Nasi iStocko! Forging contemporary feminist imaginaries of liberation

abstract

In this article, I engage with the John Vuli Gate dance challenge as an example of African women’s negotiation with agency in heteropatriarchal capitalist society. I begin to tend to concerns around the possibilities of agency, empowerment and self-determination within popular culture. I seek to show that agency is complicated but does not necessarily cease to exist in its entirety because of the oppressive context within which it exists. I draw on Patricia Clough’s (2008) theorisation of what she terms the New Body, which is the body mediated by bio-technologies and all scales of matter, including social media platforms. Posthuman debates also feature alongside the New Body because central to the posthumanist perspective is the argument that humans will always be entangled with technology. I assert that the John Vuli Gate dance challenge, its documentation into video form and viral spread constitutes a postfeminist sensibility. I observe also how the virtual circulation and engagement with the video on Twitter inspires a viral performance of a style of dance involving a sticking out of the buttocks and swaying of the hips. Here, I draw attention to the historical nature of such a dance among African women and the diaspora and argue that the John Vuli Gate dance challenge is a return to the pleasure associated with this dance rather than the colonial imposition that insists on objectifying Black women who dance this way.

keywords:

• social media
• John Vuli Gate
• dance
• agency
• Posthuman

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mbali Mazibuko

MBALI MAZIBUKO is a researcher in the Institute for Gender Studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and a 2nd year PhD candidate in Women’s and Gender Studies. My background is in Sociology and I hold both undergraduate and master’s qualifications in the discipline. My interests include, but are not limited to, work and research on gender-based violence, power, affect theories, feminist movements, protest action and popular culture. My doctoral research interest takes into consideration sexuality, temporality and embodiments of rebellious femininities as they emerge in popular culture and popular imaginaries. I am an African Feminist, and a lover and fighter for justice and equity. Email: [email protected] / [email protected]