Geographies of the Black African Masculine in Tsotsi and The Wooden Camera

Bibliographic Data

ID15415675
AuthorsJordache Abner Ellapen (0000-0003-1060-5428, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume9
Issue2
Pages235-235
Publication date2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBlack Camera (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1536-3155 • E-ISSN: 1947-4237
PublisherIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/blackcamera.9.2.16
OpenAlexW2803910002
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

This article examines the various representations of black masculinities in the films Tsotsi (dir. Gavin Hood, 2005) and The Wooden Camera (dir. Ntshavheni wa Luruli, 2003) in order to complicate the manner in which an authentic black African masculinity has become conflated with the tsotsi (gangster) figure in South African cinema. This article begins with the examination of two film posters used to promote Tsosti and The Wooden Camera in France. Both posters rely on stereotypes of the black African masculine as dangerous, deviant, and violent. By examining the various representations of black masculinities in these films, and by situating these representations within the sociohistorical and political contexts, this article complicates the overdetermined representation of the tsotsi figure that reinforces black masculinity as pathological on global screens. This article also examines the articulation of black masculinity within the township space, which the author theorizes as an in-between space. The article concludes with a call to consider the politics of race and representation, especially the implications of racializing Africanness and who can claim the rights to representation, particularly the representation of the black African body, after 1994

Articulation (sociology · Masculinity · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · Law · South African History and Culture