Imfobe: self-knowledge and the reach for ethics among former, young, anti-apartheid activists

Abstract

The paper explores the reach for ethics among young people engaged in opposition to the apartheid state in the 1980s. Structured around the Xhosa concept imfobe, variously translated as morality, virtue, goodness, grace, the paper seeks to locate young peoples' ethical development in the context of every day life. It examines the critical self-consciousness to which young people subject their experiences and decisions and offers a record of some young peoples' actions and thoughts in Zwelethemba, South Africa. It reflects on Foucault's notion of the work of the norm as potentially transformative and demonstrates the ways in which young people stood against the apartheid state's ‘un-norms’ for children.

Keywords:

• ethics
• morality
• consciousness
• Zwelethemba
• political activists
• youth
• norms