Tsotsi

Tsotsi

A slang word referring to a (young, black or coloured) lay-about or gangster. The tsotsi culture developed in urban townships and especially black “locations” (ghettoes), in response to the economic dilemma of the times, and originally derived its “style” from the American movie culture of the 1930’s and 40’s. As Loren Kruger (1999: 87) says, the tsotsis “[t]o a degree … embodied a sort of outlaw glamour, displayed in their expensive American clothes and cars”. Among their many activities they apparently also demanded protection money from entertainers, on occasion kidnapped favourite artistes (like Miriam Makeba) to enhance their own image, or killed those who performed for rival gangs (e.g. Solomon “Zuluboy” Cele).

During the period of the resistance struggle, the gangs often found themselves in a quandary, part of the armed struggle through their access to arms and manpower, yet tempted to exploit the situation for their own enrichment. However, the gangs became increasingly more violent and rivalry blossomed as the stringent apartheid policing was relaxed and the models gradually became the glamerous but violent American and Afro-American gangster films of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

The rackets and gangster rivalry surfaced publically and brutally after 1994 as the new constitution opened up a wide range of economic opportunities and democratic privileges to everyone, including numerous safeguards for accused criminals. A key marker of the gangs is also the multiglot street lingo they use, commonly referred to as tsotsitaal.

See also the Afrikaans term skollie, which in certain senses has a similar meaning, and is used as a term of abuse. Also occurs in plays, novels and films.

Tsotsitaal

Tsotsitaal as a linguistic phenomenon

A generic term referring to the urban patois or street language developed in the multicultural and polyglottal milieu of the urban (largely black) ghettoes or townships. Used by gangsters or “tsotsis”, as well as by younger urban dwellers across the country. Its grammatical base is Afrikaans, its vocabulary a mix of American slang and the variety of South African languages. It is a highly flexible and constantly changing language, with a large number of regional variants.

Tsotsitaal and theatre

Increasingly aspects of this language may be found as an element in stage texts and other creative writing from the 1970’s onwards. (See Schuring 19**)

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