FEELING THEIR WAY

Abstract

In a bid to step away from a history of apartheid centred on African andAfrikaner nationalisms, the article redirects attention towards the white South AfricanEnglish-speaking community. An analysis of the emotional practices employed in the SouthAfrican English-language press on Rhodesian unilateral independence in 1965 define theemotion work these practices carry out. The article concludes that this emotion work createscertain emotional narratives, which nuance a conventional view of the English-speaker as“unknown” and his attitudes towards the racial dilemma in South Africa as aloof, thusrevealing a hitherto unprecedented proactivity in the English-speaker.