Identification and the Modern Coloured Youth

In his article, “Local beats to global rhythms: coloured student identity and negotiations of global cultural imports in Cape Town, South Africa,” Daniel Hammett discusses and researches the influence of globalisation and popular culture on the coloured youth in Cape Town focusing mainly on high school students. He focuses on two schools in Cape Town which are pre-dominantly made up of coloured students and questions them on their lifestyle in order to relate it to their identity (Hammett, 2009: 407). In his research, he finds that many of the coloured youth interviewed identify themselves through American popular culture, particularly that of the hip-hop sub-culture (Hammett, 2009: 408). He discovers that the coloured youth identify themselves with American hip-hop culture and this results in them desiring the elements and aspects of this culture which include lavish items at unaffordable prices (Hammett, 2009: 408). Financial constraints of these students do not, however, allow them to obtain their objects of desire and this concludes in them recreating these products according to their means to validate their perception of the image of success. These replications of American hip-hop are therefore the student’s confirmation of their self-identity as a coloured youth.

In relation to both Bosch and Hammett concepts that “coloured” people draw on American pop culture and hip-hop subculture is debatable. There is no denial in the fact that it is evident within their culture but, however, it is also evident within other races, ethnicities, cultures and populations not only in South Africa but across the world. There seems to be a monoculture to which all people are able to relate. This monoculture is an influence, and extension of, Western culture and, more so today, Americanisation.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hammett, Daniel, 2009, “Local beats to global rhythms: coloured student identity and negotiations of global cultural imports in Cape Town, South Africa,” Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 10, No. 4, June 2009, pp. 404 – 417, Routledge.

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FOR INFORMATION ON DANIEL HAMMETT - VISIT:
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/dhammett/

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE "SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY" VOLUMES - VISIT:
http://www.citeulike.org/journal/routledg-rscg/page/1