Memory, Masculinity and Responsibility: Searching for ‘Good Men’ in Mtutuzeli Nyoka’s I Speak to the Silent1

Abstract

Recent events in South Africa have compelled, arguably for the first time since 1994, a serious public questioning of some of the regulatory fictions that are shaping South African engagements with democracy, particularly as these relate to myths about gender equity. These events concern specifically the public spectacle that unfolded after a rape charge was filed against ANC president Jacob Zuma on 6 Dec. 2005 by a 31-year old woman who came to be known to the public only as Khwezi. The trial gave rise to a wave of violent misogyny the repercussions of which social commentators are still trying to process. In her text on the trial, feminist activist Mmatshilo Motsei captures its impact as follows: “For me personally,” she writes, “Jacob Zuma’s rape trial was both a form of victimization and a moment of reawakening. [. . .] I know from talking to other people that the South African political landscape will never be the same again” (18).