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Asserting Belonging Through Queer Behavior in Cape Town, South Africa

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Asserting Belonging Through Queer Behavior in Cape Town, South Africa University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Coloureds Performing Queer, Or Queer Coloureds Performing?: Asserting Belonging Through Queer Behavior In Cape Town, South Africa Glenn Holtzman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Music Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Holtzman, Glenn, "Coloureds Performing Queer, Or Queer Coloureds Performing?: Asserting Belonging Through Queer Behavior In Cape Town, South Africa" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2343. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2343 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2343 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Coloureds Performing Queer, Or Queer Coloureds Performing?: Asserting Belonging Through Queer Behavior In Cape Town, South Africa Abstract The mixed-race community of Cape Town is known locally as the “coloured” people of South Africa: neither black nor white according to nuances of strict racial criteria and classification systems ootedr in colonialism and apartheid legislature. South Africa’s “coloured” people have historically been regarded as the “bastard children” of the nation. From their very beginnings, their classification as off-white“ ” rather than as black created a crisis in their identity. Coloured people dealt with this crisis in diverse ways. Some chose to reject the notion of colonialism and white privilege by embracing black or Afro-centric consciousness movements, but many adopted enculturations of “Englishness” that they associated with the British empire and church. This dissertation examines how certain cohorts of the Cape coloured community perform multiple- identities, and use voorstellen (identity projection techniques) as a means of claiming respectability and dignity. By associating themselves with specific musical genres – centred around choral singing, brass or string ensembles, ballet, ballroom or modern dancing, marches and parades – some coloured people strengthened this notion of being seen as respectable rather than disreputable; by performing a “sense-of- self” that they believed was able to connote the distinction. I also analyze how the Cape coloured community engages a habitus of “queer identity” - the display of behavior more fluid and deviant than the norm; a behavior that does not conform to strict etiquette or social codes. This queer identity is a dissociated reality that I equate with “coming out of the closet” as multi-racial, black and white, African and European, heterosexual and homosexual – i.e., not fully normative. In this context, I argue that music acts as a catalyst, or social aid, to induce a particular habitus of coloured identity: a habitus not fixed, but, rather, dependent on the function of the music to negotiate one’s dissociated reality as either the conforming or deviant “other”. Using queer theory and autoethnography rooted in ethnomusicological discourse, I examine the social function of music and associated corporeal gestures of mixed-race South African’s living in the (post)colonial and (post)apartheid port city of Cape Town. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Music First Advisor Carol Muller Keywords Anglican, Cape Coloured, Identity, Mixed Race, Moffie, Queer Subject Categories Music | Social and Cultural Anthropology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2343 COLOUREDS PERFORMING QUEER, OR QUEER COLOUREDS PERFORMING?: ASSERTING BELONGING THROUGH QUEER BEHAVIOR IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Glenn Holtzman A DISSERTATION in Music Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation ________________________ Carol Muller, Professor of Music Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________ Carol Muller, Professor of Music Dissertation Committee Carol Muller, Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania Marie Jorritsma, Professor of Music, University of the Witwatersrand Gavin Steingo, Professor of Music, Princeton University Dedication For Dr. Carol Muller, my academic mentor and ‘mother’ ii Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr. Carol Muller for the continuos support of my Ph.D study and related research. Her guidance and knowledge proved to be indespensible for the research and writing of this dissertation. Besides my adivisor, I would like to thank the rest of my dissertation committee: Dr. Marie Jorritsma and Dr. Gavin Steingo. My sincere thanks also goes to Dr. Deborah Thomas and Dr. Tsitsi Jaji for their support in my initial stages of writing this manuscript. Thanks must also go to my professors at the Music Department of the University of Pennsylvania; and I also wish to acknowledge the administrative staff of the Department, Margie Smith, Maryellen Malek, and Alfreda Frazer, who always offered supportive words and provided solutions in moments of crisis. I am also eternally grateful to Nina Ohman, Suzanne Bratt, and Christine Dang, my graduate group colleagues and friends, for the experience of “belonging” I felt among them, and for always believing in me. Finally, I would like to thank the School of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice-Provost for University Life at the University of Pennsylvania; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation; the Social Science Research Council; and the University of Pretoria, for supporting my Ph.D and research. Last, but certainly not least, I express my gratitude to my family and friends in Cape Town, South Africa. iii ABSTRACT COLOUREDS PERFORMING QUEER, OR QUEER COLOUREDS PERFORMING?: ASSERTING BELONGING THROUGH QUEER BEHAVIOR IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Glenn Holtzman Carol Muller The mixed-race community of Cape Town is known locally as the “coloured” people of South Africa: neither black nor white according to nuances of strict racial criteria and classification systems rooted in colonialism and apartheid legislature. South Africa’s “coloured” people have historically been regarded as the “bastard children” of the nation. From their very beginnings, their classification as “off-white” rather than as black created a crisis in their identity. Coloured people dealt with this crisis in diverse ways. Some chose to reject the notion of colonialism and white privilege by embracing black or Afro-centric consciousness movements, but many adopted enculturations of “Englishness” that they associated with the British empire and church. This dissertation examines how certain cohorts of the Cape coloured community perform multiple-identities, and use voorstellen (identity projection techniques) as a means of claiming respectability and dignity. By associating themselves with specific musical genres – centred around choral singing, brass or string ensembles, ballet, ballroom or modern dancing, marches and parades – some coloured people strengthened this notion of being seen as respectable rather than disreputable; by performing a “sense-of-self” that they believed was iv able to connote the distinction. I also analyze how the Cape coloured community engages a habitus of “queer identity” - the display of behavior more fluid and deviant than the norm; a behavior that does not conform to strict etiquette or social codes. This queer identity is a dissociated reality that I equate with “coming out of the closet” as multi-racial, black and white, African and European, heterosexual and homosexual – i.e., not fully normative. In this context, I argue that music acts as a catalyst, or social aid, to induce a particular habitus of coloured identity: a habitus not fixed, but, rather, dependent on the function of the music to negotiate one’s dissociated reality as either the conforming or deviant “other”. Using queer theory and autoethnography rooted in ethnomusicological discourse, I examine the social function of music and associated corporeal gestures of mixed-race South African’s living in the (post)colonial and (post)apartheid port city of Cape Town. v Table of Contents Dedication .............................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................vi List of Illustrations .................................................................................................ix Maps .................................................................................................................... xii Preface .............................................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................... 1 Background .................................................................................................... 1 Disjunctures of Dialect ................................................................................... 8 Entanglement and Belonging ......................................................................
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