Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

SOCIOLOGY / ANTHROPOLOGYYouth and Identity Politics inSouth Africa, 1990–94Sibusisiwe Nombuso DlaminiANTHROPOLOGICAL HORIZONSDocumenting youth participation in the SouthAfrican anti-apartheid struggle, Youth and IdentityPolitics in South Africa examines identity constructionand negotiation in the region ofKwaZulu/Natal. Based on extensiveinterviews, Sibusisiwe NombusoDlamini presents life stories ofsurvival and identity negotiationin a region and at a timewhere to be youthful and politicallyactive was to be associatedwith membership in NelsonMandela’s African NationalCongress – a potentially dangerousassociation.Zulus are far from beingan homogenous group. Dlamini examines thedynamics both of group identification – that ofbeing a young Zulu – and of the differences, bothclass and regional. Further, she looks at the discoursesof participation in the liberation struggle,and how these discourses intersect withKwaZulu/Natal identity and party politics. Youthand Identity Politics in South Africa shows how theyouth identify variously as fans of jazz or hip-hopwho espouse a non-racial national character, as athleteswho feel a strong connection to traditionalZulu patriarchy, or in many other social and politicalsubcultures. This is a rich and unprecedentedyouth-centred ethnography that paints a unique pictureof the lives of South African youth.Sibusisiwe Nombuso Dlamini is an assistant professorin the Faculty of Education at the University ofWindsor.‘This is a highly readable book that makes a significant contributionto social anthropology. As an anthropologist, it wasstimulating for me to read an ethnography centred in SouthAfrica that was able to convey theseriousness of the political context,while at the same timebringing the human face of this tothe fore. Its ethnographic detailis perhaps one of its finest aspectsalong with Dlamini’s generousdescriptions of her role in thewider community. This is animportant work that elucidates arather muddy and neglected areaof South African history thatcould have only been written bysomeone from the community.’Robin Oakley, Department ofSociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie UniversityOf related interest:Ghosts and ShadowsConstruction of Identity and Community in anAfrican DiasporaAtsuko Matsuoka and John Sorenson0-8020-8331-5 / £14.00 / $25.95 / 2001Approx. 260 pp / 6 x 9 / March 20053 figuresCloth ISBN 0-8020-3911-1 £35.00 $55.00 EYoung Zulu youth performing a dance at a traditional weddingceremony. Photograph courtesy the author.53