Exploring the affective atmospheres of the threat of sexual violence in minibus taxis: the experiences of women commuters in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Growing attention has been directed by South African commuter rights groups towards the incidence of sexual violence experienced by women when commuting in minibus taxis. Against this backdrop, data was collected through a series of unstructured individual interviews with 14 South African women. Putting to work the concept of affective atmosphere, findings revealed that the ways in which these women articulated the threat of sexual violence in minibus taxis was co-produced through shifting taxi↔commuters↔bodies assemblages which not only informed how the threat of sexual violence was experienced, but, also, how their own bodies, men’s bodies, and everyday commuting were negotiated.

KEYWORDS:

• Taxis
• affective atmospheres
• commuting
• women commuters
• sexual violence
• south africa

Disclosure of interest

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

Notes

1. In South Africa, a ‘minibus taxi’ is a commuter-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry between 12 and 16 passengers, although typically overloaded with many more (Sauti 2006). They are not to be confused with smaller motor vehicle or metered taxi ‘cabs’ and do not operate along the lines of e-hailing taxis.

2. The continued use of apartheid-era racial terminology remains highly contested. In this study, the term ‘black’ is used in place of the ethno-cultural label of ‘African’ to emphasize political solidarity between all those people and communities of colour historically marginalised and segregated under apartheid, including those ethnically classified as ‘Africans’, ‘Indians’ and so-called ‘Coloured’ (or ‘mixed race’) South Africans.

3. According to Lorimer (2008), affect(s) can be best thought of as the ‘properties, competencies, modalities, energies, attunements, arrangements and intensities of differing texture, temporality, velocity and spatiality, that act on bodies, are produced through bodies and transmitted by bodies’ (552).

4. I employ the double arrow with the aim of disrupting the ontological boundedness we typically install between materiality, discourse, and affect, as well as between the human subject/body and the more-than-human world.

5. Although this article focuses on extracts of data from three participants, it is worth noting for context the preliminary results of a thematic analysis conducted for the purpose of another article. Through this analysis it has been evident that the participants shared many of the experiences brought to light here, including, but not limited to: a fear of commuting after sunset; the identification of any male commuter or driver as a potential assailant; the use of a range of behavioural strategies to navigate unwanted sexual advances when commuting; the use of personal safety measures to mitigate the risk of assault; and laissez-faire responses from male taxi drivers, fellow commuters, and law-enforcement officials when reporting incidences of sexual harassment.

6. Pseudonyms are used to identify all participants.

7. A colloquial reference to Mamelodi, a township originally established by the then apartheid government northeast of Pretoria (now Tshwane). It is now a formally demarcated but poorly resourced and generally low-income community which forms part of the City of Tshwane municipality.

8. A South African colloquialism, roughly translated: Do you know what I mean?