Cartographies of difference: Race, gender and dis-eased humanity in Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s The Wanderers

Abstract

The treatment of space in Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s novel The Wanderers provides important prisms through which the interlocking issues of race, gender and human frailties can be investigated. In this study, I bring together Michel Foucault and Doreen Massey’s perceptive formulations of spatiality and power to interrogate how Ntabeni’s representation of space intersects with the troubling tropes of racialised, gendered and dis-eased bodies in post-apartheid South Africa. I argue that the analogues of the frail human body and sickness are compelling symbolic figurations of dis-eased and broken people in South Africa’s post-apartheid literary narrative. The disquieting imageries are also extended to reflect teething challenges faced by Africa’s post-colonies in general. The novel’s portrayal of segregated bodies is entwined with spatial dimensions of power that influence characters’ sense of exclusion and fragility. This study explores and illustrates the various ways in which spatial landscapes are mapped to function as Foucault’s heterotopias – sites of both control and agency. Together, the allegories of pandemics and the frail body in The Wanderers create a striking portrayal of societal dis-ease – underlining the excruciating effects of historic and modern-day malaises and injustices. Lastly, this study contends that Ntabeni’s novel does not only analyse historical and existing power structures, but it also envisions alternative ways of promoting mutual well-being and recovery from past wounds in the current era.

Contribution: Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s novel, The Wanderers is yet to receive ample scholarly attention, and this study intends to stimulate such interest in the context of both post-apartheid literature and transnational African literature. Bringing together Foucault and Massey’s theorisation of space and power in reading race, gender and politics of difference, it is intended to offer a refreshing interpretation concerning the human condition as portrayed in the text.