Disruption as a continuous link between student protests

Through the sociological lens of liminality, Alves examines how Portuguese boys form their own initiation rites by going on rampages through a Lisbon suburb. The work by Alves is useful in two instances. 

Firstly, it problematizes male initiation rites by pointing out their “harshness” and the re-enforcement of patriarchy. Secondly and more importantly, using Turner and van Gennep, Alves points out that the human person embodies that which is structural and anti-structural at the same time. It is during periods of liminality, which are often “…temporally, spatially and socially ambiguous, unsettled and unsettling…” that the anti-structural trait finds expressionii . 

Khanna et ali introduces us to the idea of ‘unruly’ politics. Some scholars, such as Tarrow express this as ‘unconventional’ politics. Institutions, whether formal or informal, are viewed in terms of “rules-of-the-game”. 

'Unruly politics', as opposed to politics within the rules, occurs where the established institutions are (deliberately) used against the system. The institutions are not necessarily discarded: in Alves’ understanding, structure (rules) versus anti-structure (unruly). It is helpful to perceive unruly politics as amoral and not always necessarily illegal. 

Social movements, unlike their traditional civil society counterparts or old social movements, unfold within this domain of unruly politics. They occur as moments of liminality. Part of the challenge is often that members of the movement act within the anti-structure or “unruly” space. Yet, they do so to embarrass or expose the failures of the structure. Those who respond to activists frequently do so using the structure. We therefore have two groups of people operating in two parallel but incommensurable paradigms. 

Khanna et al mention three ways in which 'unruly politics' manifests. The activism against Rhodes’ rape culture could be situated within these methods. Firstly, they speak of the symbolic. To management, the state and those acting within the structure, the release of the #RUReferenceList and the subsequent “kidnapping” of some of those whose names appeared on the list could arguably be acts of vigilantism. Yet, for the unruly activist the names on the list are symbolic of the rape culture that exists at Rhodes. It was simply known as a “reference list” not a “rapist list”. It is symbolic. 

While the university management defers to the Constitution of the Republic, the law and university policies i.e. institutions or the structure, the bodies of the alleged perpetrators become symbols of patriarchy, oppression and space. Rape is a symptom of patriarchy and oppression. Survivors and activists use the bodies of the alleged perpetrators to claim back their own bodies. This leads us to the second method of unruly politics, as articulated by Khanna et al, that of bio-politics. The climax of bio-politics becomes visible when, for instance, #NakedProtests occur. Note Mani’s work on the protests against rape by officers in the Indian army in the north-eastern state of Assam. Women protested naked, holding banners reading: Indian Army Rape Us. Locally, university managements and the South African Police Service respond through the law and the imposition of interdicts. 

The third method of unruly politics is aesthetic. We see graffiti going up on walls, posters being displayed and barricades, among others, going up. Barricades, again, fundamentally has to do with space. Who claims the space? The space of the campus, the classroom, the body. Von Lieres examines issues of invisibility and often those on the margins, those who are silenced find voice and find space during these episodes of liminality. 

Therefore, during this period of disruption, liminality and engaging through unruly politics, a state of chaos, as it were, is created. It is only during these periods of anti-structure that the structure is exposed. Those undesirable elements of society, usually protected by the status quo or the institutions, the mores, cultural norms and values that exist, are suddenly revealed for what they are. Racism, colonialism, patriarchy, inequality, heteronormativity etc become visible for what they are because they are usually sheltered by the existing rules of the game. 

Graffiti is impure but usually speak truths. #NakedProtest is frowned upon and condemned as ‘public indecency’. This state of chaos therefore facilitates two inter-related processes. The first is that it exposes these truths. “Rapes and sexual assaults happen during shutdown!” shouted the activists when there was talk of an academic shutdown. Students testify how, during last year’s #FeesMustFall campaign, they suddenly came face to face with the misogyny of their fellow comrades. While the fight was against fees and inequality, the reality of gender inequality and sexism reared its ugly head. Similar incidences of sexual assault or gender based violence against female activists were also present during recent protests at Wits. 

The second process that this state of chaos facilities, thanks to the unique feature of intersectionality, is creativity. Intersectionality is unique to social movements where membership is not limited nor the movement issue based. Hence methods employed by activists are creative or “out-of-the-box” due to this state of liminality, but also, and more importantly, the creativity of issues becomes key. Traditional civil society organisations are usually issue based e.g. trade unions deal with workers issues and one must be a worker to belong to a trade union. 

Yet the creativity of the social movement, operating in a liminal space and through unruly politics, allows for issues to emerge that will sustain the survival of the movement. What started off last year as a student movement against a statue has evolved into a movement against colonialism, racism, inequality, fees and now, patriarchy. During each stage of the evolution, the moments of unruliness, new issues emerge and when the movement goes into a lull, as is probably the case at the moment at Rhodes, it is simply a regrouping and the preparation for a new disruption. 

This article first appeared in the May 2016 edition of the Thinking Africa newsletter.