Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa
By Hlonipha Mokoena
Drawing on a rich archive of colonial photography, Hlonipha Mokoena explores how images of African policemen and nightwatchmen in colonial South Africa challenged traditional narratives of oppression. She shows how uniform and portraiture transformed the black male figure into an aesthetic subject worthy of admiration.
This illustrated collection of essays brings African men in colonial uniforms into focus as a subject of portraiture. It extends the literature on colonial ethnographic photography by creating a narrative of nightwatchman portraiture from this rich archive of images.
While a genre of photography developed around images of the Zulu warrior after the English defeat at Isandlwana, Mokoena argues that the spectacle of the Zulu male body truly began after the last Zulu king, Cetshwayo, posed for the camera. This shift marked a new visual language of power and presence.
Shifting perspectives on the African male figure
Much research has focused on the African man as a functionary of settler power. However, these essays shift the debate to examine how the body moves in history. Placed in uniform, the male subject becomes aestheticised and admired.
Mokoena pays close attention to the sartorial selection processes and the co-optation of colonial aesthetic culture. These choices constructed the idea of the Nonqgqayi, or nightwatchman, as a fully formed photographic presence. The beauty captured in these images upends conceptions of colonial photography as merely a tool of oppression.
Through this lens, The Nightwatchman becomes more than a symbol of colonial order. He emerges as a central figure in rethinking the aesthetics of black male portraiture.
The Nightwatchman as historical presence
In its focus on the figure of the black and brown fighting man, The Nightwatchman offers an innovative study of portraiture in colonial South Africa. It opens new avenues for interpreting visual representations of the black male figure.
The essays demonstrate how colonial uniforms and portraiture turned the African man into an object of admiration rather than simply a functionary. This transformation challenges older frameworks and reveals the complexity of colonial photographic practices.
By placing The Nightwatchman at the heart of the archive, Mokoena provides a fresh perspective on power, beauty and representation.
About the author
Hlonipha Mokoena is Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is also the author of Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual.
- Publisher | Wits University Press |
- ISBN | 9781776149353 |
- Recommended Price | R430.00 |
- Subject | History |
For more information | Corina van der Spoel | +27 (0)11 717 8705/8700 | mail me |
