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ABSTRACT
Utilizing an ethnographic study of female DJs working in Gauteng, this work examines women’s negotiation of gendered space, technology and society in South Africa’s house and hip-hop DJing scene. Exploring the contemporary musical landscape of South Africa, I scrutinize the changing roles for women in South African music, while interrogating the reasons behind women’s increasing visibility and success as DJs. This work draws throughout on Henrik Vigh’s analytical optic of dubriagem developed through his work in Guinea-Bissau, and identifies ‘hustling’ as a vernacular form of social as well as financial navigation, driving the women in the study to constantly renegotiate their societal position in respect of their careers. For female DJs, ‘hustling’ encompasses a wide remit, within which falls the need to negotiate racialized social perceptions of women, expectations of motherhood, access to technology and spaces, and personal safety – especially the ever present risk of violent sexual crime. Using ‘hustling’ as an analytical optic, the work examines how these women navigate and negotiate their careers, positing that their increasing success and visibility is already breaking down some of the barriers to success in South African society, paving the way for the generation of female DJs to come.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Kwaito is a hugely popular fusion of dance, hip-hop and pop that emerged on the mid-1990s South African music scene.
2 e-Goli is the Zulu name for Johannesburg.
3 Due to the ‘greying’ of the CBD post-1994.
4 Barbeque.
5 Zulu word describing someone who is extremely flashy; a ‘township dandy’ (Bristowe, Oostendorp and Anthonissen Citation2014), cf. Jones Citation2013a; Citation2013b or Swartz Citation2009.
6 Italian shoes popular amongst skhothane in South Africa.
7 South African beer.
8 South Africa's first democratic election were 27th April 1994.
9 Women's Charter For Effective Equality http://www.kznhealth.gov.za/womenscharter.pdf Accessed: 25.05.2015.
10 Music television station in South Africa.
11 Local term for South Africa.
12 DJ Doowap, interview 17.04.2015.
13 Popular term to describe South Africans born after the 1994 democratic elections, can also include those born from 1990 onwards.
14 Beats per minute.
15 Oxford English Dictionary definition http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/hustle
16 Sunday Times Generation Next Brand Survey http://www.bizcommunity.com/f/1406/Press_Release__2014_Sunday_Times_Generation_Next__Brand_Survey_Results-_Final.pdf Accessed: 20.05.2015.
17 For more literature on ‘shebeen queens’ cf. Bonner, Citation1988; Edwards, Citation1988; Coplan, Citation1991.
18 Interview 24.04.2015.
19 Interview 20.04.2015.
20 Interview 24.04.2015.
21 Interview 06.04.2015.
22 DJ Milli Bala, interview 24.04.2015.
23 Miss Pru, interview 06.04.2015.
24 On competition, aggression and male gendering cf. Tanenbaum (Citation2002).
25 Interview 24.04.2015.
26 ibid.
27 Interview 02.04.2015 .
28 Interview 04.04.2015.
29 Soul Candi, interview 30.04.2015.
30 http://vinyljoint.co.za/virtueshop/index.php/dj-school Accessed: 20.05.2015.
31 http://fuse-academy.co.za/ & http://www.riseacademy.co.za/ Accessed: 19.05.2015
32 Miss Pru; Ms Cosmo.
33 DJ Doowap; http://www.dj4life.co.za/ Accessed: 20.05.2015.
34 Interview 06.04.2015.
35 DJ KAY-X, interview 01.04.2015.
36 ibid.
37 Interview 31.03.2015.
38 Sarah and Emma Corney, interview 22.04.2015.
39 Interview 24.04.2015.
40 Interview 02.04.2015
41 ibid.
42 The home is not necessarily a safe space for women, see Fox et al. (Citation2007).