THE NEW PHENOMENON “SWAG”

 

 

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.

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.

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