Coconuts, gangsters and rainbow fighters

12 juni 2009

'Attending school and establishing friendships in former White areas of Cape Town make male youngsters who stay in township areas more vulnerable to violence both as perpetrators and victims'. This is one of the conclusions of Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard's dissertation Coconuts, gangsters and rainbow fighters: how male youngsters navigate situations of violence in Cape Town, South Africa. The 12th of June Rosenkrantz Lindegaard succesfully concluded her PhD research.

Due to improved economic conditions for a small group of the non-White population, an increasing amount of Coloured and Black youngsters attend schools which were for `Whites only' during apartheid. These youngsters commute daily in order to improve their educational possibilities and avoid the risk of unemployment in the future. Being spatially and socially mobile, however, bring about other kinds of risks.

Why are mobile male youngsters more vulnerable to violence?
The way male youngsters navigate socially when they move between townships and former White areas influence their vulnerability to violence. The three following ways were identified in the research: One, they change their accent, clothing and greeting style, type of slang and movements to accommodate to expectations at school and they stick to this style at home in the township. Such youngsters are often referred to as ‘coconuts’ (black on the outside and white on the inside) by people from the townships and they are highly at risk in terms of becoming victims to violence at home. Two, they stick to their accent, clothing and greeting style, type of slang and movements from the township also when they interact with youngsters at school. Those youngsters are often referred to as ‘gangsters’ at school and they risk becoming perpetrators and victims to violence both at school and in the township. In the township these youngsters tend to be tested on their willingness to stand up for themselves in fights by non-mobile youngsters; at school their willingness to fight is tested typically by male youngsters who feel threatened by them. Three, they shift between different accents, clothing and greeting styles, types of slang and movements. Youngsters who are able to make such shifts in convincing ways are least at risk in relation to violence both as perpetrators and victims.

Fitting in socially prevent male youngsters from violence
Male youngsters who are able to be seen as ‘insiders’ in the townsip and ‘insiders’ at school are lest at risk in relation to violence. These youngsters are able to behave both like ‘coconuts’ and ‘gangsters’ depending on whom they interact without being considered ‘false’. Such abilities to be socially flexible require strong social skills and only a handful of male youngsters in this research had such skills. The majority of socially and spatially mobile male youngsters behaved like ‘coconuts’ both at school and in the township. A smaller group insisted on not being ‘false’ by changing their behaviour; these youngsters did not only run the risk of exposure to violence; they also experienced to be discriminated against at school where any male youngster from the townships was considered a gangster until he had proven himself differently. Violence: a way to settle disputes about social hierarchies

Situations where violence took place were characterised by emotional tension stemming forth from a dispute about the social hierarchies between the youngsters interacting. Violence was one among many ways to settle this dispute; it was caused by: ambiguity about how to socially categorise each other; and uncertainty about the social hierarchy between the parties interacting.

‘Coconuts’ who did not try to avoid being perceived as coconuts were vulnerable to violence not because it was unclear how to categorise them but because it was unclear if they saw themselves as ‘better’ than the non-mobile male youngsters they interacted with. Violence towards ‘coconuts’ was a tool to push them down and remind them that being mobile did not position them higher than non-mobile male youngsters in the social hierarchy of the township. Violence against youngsters who were perceived as ‘gangsters’ at school was both caused by uncertainty about whether they really were gangsters and by the need to prove that despite behaving like gangsters they were still not higher positioned than other male youngsters in the social hierarchy of the school. For mobile male youngsters who were perceived as gangsters at school, violence was a way to confirm such stereotypes, install fear, and thereby to avoid being targeted by other male youngsters; in the township violence was also a way to avoid being targeted and to prove senses of belonging in relation to non-mobile male youngsters.

The research suggests that more research is needed about: social and spatial mobility among youngsters in South Africa; about how male youngsters avoid violence; about male youngsters who are not violent and not involved in a gang; about actual occurrences of violence in general; about the micro-dynamics between people interacting violently; and about violence as a form of agency.

Ethnographic research
The dissertation is based on 18 months of extensive research with White, Coloured and Black male youngsters living in different parts of Cape Town. Five of those months were spend on ethnographic research in prison with ten male youngsters who were incarcerated for murder. Outside prison 15 youngsters were followed around in the city: to school, home, night clubs, beaches, shopping malls and sport events. 50 youngsters were interviewed in depth; 20 were provided with disposable cameras, and a questionnaire was conducted among 500 high school learners.

The author
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard is a Danish anthropologist. Her PhD project was done at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. Since January 2009 she has been a Postdoc at the NSCR. Her current project focuses on violent crimes, social and spatial mobility and imprisonment among Dutch male youngsters.

Source: NCSR

Rosenkrantz Lindegaard's research was funded by an individual project grant from the NWO division WOTRO Science for Global Development.