‘Disappoint Your Parents’ is a Cape Town based zine which launched its first ‘episode’ this February. As the title indicates, it deals with a range of the ways in which young South Africans can let their elders down, from ‘use of illicit substances, hanging with the wrong crowd or just not having much ambition’.
Although the presentation is flippant, the content offers serious insights into the generational tensions in South African society through a series of personal essays. ‘Young Muslim Girl in the Big Bad World’ explores the pressures patriarchy and religious conservatism exert on women. Another piece offers a biting dissection of white privilege in Michaelis art school- ‘It seems everyone is only concerned with being the coolest but no one cares for being the best. This is a luxury not afforded to us brown people within the creative sphere. Our parents don’t have the gallery hook-ups or internships lined up. This is pure hustle’.
These texts are interspersed with a wide range of drawings and repurposed images. The most successful piece in this issue is the bizarre ‘The Corner Stone Home of Wayward Boys’. Told through a series of posters, fictional alumni like Obama and Mike Tyson praise the institute before a disruptive final appearance by Charlie Sheen.
Zines are a great format for self-expression, which allow creators to bypass media gate-keepers. The self-publishing aspect of zines means that authors are afforded complete creative autonomy, which can sometimes result in beautiful works of uninhibited expression. Zines are also important for documenting political and counter-cultural movements. In particular, since the 1970s zines have been central to promoting punk, feminist and anarchist ideas throughout the world.
Even poorly produced zines can offer a raw snapshot of the cultural context against which it was produced. Fortunately, DYP 1 looks sharp and has swagger. South African university campuses have recently become hotbeds of social conflict, which has also taken on aspects of a generational clash. The government and media often present young people as dangerous and ignorant. Fortunately, zines like this offer witty and sophisticated alternative to this apocalyptic narrative.
