Narratives of belonging in/to South Africa from young, middle-class, South African women

Twenty individual interviews and a focus group discussion from the research component of the Masters (Sociology) dissertation entitled 'Safety and Belonging: Constructing a sense of belonging amongst young, middle-class, South African feminine bodies within and 'unsafe' place'. The participants of this study were between the ages of 21 and 30, born and raised in South Africa, all but one (Julia) held an undergraduate degree, and were mix of races (twelve white, seven black, and one Indian).

Using a semi-structured format, the participants were interviewed for approximately 60 minutes about how they had constructed their sense of belonging in/to South Africa despite the gender-based violence that is seemingly characteristic of this context. Thus, the participants’ lived experiences of (not) belonging, experiences of violence, and being a woman in South Africa were the focus of this data collection process. Therefore, these interviews primarily cover topics like: a persistent sense of unsafety, safe keeping strategies (safety precautions), personal experiences of (gendered) violence and their ramifications, emotive constructions of belonging, and an apparent constant gendered vulnerability. All of which were contextualised to South Africa. When viewed together these twenty interviews produce a possible feminine South African narrative of belonging which accounts for the violent (gendered) realties of this context. However, one interview (Mary) could not be transcribed as the audio file was corrupted.

The focus group was conducted after all the individual interviews had been done, transcribed, and analysed thematically. This discussion took place over an online chat platform (Zoom), and consisted of three white participants that were recruited from the existing participant pool. The small participant sample was due to scheduling conflicts and time constraints. The discussion points were developed from common themes that were identified through the thematic analysis of the induvial interviews. This was done to test the validity of these themes and to investigate them further. As all the participants were white, this discussion focused on lived experiences of belonging in/to South Africa from the perspectives of white South African women. And thus, primarily covered topics like: whiteness, racial conflicts, a sense of not-belonging, and a sense of feminine unsafety. Critically, while it was the intention to view this data as a possible ‘master’ narrative of the feminine South African sense of belonging, the sample was too small and only consisted of white women. Thus, this discussion ought to be viewed as a group narrative of white belonging in/to South Africa.

Note that all the transcripts were transcribed verbatim and research pseudonyms were used so to be in accordance with the POPIA Act.