Biography

Prajna Ukabhai is a grant holder of a masters scholarship through the South African Research Chair (SARCHI) in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma which is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF). She holds a BA Law (cum laude), majoring in Law and Psychology, and a BA Honours in Psychology (cum laude), both from Stellenbosch University. Prajna recently completed her master’s in psychology (thesis) and her research project was titled “Investigating the “in-between”: Dehumanisation among marginalised groups in South Africa”, which aimed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between various marginalised groups in South Africa through the lens of dehumanisation.

Current Research Project

Investigating the “in-between”: Dehumanisation among Marginalised groups in South Africa

In South Africa, intergroup tensions have not only been restricted to antipathy between White people and those groups oppressed under apartheid (Black African, Coloured and Indian people), but also between those groups that have shared experiences of marginalisation under apartheid. The construction of the apartheid racial hierarchy meant that some marginalised groups held an intermediary status, which afforded them some relative advantage over Black African people. This precarious positioning of Coloured and Indian people, as the in-between, has contributed to tensions with Black African people, both historically and today. Recent events, such as the riots in KwaZulu-Natal in July of 2021, underscore the strained relations between historically marginalised groups and suggest that dehumanising perceptions – that is to view others as less than fully human – may be important to consider. The present research thus explored dehumanising attitudes and how it functions for those groups occupying intermediate social status on the racialised apartheid hierarchy. More specifically, I examined how dehumanisation is experienced by people identifying as Coloured and Indian, whom they dehumanise in turn, and what factors might potentially mediate these associations. I addressed these questions through a survey-based quantitative, cross-sectional study, in which dehumanisation and meta-dehumanisation (the perception of being dehumanised) data were collected from 432 participants (233 Coloured people, Mage = 32.23 years; 179 Indian people, Mage = 33.39 years). Mediator variables included the affective cost, threat to social identity and the need for self-preservation in the face of dehumanising experiences. Results indicated that both Coloured and Indian participants continue to feel more dehumanised by White people than by Black African people. I also found evidence of responsive dehumanisation where both groups appeared to reactively dehumanise White and Black African people when feeling dehumanised by these groups, respectively. Importantly, the dehumanisation of Black African people was also displaced: feeling dehumanised by the majority group (White people) predicted the dehumanisation of Black African people, suggesting a trickle-down effect. In Indian participants, identity threat and self-preservation mediated the association between feeling dehumanised and reactively dehumanising others in turn. Overall, these patterns of dehumanisation point to the continued influence of the apartheid social hierarchy on people’s perceptions of other social groups and suggest that the conflicted social dynamics experienced and negotiated by the in-between may contribute to rifts in solidarity with Black African people. Such tensions are unlikely to be resolved fully until the stark structural inequality, which maintains hierarchical thinking and aids the perpetuation of dehumanisation, is addressed.

Name of supervisors: Dr Melike Fourie & Dr Melanie Cilliers

Email: 21813469@sun.ac.za | Tel: +27 (21) 808 4047