A Ritual of Corruption: How Young Middle-Class South Africans Get Their Driver's Licenses.

Drivers' licenses; Bribery; Middle class; Political corruption; Race relations

Based on rich oral and written narratives by the students of my third-year class on the anthropology of the state, this article discusses the changing practical and affective relationship of young middle-class people with the South African state. The article centers around how both black and white middle-class students have similar experiences of not being able to pass their drivers' license test without being confronted with paying a bribe. I argue that getting a driver's license represents a transformative moment in the life of a young South African aspiring to join the middle class, not only in terms of their personal life cycle but also in terms of encountering and negotiating a relationship with the state for the first time on their own. While this encounter is animated by excitement about the freedoms of adulthood, it also represents the shift from being under parental authority to being under the authority of the state. I argue that the young people emerge from this encounter in a way that interrupts racialized historical continuities by offering a new sense of belonging for some and bringing about a kind of civic disillusionment for others as part of their entry into adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]