Global resonance, local amplification: Antjie Krog on a world stage
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159736 , vital:40338 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903562468
- Description: As a result of the publication of Country of my Skull, an extraordinary literary enactment of witness and confession, Antjie Krog has become internationally known as a writer profoundly engaged with the events and human drama uncovered by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her voice is read as that of an expert witness of trauma, forgiveness and the means by which the horrors of the past may be addressed. In seeking to understand how Krog came to be taken up internationally as a representative voice of the South African transition, I focus on a particular global–local nexus for an explanation. I theorise that dealing with the past via truth commissions, a global publishing context and the work of a local writer with a record of excellent literary output and political action enabled a fit which resulted in Krog coming to prominence on a world stage.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159736 , vital:40338 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903562468
- Description: As a result of the publication of Country of my Skull, an extraordinary literary enactment of witness and confession, Antjie Krog has become internationally known as a writer profoundly engaged with the events and human drama uncovered by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her voice is read as that of an expert witness of trauma, forgiveness and the means by which the horrors of the past may be addressed. In seeking to understand how Krog came to be taken up internationally as a representative voice of the South African transition, I focus on a particular global–local nexus for an explanation. I theorise that dealing with the past via truth commissions, a global publishing context and the work of a local writer with a record of excellent literary output and political action enabled a fit which resulted in Krog coming to prominence on a world stage.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
The ambivalence of African elitehood:
- Authors: Matthews, Sally
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142442 , vital:38080 , DOI: 10.1177/0021909609357416
- Description: Recent discussions in South Africa about the role of the so-called patriotic bourgeoisie highlight the much debated question of what role elite Africans can and ought to play in the upliftment of the poor. Those supporting the notion of a patriotic bourgeoisie believe that national or racial solidarity is sufficient to allow privileged Africans to act in the interests of their poorer fellow citizens. However, a reconsideration of an older discussion of African elitehood, that of Amilcar Cabral, suggests that something more may be needed before elites can act in the interests of the poor. Cabral argues that elites need to renounce their privilege and to live and struggle alongside the poor if pro-poor societal transformation is to be achieved. While Cabral may be right that shared racial or national identity is insufficient for elite solidarity with the poor, he does not consider all the complexities that arise when elites actually try to work with and for the poor. A consideration of the experiences of a long-standing Senegalese NGO reveal some of these complexities and suggest that any attempt by African elites to engage meaningfully in the upliftment of the poor, will inevitably involve continuous and difficult negotiation between paternalism and naïve egalitarianism.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Matthews, Sally
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142442 , vital:38080 , DOI: 10.1177/0021909609357416
- Description: Recent discussions in South Africa about the role of the so-called patriotic bourgeoisie highlight the much debated question of what role elite Africans can and ought to play in the upliftment of the poor. Those supporting the notion of a patriotic bourgeoisie believe that national or racial solidarity is sufficient to allow privileged Africans to act in the interests of their poorer fellow citizens. However, a reconsideration of an older discussion of African elitehood, that of Amilcar Cabral, suggests that something more may be needed before elites can act in the interests of the poor. Cabral argues that elites need to renounce their privilege and to live and struggle alongside the poor if pro-poor societal transformation is to be achieved. While Cabral may be right that shared racial or national identity is insufficient for elite solidarity with the poor, he does not consider all the complexities that arise when elites actually try to work with and for the poor. A consideration of the experiences of a long-standing Senegalese NGO reveal some of these complexities and suggest that any attempt by African elites to engage meaningfully in the upliftment of the poor, will inevitably involve continuous and difficult negotiation between paternalism and naïve egalitarianism.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
To be Xhosa or not to be Xhosa… that is the question:
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158096 , vital:40148 , https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630008666401
- Description: It has long been recognised that indigenous languages are endangered because of powerful social, political and economic pressures. In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid has left its indigenous languages particularly vulnerable, and since 1994 huge efforts have been made to reverse the situation. Despite the new language policy and accompanying legislation, it would seem that many Xhosa speakers themselves want English, and not Xhosa,for their children. This paper reports on a multi-faceted quantitative and qualitative survey in and around Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province, which focused on the steady trickle of speakers of Xhosa into English-medium schools in thearea, and examined the reasons underlying decisions to send Xhosa children to these schools and the subsequent linguistic and psycho-social effects of the move on the children.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158096 , vital:40148 , https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630008666401
- Description: It has long been recognised that indigenous languages are endangered because of powerful social, political and economic pressures. In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid has left its indigenous languages particularly vulnerable, and since 1994 huge efforts have been made to reverse the situation. Despite the new language policy and accompanying legislation, it would seem that many Xhosa speakers themselves want English, and not Xhosa,for their children. This paper reports on a multi-faceted quantitative and qualitative survey in and around Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province, which focused on the steady trickle of speakers of Xhosa into English-medium schools in thearea, and examined the reasons underlying decisions to send Xhosa children to these schools and the subsequent linguistic and psycho-social effects of the move on the children.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Foreign policy ambiguity on the part of an emergent middle power: South African foreign policy through other lenses
- Serrão, Olivier, Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Authors: Serrão, Olivier , Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161464 , vital:40629 , DOI: 10.1080/02589341003600189
- Description: This paper attempts to address the ambiguity so frequently highlighted in South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy. Three central arguments are put forward. Firstly, it is argued that traditional accounts of South Africa's foreign policy, utilizing rationalist or ‘mainstream’ theories of International Relations, are insufficient in themselves to explain the complexities inherent in the country's foreign policy. In this regard, constructivist IR theory offers several key insights into studies of South Africa's foreign policy. Secondly, although it is argued that constructivism, particularly its focus on identity, is crucial to understanding South African foreign policy, it alone cannot sufficiently explain its reception or results on the world stage. Finally, it is argued that in order to fully appreciate both the nature and effects of South Africa's foreign policy, a mixed focus, incorporating insights from both constructivist and materialist-based theories of IR, is necessary.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Serrão, Olivier , Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161464 , vital:40629 , DOI: 10.1080/02589341003600189
- Description: This paper attempts to address the ambiguity so frequently highlighted in South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy. Three central arguments are put forward. Firstly, it is argued that traditional accounts of South Africa's foreign policy, utilizing rationalist or ‘mainstream’ theories of International Relations, are insufficient in themselves to explain the complexities inherent in the country's foreign policy. In this regard, constructivist IR theory offers several key insights into studies of South Africa's foreign policy. Secondly, although it is argued that constructivism, particularly its focus on identity, is crucial to understanding South African foreign policy, it alone cannot sufficiently explain its reception or results on the world stage. Finally, it is argued that in order to fully appreciate both the nature and effects of South Africa's foreign policy, a mixed focus, incorporating insights from both constructivist and materialist-based theories of IR, is necessary.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
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