APARTHEID: THE LINE OF DIVISION IN THE WORKS OF KOPANO MATLWA

Abstract

Although apartheid officially ended in 1994, its lingering
psychological and structural consequences remain deeply embedded
in the fabric of post-apartheid South African society. This paper
examines how the legacies of apartheid persist as a line of division in
Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut, Spilt Milk, and Period Pain. Despite the postapartheid setting of these novels, the paper is motivated by the need
to interrogate how apartheid-era traumas and racial hierarchies
continue to manifest in the lives, identities, and consciousness of
black South Africans, particularly youth and women. Employing
postcolonial theory and psychoanalytic theory as its dual theoretical
lens, the paper critically analyses the internalised racism, fragmented
identities, and emotional dissonance experienced by Matlwa’s
protagonists. Using a qualitative research methodology, the paper
conducts a close textual analysis of the novels to examine the subtle
and overt mechanisms through which apartheid’s ghost haunts the
present. The paper finds that Matlwa’s characters are often caught in
liminal spaces—alienated from their cultural roots while unable to
fully assimilate into white society—thereby reflecting the psychosocial
disorientation bred by apartheid's enduring legacy. The paper
concludes that Matlwa's works do not merely reflect apartheid’s
historical facts but rather its psychological residues, demonstrating
that apartheid remains a salient force in shaping postcolonial
subjectivities and social relations in South Africa. Spotlighting this
continuity, the paper contributes to ongoing discourses on race,
identity, and healing in African literature