We were looking for our men in the faces of stars:

Soap opera and Afrikaner masculinities in Egoli: place of gold

Abstract

This article examines the representation of masculinities in selected episodes from the soap opera Egoli: place of gold, aired in 1994. This specific moment in South African media history is characterised by a heightened sense of anticipation surrounding Egoli as the first local long-running soap opera developed for the relatively new – and only – independent broadcaster in the country, M-Net. Because of this genre’s reliance on perceived realism, Egoli offers a historically significant televisual mediation of the widespread social and political changes that mark this particular period. This article, however, diverges from the wealth of research on soap opera as a so-called women’s genre and approaches Egoli with a keen interest in the programme’s negotiation of masculinities. The article’s analysis centres on two particular white, Afrikaans male characters: Dr Walt Vorster (portrayed by well-respected opera icon Gé Korsten) and Doug Durand (portrayed by the controversial ‘bad-boy’ rock star Steve Hofmeyr), and examines how Egoli deals with the immanent destabilising of Afrikaner patriarchy at that historical juncture. The article furthermore examines these characters through the notion of celebrity-intertextuality. The author identifies Egoli as the pioneer of casting celebrities as soap opera characters and turning soap opera actors into stars – a trend which has become characteristic of the South African soap opera genre.