Browsing by Author "Toyer, Zaib"
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Item dalawhatyoumust: Kaaps, translingualism and linguistic citizenship in Cape Town, South Africa(Discourse, Context & Media, 2023) Toyer, Zaib; Peck, AmienaIn 2016 Wayde Van Niekerk, a South African athlete of mixed-race heritage won an Olympic gold medal. In South Africa, his win caused hashtags such as #proudlysouthafrican, #blackexcellence and #colouredexcellence to trend online. By and large, these hashtags index the ongoing competitive discourses regarding nationalism, race and culture in Cape Town (cf. Author, 2018). Amongst these hashtags, however, was #dalawhatyoumust, a Kaaps hashtag generally meaning to �do what needs to be done�. Unlike the aforementioned hashtags, this one seems to cross the linguistic and racial divide despite its strong associations with Coloured1 people on the Cape Flats. The seemingly effortless uptake of this hashtag by diverse South Africans suggest that it has somehow become unmoored of its ethnic and linguistic inception. We explore the use of this Kaaps hashtag as a form of translingual practice which is affect-laden and trans portable across and between diverse users online and which promotes a particular �cool Capetonian� culture. Analyzing select posts from the #dalawhatyoumust thread on Facebook, we provide a nuanced look at #dala whatyoumust as an uplifting genre which proleptically advises nameless viewers of the importance of selfactualization, determination and aspiration. Additionally, we include Goffman�s (1974) framing foundation to investigate how positivistic discourse has been rhizomatically taken up by a �realm� of implicit collective users online. This research interrogates long-held ideological boundaries between Kaaps and legitimized Standard Afrikaans and standard English. We conclude with a focus on Kaaps hashtags as semiotic acts of Linguistic Citizenship (cf. Williams and Stroud, 2013) which allows for the conjoining of Kaaps with diverse audiences, complex trajectories, and an assortment of accompanying semiotics. Following Stroud (2018:3) we argue that this Kaaps hashtag has become a form of languaging that facilitates ��the building of broad affinities of speakers that cut across�divisions and borders, and that negotiate co-existence/co-habitation outside of common ground in recognition of equivocation�. In South Africa, division was the order of the day and when we explore contemporary ordinary moments posted by heterogenous users using #dalawhatyoumust (henceforth #dwym) we aim to explore the ordinariness of languaging which brings people together despite their race, linguistic background, and ethnicity, that is to say an affinity of �cool Capetonian� style.Item A hashtag analysis of racial discourses within #ColouredExcellence: Case of Wayde van Niekerk(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Toyer, Zaib; Peck, AmienaThe research study takes into account the apartheid legacy of racial hierarchization and �separate development� (cf Raynard, 2012) which penetrated all aspects of social life. Particularly, it is the sporting domain and the categorization of race and identity which is investigated. In this regard, it is the re-entry of South African athletes of colour at the Olympic Games which are of keen interest. At the 2016 Rio Olympics South African Wayde Van Niekerk (WVN) became a household name when he broke the world record in the 400 meter men�s division. His win however, was represented in different ways online and it is through investigating trending hashtags on Facebook & Twitter that new and well-worn discourses of identity emerge. A critical analysis of the online representations of WVN is undertaken so as to speak to normalized discourses of race within a South African context. A particularly contentious and provocative hashtag i.e. #ColouredExcellence is investigated in its ability to speak to an online debate on race and identity which took hold at the time of his win. This study therefore investigates the online representations which locate WVN within an arguably racially divided post-apartheid setting where vestiges of apartheid are still present. By drawing on Ahmed�s (2004) work on �affective economy� this study investigates how emotions emerge online in the form of memes, Twitter hashtags and Facebook posts, and which indexes larger discourses on race and identity. The main aims of this research is to: a). investigate normalized discourses of race online, and their relation to the on-going issues of race and identity in a post- apartheid South Africa and b) To examine the emotions emergent in varying representations of WVN online.