‘Girls hit!’ Constructing and negotiating violent African femininities in a working-class primary school

Abstract

Whenever gender violence and schooling have been the topic of South African research, the investigations focus on African boys in secondary schools. In contrast, this paper focuses on the ways in which violence is mobilized by African schoolgirls in a working-class primary school context. By drawing on selected elements of an ethnographic study of gender in the junior years of primary schooling, the paper examines young seven- and eight-year-old girls’ use of violence as a significant resource in a context of massive social deprivation and economic instability. In such contexts, violence is an important means through which some girls define, create and consolidate their femininities. In the absence of research which focuses on the violent expressions of femininity, this paper argues that within the context of persistent social and economic inequalities which mark South African society, girl-on-girl violence is an important means to secure resources and claims to power.

Keywords:

• girls
• primary schooling
• violence
• agency
• South Africa

Notes

1. This word is used in a way that suggests wildness that is boisterously assertive, which is in contrast to a gentle femininity.

2. Names of places and people in this paper have been changed throughout to ensure anonymity.

3. Apartheid classified people according to race: Black/African, Indian, white and coloured. Race continues to be significant in post-apartheid South Africa and is important in marking out the social landscape in the country. In this paper I use the term African to refer to the participants in this study.

4. Between 1990 and 2005, HIV prevalence rates in South Africa rose from 1% to around 29% with the highest rates of infection located amongst the 15–24 year age group. There is considerable gender disparity in prevalence rates. Pettifor et al. (2004) indicate that among young adults aged 20–24 years, 21.5% of women are infected compared to 7.6% of men.

5. The broader study included one predominantly white middle-class school (Westridge Primary), one predominantly Indian, middle to working-class school (Umhlatuzana Primary), an African poor township school (KwaDabeka Primary) and one African rural poor school (Umbumbulu Primary). Altogether I visited 12 classrooms (and 12 teachers, Mrs A to Mrs L) – four white teachers in Westridge, two Indian teachers in Umhlatuzana, three African teachers in a township school KwaDabeka, and three African teachers in a rural school in Umbumbulu.

6. In terms of nutrition in schools, the School Feeding Scheme has been implemented as part of the progressive realization of social and economic rights for poor children. The Primary School Nutrition Programme was introduced by former President Nelson Mandela in 1994, with the explicit aim of improving the quality of life of all South Africans, in particular the poorest and most marginalized groups of the community. The programme targets impoverished communities where hunger has been an important factor hindering the development of children at school.