Representing Zuluness on TikTok: exploring Zulu cultural identity in the indigenous language short video format.

Abstract

Identity is shaped through shared cultural meanings and through how individuals present themselves within everyday interaction by drawing on the cultural and linguistic resources available to them. On social media, identity is performed visually, linguistically, and emotionally, as users adapt and reinterpret trends within their own cultural contexts. This study examines how Zulu cultural identity is expressed and negotiated within short-form video content on TikTok in South Africa, where such platforms function as significant sites of cultural production and participation. The research addresses the need to explore indigenous language expression in contemporary media spaces, particularly in contexts where historically marginalised languages are increasingly used in creative, meaningful, and socially resonant ways. A mixed methods netnographic approach was used to explore how Zulu identity is constructed, represented, and engaged with across 98 TikTok videos, posted between January and June 2024, along with associated 18,977 audience comment interactions. Data was collected using the 4CAT Capture and Analysis Toolkit to obtain video metadata, engagement patterns, and comments, enabling both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative findings showed high levels of interaction, with cultural expression content generating aboveaverage engagement and predominantly positive sentiment, characterised by multilingual play and extensive emoji use. Computational text analysis techniques, including translation and comment and emoji sentiment scoring, supported the analysis of audience engagement. Qualitative reflexive thematic analysis identified four key themes: Visualising and Performing Zuluness; Digital Participation and Platform Affordances; Gender, Morality and Cultural Policing; and Cultural Knowledge Transmission and Continuity. These themes illustrated strong expressions of cultural pride through dress, language, and music; the use of humour to foster relatability and shared identity; the negotiation of respect and modernity in relation to gender and intergenerational norms; and the prominence of the amabhinca aesthetic, a contemporary Zulu subculture, as a fusion of rural heritage and urban style. Overall, the study demonstrates that Zulu identity in social media spaces, articulated through the short-form video content, is dynamic and continually negotiated through participation and interaction, enabling individuals to assert belonging, engage in collective meaning-making, and contribute to evolving understandings of Zuluness in contemporary South Africa.