ABSTRACT
Dislocation has been a major challenge for South Africa, especially within the urban set-up. While South Africa continues to struggle with undocumented immigrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Lesotho, internally hundreds get dislocated from their families due to various reasons. The different kinds and types of dislocations have been represented on film and television programmes such as Khumbulekhaya. This chapter examines how dislocation and mobility are represented in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reality television programme Khumbulekhaya. Khumbulekhaya is a reality programme that connects dislocated individuals with their families or vice versa. The chapter discusses Khumbulekhaya as a reconnaissance programme that provides a networking platform for dislocated and separated identities located in different places within the South African urbanity. The geographic filmic approach in the programme does not only create a network of places, but also a familial montage that sometimes freezes historic family moments or disrupts the nostalgic feeling of belonging. The long shots covering the connecting road trips between urban centres and geographic road outlays create tropes of vacation travelling for the reconnecting families. The chapter concludes that mobility and dislocation captured in this programme complicate locational and cultural identities, invoking historical metaphors of displacement due to apartheid-enforced movements.
