Abstract
Conducted in Daveyton, this study sets out to investigate the practice of Ukukhothana, which came into being in 2005 in the East Rand townships of Gauteng. It has since spread to Soweto and elsewhere in South Africa. This practice entails conspicuous public rituals of display and destruction of expensive material goods by young black male South Africans ranging from branded clothing and alcohol, to well-loved foodstuffs and even banknotes. The present study considers some of the underlying motivations of these ostentatious manifestations of excess and flashiness, as described by a sample group of Izikhothane (practitioners of Ukukhothana). The study is particularly interested in how, despite their flashiness and ostensible superficiality, the conspicuously-stylized displays of consumption and status-seeking, practised by Izikhothane provide young black South Africans, especially males, with valid ways of 'being' in South Africa today.
M.A.