Shedding Skins: Metaphors of Race and Sexuality in the Writing of Tatamkhulu Afrika

Abstract

Tatamkhulu Afrika’s life story is often presented in triumphalist terms, charting his progression through various personae, the last of which represents hard-won stability in terms of politics, religion, race and artistic creativity. My investigation of selected poems from Mad Old Man under the Morning Star (2000) and Nine Lives (1991), as well as passages from his autobiography, Mr Chameleon, and his novella, “The Vortex” (1996), reveals complex effects of linguistic slippage which undermine this linear narrative and create a powerful ontological defamiliarisation in the reader. In examining Afrika’s representation of skin, I focus specifically on shifts of perception and contradictions associated with race, gender and sexuality. I analyse the effects of the particular crises which arise when binary certitudes are eroded, using the concepts of transraciality and bisexuality to delineate the complexities of these crises.

Opsomming
Tatamkhulu Afrika se lewensverhaal word dikwels in triomfalistiese terme aangebied om sy progressie deur verskeie personae uit te stip, waarvan die laaste een swaar verdiende stabiliteit verteenwoordig wat betref die politiek, godsdiens, ras en artistieke kreatiwiteit. My ondersoek na ’n keur van gedigte uit Mad Old Man under the Morning Star (2000) en Nine Lives (1991), asook gedeeltes uit sy outobiografie, Mr Chameleon (2005), en sy novelle, “The Vortex (1996)”, onthul komplekse effekte van linguistiese glyding wat hierdie lineêre narratief ondermyn en ’n kragtige ontologiese defamiliarisering by die leser skep. By die ondersoek na Afrika se voorstelling van vel fokus ek in die besonder op persepsieverskuiwings en kontradiksies wat verband hou met ras, geslag en seksualiteit. Ek analiseer die uitwerkings van die besondere krisisse wat ontstaan wanneer binêre sekerhede afgetakel word en gebruik die konsepte “transrassigheid” en “biseksualiteit” om die kompleksiteite van dié krisisse uit te wys.