Browsing by Author "Kanyawana, Onike"

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    Representation of race, class and gender in Kagiso Lesego Molope’s dancing in the dust.
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2018) Kanyawana, Onike
    This study examines how Kagiso Lesego Molope’s Dancing in the Dust represents women and youth’s struggle against Apartheid regime in South Africa. Using Postcolonial and African feminist approaches, this study explored how race, class and gender affected their struggle thus rendering them incapable of liberating the majority South Africans from the White rule. Through close reading and textual analysis, the study has observed that, the novel depicts the denial of Black South Africans rights due to their race, class and gender leading to their hardships in South Africa. The study shows how the novel reveals that race and class should be treated differently in South Africa because the oppression felt by Black South Africans was not universal, since some of the Black South Africans suffered the oppression and segregation along racial lines and others along class lines. So their experiences should not be generalized. The study has also shown how the novel represents men and women’s struggle to make South Africa a better place for Black South Africans by subverting the norm of considering women as weak and therefore be left at home. Instead, the study observes that they all worked together although they faced different challenges. Women were double oppressed during the Apartheid regime as they were physically tortured and sexually harassed by the police. Youths are also portrayed as a very important group because they effectively engaged in fighting for better living condition in South Africa. They fought up to their last breath without fear and most of them failed to accomplish their dreams due to the constant chaotic situations in their schools. The study has established that race, class and gender during Apartheid played a significant role in sustaining the oppression and segregation of Black South Africans hence leading to their miserable life in their own country.