On Being a Pedi

In this book, I provide an interrogative response to an understanding of human identity informed by essentialism. This is done through an interpretive phenomenological analysis that views human identity as an actively initiated phenomenon by the individual in the face of existential challenges. This view contrasts with essentialism¿s supposed assertion that human identity can be objectively proven as determined and governed by the dictates of natural laws. An exposition of this interpretive understanding is rendered through an interrogation of a Pedi identity as an actively sought-after phenomenon and a facilitated deliberate essentialization of humanity, resulting in stereotypes that accentuate the differentiation and differentness of the self and others. These stereotypes involve the harmful exclusionary prejudices of classification, categorization, distinctions of individuals and groups as outsiders and insiders, and the justification of discriminatory interpersonal and intergroup life, within the Pedi group.