Echoes of the Past in Imaginings of the Future: The Problems and Possibilities of Working with Young People in Contemporary South Africa

Abstract

This article presents an exploration of how past and future are articulated in the construction of youth identities in the context of South Africa, with a particular focus on the possibilities for change in discourses of nationality and gender. The authors' selective focus on these two dimensions of identity is not only informed by theoretical interests, but is also driven by their implication in the critical social problems of xenophobia and gender-based violence in contemporary South Africa. The authors present two illustrative empirical examples that have emerged from (and reflexively inform) their domain of practice in working with young people, providing for some exploratory theoretical trajectories and pedagogical possibilities: (1) ‘national’ identity and dialogues of difference, and (2) gendered identities and constructions of sexual violence. Young people are quite evidently actively engaged in crafting their own fluid and hybrid identities, suggesting imaginative new ways to be in the world, energising us and provoking an orientation towards future possibilities. However, this articulation does not escape the past, which echoes in the reassertion of rigid categories of identity, such as gender and nationality. The authors not only consider the possibilities for creating ‘better childhoods, better futures’, but also explore the constraints on their conscientisation work.