The Graffiti Subculture: A Culture of Masculine Identity Construction in Zimbabwean Secondary Boarding Schools

Abstract

This study explores the sociocultural construction of male identities in informal spaces in learning institutions. Focus is placed on spaces such as boys’ toilets in secondary boarding schools in Gutu District of Zimbabwe. Considering the central purpose of graffiti as communication, this study has discussed graffiti as an important object of sociocultural theory. The study is purely qualitative and has adopted a phenomenological design that is interpretive in nature. Purposive sampling was very helpful in selecting the seven secondary boarding schools in Gutu District as information-rich cases while random sampling was used to determine participants. Group and individual interviews were carried out for data collection. Those interviews were guided by semi-structured open-ended questions which were audio-recorded in some cases. Verbatim data was immediately transcribed after the interviews together with the researcher’s observations. A digital camera was also used to capture some graffiti texts on the walls. Data analysis followed the Van Kaam 7-steps of data analysis. The findings of this study indicate that boys in secondary boarding schools appropriate the medium of graffiti to build masculine ‘virtues’ and ‘ideals’ in an open engagement with issues and questions concerning their sexuality in the toilet. The findings might be interesting not only to secondary boarding students, educators, administrators, teachers, and parents in Zimbabwe but also to a wider audience in different societies in the world. It can be recommended that students’ graffiti should be studied because there is something that students are communicating.