A bapholhi: um estudo sobre percepções sociais relacionadas com a emigração de jovens para a RSA, entre os Tsonga de Phazimane

Abstract

This monograph seeks to understand how social perceptions built upon the male’s social role can influence the migratory behavior of young men towards the Republic of South Africa (RSA), in the particular context of the Tsongas’s community of Phazimane. The basic argument presented refers that, young men emigration to South Africa is a behavior deeply influenced by the perceptions built upon the male’s social role among the Tsonga people; and those perceptions (built during the interaction process of those whose migratory behavior we seek to understand and explain with the social and cultural subjects of the community that they belong to) are consubstantiated in and are legitimated the by tsonga’s local speech on masculinity. It is to say, that the emigration towards RSA uses to be interpreted as a proof of masculinity; and as an element which contributes on the definition of an individual’s status and of a set of privileges concerning that status. As the above stated, the Tsonga community of Phazimane was the chosen place for the realization of the study; which involved the content analysis of the life histories of four individuals intentional and conveniently chosen for the relative importance of their life carriers as “ba pholhi” towards the Republic of South Africa or elsewhere. Thefore, analyzing the migratory phenomenon through the method of life histories has helped us to understand that, it is not enough trying to explain the (e) migratory behavior of such a specific group of individuals, in this case young ones, only in terms of their needs of financial self –achievement, such as it has been commonly approached through the concerning literature. Even though, young men emigration to the RSA, can be understood as a practice culturally determined by the set of uses and folks related to the social construction of masculinity in the context of the Tsonga community of Phazimane.