'To cheat or not to cheat' : male infidelity and the migrant imaginary among Zimbabwean migrants living in Midrand.

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.