ADVERTISEMENT
Friday, January 27, 2023
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Involve Africa
  • Home
  • All African News
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Entertainment News
    • Travel
    • Tourism
    • Arts
  • Finance
    • Food & Agriculture
    • Business & Economy
  • Crypto News
  • Energy & Environment
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All African News
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Entertainment News
    • Travel
    • Tourism
    • Arts
  • Finance
    • Food & Agriculture
    • Business & Economy
  • Crypto News
  • Energy & Environment
No Result
View All Result
Involve Africa
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Arts

Reflecting on South African novelist K. Sello Duiker’s art of madness and social justice

Involve Africa by Involve Africa
June 6, 2022
in Arts
0
Reflecting on South African novelist K. Sello Duiker’s art of madness and social justice
585
SHARES
3.2k
VIEWS
https://web.facebook.com/involveafricanews?_rdc=1&https://twitter.com/involveafricanews


The South African novelist K. Sello Duiker would have turned 48 on 13 April 2022. Since 2005, when he took his own life at the age of 30, his importance to the body of African literature has become even more evident. His works have been republished within and outside South Africa and continue to be the subject of both academic and social media discussions. Testament to his legacy, the South African Literary Awards gives a prize in his name every year to writers under 40.

Duiker is considered a key voice in what some scholars refer to as South Africa’s post-transitional literature. This is writing after 1994 brought democratic elections to the country. A major characteristic of this writing is the emphasis on the porosity of identity boundaries: that people can be more than just one thing at any given time. It contrasts with earlier grand narratives of political resistance which didn’t recognise the diverse and changing contexts that contribute to identity.

Duiker focused on marginal figures in society: the street child, the sex worker, the queer African, the struggling immigrant and so on. One or more of these appear in each of the three novels he wrote. Readers of his award-winning Thirteen Cents (2000) will attest to the haunting power of his exploration of coming of age in post-apartheid Cape Town as a street child. Azure, the 13-year-old blue-eyed black protagonist of the novel, is an orphan forced to fend for himself in a ruthless city still riddled with the unrelenting inequalities of race. The boy, however, possesses insight into a supernatural realm that offers possibilities beyond his confining circumstances. Some readers consider Azure’s dreams and visions as evidence of a psychotic break; others see it as Duiker’s masterful combination of hyperrealism and magical realism.

Duiker’s next major book, The Quiet Violence of Dreams, (2001) contemplates this ambiguity of madness. It is the story of Tshepo, a young black man who, like Azure, lives in Cape Town, and, at some point, resorts to gay sex work for survival.

A book cover in orange, an illustrated male figure with spiky dreads stands in silhouette. Black words read, 'The Quiet Violence of Dreams'


Kwela Books/NB Publishers

Tshepo, however, is from a middle-class family, cultured and artistically inclined. Although he drops out of college and endures some financial hardship, he is never destitute. He moves in the company of upwardly mobile South Africans in an interracial consumerist urban culture. But Tshepo bears the scars of childhood abuse and violence at the hands of gangsters. He suffers episodes of mental distress that result in his admission to a psychiatric hospital.

The question of how to define madness recurs across the works of Duiker, as he experienced a mental breakdown himself.

In a recent journal article I analysed The Quiet Violence of Dreams as a novel concerned with madness and psychiatric incarceration. Most of the studies on the novel focus on its same-sex intimacy. But this undermines Duiker’s project of contesting essentialised identities – ones that never change. It also downplays his sense of social justice. I wanted to highlight Duiker’s contemplation of psychiatry as an instrument of oppression.

A vacuum called therapy

From the beginning, Tshepo is deeply suspicious of psychiatry’s ability to truly understand his experience. His diagnosis of “cannabis induced psychosis” seems to him a mere tactic of the medical profession to blame their lack of understanding on a substance as ubiquitous as cannabis.

As far as he is concerned, the profession is too arrogant to admit what it does not know. The problem, as he sees it, is not just with specific doctors, but with the way the profession teaches them to see people as data. Tshepo laments that:

When they look at me I know they don’t see a person. They see a case, something that they must work out, decode, diagnose … They listen to what they want to hear and write down what they understand. Everything else, the gestures, the pauses, the looks of despair and desperation disappear in a vacuum called therapy.

Duiker goes on to describe the forms of violence that patients endure in the hospital that render them incapable of functioning at the same capacity they used to. They are electroshocked, drugged, punished and humiliated by cruel nurses until they have learnt to forget who they once were.

Madness

Duiker is hardly the first African novelist to write about madness or psychiatric wards. Novels like Bessie Head’s A Question of Power, Nawal El Saadawi’s The Innocence of the Devil and Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God come to mind. But he is perhaps the first to offer a sustained critique of psychiatry’s mode of understanding as both limiting and oppressive.

A man in a blue shirt reclines in a blue and white chair, gazing ahead.

Duiker just before his death.
Photo courtesy Belinda Blignaut

His view of madness and decidedly unflattering opinion of psychiatry are resonant with those of thinkers now typically referred to as the anti-psychiatry movement that began from the 1960s.

While in some parts of The Quiet Violence Duiker wonders whether some people are not simply too evil to be let out in the world, he mostly writes of madness as a position that can provide deeper insight to life and solutions to the problems of the world.

This is, of course, an assertion that is best considered with much qualification. It is unlikely that everyone who suffers mental distress will see their condition as something to be preserved or celebrated in the way that Duiker does. And those for whom psychiatric care is out of reach may be more inclined to try it out before making their own judgements.

Why this matters

Nonetheless, Duiker provides a warning against adopting psychiatric knowledge wholesale to the neglect of those indigenous models that may offer more expansive interpretations of what we call madness. For example – and this is a common one – those called to be seers and traditional healers are known to have experiences that mimic episodes of mental distress. It would clearly be unhelpful to diagnose such people with tools that take little or no account of their cultural contexts.

Duiker was a writer with a deep sense of social justice. Although the queer figure seems to have been much dominant in the criticism of his work, a more attentive reading shows that he saw identity positions as both flexible and connected.

In the same vein, he saw different kinds of oppression as intertwined. For him, the society’s treatment of those it declares insane bears much resemblance to the way it treats others who do not conform to its ideal roles. The quest for freedom must therefore be more embracing, be more inclusive of those who are not always the loudest or the most visible in the arenas of political agitation.



Source_link

You might also like

Telling the stories left out of history books: Catch celebrated photographer Deborah Willis at the Norton Museum

Sanwo-Olu, others to receive Asian-African award

Palacios Debuts Femicides Exhibition, Trains Young Artists How To Transform Data Into Art  

Previous Post

President Cyril Ramaphosa Says Suspension of Fuel Levies Has Impacted Public Finances & Government Programmes

Next Post

Senegal’s Renewables Share; Energy Prices are Some of the Lowest in Africa

Involve Africa

Involve Africa

Related Posts

Telling the stories left out of history books: Catch celebrated photographer Deborah Willis at the Norton Museum
Arts

Telling the stories left out of history books: Catch celebrated photographer Deborah Willis at the Norton Museum

by Involve Africa
January 27, 2023
Sanwo-Olu, others to receive Asian-African award
Arts

Sanwo-Olu, others to receive Asian-African award

by Involve Africa
January 27, 2023
Palacios Debuts Femicides Exhibition, Trains Young Artists How To Transform Data Into Art  
Arts

Palacios Debuts Femicides Exhibition, Trains Young Artists How To Transform Data Into Art  

by Involve Africa
January 27, 2023
A major new exhibition in Nairobi reveals the history of east African art traditions
Arts

A major new exhibition in Nairobi reveals the history of east African art traditions

by Involve Africa
January 26, 2023
Abantu African Consignment brings global perspective to Ocala
Arts

Abantu African Consignment brings global perspective to Ocala

by Involve Africa
January 26, 2023
Next Post
Senegal’s Renewables Share; Energy Prices are Some of the Lowest in Africa

Senegal’s Renewables Share; Energy Prices are Some of the Lowest in Africa

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

7 Amazing Day Trips from Tokyo, Japan

7 Amazing Day Trips from Tokyo, Japan

September 22, 2022
Former US Attorney says he’s frightened by the ‘prospect of a second Trump administration’: ‘I shudder to think about it’

Former US Attorney says he’s frightened by the ‘prospect of a second Trump administration’: ‘I shudder to think about it’

September 19, 2022

Categories

  • All African News
  • Arts
  • Business & Economy
  • Crypto News
  • Energy & Environment
  • Entertainment News
  • Finance
  • Food & Agriculture
  • News Videos
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Tourism
  • Travel

Don't miss it

AFRICA NEWS ROOM – Sénégal: Promouvoir la propriété immobilière à travers le PSE (2/3)
News Videos

AFRICA NEWS ROOM – Sénégal: Promouvoir la propriété immobilière à travers le PSE (2/3)

January 27, 2023
Total Telecom takes highly successful Connected event series to the U.S.
Business & Economy

Total Telecom takes highly successful Connected event series to the U.S.

January 27, 2023
Farmers living on HS2 route ‘dismayed’ at fresh uncertainty
Food & Agriculture

Farmers living on HS2 route ‘dismayed’ at fresh uncertainty

January 27, 2023
Climate change is threatening Madagascar’s famous forests – our study shows how serious it is
Energy & Environment

Climate change is threatening Madagascar’s famous forests – our study shows how serious it is

January 27, 2023
Telling the stories left out of history books: Catch celebrated photographer Deborah Willis at the Norton Museum
Arts

Telling the stories left out of history books: Catch celebrated photographer Deborah Willis at the Norton Museum

January 27, 2023
Gandhi’s image is under scrutiny 75 years after his assassination – but his protest principles are being revived
Politics

Gandhi’s image is under scrutiny 75 years after his assassination – but his protest principles are being revived

January 27, 2023

Social Bar

Welcome to involve Africa The goal of involve Africa is to give you the absolute best news sources for any topic! Our topics are carefully curated and constantly updated as we know the web moves fast so we try to as well.

Categories

  • All African News
  • Arts
  • Business & Economy
  • Crypto News
  • Energy & Environment
  • Entertainment News
  • Finance
  • Food & Agriculture
  • News Videos
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Tourism
  • Travel

Site Links

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Recent News

AFRICA NEWS ROOM – Sénégal: Promouvoir la propriété immobilière à travers le PSE (2/3)

AFRICA NEWS ROOM – Sénégal: Promouvoir la propriété immobilière à travers le PSE (2/3)

January 27, 2023
Total Telecom takes highly successful Connected event series to the U.S.

Total Telecom takes highly successful Connected event series to the U.S.

January 27, 2023

INVOLVEAFRICA.COM

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All African News
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Entertainment News
    • Travel
    • Tourism
    • Arts
  • Finance
    • Food & Agriculture
    • Business & Economy
  • Crypto News
  • Energy & Environment

INVOLVEAFRICA.COM

What Are Cookies
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT