Humphrey Glass

Humphrey Glass is a retired professor of Sociology from the University of Zululand who is interested in Urban and Rural Sociology and the Sociology of Development. He is currently an Associate Researcher in Dec T. at the University of Limpopo.

In their chapter, Homogenisation and Zulu Nationalism in the Casino City, Humphrey and Mxolisi Ngcongo address Zulu identity in light of recent black migrations to Durban. They argue that the ‘equalising impulse of money’ is experienced as a process of homogenisation. ‘Issues of [Zulu] language and culture’ are relegated to the sidelines in the face of this. A ‘tide’ of ‘reinvented Zulu nationalism’ arises in the city as a kind of ‘buffer’ against such homogenisation. But an urban Zulu nationalism is liable to being transformed into a consumer product, appropriated as a cultural artefact for tourist promotion in Durban.

Reference:
Ngcongo, Mxolisi, and Glass, Humphrey. 'Homogenisation and Zulu Nationalism in the Casino City', in Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan (Eds.), Undressing Durban (Durban: Madiba Press, 2007), pp. 334-337.