Johannesburg, Wednesday 28 May 2025 – The University of Johannesburg School of Communication and Library, in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), invite members of the media to a book launch – PERFORMING MASCULINITIES: Izikhothane in a South African Township. The launch will be held at the UJ Library, Nadine Gordimer Auditorium, on Thursday, 29 May 2025, from 12:00.
The bookexplores the vibrant and controversial world of ukukhothana, a subculture that shocked South African townships in the early 2000s. It gives the reader a view into the lives of these township youth as they are known to buy expensive clothes, sip on premium alcohol, and engage in high- energy dance-offs and verbal showdowns during mock battles.
Authored by Dr Sifiso Mnisi, the book offers a gripping ethnographic account of how young men from impoverished backgrounds use conspicuous consumption to shape their identities and assert their masculinity. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of poverty, where most participants come from working-class families, with some parents employed as domestic workers, general labourers, small informal business owners, administrative clerks, or are unemployed.
To attend, please register in advance via Zoom: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nk6xLzHhT3aIMmk9c5kdiQ
Details of the event:
Date: 29 May 2025
Time: 12:00
Venue: University of Johannesburg Library, Nadine Gordimer Auditorium, Level 5,
Auckland Park Kingsway Campus (Hybrid event available via Zoom)
Virtual Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nk6xLzHhT3aIMmk9c5kdiQ
For media enquiries, please contact Adziliwi Nematandani: Cell: +27 82 765 9191 Email: anematandani@hsrc.ac.za
Notes to the editor
About the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)
The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.
Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.
The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.
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