ABSTRACT
Doodvenootskap (DVS) is a crew of young hip hop artists from Rosemary Gardens who wrote their own lyrics, recorded tracks of music and attempted to highlight issues that they felt were social problems in their neighbourhood. Three members of DVS were employed by a nongovernmental organisations (NGO) called the Children's Rights and Anti-Abuse Group (CRAAG). Material spatial forces in Cape Town led to youth gang proliferation, with DVS comprising an example of youth imagining an alternative to gang affiliation. Material, imagined and lived space shaped emergence of DVS and influenced the ways that they used language in dialogues. The impact that NGOs have had on material space in Rosemary Garden therefore contributed to DVS emerging as a learning place. Apartheid laws disrupted material space, leading to the widespread emergence of youth gangs. Gangs formed in areas like Rosemary Gardens, as young men recreated social cohesion after the Group Areas Act dismantled many communities in the city.
