Playing with anxiety: black middle-class masculinities in the humorous works of Fred Khumalo and Ndumiso Ngcobo

ABSTRACT

Studies of the black middle class in South Africa, particularly imaginations and performances of class or ‘classing’, can be enriched by other disciplines outside social science. Cultural products that evince self-expressions of black middle classness are a fertile source. To that end, this article uses an intersectional approach to explore middle-class masculinity in the personal humorous essays of Ndumiso Ngcobo and Fred Khumalo. While the two authors celebrate hybridity occasioned by the intersections of race, class and Zuluness, they nonetheless betray a sense of anxiety regarding their masculinity. The unease points to the constant change in masculinities, in the same way that humour itself is deployed to handle difficult situations with a view to suggest change or other possibilities of living.

KEYWORDS:

• Black middle class
• masculinity
• South Africa
• Zuluness
• humour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Mfecane (2016) argues that traditional male circumcision or ulwaluko as it is popularly known in IsiXhosa, inscribes masculinity on the body as evidenced by a penis with no foreskin, which then sanctions entry into adult and manly spaces and practices. Among amaZulu, circumcision does not hold the same cultural value or rites of passage.

2. This is an Afrikaans phrase meaning black danger. The danger was seen as physical (mostly rape but also blacks as vectors of disease) and moral taint of whiteness. It also suggested physical harm to and death of whites through close proximity hence the very concept of apartheid (literally, ‘separateness’).

3. Much as it is assumed that South Africa’s black middle class live in suburbs or former white only areas, this is not true as part of the middle class live in townships (see Ndlovu, 2020)

4. This is a generalisation given that violent and non-violent masculinities can be found in the suburbs and townships. Nonetheless, violent and spectacular displays of masculinity tend to be associated with township spaces.

5. Can be translated to ‘vagina’ or sexual intercourse with a woman.

6. Afrikaans for beat thoroughly.

7. Ukudukluza and ukubhaxabula are both ideophonic as they imitate the explosiveness of blows and/or the crack of a whip or switch against flesh.

8. Dancing for pleasure or in readiness for war.

9. Brooke Logan is a character played by Katherine Kelly Lang in the soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thabisani Ndlovu

Thabisani Ndlovu is Associate  Professor of  literary and identity studies at Walter Sisulu University. His work work examines the intersection(s) of race, class and ethnicity in Southern Africa in the making and remaking of contemporary identities.

Increment Andile Dlulani

IncrementAndile Dlulani is a postgraduate student in the Department of Arts, Walter Sisulu University. His focus is race and class in South Africa.