Conflict, provocation and fights among boys in a South African high school

Abstract

Boys are commonly associated with disruptive behaviour and physical fighting at school. Explanations for this behaviour range from naturalistic ‘boys will be boys’ approaches to analyses which focus on the social construction of masculinity and emphasise the gendered nature of boys' behaviour. Whichever view holds sway, it is often assumed that conflict and disagreement lead, in automatic, linear and unproblematic ways, to instances of physical violence. In fact, the situation is more complicated and less predictable. Provocations (taunts, insults and jostling) may escalate conflict and give rise to fights but this will depend on the form, the social and physical setting, the school's gender regime and, critically, the investment of individual boys in particular constructions of masculinity. In this article, we explore how boys in a coeducational secondary school in Durban, South Africa, verbally provoke one another and how these provocations on some, but not all, occasions result in physical violence.

Keywords:

• conflict
• provocation
• fights
• masculinity
• high schools
• violence
• South Africa

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the helpful suggestions of Mignonne Breier and the journal's reviewers.

Notes

We reluctantly use the racial classification created by colonialism and Apartheid but still in use in post-Apartheid legislation as a means of effecting redress of injustice and inequality. The categories remain controversial and contested but still have social reality and are: white, Indian, coloured (people of mixed descent or birth) and (black) African.

‘A small boy’ in urban African slang (Branford 1980).

Challenge or threaten.

‘A boy or man’ (male person) in urban African slang (Branford 1980).

Peers who readily provide support in a physical confrontation.

Insulting South African slang for vagina.