Spectacularising narratives on femicide in South Africa: A decolonial feminist analysis

Abstract

How are we to think about femicide in South Africa – a country with one of the highest rates of gendered violence, globally? The rate of women murdered in South Africa is around five times the global average and at least half of women who are murdered die at the hands of an intimate partner. Every so often, a South African woman’s murder is propelled into national (and sometimes international) media discourse. How these crimes are reported are important for shaping public consciousness about crimes against women, gendered violence and the sexist, misogynistic and patriarchal contexts that produce it. This paper reports on an analysis of instances of femicide that have been reported in South African national media over the past five years. It offers a decolonial feminist reading of the reporting, showing how it is characterised by an overarching narrative that spectacularizes the violence, drawing on long-standing, racialised, colonial tropes about black bodies and identities. The implications of this discourse on femicide are considered for how it contributes to the shaping of collective consciousness and public discourse around how to understand femicide, specifically its victims and its perpetrators.

Self-Defence and Battered Woman Syndrome in a Selected isiXhosa Short Story

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Where are the African voices and perspectives of women in sport coaching?

“…And with stagnated gender reform at this level, it is not surprising that there continues to be a lack of opportunity and support for women in coaching (Norman, 2008 ). However, research suggests that such dynamics are even more complicated in the African region, where women face additional patriarchal, hegemonic and misogynistic challenges to autonomy, such as femicide, child marriages, female genital mutilation and inheritance rights issues (Demirgüç-Kunt et al, 2013 ; Petroni et al, 2017 ; Obiora et al, 2020 ; Boonzaier, 2022 ).…”

The nexus between harmful alcohol use and intimate partner violence, a case study

“…The study found that the violation of women's human rights often leads to a regrettable number of fatalities that victims succumb to daily. Literature searches show that nothing has been done to critically examine the right to life for women in light of the horrendous femicide atrocities committed in South Africa without regard for women's human rights (Yalch & Levendosky, 2018, Ramsoomar, Gibbs, Machisa, 2019& Boonzaier, 2022. Furthermore, a study conducted by Mathebula (2021) postulates that campaigns against lethal and brutal violence perpetrated against women have been increasingly gaining traction over the past five decades.…”

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