'To cheat or not to cheat' : male infidelity and the migrant imaginary among Zimbabwean migrants living in Midrand.
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Date
2014-06-19
Authors
Matina, Tatenda Walter
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Abstract
In this account of male infidelity and the migrant imaginary, I take on the idea of how it is
that moral arguments can be made in support of the claim that male infidelity does not
invalidate the assertion of love to one’s partner. In trying to address this issue I undertook
an ethnographic study of eight middleclass Zimbabwean men living in Midrand. Using these
young Zimbabwean middleclass men as an analytical category, I delve into the imagined
lifestyles that they have about life in South Africa and the frustrations that they encounter in
trying to realise these standards of living. I use Berlant’s (2006) concept of ‘cruel optimism’
to show how these frustrations in turn lead to a situation in which infidelity is not seen as
antithetical to love.