6- Steve Biko and Stoned Cherrie: Refashioning the Body Politic in Democratic South Africa
African Sociological Review,
Vol. 11 No. 2 (2007): African Sociological Review
Abstract
Steve Biko was a well-known hero and martyr of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Detained, tortured and ultimately murdered in detention by the security police in 1977, he became a symbol of resistance in the mass mobilisations against apartheid that characterised the 1980s. His face appeared on the t-shirts of activists at rallies and funerals of others killed at the hands of the state. In contemporary, democratic South Africa, the politics of protest has given way to a new dynamic of black economic empowerment, the rise of a new black middle class and, with these, expressions of confident middleclass black individuality. The mass character of politics prior to 1994 has given way to the more prosaic forms associated with a constitutional democracy. But there have also been ways in which these two tropes have melded. The present article examines the use of Steve Biko’s image in post-apartheid South Africa byhome-grown design label Stoned Cherrie on its high fashion t-shirts and asks how we are to read this gesture.
Keywords
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)BibTeX
- Barthes, Roland, 1985, The Fashion System, London: Jonathan Cape.
- Blignaut, C., 2002, ‘Shebeen Queen to Heroin Chic. The Spirit of Jozi’, Mail and Guardian, 20 September.
- Butler, J., 1996, ‘Gender as Performance’, in P. Osborne, ed., A Critical Sense. Interviews with Intellectuals, London: Routledge.
- Chaney, D., 2002, Cultural change and everyday life, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
- Cowrie, J., 2004, ‘Cherrie on Top’, Fairlady Fashion and Beauty Supplement (Summer), pp.7- 13.
- Davis, Fred, 1992, Fashion, Culture and Identity, Chicago Ill.: University of Chicago Press. Dyer, Richard, 1997, White, New York: Routledge.
- Entwistle, J. and E. Wilson, eds., 2001, Body Dressing, Oxford: Berg.
- Entwistle, J., 2000, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory,Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Fanon, F., 1952, ‘The Fact of Blackness’, reprinted in L. Back and J. Solomos, eds., Theories of Race and Racism. AReader, London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
- Felski, R., 1995, The Gender of Modernity, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Irwin, R., 2004, ‘Street Level Strategy’, brandchannel.com 5 July.
- Jacobs, C., 2004, ‘Seams Like Liberation. ACelebration of Democracy’, Sunday Times 25 April.
- Kennedy, C., 2004, ‘Walking on Sunshine’, The Citizen 13 September.
- Kruger, L., 1997, Theatre Journal 49.1: iv-v.
- Landes, J., 1995, ‘The Public and the Private Sphere’, in J. Meehan, ed., Feminists Read Habermas, New York: Routledge.
- Lasch, C., 1979, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, New York: Norton.
- Lipovetsky, G., 1994, The Empire of Fashion. Dressing Modern Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Lurie, A., 1981, The Language of Clothes, New York: Random House. Mandela, Nelson, 1994, Long Walk to Freedom.
- Mirzoeff, N., 1995, Bodyscape, Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure, London and New York: Routledge.
- Nuttall, S., 2004, ‘Stylizing the Self: the Y Generation in Rosebank, Johannesburg’, Public16 (3): 430-452.
- Sampson, L., 2003, ‘Cherrie on the Top’, Sunday Times 20 April.
- Sisilana, L., 2004, ‘Biko, Socialism and Stoned Cherrie: A Response to Mcebisi’, We Write,October, 1 (1).
- Wa Thiongo, N., 2003, ‘Consciousness and African Renaissance: South Africa in the Black Imagination’, The Fourth Annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, presented at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, September.
References
Barthes, Roland, 1985, The Fashion System, London: Jonathan Cape.
Blignaut, C., 2002, ‘Shebeen Queen to Heroin Chic. The Spirit of Jozi’, Mail and Guardian, 20 September.
Butler, J., 1996, ‘Gender as Performance’, in P. Osborne, ed., A Critical Sense. Interviews with Intellectuals, London: Routledge.
Chaney, D., 2002, Cultural change and everyday life, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Cowrie, J., 2004, ‘Cherrie on Top’, Fairlady Fashion and Beauty Supplement (Summer), pp.7- 13.
Davis, Fred, 1992, Fashion, Culture and Identity, Chicago Ill.: University of Chicago Press. Dyer, Richard, 1997, White, New York: Routledge.
Entwistle, J. and E. Wilson, eds., 2001, Body Dressing, Oxford: Berg.
Entwistle, J., 2000, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory,Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fanon, F., 1952, ‘The Fact of Blackness’, reprinted in L. Back and J. Solomos, eds., Theories of Race and Racism. AReader, London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
Felski, R., 1995, The Gender of Modernity, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Irwin, R., 2004, ‘Street Level Strategy’, brandchannel.com 5 July.
Jacobs, C., 2004, ‘Seams Like Liberation. ACelebration of Democracy’, Sunday Times 25 April.
Kennedy, C., 2004, ‘Walking on Sunshine’, The Citizen 13 September.
Kruger, L., 1997, Theatre Journal 49.1: iv-v.
Landes, J., 1995, ‘The Public and the Private Sphere’, in J. Meehan, ed., Feminists Read Habermas, New York: Routledge.
Lasch, C., 1979, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, New York: Norton.
Lipovetsky, G., 1994, The Empire of Fashion. Dressing Modern Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lurie, A., 1981, The Language of Clothes, New York: Random House. Mandela, Nelson, 1994, Long Walk to Freedom.
Mirzoeff, N., 1995, Bodyscape, Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure, London and New York: Routledge.
Nuttall, S., 2004, ‘Stylizing the Self: the Y Generation in Rosebank, Johannesburg’, Public16 (3): 430-452.
Sampson, L., 2003, ‘Cherrie on the Top’, Sunday Times 20 April.
Sisilana, L., 2004, ‘Biko, Socialism and Stoned Cherrie: A Response to Mcebisi’, We Write,October, 1 (1).
Wa Thiongo, N., 2003, ‘Consciousness and African Renaissance: South Africa in the Black Imagination’, The Fourth Annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, presented at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, September.