Mxolisi Ngcongo

Mxolisi Ngcongo is a Sociology Lecturer at UKZN interested in the sociology of education, in particular multicultural and sexuality education, industrial sociology and urban and rural sociology. He is currently doing research on the impact of the four months maternity leave for pregnant learners in and around Durban.

In their chapter, Homogenisation and Zulu Nationalism in the Casino City, Mxolisi and Humphrey Glass 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.