The affective black experience: struggles with conformity for young black professionals in corporate South Africa

Abstract

South Africa’s democratic transition was cultured by, amongst others, the mythical ideology of Rainbowism. Rooted in happiness and the promises thereof, the renowned national metaphor was utilised by the state to radically shift the country’s narrative around nationhood towards a shared understanding of identity, belonging, citizenship, and diversity. Today, the influence of Rainbowism within state-led efforts towards social change has slowly deemed under much public scrutiny. Persistent poverty, inequality and violence have fostered the emergence of, what many are calling, an “End of the Rainbow” discourse. As integral and lurid entities within post-apartheid nation-building, black youth and institutionalised spaces have affected and been affected by the shortcomings of Rainbowism. Their shared history and intersecting significance in fuelling collective action amongst South Africans have been well depicted in recent times where youth-led movements have highlighted the inequality and unhappiness that exists in institutions spaces like the university. However, little mention has been made about how black youth are making sense of institutional life within spaces like the workplace, against the backdrop of promised happiness. Through the conversations had with eight young black professionals, this research report centres Rainbowism as a project of happiness that governs institutional life for black youth in South Africa. Happiness is revealed as a dominant discourse operating along axes of power that shape ‘happy’ employees based on various forms of corporeal differentiation.