Between past and future: memory and mourning in the stories of Okwiri Oduor and Ndinda Kioko
- Authors: Awuor, Nicholas Amol
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Women authors, Kenyan , Oduor, Okwiri -- The plea bargain , Oduor, Okwiri -- My father's head , Oduor, Okwiri -- Rag doll , Kioko, Ndinda -- Sometime before Maulidi , Kioko, Ndinda -- Some freedom dreams , Women and literature -- Africa , Bereavement -- Fiction , Culture in literature , Liberty in literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161229 , vital:40608
- Description: This study investigates the literary activities of two emerging female Kenyan writers, Claudette Okwiri Oduor and Jacqueline Ndinda Kioko, both of whom are award-winning authors. Oduor won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing while Kioko bagged the Wasafiri New Writing Fiction Award 2017. It examines specifically how the writers deal with memory and mourning in negotiating between the past and future. I explore how their fictional and non-fictional narratives assist individuals and groups to confront loss, reconstruct new identities, and renegotiate belonging amidst personal and social upheaval. The fictional narratives at the centre of this research are Oduor’s “The Plea Bargain” (2011), “My Father’s Head” (2013) and “Rag Doll” (2014), and Kioko’s “Sometime Before Maulidi” (2014) and “Some Freedom Dreams” (2017). The study explores the themes of mental illness, existential crisis, and fragmentation, and considers bereavement, queer relationships, cultural freedom, and social recognition. The research further considers the active participation of these two writers in Kenya’s contemporary literary-cultural conversations, which span different genres and various media platforms, including blogs, YouTube clips, online magazines, and social media networks in dialogue with other writers. . I trace the significance of the literary-cultural link these authors have with their local, continental, and global counterparts in countries like Uganda, Nigeria, and South Africa. The link finds expression through their (in)direct association with some of the new online publishing outlets in Kenya like Jalada Africa, Enkare Review, and Kikwetu. More importantly, their shared participation in and association with such international awards and scholarships as the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Kwani Trust Manuscript Project, and Miles Morland Foundation is integral in apprehending contemporary literary exchanges and multidirectional flows of publishing in Africa and beyond. I equally illustrate how mentorship of younger writers through local writers’ organisations and collectives like AMKA and Writivism help in the formation of an alternative canon other than the mainstream. The study affirms that the authors seem to transcend the boundaries of production and circulation by fluidly moving between electronic and non-electronic platforms, thus mimicking the memory production of remembering, repeating, and working through.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Chasing Eden: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and the value of reading in a technological age
- Authors: Bosman, Zoë June
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Atwood, Margaret, 1939- MaddAddam trilogy , Speculative fiction -- History and criticism , Capitalism in literature , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , Technology in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145796 , vital:38467
- Description: This thesis is focussed on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake (2003) The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). Detailing Atwood’s own specifications as to why these texts should be categorised as works of speculative fiction, the thesis examines how this literary genre, and Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy in particular, is uniquely capable of encouraging readers to interrogate critically the socio-economic, environmental, and ethical problems to which she, and the contemporary reader, bear witness in the present technological age. With reference to Atwood’s essays and critical writings, Darko Suvin’s Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, and Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading, this project explores the value of reading speculative fiction and details how Atwood has constructed the fictional, yet plausible, possible future world of her trilogy by extrapolating our current scientific capabilities, environmental challenges, and political configurations to their logical conclusions. It explores the close relationship that exists between the near-future world of Atwood’s texts and the contemporary context from which she has drawn her subject matter, and argues that the trilogy demonstrates graphically the long-term consequences of capitalism, sustainability, and the doctrine of human exceptionalism, which this project, following Yuval Harari, defines as orthodox guiding narratives: fictions that humanity has created, and which structure our perception of reality and guide our behaviour. The project maintains that Atwood’s trilogy presents the reader with a hypothetical future that looks towards and beyond the end of contemporary technological society in order to urge her reader to imagine, and actualize, alternatives to the scenarios that these texts depict. The most significant question Atwood’s texts ask is whether contemporary technological society is willing and able to transform in order to avert the ecological apocalypse that is the logical conclusion to the Anthropocene?
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- Date Issued: 2020
Choreographies of protest performance as recruitment to activism and the movement of perception during the 2015 re-emergence of student activism at Rhodes University
- Authors: Qoza, Phiwokazi
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: College students -- Political activity -- South Africa , Student protesters -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Performance art -- Political aspects -- South Africa , Protest songs -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141692 , vital:37997
- Description: It has been argued that individuals participate in activism due to an identification with the preferences and interests of an emerging group of actors or in solidarity with a pre-existing network that has resorted to a number of protest repertoires in order to make claims or demands. Additionally, an emerging instance of protest is often linked to an image of previous protest events through the employment of a combination of master frames which function as discursive articulation of the encounter in familiar terms, creating a frame resonance which recruits adherents and constituents. To understand why some bystanders to protest transcended to actors in protest and the development of frames within a protest cycle, a performance ethnography is employed to observe and analyse choreographies of protest which took place at an institution of higher education in South Africa during the 2015 re-emergence of wide-spread student activism. It is found that in encountering an atmosphere of protest there emerged a relation of feeling, referred to as “feeling the vibe or atmosphere”, which those who became protest performers resolved in ways which increased their capacity to act in favour of co-constituting that atmosphere. During the encounter between the bystander body and the atmosphere of protest, non-linear somatic communication, characterised by active and passive gestures and postures, occurred through which protest performers developed contact and connection with other bodies as a result of the displacement of space. This thesis suggests that participation in activism can be about going with the flow of movement in an uncertain and ambiguous moment and is not limited to an identification with the pre-existing organization of preferences and interests as a frame of resonance emerges to signify somatic communication which differentiated bodies in the duration of protest performance. Therefore, this thesis uses the theory of affect to situate student activism in-between the politics of performance and the performance of politics whereupon the rhythm of song creates an opening for the kinaesthetic to create form from spontaneous movement of the body as an event of the movement of perception and the perception of movement.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Come listen quickly
- Authors: Gouws, Leigh-Anne
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141559 , vital:37985
- Description: Creative work portfolio.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Commonplaces
- Authors: Orsmond, Joseph Granger
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144061 , vital:38307
- Description: My thesis is a collection of short to medium length poems. All of the subject matter is sustained by reflections, anecdotes or stories. The pieces in the collection are concerned with experiences linked to the seemingly ordinary and mundane. In this regard, I am inspired by how Alan Ziegler (in “Tales of Teaching” and Love at First Sight) and Raymond Carver (All of Us: The collected Poems) find stories in subject matter which is so commonplace, that it is often ignored creatively. Likewise, the lyricism and modes of expression of William Carlos Williams, Federico García Lorca and Luis Cernuda have informed how I write and structure my poetry.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Constructions of United States government development funding in response to the global gag rule
- Authors: Molobela, Reabetswe Lee-Anne
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Pro-choice movement -- South Africa , Abortion -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Abortion -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa , Abortion -- Psychological aspects , Reproductive rights -- South Africa , Economic assistance, American -- South Africa , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa , Discourse analysis , Social constructionism , Global Gag Rule
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148295 , vital:38727
- Description: Despite South Africa’s progressive abortion law, barriers to safe abortion are numerous and exist at both the macro and micro level. Barriers include abortion stigma, discrimination, strong moral judgements against abortion within society and conscientious objection among health care workers. Furthermore, women’s lack of knowledge regarding the legal status of abortion and the voluminous illegal advertisements of back street abortions undermines the legislation and promotes unsafe abortions. Sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have served as a link between service and people by providing information about safe abortion to women, especially in rural areas and have received funding from various platforms including United States government. However, the United States government has established the global gag rule which forbids foreign non-governmental organizations receiving United States government funding from using United States government and non-United States funds for abortion related activities. The global gag rule has been reinstated and extended by the current United States president. As such the global gag rule is expected to have an adverse effect on sexual and reproductive health rights in South Africa and on Sexual and reproductive health rights non-governmental organizations. The aim of the study is to highlight the constructions and responses to the global gag rule by sexual and reproductive health rights non-government organization workers in the South African context. This study used semi-structured individual interviews to collect data through purposive and snowball sampling of 10 South African Sexual and reproductive health rights non-governmental organizations workers. The study is situated within the social constructionist framework with emphasis on Fairclough’s three aspects of the constructive effects of discourse as an analytic tool in conjunction with Braun and Clarke’s social constructionist thematic analysis. The results of the study reflect on participants’ construction of United States government as imposing conservative agendas and taking regressive steps towards Sexual and reproductive health rights, which have in turn invoked indirect and direct resistance from non-governmental organizations. Additionally, NGO workers have constructed subject positions that highlight the vulnerability of non-governmental organizations dependency on United States government 1funding as it destabilizes and fragments civil society organization while it compromises the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations in serving the needs of intended communities. United States government is also constructed as strengthening abortion stigma and strengthening barriers to safe abortion that already exist in the country.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Crossing shades
- Authors: Singh, Shareen
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145049 , vital:38404
- Description: This collection of stories draw on culture, history, memory, musings and imagination. The stories are set primarily in South Africa but includes travels to other countries. I explore journeys to different worlds and minds. I challenge the reader to see how place and time influence our ways of seeing, living and evolving. I use different forms and tones that resonate with the subjective nature of each creative piece. My writing includes formal prose as well as works that experiment with fragments, vignettes and flash fiction.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Decent work and informal employment: the case of Bulawayo Metropolitan Province (Central Business District) Zimbabwe
- Authors: Bob, Shaka Keny
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Labor -- Zimbabwe , Informal sector (Economics) -- Zimbabwe , Job creation -- Zimbabwe , Poor -- Zimbabwe -- Employment , Labor policy -- Zimbabwe , Football coaches -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115241 , vital:34104
- Description: Zimbabwe, similar to other developing countries experiences a high level of informal employment. However, most informal jobs are situated in very poor working conditions and are characterised by decent work deficits. Despite the fact that various studies have shown the importance of the informal economy in that it provides livelihood earning opportunities for the majority of people in the Global South, it has remained a largely forgotten sector in policy making in most countries. It is, therefore, important that informal work be taken seriously and efforts must be made to improve working conditions for the urban working poor in the developing world. The purpose of this study is to investigate on the self-reported experiences of informal workers to understand their perspectives surrounding the concept of decent work in the Zimbabwean context. The case study is the Bulawayo metropolitan province, and this study targeted informal workers who trade within the central business district. The study also aimed to measure the decent work deficit scores between two economic sectors (food and clothing traders). This was done by testing the suitability of the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index as a methodology of measuring decent work at a micro level. The analysis is based on a mixed methods study which was carried out through the use of a semi-structured survey. The study revealed that decent work for the sampled informal workers meant work related improvements, insurances and risk management, right of expression and business advancement skills which closely resembles the International Labour Organisation's conceptualisation of decent work. The study also highlighted that childcare assistance and disability insurance are concepts which remained excluded in the current conceptualisation of decent work. The thesis offers a new policy angle which shows that to promote decent work the concept of heterogeneity must be adopted because inequalities persist within the informal economy. The study also suggested that the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index can be used as an appropriate methodology of monitoring the progress towards achieving decent work at the micro level i.e. industry or individual level. This is because since the formation of the decent work concept; the International Labour Organisation has only provided a methodology of how to measure the progress of decent work at the county level. The survey findings revealed that food vendors scored more poorly on the decent work deficit index compared to the clothing traders. The study also identified that food vendors and clothing traders are faced with different challenges which suggests that policy makers must take that into consideration when attempting to design policies or programmes which are aimed at assisting informal workers.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Detecting the transnational space: metaphysical detecting in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When we were orphans, Michiel Heyns’s Lost ground, and Amitav Gosh’s The Calcutta chromosome
- Authors: Botes, Niki
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literature and transnationalism , Detective and mystery stories -- History and criticism , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- -- When we were orpahns , Heyns, Michiel , Heyns, Michiel -- Lost ground , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- -- The Calcutta chromosome
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140971 , vital:37933
- Description: The transnational detectives in the three primary texts under scrutiny—Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome—are regarded as metaphysical detectives in this thesis. As transnational figures, they criss-cross physical and national borders, but their investigations also often require the crossing of epistemological and ontological borders, as well as thinking outside of binaries. The fictional transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in these texts all feature a lack of change and the persistence of the socio-economic inequalities and discriminations of the colonial or, in the case of Lost Ground, the apartheid past. This thesis will argue that the three texts foreground the inability to break free from conceptual frameworks and a lack in human relationships as two possible reasons why the communities and societies in question have not been able to affect change. To solve the various mysteries in the texts, the transnational detectives need to find new ways of knowing and being. The lessons that these detectives learn and the personal changes they experience serve as synecdoche for how a better tomorrow for the transnational, postcolonial world could possibly be achieved. The methodology employed in this thesis involves a comparative reading of the three primary texts. To analyse and interpret these texts, this thesis draws on the philosophies of postmodern philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as postcolonial theorists like Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Homi K. Bhabha. The thesis will contend that especially Derrida’s work on deconstruction, which forms the conceptual basis for Bhabha’s notion of the ‘third space,’ as well as Levinas’s anti-totalitarian approach with regard to the ethical relationship between the self and the other, are viable better ways of knowing and being in the transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in the texts. Derrida’s notion of différance and the trace, as well as Bhabha’s third space, this thesis contends, completely destabilises binary thinking and offers ways to think outside of the limited frameworks of ideological discourse. This thesis also posits that Levinas’s metaphysical and pluralistic interpretation of how the self should, and can, relate to the other, presents a better way of forming human relationships and has the potential to affect positive change.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Digital media marketing and the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in Africa: A reception analysis of the multi-channel marketing of Coca-Cola among young Africans from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Akingbade, Olutobi Elijah
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Carbonated beverages -- Health aspects -- South Africa , Carbonated beverages -- Marketing -- South Africa , Soft drinks -- Health aspects -- South Africa , Soft drinks -- Marketing -- South Africa , Carbonated beverages -- Health aspects -- Nigeria , Carbonated beverages -- Marketing -- Nigeria , Digital media -- Marketing -- Africa , Soft drinks -- Health aspects -- Nigeria , Soft drinks -- Marketing -- Nigeria , Digital media -- Marketing -- Nigeria , Obesity -- Africa , Nutritionally induced diseases -- Africa , Coca-Cola Company -- Marketing , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , University of Lagos -- Students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163125 , vital:41012
- Description: This study investigates and examines how Coca-Cola’s marketing communications, especially the newer forms of digital, social and mobile media marketing messages/campaigns, are received, understood and made sense of by two sets of purposefully selected young urban African students in Nigeria and South Africa. Embedded within a qualitative research design and underpinned by an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, this study was conducted against the backdrop of the recent surge in the consumption of Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) which has been directly implicated in the rise of obesity and a variety of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa. The thesis explores the role of multinational SSBs in this surge, as African countries have become key focus areas for multinational food and beverage companies seeking growth and profits, as home markets decline partly due to better health communications and, in some cases, the implementation of so-called ‘sugar taxes’ and the attendant negative publicity around these taxes. The focus on young Africans from Nigeria and South Africa was motivated by the similar rapid urbanisations in both countries, often accompanied by changes in diet and greater consumption of fast foods and SSBS, and by South Africa’s ranking as the country with the highest prevalence of overweight persons and obesity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Similar rises in national average weights are now also starting to be seen in Nigeria, as are surges of diet-related disease incidence and prevalence. The study is informed by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) but also draws on other theories and some key concepts from marketing studies, health science and psychology. Methodologically, the study draws on in-person observations, focus group interviews and semi-structured individual in-depth interviews, to explore how Coca-Cola has created a deep and evocative historical ‘brandscape’ and how it has become a multicultural resource in both South Africa and Nigeria. Through an investigation into the lived experiences of study participants with regards to both their earliest and more recent engagements with Coca-Cola, as a brand and as a product, the study delineates the influence of older generations of Coke enthusiasts and consumers within participants’ households and newer spaces of interaction with Coke via interactive, highly personalised social media-centric campaigns. This study explores how the ubiquitous nature of Coca-Cola’s aesthetics and signage are engaged with – often in very ‘sub-conscious’ ways – by these students and how more recent social media campaigns evoke this multigenerational history. Unpacking study participants’ self-understandings of Coke and their often ‘sub-conscious’ engagements with the SSB, this study explicates the underpinning ideological grounding and how this is sustained over time to become an hegemonic code that does not only confine participants’ engagements with SSBs to Coke but also confines their reception of, and engagements with, Coke’s media marketing messages/campaigns to those that resonate with the multigenerational history evoked by the SSB. It is within this contextual background that this study brings to the fore participants ‘cognitive dissonance’ and scepticism and often rank disbelief of the health risks posed by their high levels of Coke consumption. The study concludes that attempts to raise awareness about the dangers inherent in excessive consumption of SSBs in Africa need to be reviewed and rethought. There is a need for long-term, consistent and much more proactive health journalism, alongside public health campaigns in both official and indigenous languages, to dispel the powerful myths created by SSB marketing and explain how SSBs are implicated in the rise of diet-related NCDs in Nigeria and South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Disco
- Authors: Trantraal, Nathan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Kaaps , South African fiction (English) -- 21st century , South African poetry (English) -- 21st century , Afrikaans fiction -- 21st century , Afrikaans poetry -- 21st century
- Language: Afrikaans , English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145217 , vital:38419
- Description: Creative writing portfolio.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Discursive constructions of alcohol use and pregnancy among participants in intervention aimed at reducing Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
- Authors: Msomi, Nqobile Nomonde
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders -- South Africa , Pregnancy -- Psychological aspects , Reproductive rights -- South Africa , Reproductive health -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140374 , vital:37883
- Description: South Africa’s socio-cultural and political history has had significant effects on maternal and reproductive health. The hazardous alcohol use patterns in the country have affected alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Antenatal exposure to alcohol may result in Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The levels of FASD in particular areas of the country are the highest recorded in the world. Epidemiological studies have dominated pregnancy and FASD research in South Africa; however, recently critical scholarship seeking to contextualise the issue of drinking alcohol during pregnancy is emerging. This study forms part of a developmental/formative assessment of an alcohol and pregnancy intervention. Assessment is an important part of pilot interventions, and discourse is a key area of focus due to its constitutive role for the subjectivity of human beings and legitimation of institutional practices. Using a reproductive justice perspective and a Foucauldian approach to analysis, I identified five prominent discursive constructions of alcohol use during pregnancy produced during interviews with community educators. These interviews were conducted following training workshops with the community educators. Participants constructed their living environments as ‘wholly bad’ and ‘issue-ridden’ and positioned alcohol consumption as ‘a destroyer!’, ‘king’ and a social lubricant. They interpellated the foetus, the ‘FASD child’ and pregnant women into this context. They positioned themselves as transformed subjects able to effect change. The foetus was constructed as ‘vulnerable and important’, as opposed to the ‘defiled FASD child’. Pregnant women were constructed as ‘ignorant, preoccupied and unreceptive to knowledge’. These constructions hinged on so-called ‘scientific knowledge’ of biological processes in utero, demonstrating Foucault’s conception of the power/knowledge nexus and how its dynamics transforms knowledge of human beings. Whereas this ‘knowledge’ transformed alcohol consumption and the foetus into powerful and vulnerable subjects respectively, the circulating discourses had objectivising effects on pregnant women. The discourses of responsibilisation, the personification of the foetus, ‘the problem’ category of FASD, the discourse of difference, and the discourse of alcohol consumption as an entrenched practice were circulating around pregnant women. I suggest alterations to the identified constructions using principles of community psychology, the harm reduction model, a social model of disability and the reproductive justice perspective
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- Date Issued: 2020
Diteng tsa ditlhopha tsa maina a Bantu: ntlhathakanelo e le mo Setswanang : “The semantics of Bandu noun classes: a focus on Setswana
- Authors: Tladi, Oboitshepo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Tswana language , Tswana language -- Grammar , Tswana language -- Noun , Noun , Bantu languages , Bantu languages -- Noun , Bantu languages -- Grammar
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167654 , vital:41500
- Description: The present study investigated the semantic classification of the Setswana noun class system. This enquiry falls under the broad area of the noun classification system in Bantu languages, psycholinguistics and lexicogrpahy. Specifically it explores the basis of noun classification in Setswana making indications that Setswana noun classification is based on a partial semantic classification. Data for the study was drawn from the Setswana Oxford Dictionary. Sixty Setswana nouns, from class 1, 3, 5, and 7, were selected and analysed and then grouped into semantic categories (i.e., PERSON, DEROGATION, TRANSPORATION and so forth). The study adopted Kgukutli’s (1994) semantic classification in performing the dictionary analysis. The rest of the data was drawn from the intuitions of thirty-nine contemporary speakers of Setswana, with the aid of a linguistic test which was fashioned according to Selvik’s (2001) psycholinguistic test. The language test required participants to match the predetermined Setswana definitions with hypothetical Setswana nouns with selected class prefixes attached to them. The results from the empirical study showed that speakers were associating prefixes to certain semantic values, suggesting that each noun class had specific semantic content that was unique to that class. The semantic categories created through the dictionary analysis were then compared to those given by the thirty-nine Setswana speakers, to analyse whether there were any similaritires in the semantic classification of the noun classes. The findings of the dictionary analysis and linguistic test revealed that there were certain semantic characteristics that each class was associated with that seemed to be unique to the class. However, there were various semantic overlaps in the semantic categories associated with the different noun classes, which brings into question whether a semantic classification is viable in the classing of nouns. The study suggests that prior classification of Setswana nouns are not precise enough and that additional semantic categories are needed to offer a more precise classification of nouns in this language.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Does the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies constitute an instance of hermeneutical injustice?
- Authors: Weiffenbach, Michaela
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Zuma, Jacob -- Trials, litigation, etc. , Rape -- Philosophy , Women's rights -- Africa , Women, Black -- Social conditions -- Africa , Masculinity -- Africa , Men, Black -- Africa -- Psychology , Justice (Philosophy)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145708 , vital:38460
- Description: This thesis argues that within the conventional imagination of the West, identity functions in a way that particular forms of embodiment are characterised by the experience of endured sexual vulnerability, which I argue is best understood as the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies (Cahill 2001, 120). By this, I mean that the threat of rape is contingent upon the social and political construction of one’s identity as vulnerable. In virtue of this particular way of constructing the embodiment of certain subjectivities, there is an instance of hermeneutical injustice conferred (Fricker 2007, 114). I inquire into the function and meaning of stereotypic generalisations, prejudice and rape myths embedded within the dominant framework of the West and show how language and representation constructs these identities as ‘rapeable’. Furthermore, I consider how collective hermeneutical discourses construct Blackness, specifically Black masculinities and the construction of the ‘un-rapeable’ Black femxle body. To see how these ideas are congruous the prominent example that occurred in South Africa in 2005, namely, the Jacob Zuma rape trial comes to mind. One relevant feature of the case is that it shows how identities of race are constructed in the aftermath of apartheid and points to a Western collective imagination resistant to change. In addition, it demonstrates the triad of interrelatedness holding between the self-world-other, a relationship constituted mutually by the self and the socially constructed interpretations of identity and embodiment (du Toit 2009, 58). Lastly, the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies is an example of how discursive narratives construct particular identities as vulnerable through rendering particular embodied subjects as sexually irrelevant and hermeneutically obscured.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Either way you die: a collection of short stories
- Authors: Sithole, Sipho
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145081 , vital:38406
- Description: Part A: Thesis (Creative Work); Part B: Portfolio.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Enabling violence: the ethics of writing and reading rape in South Africa
- Authors: Lloyd, Dylan Reumen
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Rape -- South Africa , Rape -- Fiction , Rape in literature , Rape in literature -- South Africa , Psychic trauma in literature , Post-traumatic stress disorder in literature , Dystopias in literature , Coetzee, J. M., 1940- Disgrace , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/166173 , vital:41335
- Description: This thesis is concerned with describing the stakes of reading, writing and criticising fictional depictions of rape in a country plagued by high levels of sexual violence. I consider the capacity of rape representations to cause harm to women and rape survivors, and worsen the various injuries suffered by survivors as a direct or indirect consequence of rape. The possibility of such harm prompts me to examine the role and responsibilities of readers and critics in facilitating or preventing such harm. I further discuss the potential strategies of harm prevention that readers of novelistic portrayals of rape might adopt as well as the positive outcomes that such reading strategies make possible, and which might balance out the risks that accompany them. My description of the potential harm of rape representations combines postmodern critical feminist analysis with Miranda Fricker’s work on epistemic justice and Judith Herman’s work on trauma in order to illustrate the way that these representations shape our conception of rape in a manner that affects everything from how it is enacted to our treatment of survivors to the possibility of their recovery from posttraumatic stress disorder. In order to situate my analysis in the context of South African literature and to explore the notion of responsibility in relation to the writing of scenes of rape, I utilise a close reading of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Furthermore, I discuss the utility and limits of the critical feminist strategy of using a normative critical approach to rape representations in order to prevent harm. Ultimately, I argue that the use of such a strategy, along with the development of a purpose-honed adaptive critical style, is essential to the fulfilment of our responsibilities as readers and to the prevention of further suffering.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Explored Vygotsky’s concept of mediation in a biliteracy project in the foundation phase of a township school
- Authors: Frans, Nompumelelo Grace
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literacy -- South Africa -- Case studies , Education, Elementary -- South Africa -- Case studies , Education, Bilingual -- South Africa -- Case studies , Vygotskiĭ, L S (Lev Semenovich), 1896-1934 , Biliteracy Project (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147204 , vital:38602
- Description: The research reported on in this thesis explored teacher mediation when a biliteracy approach through task-based teaching and learning is used in a Foundation Phase classroom in a township school in the Eastern Cape. It is an action research aimed at understanding and systematically investigating how and what it means to work with bilingual mediation to ensure cognition, with emphasis on task design, facilitation for cognition, mediation forms and language use. This thesis was motivated by three issues that are still not being adequately addressed: the low level of cognitive work in South African schools, the failure to use the home languages of children throughout schooling as a medium of instruction and assessment (while providing excellent access to English as subject), and a top-down approach to both policy development and teacher professionalisation. These three issues drove me to explore theories that can help address them, and that is how I came to rely mostly on mediation, biliteracy and a task-based approach to teaching. For this research, on data handling I prepared and taught six lessons, but only three of the six lessons were recorded, transcribed and analysed for empirical data. I chose data handling, as in my previous experience I found it to include all the mathematical problem-solving skills which involve addition subtraction, analysing and comparing information. It also offered opportunities for language use, and meaningful interactive co-construction and acquiring of knowledge in the process of teaching and learning. This turned into a form of theory-driven action research, which was also developmental. I was critically reflective on my practices, and my facilitation for cognition and how I use language to make cognition possible. I also looked at the types of activities that I gave learners to help reach maximum development. The data collected from the classroom interactions, shows how I, in some instances, would take decisions, implement them and then find them not to be effective. It also shows some of the challenges I came across, from myself and the learners. Learners challenges were, unfamiliarity with the systematic build-up of data handling, filling in tables, transferring information from one form into a different form, and constructing and analysing bar graphs. This was part of pedagogynot the policy, which indicated inadequate teacher development. This could be because data handling is allocated minimal weighting from the CAPS document, and teachers do not go as in depth as they need to in dealing with data handling. My challenge was to prepare the grade 3 class for more data handling encounters in the higher grades. I had to ensure they grasped data handling concepts in their mother tongue before the switch to English as LoLT, as prescribed by policy. Learners proved to have little or no knowledge with regards to data handling concepts, which meant I had to start from the basics, as I had nothing to build on, and then progress to grade 3 level in one year. This study suggests that for any concept that has to be taught, cognition must be a priority, and strategies on how to facilitate that needs to be well thought out. Teachers need to be aware of theories that can positively impact on their practices. Teacher development is key to improvement of education, especially in the Eastern Cape. That cannot be done in isolation, but in partnership with relevant stakeholders.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring career information through developmental contextual focus groups with youth from disadvantaged backgrounds
- Authors: Phala, Phorogohlo Modipadi
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Vocational guidance , Educational counseling , Focus groups , Action research , Youth -- South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , Parental influences – South Africa , Vocational guidance -- Parent participation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/130594 , vital:36442
- Description: This study investigates the importance of initiating career exploration discussions with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, using the developmental-contextual framework of career development by Vondracek, Lerner & Schulenburg (1986). This model stresses the dynamic relationship between an individual, the ever-changing environment and how each influences the other. Based upon an earlier study by Spencer (1999), this study aims to explore the developmental-contextual model as the basis of successive group discussions at a pivotal moment in the lives of the youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, it aims to understand individuals’ perceptions of career education and the influences on career decision-making and aspiration. Data were collected through setting up and running a focus group session once a week over a period of five weeks, in which different career-related topics were discussed. The sample consisted of nine unemployed students who were currently not in a tertiary institution between the ages of 18-25 years. The findings indicated a noteworthy need for more relevant career interventions to be investigated and implemented for the diverse South African population. The study’s findings demonstrated that individuals might be more open to exploring career development through group rather than individual counselling. It was found that parents are the main career influencers in their children’s lives. Mothers were experienced as role models, supporters and encouragers while fathers were experienced as absent and unsupportive, playing little or no role in their children’s lives. The participants found this form of career exploration appealing as it allowed for peer consultation and the freedom to discuss career issues in a non-judgemental setting.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring how mobile phones mediate bonding, bridging and linking social capital in a South African rural area
- Authors: Buthelezi, Stella Mbalenhle Nomfundo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Social capital (Sociology) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cell phone users -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cell phones -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cell phones -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Social media -- Influence -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , WhatsApp (Application software) -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163419 , vital:41035
- Description: Many contemporary ICT for development (ICT4D) studies focus on the benefits of mobile phones on the socio-economic development of marginalised communities. For many people in poorly resourced rural areas, one of the significant benefits of mobile phone usage is the expansion of social networks for resources or support. Social capital is one of the concepts that have been found to directly or indirectly influence many aspects of social life, communities and development. In the present study, I explore how mobile phones mediate bonding, bridging and linking social capital in a rural area on the Wild Coast of South Africa, Dwesa. I use individual semi-structured interviews with purposefully selected participants who are mobile phone owners in the area. I employ a thematic analysis to analyse their responses in relation to three dimensions of social capital, i.e. 1) trust and solidarity, 2) social cohesion and inclusion and 3) collective action and empowerment. Like in many South African rural areas, in Dwesa there is endemic poverty, inadequate services and infrastructure and high unemployment. The study found that by increased communication, mobile phones mostly strengthen bonding social capital between close ties who rely on each other for various forms of support. Mobile phones also facilitate the building of bridging social capital among members of various community groups by using WhatsApp group chats and Facebook. The little evidence on the relationship between mobile phone use and linking social capital in the area relates to group networks providing opportunities for interaction between community members and individuals in tertiary institutions and local government positions.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring socialities on Black Twitter: an ethnographic study of everyday concerns of South African users in 2018 and 2019
- Authors: Adebayo, Binwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Twitter (Firm) , Social media South Africa , Social media and society South Africa , Black people and mass media South Africa , Language and the Internet South Africa , Mass media and culture South Africa , Race in mass media , Ethnicity in mass media , Mass media and minorities South Africa , Mass media Social aspects South Africa , Sex differences in mass media , Social media Political aspects South Africa , South Africa Social conditions , Finance In mass media , Intersectionality (Sociology) South Africa , Black Twitter
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140575 , vital:37900
- Description: In this thesis, I examine the phenomenon of Black Twitter, as it exists in South Africa. Drawing on its socio-cultural and linguistic elements, I analyse the kinds of socialities which are constituted on the platform. In the study, I do this by focusing on the key issues which drive the space by evaluating the key everyday concerns as expressed by its users. As such, the overarching lens focuses on three elements: Firstly, the idea of socialities and the way in which they manifest in online spaces; a focus on the everyday as an important site for social inquiry; and lastly the issue of ‘blackness’, in terms of the way it is used and understood in the South African Black Twitter context. Historically, the Black Twitter space has been linked almost exclusively to its broad base of African American users, who are significant both in terms of their numbers, and their impact on online social culture. However, in this study I engage with the ways in which Black Twitter has been adopted, co-opted and used by young South Africans. As a bona fide ‘member’ of South African Black Twitter, my approach to the study was cyberethnographic. Drawing on my access to the space, my knowledge of many of its members and dynamics, I engaged in participant observation as my primary methodology. My discussion focuses on three areas of everyday concerns, namely: gender and sexuality; race and politics; finances and the economy. These three areas emerge both as prominent sites of discussion, but also give the best insight into the ways in which young South Africans are grappling with these issues. My analysis focuses on how everyday concerns are handled on the platform, and I focus on the deployment of solidarity, formal language, platform-based language and the invocation of blackness. I argue in my conclusion that while the structure of the broad Black Twitter space reflects a leaning towards a digital public sphere, that the process and construction of Black Twitter’s ideas and content are approached via an incomplete, fluid convivial approach.
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- Date Issued: 2020