Unmasking racial struggles in postcolonial South Africa in Peter Mtuze’s "The Way to Madam" through postcolonial literary theory

• Authors: Diko Mlamli
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

This article aims to unmask racial struggles in postcolonial South Africa relying on Peter Mtuze’s The Way to Madam (2004). To achieve this aim, postcolonial literary theory is applied to the discussions. This article reveals covert dimensions of racial struggles in South Africa that go far beyond the cosmetic level of this short story. Research interest is directed at specific expressions the characters use with references to historical and contemporary lexical contexts. The analysis confirms that while colonialism and apartheid officially ended in 1994 with the establishment of a democratic government in South Africa, their enduring effects continue to configure the intellectual, social, economic, and political terrain of the country. Racial struggles with roots dating back to colonialism and apartheid in South Africa are multifaceted and profoundly interwoven in various dimensions of society. Addressing these challenges requires ongoing multi-collaborative efforts in policy reform, social transformation, and a commitment to building a more just society.

Keywords

EN

racial struggles; postcolonialism; South Africa; literature; postcolonial literary theory

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Studies in African Languages and Cultures
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 58
• Pages: 181-206

Contributors

author

Diko Mlamli

• University of South Africa (UNISA)

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8516-3586

References

• Abel, M. 2019. “Long-run effects of forced resettlement: evidence from Apartheid South Africa”. The Journal of Economic History 79(4). 915-953.
• Achebe, C. 2006. Things fall apart. London: Penguin Books.
• Aegerter, L.P. 1997. “A pedagogy of postcolonial literature”. College Literature 24(2). 142-150.
• Ahmad, A. 1995. “The politics of literary postcoloniality”. Race & Class 36(3). 1-20.
• Bertacco, S. 2022. “Postcolonial literatures and translational readings”. Parallax 28(1). 13-27.
• Bezuidenhout, A. & S. Buhlungu. 2011. “From compounded to fragmented labour: Mineworkers and the demise of compounds in South Africa”. Antipode 43(2). 237-263.
• Block, S.M. 2014. “Invisible survivors: female farmworkers in the United States and the systematic failure to report workplace harassment and abuse”. Texas Journal of Women, Gender & Law 24. 127.
• Boswell, R. 2014. “Black faces, white spaces-adjusting self to manage aversive racism in South Africa”. Africa Insight 44(3). 1-14.
• Breckenridge, K. 1998. “The allure of violence: men, race and masculinity on the South African goldmines, 1900–1950”. Journal of Southern African Studies 24 (4). 669-693.
• Burnett, L. 2024. “Harvesting justice in the land of the free: A call for legislative reform for immigrant farmworker rights”. Immigration and Human Rights Law Review 5(2). 7.
• Chapman, M. 2004. The New Century of South African Short Stories. South Africa, Johannesburg & Cape Town: Ad Donker Publishers.
• Chapman, M. 2011. “Postcolonial problematics: A South African case study”. Research in African Literatures 42(4). 60-71.
• De Kock, L. 2005. “Does South African literature still exist? Or: South African literature is dead, long live literature in South Africa”. English in Africa 32(2). 69-83.
• Devereux, S. 2020. “Violations of farm workers’ labour rights in post-apartheid South Africa”. Development Southern Africa 37(3). 382-404.
• Diko, M. 2023. “The racial hierarchisation of the isiXhosa language in South Africa: a post-colonial discourse”. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science 12(2). 598-607.
• Diko, M. 2024. “Uphicothonzulu lweentsingiselo zegama elithi “kaffi r” kusetyenziswa inkcazobungcali yobuhlanga”. South African Journal of African Languages 44(1). 39-49.
• Etieyibo, E. 2021. “Why decolonization of the knowledge curriculum in Africa?”. Africa Today 67(4). 75-87.
• Gebremedhin, A. & D. Joshi. 2016. “Social justice and human rights in education policy discourse: Assessing Nelson Mandela’s legacy”. Education as Change 20(1). 172-198.
• Hafez, F. 2023. “A postcolonial analysis of Austria’s political approach to Islam”. Interventions 25(6). 719-738.
• Hall, M. 1993. “The archaeology of colonial settlement in southern Africa”. Annual Review of Anthropology 22(1). 177-200.
• Heleta, S. & S. Chasi. 2023. “Rethinking and redefi ning internationalisation of higher education in South Africa using a decolonial lens”. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 45(3). 261-275.
• Horne, G. 2018. “The apocalypse of settler colonialism”. Monthly Review 69(11). 1-21.
• Kuan, C.W. 2023. “Political censorship and the contestation of nation-building discourse: a survey of cultural productions regarding the Malayan communist struggle in Malaysia after 2000”. Southeast Asian Studies 12(2). 307-331.
• Maharaj, B. 1997. “Apartheid, urban segregation, and the local state: Durban and the Group Areas Act in South Africa”. Urban Geography 18(2). 135-154.
• Maistry, S.M. & Le Grange, L. 2023. “South African higher education as mutating plantation: Critical refl ections on navigating a racialized space”. Educational Studies 59(4). 420-439.
• Matasci, D. 2022. “Decolonizing education: historical perspectives and contemporary challenges”. African Studies Review 65(3). 761-770.
• Moss, D. 2021. “On having whiteness”. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 69(2). 355-371.
• Mosyakin, S. 2022. “If ‘Rhodes‐’ must fall, who shall fall next?”. Taxon 71(2). 249-255.
• Moutinho, L. 2023. “Condemned by desire: miscegenation, gender, and eroticism in South Africa’s Immorality Act”. Social Dynamics 49(1). 130-149.
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. 1965. The River Between. London: Heinemann.
• Paret, M. 2018. “Beyond post-apartheid politics? cleavages, protest and elections in South Africa”. The Journal of Modern African Studies 56(3). 471-496.
• Pradella, L. 2017. “Postcolonial theory and the making of the world working class”. Critical Sociology 43(4). 573-586.
• Ross, F. 2003. “On having voice and being heard: Some after-effects of testifying before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. Anthropological Theory 3(3). 325-341.
• Samuelson, M. 2008. “Walking through the door and inhabiting the house: South African literary culture and criticism after the transition”. English Studies in Africa 51(1). 130-137.
• Savage, M. 1986. “The imposition of pass laws on the African population in South Africa 1916-1984”. African Affairs 85(339). 181-205.
• Stasiulis, D.K. 1980. “Pluralist and Marxist perspectives on racial discrimination in South Africa”. British Journal of Sociology. 463-490.
• Sweeney, K.A. 2016. “Cultural naming practices in children’s literature with adoption themes”. Children’s Geographies 14(5). 497-512.
• Tárnok, A. 2023. “Postcolonial studies: Polemics at the turn of the millennium”. Pázmány Papers–Journal of Languages and Cultures 1(1). 257-269.
• Temin, D.M. 2023. “Development in decolonization: Walter Rodney, third world developmentalism, and Decolonizing Political Theory”. American Political Science Review 117(1). 235-248.
• Thamarana, S. 2015. “Signifi cance of studying postcolonial literature and its relevance”. Research Journal of English Language and Literature 3(3). 537-541.
• Tshishonga, N. 2019. “The legacy of apartheid on democracy and citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa: An inclusionary and exclusionary binary?”. African Journal of Developmen Studies 9(1). 167-191.
• Tylden, G. 1959. “The third Kaffir War, 1799-1802”. Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 37(150). 72-82.

Identifiers

DOI

doi.org/10.32690/SALC58.8