from other parts of Africa), local people and tourists from all over the world. Using originally collected discursive evidence from market traders, the particular focus of this paper is to show how two groups of traders in the market – South Africans and Africans from other countries, respectively – discursively construct each other. By taking a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to transcribed interviews conducted with traders from both groups, we were able to extract discursive constructions of ‘the Other’, which revealed considerable intergroup stereotypes, intra-continental racism and xenophobia. The paper considers the causes of these discursive constructions, such as dominant ideologies, the dominant political discourses emanating from the South African state itself as argued by Neocosmos in 2008, and the spaces (real and imagined) in which these different actors find themselves.

Hierdie artikel spruit uit navorsing oor interkulturele kommunikasie te Groentemarkplein in die hart van Kaapstad, Suid-Afrika. Groentemarkplein is bekend as ‘n mark vir informele handelaars (hoofsaaklik uit ander dele van Afrika), plaaslike inwoners en toeriste uit baie ander lande. Deur gebruik te maak van oorspronklike diskursiewe data verkry van handelaars in die mark, kyk hierdie artikel na die wyse waarop twee groepe handelaars – Suid-Afrikaners en Afrikane van ander lande respektiewelik – mekaar diskursief konstrueer. Die toepassing van Kritiese Diskoers Analiese (KDA) op die getranskribeerde onderhoude gevoer met handelaars uit albei groepe het ons in staat gestel om te sien hoe ‘Die Ander’ diskursief gekonstrueer word, en hierdie konstruksies het aansienlike intergroep stereotiepes, interkontinentale rassisme en xenofobia ingesluit. Die artikel bedink die oorsake van hierdie diskursiewe konstruksies, soos dominante ideologieë, die dominante politieke diskoerse vanuit die Suid-Afrikaanse staat, soos geopper deur Neocosmos (2008), en die tasbare sowel as onsigbare ruimtes waarin hierdie verskillende rolspelers hulself bevind.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• Cape Town
• informal traders
• space
• migration
• intercultural communication
• critical discourse analysis
• national identity
• xenophobia

Acknowledgements

We express our sincere thanks to Michael Neocosmos and Kasper Juffermans for their helpful comments on drafts of this paper, as well as the Senate Research Committee of the University of the Western Cape for the funding of our research project.