Abstract
As the state of South Africa matures, questions attached to meanings of being ‘Black’ have become more pervasive, and the promised freedom is embroiled in sharpening contradictions and paradoxes. The construction and reconstruction of Blackness developed within capitalism, which is the cornerstone of structural racism. Inferiority complexes emanate from the process of construction, and the overlap between old and new structural contexts reconstructs Black ontology. Moreover, I argue that neither sociology nor Marxists have yet fully understood Blackness and structural racism, especially its political relevance.
This dissertation highlights the importance of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois’ theoretical and methodological contribution in conceptualising the reconstruction of being Black, which is valued in South Africa and elsewhere. Seminal writers Frantz Fanon and Bantu Stephen Biko also inform my conceptual framework. However, the dissertation attempts to go beyond Du Bois’ concepts by connecting theoretical articulations with empirical evidence on how structural racism permeates and interacts with capitalism, in shaping what it means to be Black in South Africa today.
Expanding on Du Bois’ methodology, this dissertation uses Conversation Analysis; I engaged with eight ‘elites’ and forty-six ‘ordinary’ people. The dissertation illustrates similarities and differences between the ‘elites’ and ‘ordinary’ people. ‘Elites’ are those who influenced the intellectual and political landscape, and the term ‘ordinary’ is used not in an ignominious sense, but to distinguish this category from the ‘elites’.
A key empirical finding is that Blackness embodies multiple consciousness. I argue that being Black has multiple folds which interact and disrupt the collective history of oppression. Various dimensions such as childhood memories, language, culture, and ‘small freedom’ shape the reconstruction of Blackness. Among the ‘elites’ these dimensions were often articulated through a theoretical framing of what it meant to be Black. Among ‘ordinary’ people, the meanings attached to being Black were more fluid. Their articulations differed depending on class background, occupations, and where they went to school. This dissertation makes an original contribution by focusing on empirical evidence to show that Blackness goes beyond Du Bois’ double consciousness, and is embedded in multiple consciousness.
D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)