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The Life and Work of Gugulethu Siziba (1979-2017): Reflections on Language, Migration, and Identity in South Africa

Explore the life and academic contributions of Gugulethu Siziba, focusing on her research on language, migration, and identity in the context of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. Reflect on her groundbreaking work and the impact of language in shaping group dynamics and assimilation.

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The Life and Work of Gugulethu Siziba (1979-2017): Reflections on Language, Migration, and Identity in South Africa

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  1. The life and work of GugulethuSiziba (1979-2017)

  2. Reflections on the life and work of GugulethuSiziba (1979-2017) Lloyd Hill lloydhill@sun.ac.za Panel discussion, 24 April 2018 Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University

  3. Selected work • Siziba, Gugulethu and Lloyd Hill (2018) "Language and the geopolitics of (dis)location: A study of Zimbabwean Shona and Ndebele speakers in Johannesburg." Language in Society 47, 115–139. • 2013 thesis: Language and the politics of identity in South Africa: The case of Zimbabwean (Shona and Ndebele speaking) migrants in Johannesburg • 2015 article: ‘Cross-identification’: identity games and the performance of South Africanness by Ndebele-speaking migrants in Johannesburg • 2016 article: The Body as a Site for (Un) Making the ‘Other’: Shona Speaking Migrants' Negotiation of Identity Politics in Johannesburg

  4. Contexts & trajectory • 1979 – born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe • 1980 Independence & Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland… • 2000 – Begins UG studies at UZ in Harare • 2000-2008 – “Kukiya-kiya” economic crisis & outmigration • May 2008 “Xenophobic” violence • 2010 – To Johanneburg (Wits) • 2011 – To Stellenbosch

  5. Migration & language • “Language” in Zimbabwean migration literature • Shona / Ndebele… “inert ethnonyms” • Assumes “a language” necessarily indexes “a group” • Overstates dialect continuum as medium for assimilation • Ndebele… Zulu (NGUNI) • Assumes geographic “place” as inert background • Implicitly indexes the state as meta-place

  6. Conceptualizing “language” • Bourdieu… on “genesis of groups” • Nominal class…”on paper” • E.g. “Ndebele” as official (Census) label, in SA & Zimbabwe • Probably class… mobilized (group)… • In Johannesburg… repertoire? • Hymes… on “language repertoire” • Speech styles… • Contexts of discourse… • Norms of appropriateness

  7. Foreign (mostly African) citizens in central Johannesburg Gugu’s fieldwork: Yeoville and Hillbrow as “Zimbabwean colonies”…

  8. Zimbabweans as “probable classes” in (central) Johannesburg North… dislocation… (white) suburban spaces… English East… dislocation… township spaces… “Cross-identification” (pass as South African) • IsiZulu semaflethini (Zulu of the flats) • English • Silence / avoidance (isiZulu sekasi… 1stlang Zulu) Location… “home” spaces… Shona, Ndebele, English

  9. “Cross-identification” • Gugu’s novel concept, nuanced in later papers… • PhD tends to present it as generic Zimbabwean strategy in Joburg • 2015 article: Cross-identification [as] predominantly Ndebele-speaking “performance of South Africanness” • 2016 article: “The body…” more focus to silent avoidance practices of Shona speaking migrants • More critical reflection on own habitus?

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