Data shows that most signs found in Longview Township denote crime and security. Such signs portray Longview as highly dangerous and unsafe to live in. That can be noted on signs such as, ‘Gangsters’ Paradise’, ‘Mafia country, you enter you die’ and ‘West side, don’t enter’. The language on the sings was said to be used by tsotsis and gangsters to mark their territory. As one girl revealed, ‘The west part of Longview is a no-go area for ordinary people. Tsotsis rape, rob and kill people’. Another learner indicated that the sign ‘Wild, wild Longview’ derives from ‘Wild, wild west’, a concept associated with lawlessness. As Stewart (1982) reminds us, names on the land are determined by culture and customs. Therefore, learners strongly felt that signs in their community draw on negative popular culture and gangster practices depicted in American media: ‘American media has a negative influence on us. Killing, just like people just having sex is common in most American media. It’s disgusting’. The learners perceive western media as glorifying gangsterism and casual sex.

Gangsterism and other crimes were seen as a serious concern in Longview Township. The seriousness with which residents reacted to the high level of crime is portrayed on the sign with a stark warning: ‘Trespassers will be shot and survivors will be shot again’; as one learner suggested: ‘People don’t want to take chances with criminals but to ensure that they are real dead’ [emphasis my own]. Vigilantism and killing of suspected criminals is prevalent among township communities that have lost trust in law enforcement and policing as one learner noted: ‘Longview gangsters are free to do what they want. The police fear them’. It is interesting to note that the words ‘gangster’ and ‘gang’ feature prominently in the participants’ responses. This finding suggests that gangsterism is a major social problem in Longview, like other townships in South Africa. For example, in Coloured communities of Cape Town, gangs are reported to dominate social and economic life for the working class (Jacobs 2019). News reports and documentaries broadcast around the world depict the reign of terror that violent gangs exercise in townships (Jacobs 2019). The learners described the frequency of gang-related killings in the townships as ‘daily bread’. Although dated, Kinnes (1995) reported that most attempted murder incidents in Western Cape townships were gang related, which is a common occurrence in present-day townships. Closely related to signs denoting crime is the presence of dog-warning signs. Data shows that the ‘dogs and security’ category has the highest number of entries (49 out of 87), which suggests serious security concerns in Longview Township. However, crime is a national concern as the 2018 Global Peace Index ranked South Africa as one of the most violent countries in the world, ranked 38 out of 163 countries (RSA 2020). Depicting townships as violent (Jensen 2001; Lindegaard & Hendriksen 2005) is not a general characteristic (Maringira & Gibson 2019) because as insiders themselves (Kinnes 1995; Maringira & Gibson 2019) township dwellers typically stereotype townships as violent and risky. Responses to signs denoting violence were constructed around victim discourse, which is a common narrative in townships. Victim discourse depicts gangsters as the other, which is portrayed as the perpetrator. The otherness depicts power relations between the victim and the perpetrator. This relational identity of residents pitted against gangsters centres on power relations.

In this category, the learners described profanity on the signs as typifying graffiti. The learners reported that signs frequently contain sexist slurs to describe women. They found sexually explicit language directed at women to be disturbing, as illustrated in signs such as ‘Fuck Longview bitches’, ‘Son of a bitch’ and ‘Jou ma se poes’ [your mother’s private parts]. The learners described such lewd language as degrading women. When commenting on the signs ‘I don’t have a wife, feel free to come in’ and ‘Leave your panties at the gate’, one girl noted with disgust: ‘They are written by sick men who think that women are their sex toys’. This comment suggests resistance to objectification and positioning of women as tools for sexual gratification. The learners were very critical of the profanity on the signs, which they considered a bad influence because they ‘teach children to swear too much. They sing it [vulgarity] like an anthem’. By using the analogy of the national anthem, the learners view vulgar language as a common feature in their community’s speech pattern. They interestingly suggested that the sign ‘Fuck the Longview virgins’ emanates from a common myth in some African communities that ‘sex with a virgin cures AIDS’. They also suggested that the obscene message ‘Fuck ANC’ was directed at the ruling African National Congress party because ‘people are angry about empty promises that ANC makes’. The learners concluded that obscene signs with sexist connotations were mostly ‘directed at girls and women who men call bitches always’. The construction of community signs has an element of power dynamics, suggesting male dominance. Although the study was conducted before the gender-based violence (GBV) narrative gained much traction, the learners demonstrated a deep understanding of violence against women. This is summed in one group’s comment: ‘The writers of these messages are sick men who enjoy abusing girls and women’. In this era of widespread sexual violence, studies of power and masculinity seek to understand the processes through which these signs are culturally produced and reproduced (Larkan & Van Wyk 2014). Gender relations depict masculinity and the process through which women are constructed as gendered beings (Gibson & Hardon 2005; Hearn 2004). While much literature has pointed to conflicting aspects of masculine hegemony (Shefer et al. 2005; Spronk 2005), male learners in this study are found to behave contrary to gendered stereotypes depicted in the community signs and as such could be seen as examples of ‘positive masculinity’ (Shefer et al. 2005).

In their analysis of signs in this category, the learners identified ideologies underlining their production and reflected critical understanding of their meaning. However, street names that the learners collected were deliberately excluded from this article to protect the identity of the research site. Only selected signs found to be interesting are presented in this section. These are signs such as ‘Danger, gevaar, ingozi’, found on an electricity meter box, which the learners found useful so that ‘children won’t play with electricity’. For example, when commenting on the sign ‘Save water drink beer’, one learner critically noted, ‘I don’t find this funny. It promotes alcoholism, which is a big problem in our community. And how alcoholics try to justify their habit’. The learners were critical of the alternative behaviour (Geller, Witmer & Tuso 1977) that the sign proposed as relatively inconvenient (Crump, Crossman & Nunes 1977). In contrast, the sign ‘No alcohol sold to persons under 18’, found at a nightclub, was identified as ‘trying to discourage us to drink’. In spite of the warning against selling beer to persons under 18, the learners revealed that in ‘Longview most youngsters drink and buy beer from shops displaying this signs’. Reacting to the sign ‘Club 925’, outside a nightclub, learners noted: ‘This sign must read nine-to-five. It is written in SMS [short message service] language’, which means the club is open from 9 pm until 5 am. In their analysis of another nightclub’s name Blue Magic, the learners described it as an epitome of evil; as one learner put it ‘There is nothing magical about the place. It’s as dirty as Sodom and Gomorrah’. The use of biblical analogy emphasises the ‘un-holiness’ with which the club is perceived. The learners revealed that the club is popularly known as ‘Blue movie’, which depicts explicit sexual activity said to be a common occurrence at the club with ‘strippers, drugs and people having sex’. Because of the perceived moral decadence in their community, the learners found useful messages in signs calling for safer safe, such as ‘Safe sex saves lives’, found at a street corner. They said it is ‘a useful message to us young people to practise safe sex always’. A related sign, ‘Wise people condomise’, on the wall of a stadium, elicited the response: ‘All the clever boys and girls use condoms every time they have sex with many partners’. This comment demonstrates the prevalence of casual sex among teenagers in this community. Another sign, ‘Fools love flesh on flesh’, on the wall of a local stadium, produced the reaction: ‘Everyone knows about Aids and only fools have sex without a condom’. The learners’ comments regarding sex demonstrate their understanding of the spread of HIV and responsible sexual behaviour. The learners identified humour in a sign found at a public toilet: ‘Gentlemen, your aim is important. Ladies, remain seated for the entire performance’. They described the sign as a clever portrayal of how men and women relieve themselves, whose purpose is to warn people not to mess the toilet when drunk. Learners were fascinated by the imagery of theatre, ‘remain seated for the entire performance’, which they described as enhancing meaning. One learner made an interesting observation: ‘I think the sign was constructed by an irate toilet cleaner who was gatvol’. Gatvol is an Afrikaans expression meaning being ‘fed up’, which is commonly used in this predominantly Afrikaans-speaking community. In this analysis the learners demonstrate an ability to use an ensemble of modes for making meaning as a whole (Kress 2010). They found ambiguity in the sign ‘Your hair cut while you wait’ humorous, as one learner jokingly remarked: ‘Does it mean that at other saloons you leave your head and collect it afterwards?’ Learners made interesting findings about signs found at spazas. Spazas are informal convenience grocery stores often operating from some residents’ houses. Their close proximity to customers’ homes makes them the bloodline of township life. Signs at spaza shops were found to be sending humorous messages: ‘No credit till 30 February’, ‘Don’t ask for credit, I’m also looking for one’, ‘Mr Credit died yesterday’, and ‘Mr Credit was killed by My Cash’. To summarise the aim of these signs, the learners noted: ‘He is trying to tell us that he does not sell for credit. He is right coz many Longview people can’t pay because they don’t work and some are crooks’.

Despite the inherent negativity in most signs, the learners found some signs bearing positive messages, which ‘tell us where we are coming from’ and portray ‘Longview culture’. Importantly, these observations draw on semiotics in that signs are perceived as embedded within a community (Scollon & Scollon 2003). As Rowsell and Pahl (2007) point out, when this material culture is brought into classrooms and conceptualised as ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonzalez et al. 2005), it supports literacy development. The learners identified 69 signs with positive messages, which suggests that the Longview community is concerned about addressing social problems such as preventing the spreading of HIV and AIDS. Although the learners perceived the sign ‘hloma nge condom’ [insert with a condom] as obscene, they found the message appropriate in prompting behavioural change and promoting safer sex practices. The learners suggested that displaying the sign at a nightclub was appropriate because most drunk people were likely to engage in unprotected sex there. According to Geller, Winett and Everett (1982), signs displayed in close proximity to the point of action of particular behaviour are more effective because they specifically state the desired behaviour or describe alternative behaviours.

As data shows, themes emerging from the categorisation depict the learners’ understanding of the purpose served by signs (reception) (Fairclough 1992). As Lankshear and Knobel (2003:10) remind us, ‘the critical dimension involves awareness that all social practices, and thus all literacies, are socially constructed’. Thus, the learners’ conception of how the signs are produced is informed by different township discourses such as crime and sexism. According to Gee (2014), discourse gives us multiple identities such as victim-perpetrator discourse depicted in this study.

According to some residents, signs just ‘give directions’. An interesting response was: ‘Signs are Longview culture’. This view is consistent with the social semiotic approach to representation and communication, which sees all modes as meaning-making systems integrally connected with social and cultural systems (Kress 2003). When asked what ‘Longview culture’ is, the learners made several interesting suggestions. Some suggested that it had to do with language. Most suggestions hovered on the perceived culture of violence. An interesting suggestion was: ‘It means the way we do things here’. Although this view seemed vague, it was thought-provoking and suggestive of the uniqueness of Longview. Although signs may be ‘a window into the visual identity of the neighborhood’ (Rahman & Mehta 2020:35), they may be ‘culture’ sensitive and likely to be better understood by insiders. For example, the signs ‘Cut for the girls and grill for the boys’ and ‘Cut for the girls and grill for the fucking ninjas’ could be understood within Longview context. According to the learners, ‘cut’ refers to a piece of meat, which is associated with South African braai (barbeque) culture. Accordingly, Van Leeuwen (2005) notes that ‘semiotic resources’ include semiotic modes such as language and everyday objects that carry cultural value and significance. In this approach, people express meaning through their selection of the semiotic resources that are available to them at a particular moment (Moro, Mortimer & Tiberghien 2019). Some responses in the study suggest that residents found the signs beneficial – ‘They teach us young people to behave’ – and offering valuable life lessons – ‘I love the positive message like to condomise. Young people like us must protect ourselves from AIDS’. Some respondents found some signs useful in promoting literacy: ‘Children learn to read’; as one respondent attested, ‘I can understand them because they are written in Afrikaans and English’. The signs were perceived as valuable sources of information: ‘We can see the prices at a spaza shop and buy happy’.

In their response to the above question, the residents expressed concern that ‘Some signs give us a bad name’ and ‘They make our township dirty’. Similar to learners, the residents maintained that most signs depicted violence. Some of the prominent responses were ‘They encourage people to kill others’, ‘Encourage us to be gangsters’, ‘They are written by gangsters’, and ‘Gangsters write to frighten us’. Of interest is one resident’s view that ‘Gangsters rule Longview’ and even mark their territory. Similar to the learners’ responses, the word ‘gangster’ also features prominently in the residents’ responses. Associated with this perception is the element of social positioning. The rhetoric in Longview is detaching gangsters from the rest of the ‘law-abiding’ community. Close attention is paid to language use as one respondent noted that signs contain ‘strong language and hate speech’ and others identified gender disparity: ‘Women are still discriminated’, ‘Men insult women’. One respondent was apprehensive that ‘The signs teach our children bad manners’, which underlines the key role of language as a tool for socialisation. Some respondents dismissed the signs as insignificant and useless ‘graffiti’. Interestingly, the study established that some of the people in this community were unable to navigate the meaning of the signs because they could not read; as one resident noted, ‘How will my grandmother get the message? She can’t read’. Findings from my study show dominant English use in the signs, although Longview is a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking community,

In response to the above question, one resident noted: ‘They teach the rules of our township’. Ambiguity in this response suggested an unfixed signifier with possibilities for multiple meanings. The response sparked an interesting debate during class discussion as learners speculated about which rules the respondent was referring to. Most speculations centred on gangs warning people. Interestingly, the residents expressed sentiments similar to those of learners when commenting on crime: ‘Gangsters rule Longview’, ‘No one is safe’, ‘Longview problems of crime and drugs’ and ‘They talk about crime in our township’. Although the residents’ analysis does not focus on particular signs, their responses suggest an understanding of issues they portray, linked to the sociolinguistic context of their community.