The everyday experience of xenophobia: performing The Crossing from Zimbabwe to South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorFlockemann, Miki
dc.contributor.authorNgara, Kudzayi
dc.contributor.authorRoberts, Wahseema
dc.contributor.authorCastle, Andrea
dc.date.accessioned22/05/2017 16:11
dc.date.available22/05/2017 16:11
dc.date.issued2010
dc.description.abstractDebates on the underlying causes of xenophobia in South Africa have proliferated since the attacks -between March and May 2008. Our article shows how exploring the everyday 'ordinariness' of xenophobia as performance can contribute additional insights not readily available in the public media or in works such as the recently published Go home or die here.- violence, xenophobia and the reinvention of difference (Hassim et al. 2009). The claim that as metaphor the meaning of performance is discovered in the dialectic established between the fictitious and actual context, provides a point of departure for a discussion of an autobiographical one-man play, The Crossing, in which Jonathan Nkala performs .his hazardous and 'illegal' rites of passage from Zimbabwe to South Africa. The play's aesthetic of 'witnessing', associated with the protest generation, intersects with and looks beyond a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) aesthetic. To contextualise our discussion of Nkala's work we track trends in responses to xenophobia, including the suggestion that the attacks were underpinned by prevailing discourses of exceptianaJism and indigeneity. However, the intimacy of targeting those living close to you needs fuller anatysis. We will argue that the liminality of the performance event provides scope for making connections not directly 'there' at the moment of performance. This has a bearing on the 'return' to Fanon and claims about 'negrophobia' characterising many reports in the public domain on the events of 2008. In turn, this invites speculation about the re-alignments indicated here.en_US
dc.description.accreditationDHETen_US
dc.identifier.citationFlockemann, M., et al. (2010). The everyday experience of xenophobia: performing The Crossing from Zimbabwe to South Africa. Critical Arts, 24(2): 245-259en_US
dc.identifier.issn0256-0046
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/2864
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02560041003786516
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterFALSE
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.publisherUNISA Pressen_US
dc.rightsThis is the author-version of the articled published online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02560041003786516
dc.status.ispeerreviewedTRUE
dc.subjectaesthetic engagement, exceptionalism, indigeneity, negrophobia, performance, post-TAC, xenophobiaen_US
dc.titleThe everyday experience of xenophobia: performing The Crossing from Zimbabwe to South Africaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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