Constructions of nationhood in secession debates related to Mthwakazi Liberation Front in Bulawayo's Chronicle and Newsday newspapers in 2011
- Authors: Ndlovu, Mphathisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers , Bulawayo , Matabeleland , Zimbabwe , Chronicle , Newsday , Secession , Devolution , Nationhood , Ndebele , Ethnic identity , Mthwakazi Liberation Front , Mthwakazi Liberation Front -- Zimbabwe , Mass media and nationalism -- Research -- Zimbabwe , Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) -- Newspapers , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- History -- Autonomy and independence movements , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- Social conditions , Zimbabwe -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001846
- Description: This study investigates the constructions of nationhood in two Bulawayo newspapers, the Chronicle and Newsday. Against the backdrop of the emergence of a secessionist movement, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), this research examines the discourses of nationhood in the secessionist debates raging in these two newspapers. This study is premised on a view that nationhood constructions cannot be understood outside the broader context in which these newspapers are embedded. Accordingly, it traces the roots and resurgence of Matabeleland separatist politics, exploring the political-historical forces that have shaped a distinctive Ndebele identity that poses a threat to the one, indivisible Zimbabwean national identity. Further, the study situates Matabeleland separatist politics within the broader African secessionist discourse challenging the post-colonial nation-building project on the continent. Informed by Hall’s (1992, 1996) constructivist approach to identity, it considers national identities as fragmented, multiple and constantly evolving. Thus, this study is framed within Hall’s (1997) constructivist approach to representation, as it examines the constructions of nationhood in and through language. The study uses qualitative research methods, as it examines the meanings of nationhood in key media texts. Informed by Foucault’s discourse theory, this research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse 12 articles from the two newspapers. The findings confirm that the representations of nationhood in the two newspapers are influenced by their position within the socio-political context. The state-owned Chronicle legitimates the unitary state discourse advocated by ZANU PF. On the other hand, Newsday’s representations are informed by the discourses of the opposition political parties and civil society that challenge the dominant nation-building project. Thus, within this paper, secession and devolution emerge as alternative imaginaries that contest the authoritarian discourse of nationhood
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ndlovu, Mphathisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Newspapers , Bulawayo , Matabeleland , Zimbabwe , Chronicle , Newsday , Secession , Devolution , Nationhood , Ndebele , Ethnic identity , Mthwakazi Liberation Front , Mthwakazi Liberation Front -- Zimbabwe , Mass media and nationalism -- Research -- Zimbabwe , Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) -- Newspapers , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- History -- Autonomy and independence movements , Matabeleland (Zimbabwe) -- Social conditions , Zimbabwe -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001846
- Description: This study investigates the constructions of nationhood in two Bulawayo newspapers, the Chronicle and Newsday. Against the backdrop of the emergence of a secessionist movement, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), this research examines the discourses of nationhood in the secessionist debates raging in these two newspapers. This study is premised on a view that nationhood constructions cannot be understood outside the broader context in which these newspapers are embedded. Accordingly, it traces the roots and resurgence of Matabeleland separatist politics, exploring the political-historical forces that have shaped a distinctive Ndebele identity that poses a threat to the one, indivisible Zimbabwean national identity. Further, the study situates Matabeleland separatist politics within the broader African secessionist discourse challenging the post-colonial nation-building project on the continent. Informed by Hall’s (1992, 1996) constructivist approach to identity, it considers national identities as fragmented, multiple and constantly evolving. Thus, this study is framed within Hall’s (1997) constructivist approach to representation, as it examines the constructions of nationhood in and through language. The study uses qualitative research methods, as it examines the meanings of nationhood in key media texts. Informed by Foucault’s discourse theory, this research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse 12 articles from the two newspapers. The findings confirm that the representations of nationhood in the two newspapers are influenced by their position within the socio-political context. The state-owned Chronicle legitimates the unitary state discourse advocated by ZANU PF. On the other hand, Newsday’s representations are informed by the discourses of the opposition political parties and civil society that challenge the dominant nation-building project. Thus, within this paper, secession and devolution emerge as alternative imaginaries that contest the authoritarian discourse of nationhood
- Full Text:
The new Africans: a textual analysis of the construction of 'African-ness' in Chaz Maviyane-Davies' 1996 poster depictions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Authors: Garman, Brian Donald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human rights , Posters , African perspective , Stereotypes , Black men , Maviyane-Davies, Chaz -- Criticism and interpretation , Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Posters -- Research , Ethnicity -- Research -- Africa , Human rights -- Africa , Pan-Africanism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3413 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001844
- Description: In 1996, Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies created a set of human rights posters which represent several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from what he calls an “African perspective”. In this study I investigate how Maviyane-Davies has constructed ‘African-ness’ and probe what he refers to as the “alternative aesthetic” that he is trying to create. I use a visual social semiotic approach to examine the discourses he draws on to re-image and re-imagine Africa and Africans in a manner that contests the stereotypical representations found in political, news and economic discourses about Africa, paying particular attention to the ways he uses images of the body. My analysis of the posters shows how complex and difficult it can be to contest regimes of representation that work to fix racialised and derogatory meanings. In response to the pejorative stereotypes of the black body, Maviyane-Davies uses images of strong, healthy, and magnificent people (mostly men) to construct a more affirmative representation of Africa and Africans. Significantly, he draws on sports, touristic, traditional and hegemonic discourses of masculinity in an attempt to expand the complexity and range of possible representations of African-ness. In so doing he runs the risk of reproducing many of the stereotypes that sustain not only the racialised and gendered (masculinist) representations of Africa, but also a sentimentalisation and romanticisation of a place, a people and their traditions. Apart from women in prominent positions, other conspicuous absences from these images include white people and hegemonic references to Western modernity. I do not believe he is discarding whites and modernity as un-African, but is rejecting the naturalisation of whiteness as standing in for humanity, and particular icons of Western modernity as significations of ‘modernity’ itself
- Full Text:
- Authors: Garman, Brian Donald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human rights , Posters , African perspective , Stereotypes , Black men , Maviyane-Davies, Chaz -- Criticism and interpretation , Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Posters -- Research , Ethnicity -- Research -- Africa , Human rights -- Africa , Pan-Africanism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3413 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001844
- Description: In 1996, Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies created a set of human rights posters which represent several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from what he calls an “African perspective”. In this study I investigate how Maviyane-Davies has constructed ‘African-ness’ and probe what he refers to as the “alternative aesthetic” that he is trying to create. I use a visual social semiotic approach to examine the discourses he draws on to re-image and re-imagine Africa and Africans in a manner that contests the stereotypical representations found in political, news and economic discourses about Africa, paying particular attention to the ways he uses images of the body. My analysis of the posters shows how complex and difficult it can be to contest regimes of representation that work to fix racialised and derogatory meanings. In response to the pejorative stereotypes of the black body, Maviyane-Davies uses images of strong, healthy, and magnificent people (mostly men) to construct a more affirmative representation of Africa and Africans. Significantly, he draws on sports, touristic, traditional and hegemonic discourses of masculinity in an attempt to expand the complexity and range of possible representations of African-ness. In so doing he runs the risk of reproducing many of the stereotypes that sustain not only the racialised and gendered (masculinist) representations of Africa, but also a sentimentalisation and romanticisation of a place, a people and their traditions. Apart from women in prominent positions, other conspicuous absences from these images include white people and hegemonic references to Western modernity. I do not believe he is discarding whites and modernity as un-African, but is rejecting the naturalisation of whiteness as standing in for humanity, and particular icons of Western modernity as significations of ‘modernity’ itself
- Full Text:
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