ABSTRACT

The paper is based on a long-term study using ethnographic methods among the Indigenous youth of Platfontein, Northern Cape, South Africa between 2013 and 2018. It explores how the children of two migrant groups (the !Xun and Khwe), now settled in the peri-urban township of Platfontein, South Africa, deal with sociolinguistic issues using the contemporary music genre of hip-hop. Platfontein youth produce hip-hop music that, as a by-product, allows for them to digitize, preserve and strengthen their endangered indigenous languages, culture, history and authentic experiences. Such production and digitization can be seen as decolonized practices which enable the youngsters to directly disseminate Indigenous issues, as well as challenge and rewrite colonial and colonizing narratives from the bottom-up. The process of language digitization through popular culture also allows the community to bypass the complex process of inscribing language into a semiotic modality that potentially sheds their fundamental oral qualities. The study explores how the practice enables the youngsters to participate in a global popular culture, develop networks and influence and negotiate the restrictive urban spaces in contemporary South Africa.

摘要

本文是基于民族志方法对2013年至2018年南非北开普省Platfontein土著青年的长期研究得出的。该论文探讨了两个移民群体（Xun和Khwe）的孩子如何定居于此南非城市郊区的Platfontein使用现代嘻哈音乐流派处理社会语言问题。Platfontein青年会制作嘻哈音乐，作为副产品，使他们能够数字化，保存和增强其濒临灭绝的土著语言，文化，历史和真实经验。这种生产和数字化可以看作是非殖民化的做法，使年轻人能够直接传播土著问题，并自下而上地挑战和重写殖民地和殖民地的叙述。通过流行文化进行语言数字化的过程还使社区能够绕过将语言刻写为符号形式的复杂过程，这有可能剥夺其基本口头素质。该研究探讨了这种做法如何使青少年参与全球流行文化，发展网络并影响和谈判当代南非的限制性城市空间。