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Resistance against Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination in the Poetry of Sindiwe Magona

Year 2024, Volume: 18 Issue: 1, 124 - 136, 30.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1429525

Abstract

Sindiwe Magona (1943-) is a South African self-made black woman writer who rises out of difficult socio-economic conditions and turns out to be a well-accomplished writer who uses writing as a vehicle to struggle against the oppressive political system of apartheid, ongoing inner conflicts, criminality, and the infliction of gender-based violence. Gender-based violence remains an unresolved problem in South Africa where the apartheid regime and its adherents continue to nurture the patriarchal ideology which victimizes, alienates, and restricts women both in the domestic and public spheres. The focal point of this article, therefore, is to examine Sindiwe Magona’s Please Take Photographs (2009) which is embedded with her subversive strategy of unsettling the masculine authority constructed officially over women and conducted as a natural determinant of men and women’s unbalanced power relationship in South African society. An in-depth scrutiny of her poetry will reveal Magona’s exceptional endeavor to extricate gender-based violence out of the domestic sphere and reconfigure it as the greatest social and political problem of her country.

References

  • Bennett, J. (2001). “‘Enough lip service!’ Hearing Post-colonial experience of gender-based violence.” Agenda 16. 50: 88-96.
  • Boswell, B. (2017). “Overcoming the ‘daily bludgeoning by apartheid’: black South African women writers, agency, and space.” African Identities 15. 4: 414-427.
  • Bridger, Emily. (2021). Young Women against Apartheid: Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation Struggle. James Currey.
  • Cottrell, R. C. (2005). South Africa: A State of Apartheid. Chelsea House.
  • Dey Roy, N. (2021). “Story of a Mother: a Biopolitical Reading of Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother.” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies 22.2: 162-176.
  • Du Toit, L. (2005). “A Phenomenology of Rape: Forging a New Vocabulary for Action.” In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 253-274). Routledge.
  • Gagiano, A. (2020). “Complicating Apartheid Resistance Histories by Means of South African Autobiographies.” a|b: Auto|Biography Studies 35. 3: 667-689.
  • Gouws, A. (2005). Introduction. In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 1-17). Routledge.
  • Guarducci, M. P. (2015). “Interview With Sindiwe Magona.” Il Tolomeo 17: 157-163.
  • Herwitz, D. (2003). Race and Reconciliation: Essays from the New South Africa. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Johnson, W. R. (1994). Dismantling Apartheid: A South African Town in Transition. Cornell University Press.
  • Klausen, S. M. (2015). Abortion under Apartheid: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Women’s Reproductive Rights in South Africa. Oxford University Press.
  • Magona, S. (2009). Please, Take Photographs. Modjaji Books.
  • Magona, S. (2012). “It is in the Blood: Trauma and Memory in the South African Novel.” In Mengel, E. and Michela B. (Eds.), Trauma, Memory, and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel: Essays. (Eds.). Rodopi, 93-105.
  • Mama, A. (2000). “Why We Must Write: Personal Reflections on Linking the Alchemy of Science with the Relevance of Activism.” Agenda 16: 13-20.
  • Masemola, K. (2010). “The Individuated Collective Utterance: Lack, Law and Desire in the Autobiographies of Ellen Kuzwayo and Sindiwe Magona.” Journal of Literary Studies, 26:1, 111-134.
  • Meerkotter, A. (2005). “The Impact of the HIV /AIDS Epidemic on Women’s Citizenship in South Africa.” In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 157-174). Routledge.
  • Naidoo, S. (2022). Women in Solitary: Inside South Africa’s Female Resistance to Apartheid. Routledge.
  • Schatteman, R. (2007). “Interview with Sindiwe Magona.” Scrutiny2 12. 2: 154-164.
  • Segalo, P. (2020). “Belonging, Memory and Subaltern Voices: Reflecting on Sindiwe Magona’s To my Children’s Children.” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 6. 3: 189-202.
  • Spencer, L. G. (2021). “‘A Strange Combination of Femininity and Menace’: Re-Thinking the Figure of the Female Soldier in Nadifa Mohammed’s The Orchard of Lost Souls.” In Nkealah, N. and O. Nnaemeka (Eds.), Gendered Violence and Human Rights in Black World Literature and Film, (pp. 147-162). Routledge.
  • Tafira, H. K. (2016). Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa: The Persistence of an Idea of Liberation. (Ed.) H. K. Tafira. Palgrave.
  • Van Der Vlies, A. (2017). Present Imperfect: Contemporary South African Writing. Oxford University Press.
  • Walker, C. (1995). “Conceptualising Motherhood in Twentieth Century South Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies, 21. 3: 417-437.
  • Wesemüller, E. (2012). African Nationalism from Apartheid to Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Critical Analysis of ANC Party Political Discourse. ibidem-Verlag.
  • Wilson, R. A. (2001). The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State. Cambridge University Press.

Sindiwe Magona’nın Şiirlerinde Cinsiyete Dayalı Şiddet ve Ayrımcılığa Karşı Çıkış

Year 2024, Volume: 18 Issue: 1, 124 - 136, 30.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1429525

Abstract

Güney Afrikalı siyahi bir kadın yazar olan Sindiwe Magona (1943-), ülkesinin zorlu sosyo-ekonomik koşullarında kendisini yetiştirip başarılı bir yazar olmuş ve yazılarını Güney Afrika’da uzun bir süre hüküm süren baskıcı Apartheid politik rejimi, iç çatışmaları, suç unsurları ve cinsiyete dayalı şiddete karşı savaş aracı olarak kullanmıştır. Apartheid rejiminin ve yandaşlarının, ataerkil ideolojiyi besleyerek kadınların dışlanması, kurbanlaştırılması ve hem ev içinde hem sosyal alanlarda baskı altına almasıyla cinsiyete dayalı şiddet Güney Afrika’nın çözülmeyen bir sorunu olarak kalmıştır. Bu çalışmanın odak noktası, kadınların üzerinde resmi olarak inşa edilen ve kadın-erkek arasındaki dengesiz güç ilişkisin temel belirleyicisi olan maskülen otoriteye karşı Magona’nın Please Take Photographs (2009) başlıklı eserinde geliştirmiş olduğu yıkıcı söylem ve stratejidir. Şiirlerinin detaylı incelemesi, Magona’nın cinsiyete dayalı şiddeti evin özel alanından çıkarıp, ülkenin en önemli sosyal ve politik sorunu olarak gösterebilmek için verdiği eşsiz gayreti ortaya koyacaktır.

Ethical Statement

Bu çalışmanın, özgün bir çalışma olduğunu; çalışmanın hazırlık, veri toplama, analiz ve bilgilerin sunumu olmak üzere tüm aşamalarından bilimsel etik ilke ve kurallarına uygun davrandığımı; bu çalışma kapsamında elde edilmeyen tüm veri ve bilgiler için kaynak gösterdiğimi ve bu kaynaklara kaynakçada yer verdiğimi; kullanılan verilerde herhangi bir değişiklik yapmadığımı, çalışmanın Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)' in tüm şartlarını ve koşullarını kabul ederek etik görev ve sorumluluklara riayet ettiğimi beyan ederim. Herhangi bir zamanda, çalışmayla ilgili yaptığım bu beyana aykırı bir durumun saptanması durumunda, ortaya çıkacak tüm ahlaki ve hukuki sonuçlara razı olduğumu bildiririm.

References

  • Bennett, J. (2001). “‘Enough lip service!’ Hearing Post-colonial experience of gender-based violence.” Agenda 16. 50: 88-96.
  • Boswell, B. (2017). “Overcoming the ‘daily bludgeoning by apartheid’: black South African women writers, agency, and space.” African Identities 15. 4: 414-427.
  • Bridger, Emily. (2021). Young Women against Apartheid: Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation Struggle. James Currey.
  • Cottrell, R. C. (2005). South Africa: A State of Apartheid. Chelsea House.
  • Dey Roy, N. (2021). “Story of a Mother: a Biopolitical Reading of Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother.” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies 22.2: 162-176.
  • Du Toit, L. (2005). “A Phenomenology of Rape: Forging a New Vocabulary for Action.” In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 253-274). Routledge.
  • Gagiano, A. (2020). “Complicating Apartheid Resistance Histories by Means of South African Autobiographies.” a|b: Auto|Biography Studies 35. 3: 667-689.
  • Gouws, A. (2005). Introduction. In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 1-17). Routledge.
  • Guarducci, M. P. (2015). “Interview With Sindiwe Magona.” Il Tolomeo 17: 157-163.
  • Herwitz, D. (2003). Race and Reconciliation: Essays from the New South Africa. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Johnson, W. R. (1994). Dismantling Apartheid: A South African Town in Transition. Cornell University Press.
  • Klausen, S. M. (2015). Abortion under Apartheid: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Women’s Reproductive Rights in South Africa. Oxford University Press.
  • Magona, S. (2009). Please, Take Photographs. Modjaji Books.
  • Magona, S. (2012). “It is in the Blood: Trauma and Memory in the South African Novel.” In Mengel, E. and Michela B. (Eds.), Trauma, Memory, and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel: Essays. (Eds.). Rodopi, 93-105.
  • Mama, A. (2000). “Why We Must Write: Personal Reflections on Linking the Alchemy of Science with the Relevance of Activism.” Agenda 16: 13-20.
  • Masemola, K. (2010). “The Individuated Collective Utterance: Lack, Law and Desire in the Autobiographies of Ellen Kuzwayo and Sindiwe Magona.” Journal of Literary Studies, 26:1, 111-134.
  • Meerkotter, A. (2005). “The Impact of the HIV /AIDS Epidemic on Women’s Citizenship in South Africa.” In Gouws, A. (Ed.), (Un)thinking Citizenship Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. (pp. 157-174). Routledge.
  • Naidoo, S. (2022). Women in Solitary: Inside South Africa’s Female Resistance to Apartheid. Routledge.
  • Schatteman, R. (2007). “Interview with Sindiwe Magona.” Scrutiny2 12. 2: 154-164.
  • Segalo, P. (2020). “Belonging, Memory and Subaltern Voices: Reflecting on Sindiwe Magona’s To my Children’s Children.” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 6. 3: 189-202.
  • Spencer, L. G. (2021). “‘A Strange Combination of Femininity and Menace’: Re-Thinking the Figure of the Female Soldier in Nadifa Mohammed’s The Orchard of Lost Souls.” In Nkealah, N. and O. Nnaemeka (Eds.), Gendered Violence and Human Rights in Black World Literature and Film, (pp. 147-162). Routledge.
  • Tafira, H. K. (2016). Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa: The Persistence of an Idea of Liberation. (Ed.) H. K. Tafira. Palgrave.
  • Van Der Vlies, A. (2017). Present Imperfect: Contemporary South African Writing. Oxford University Press.
  • Walker, C. (1995). “Conceptualising Motherhood in Twentieth Century South Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies, 21. 3: 417-437.
  • Wesemüller, E. (2012). African Nationalism from Apartheid to Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Critical Analysis of ANC Party Political Discourse. ibidem-Verlag.
  • Wilson, R. A. (2001). The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State. Cambridge University Press.
There are 26 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Dilek Bulut Sarıkaya 0000-0001-5514-6929

Publication Date June 30, 2024
Submission Date January 31, 2024
Acceptance Date June 12, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Volume: 18 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Bulut Sarıkaya, D. (2024). Resistance against Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination in the Poetry of Sindiwe Magona. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 18(1), 124-136. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1429525

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