Spectacularising narratives on femicide in South Africa: A decolonial feminist analysis

How are we to think about femicide in South Africa – a country with one of the highest rates of gendered violence, globally? The rate of women murdered in South Africa is around five times the global average and at least half of women who are murdered die at the hands of an intimate partner. Every so often, a South African woman’s murder is propelled into national (and sometimes international) media discourse. How these crimes are reported are important for shaping public consciousness about crimes against women, gendered violence and the sexist, misogynistic and patriarchal contexts that produce it. This paper reports on an analysis of instances of femicide that have been reported in South African national media over the past five years. It offers a decolonial feminist reading of the reporting, showing how it is characterised by an overarching narrative that spectacularizes the violence, drawing on long-standing, racialised, colonial tropes about black bodies and identities. The implications of this discourse on femicide are considered for how it contributes to the shaping of collective consciousness and public discourse around how to understand femicide, specifically its victims and its perpetrators.