The multiple consciousness of blackness: race and class in South Africa

WEB Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903), has resurfaced in South African academic circles as part of the intellectual credo attempting to explain the plight of black people 27 years after the country was declared a democratic state. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness is often invoked to situate present realities of black people in post-apartheid South Africa as racist legacies of apartheid collide with the paradoxes of the current context. This article stretches double consciousness by arguing that being black in post-apartheid South Africa produces multiple consciousness. Multiple consciousness describes existing in the thrall of multiple folds which interact to disrupt the collective history of oppression. Various dimensions shape blackness. In this article, language, culture and ethnicity emerge as particularly strong shaping forces.