It’s a term of affection, even as it connotes the negative, even shameful, sides of contemporary black South African life in this way, it works a little like the English word “ghetto.” Ekasi represents the swagger and boastful flamboyance that often accompany the crime that plagues contemporary South African townships-whether the sleekness of Thebe’s friend’s gun or the weekly party where his other friends do wheelies in the Audis they’ve stolen from richer, white neighborhoods.Īnother paradox emerges from ekasi’s origin. The word suggests authentic, real, and the heart of black South Africa.Īt its heart are paradoxes.
But it also functions the way the word “soul” or “home-cooked” does in front of “food” in American vernacular.
Technically, ekasi is just the Zulu term for “township,” a segregated neighborhood where black people were forced to live under apartheid.
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