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Abstract
This article explores the gendering of cultural nationalism at a South Sudanese beauty pageant with a focus on the promotional work, organizing efforts and performances of men. Through a visual and textual discourse analysis of materials related to the event, as well as a series of interviews with participants, promoters, judges and audience members, I argue that these male participants articulate a distinctly masculinized form of South Sudanese nationalism. They do so by promoting notions of both a shared, militarized and oppressive past and a peaceful, proud and celebratory future. Central to the production of this nationalist imaginary is an emphasis on the healing of past ethnic-regional conflicts within the South and an image of South Sudanese unity and brotherly, non-violent masculinity. However, whilst pageantry emcees, speakers and musicians call on men to build and nurture the ‘New South Sudan’, the event itself emerges as a site for conflict both online and in incidences of physical violence amongst young male attendees. Members of the community understand this conflict to be bound up with a sense of ethnic-regional allegiance as well as a collective crisis experienced by many young men following the war and amidst the challenges of life in the diaspora. In this way, the pageant works to promote South Sudanese nationalism through the efforts, performances and bodies of young men and the scripting of peaceful nationalist masculinities – even as these are contested and contradicted behind the scenes.
Este artículo explora la generización del nacionalismo cultural en un concurso de belleza en Sudán del Sur centrando la atención sobre la masculinidad y el trabajo promocional, los esfuerzos organizativos y la performatividad de los hombres. A través de un análisis discursivo visual y textual de materiales relacionados con el evento, así como de una serie de entrevistas con participantes, promotores, jueces y miembros de la audiencia, argumento que estos participantes hombres articulan una forma distintivamente masculinizada del nacionalismo sur sudanés. Lo hacen promoviendo las nociones de un pasado militarizado, opresivo y compartido y un futuro pacífico, orgulloso y festivo. Central a la producción de este imaginario nacionalista hay un énfasis sobre el cierre de heridas de los conflictos étnico-regionales pasados dentro del Sur y una imagen de la unidad sur sudanés y la masculinidad fraternal y no violenta. Sin embargo, mientras los maestros de ceremonia, expositores y músicos de los concursos de belleza llaman a los hombres a construir y cuidar la ‘Nueva Sudán del Sur’, el evento en sí mismo emerge como un lugar para el conflicto tanto online como en incidencias de violencia física entre los hombres jóvenes miembros del público. Los miembros de la comunidad ven a este conflicto como envuelto con un sentido de lealtad étnica-regional y como una crisis colectiva experimentada por muchos hombres jóvenes luego de la guerra y en medio de los desafíos de la vida en la diáspora. De esta manera, el concurso de belleza opera promoviendo el nacionalismo sur sudanés a través de los esfuerzos, las performatividades y los cuerpos de hombres jóvenes y la construcción de masculinidades nacionalistas pacíficas – aún cuando estas se desafían y se contradicen detrás del escenario.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Shalini Ayyagari, Mona Domosh, Jennifer Fluri, Sharlene Mollett and members of the Feminist Inquiry Seminar at Dartmouth College. Their insightful reflections, intellectual support and friendship were very important in developing and improving this piece. Thank you also to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. Finally, I would like to thank the organizers, performers, contestants and audience members of the Miss South Sudan pageant who kindly shared their time with me.
Notes
1. In my work I describe Sudanese men and women living outside Sudan as both transnational and as part of a ‘diaspora’. Although some writers distinguish sharply between these terms I would argue, after theorists such as Ien Ang (Citation2001, Citation2003), that there are many examples of communities that may be defined both as diasporic and as transnational. In particular, Ang argues that diasporas are ‘transnational, spatial and temporally sprawling sociocultural formations of people, creating imagined communities whose blurring and fluctuating boundaries are sustained by real and/ or symbolic ties to some original homeland’ (2001, 25). This definition encompasses both the historical and the contemporary political, economic and social ties to ‘home’ sustained by many members of Southern Sudanese communities, and both the mythical, imagined and mundane everyday experiences of home and the nation state which reinforce a sense of connection and belonging, however ambivalently or passionately expressed.
2. In all of our discussions, Mr Tem has centered his sense of nationalist pride and desire to celebrate youth talents (both male and female) in the community as his main motivations for promoting the pageant. There is no doubt, however, that the event, whilst controversial, is also useful in promoting his name and his promotions company in the community, and in positioning him as a gatekeeper and general mover and shaker for aspiring musicians, photographers, journalists, emcees and designers amongst others who become involved in the pageant. Kleist (Citation2010) and Pasura (Citation2008) have recognized this tendency amongst some young men living in diasporas to use these kinds of organizing positions to gain status and respectability amongst their peers where such status has otherwise been eroded by the migratory experience.
3. Although the pageant was first hosted in the USA (since this was the base of its creators), the Miss South Sudan organization was preparing for a Miss South Sudan–Canada event in Calgary at the time of one interview (Interview, 9 January 2008; www.misssouthsudancanada.com). Similar events, though not organized by Mr Tem, have also been held in Australia, East Africa and Southern Sudan since the signing of the peace in 2005.
4. Interview, 9 February 2008.
5. At the time of writing men held the positions of President, Vice President, Information and Communications, Promotions and Marketing, and Music and Entertainment Officers. Two women currently form part of the executive committee as General Secretary and Finance Secretary.
6. In the 2008 pageant the talents of young women were also on display through the design by Southern Sudanese fashion. This now forms a staple part of the show.
7. Interview, 9 January 2008.
8. Interview, 9 January 2008.
9. Indeed, following the success of the pageant and the popularity of the musical acts it hosted, a new music awards event has been created by the male organizers. It is advertised as ‘The First Annual South Sudanese Music awards’ (www.misssouthsudan.com).
10. Interview, 11 April 2008.
11. Quote from a speech given by one of the judges in the 2007 event (June 17). Available online at: www.misssouthsudan.com/thewordmotive.htm; accessed July 2008.
12. The performers are primarily young men, sometimes with one or a number of female dancers accompanying the singer in the background. There are exceptions, however. For example, during the 2010 pageant one of the six musical performances involved a female soloist.
13. These are excerpts from a song by South Sudanese artist Champion who performed at the 2007 Miss South Sudan pageant event. This particular song was used on the Miss South Sudan website to promote the event. Lyrics used with permission.
14. Speech available online at http://www.misssouthsudan.com/thewordmotive.htm June 17, 2006; accessed August 2008.
15. This was a textual message overlaying images of Miss South Sudan pageant participants rehearsing for the event in a promotional video created by fans of the event.
16. Interview, 9 January 2008.
17. Available online at www.misssouthsudan.com/missionstatement; accessed August 2008.
18. In fact, one organizer stated that the pageant had been criticized for heightening divisions within the Sudanese community as a whole. In his defense he noted that efforts to hold a Miss Sudan (as opposed to Miss South Sudan) pageant by others had been thwarted by the lack of support from both northern and Southern Sudanese communities (Interview, 11 April 2008). Instead, he argued with foresight in 2008 that ‘the South is already dividing from the North, it is going to happen. The northerners and southerners can never come to a point of living together. If there could be equality then our “New Sudan” could be both north and south but we just aren't seeing that. And if we can't have equality, we will have our South Sudan’ (Interview, 11 April 2008).
19. Interview, 9 January 2008.
20. Listserve communication 23 April 2007.
21. Listserve communication 22 April 2007.
22. Listserve communication 23 April 2007.
23. Interview, 9 January 2008.
24. Interview, 23 January 2008 (see also The Age 2007). No one was injured or killed in this incident and the event was finalized the following morning.
25. This is a problem rarely associated with the smaller group of ‘Lost Girls’ who have also faced serious challenges in their journey to and life in the diaspora. If chastised by the community it is usually in connection with a sense that they are not upholding their cultural traditions as mothers, wives, and reproducers (see Faria Citation2010).
26. Interview, 12 April 2008.
27. Interview, 9 January 2008.
28. Interview, 22 January 2009. Such violence has not been located solely in the US-based events. Akoc Manheim, Director of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia responded to one incidence of pageantry violence in Melbourne by arguing for the importance of a strong sense of Sudanese community. He said, ‘In our tradition we say that when a lion chases you, run to the community. People can help…[the lion] is our poverty and our problems back home’ (CitationInter Press Service 14 March 2007).
29. Interview, 14 July 2007.