Browsing by Author "Gobodo, Bapiwe"

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    The badge, the blazer and those who came before us: a sociological study on hazing in former model C all-boys schools in the Eastern Cape
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Gobodo, Bapiwe; Francis, Dennis; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to explore how seven black men, 18-25 years of age, who have attended all-boys ex-model C schools talk about their understanding and experiences of hazing and what their understanding and experiences reveal about masculinities and cultural heteronormativity in South Africa. This study aims to understand the institutional culture of boys’ high schools and the factors that inform, produce, and reproduce heteronormative culture. This study used a retrospective ethnographic method of inquiry to explore participants’ memories of their experiences and perceptions about the initiation/hazing they were subjected to during their school years. As points of entry into the extensive and broad theoretical discussions, I discuss hazing in sports, the institutional culture of the schools, heteronormative ideals that have shaped the narratives around hazing in boys schools, dynamics of schools, as well as the racial issues that exist within these institutions. This demonstrates how the issue of hazing is a systematic issue that relies heavily on the reproduction of systems based on values and ideals passed down in the schooling system. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. The findings highlight the ambivalent feelings many participants felt towards their respective institutions and how they spoke about these environments and their experiences while attending them. It was clear that while the participants had viewed some of their experiences as positive, they remained critical of the abuse and marginalisation experienced. The ambivalent responses helped the participants become cognisant of the deeper underlying issues within some of their experiences. The danger inherent in these hazing practices is that they often go unquestioned – participants seemed to pass on the tradition without reflecting on why they participated in such practices and their effects. This study concludes by arguing that a combination of hegemonic masculinity ideals and attending a single-sex school with unchallenged traditions make young men who are new members of these schools more susceptible to the pressures of taking part in hazing practices. This study also contends that such practices are toxic to educational settings and detrimental to social cohesion and social justice. They create an environment of fear and hostility, in addition to fostering unbalanced scales of peer-to-peer “authority” and control.