Being and Belonging: Space and Identity in Cape TownPosted in Africa, Anthropology, Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, South Africa on 2011-04-14 02:13Z by Steven |
Being and Belonging: Space and Identity in Cape Town
Anthropology and Humanism
Volume 28, Issue 1 (June 2003)
pages 61–84
DOI: 10.1525/ahu.2003.28.1.61
Shannon M. Jackson, Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of Missouri, Kansas City
The post-apartheid transition has led to changes in the shape and meaning of urban space in South Africa. Cape Town is being described as a postmodern city where planning strategies and new development have begun to fragment and privatize space to the point of de-territorializing it. This has contributed to the effort by a local group, referred to as “Coloureds,” to reterritorialize Cape Town, to reinscribe history and meaning back into the urban landscape. In the process of reterritorializing the city, Coloureds are negotiating their own identities but are doing so in ways that both challenge racial boundaries and assert them. This article will explore the nature and history of the urban space being reclaimed as well as the way in which the meaning it inspires contributes to the contradictory and ambiguous quality of the boundaries of Coloured identity.
Read or purchase the article here.