You can see it from afar, I’m talking about the
snapbacks/ straight caps worn sideways, the skateboards, the baggy trousers,
the chains, the Jordan’s sneakers, the walk, the ‘twang’ / (accent), the
printed t-shirts, the pants hanging, and tell that this new style is taking
over the South African ‘decent’ way of dressing up and living.
This trend is mostly common in black and coloured communities where most kids went to so-called “model-c” schools. They call it hip-hop style because it’s actually derived from the hip-hop music genre and in order to have it, one has to be ‘cool’ and the coolness is associated with: ‘doing greenies’ (smoking weed) wearing baggy clothes and snapbacks, be able to twang (speaking like an American) and listen to "dope" hip hop artists like Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Drake etc.
This trend is mostly common in black and coloured communities where most kids went to so-called “model-c” schools. They call it hip-hop style because it’s actually derived from the hip-hop music genre and in order to have it, one has to be ‘cool’ and the coolness is associated with: ‘doing greenies’ (smoking weed) wearing baggy clothes and snapbacks, be able to twang (speaking like an American) and listen to "dope" hip hop artists like Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Drake etc.
Well, originally the acronym SWAG was formed by a
group of American men during 60’s which simply meant “Secretly We Are Gay” but
that was back then…because in Africa, South Africa to be specific, it has a
different meanings from Sexy With A bit of Gangster, to Something We All Got
and the most recent popular one is: SWAG (Something We Africans Got) . They
call themselves cool kids, cool cats, and in an institution like CPUT you will
hear them using rather harsh words like ‘niggas’ for male students and bi****s
and ho*s for female students and words that are popular in America like 'Fam,
nig, Yo,Sup' are part of their vocabulary.
Inspired by
rappers like Young Money, these kids spend loads of money buying clothes almost
every month, they’re too forward and have a big Fear of Missing Out (known as
FOMO) and they don’t do any other drugs other than the cannabis also known as
marijuana /weed and booze and mind you, they don’t just buy any type of booze,
I’m talking about expensive stuff here because they like attention so much that
they spend all they have just to brag, all in the name of YOLO (You Only Live
Once) more like izikhothane but they don’t ruin their clothing and spill
alcohol like them.
As we all know that swag in America is associated
with luxuries, fleshy cars, money etc…this is a different story in South Africa
because not all of these kids are rich, some are actually coming from
disadvantaged backgrounds financially and they are using National Student
Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS>government’s loan) to pay their tuition fees yet
they act so ‘cool’ around campus and call themselves money makers.
You would swear that they are kings and queens of
the manner when walking around campus, bragging about everything. They act so
overly confident like ‘Mr.-know it alls’. Yes, there are so many meanings of
swag across the board being of course used in different contexts but mostly
used to describe one’s fashion style and the way she/he carries her/himself.
This trend includes your hair, clothes, the way you express yourself, language
and accent are extremely important because as someone who has swag you can’t
just say something like: “I wasn’t able to successfully hook up with the girl
I’ve been eyeing so I’m blaming my failure on false actions” you have to cut
your sentence short and it has to be American (even though you are a South
African) like “shawty trippin” which means exactly what I’ve just written but
it’s shorter (check Ghetto Translations on twitter @UrbanEnglish) . Another
example would be a phrase like: “you aint sh*t” when you mean to say that
someone seems to have it in his/her mind that she/he is important and bare
significance but it’s quite the contrary.
Seeing young girls wearing skanky-revealing clothes, looking
‘fly’ with eccentric hair colours, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana with
boys all in the name of being ‘cool’ is rather disturbing. In his version of “Preparing Ourselves for
Freedom Culture and the ANC Constitutional guidelines” Albie Sachs says,
"Culture is us, it is who we are, how we see ourselves and the vision we have of
the world.” But wait…piercing, weaves and tattoos are part of swag, is that how
we see ourselves? Is that how we picture ourselves in future and is that the vision
we have for our beloved country? Sachs says, “The problem is whether we have a
sufficient cultural imagination to grasp the rich texture of the free and united
South Africa that we have done so much to bring about; can we say that we have
begun to grasp the full dimensions of the new country that is struggling to
give birth to itself or are we still trapped in the multiple ghettos of the
apartheid imagination? Are we ready for freedom or do we prefer to be angry
victims?”
Well, I for one think that we are not still trapped
in the multiple ghettos of the imagination; this generation is free, too free
that we do what we want and sometimes because of that we even forget about our
own future because we don’t think critically. Sachs goes on to say, "African
society, like all societies, develops and has the right to transform itself.
What has been lacking since colonial domination is the right of the people
themselves to determine how they wish to live.” So yes, our society is
developing and transforming itself, maybe this is one of the ways? Maybe, just
maybe we ought to accept that we are developing because we are slowly but
surely turning into Americans and America is a developed country. Like he says,
“every country has its positive and negative aspects. Sometimes the same
cultural past is used in diametrically opposite ways.”
Personally, I think following trends and actually being
fashion forward is cool but I also think that there has to be boundaries, our
youth should know where to draw the line, because wearing tees such as those
that reads disgusting stuff is just not cool, it doesn’t make you cool it just
degrades you, what you wear actually does represent who you are.
I do not own any of these pictures
I reblogged them from
