The National Wellbeing Index in the isiXhosa translation: focus group discussions on how South Africans view the quality of their society
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J , Zani, Dalindyebo
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67135 , vital:29035 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1481-4
- Description: publisher version , The International Wellbeing Index covers two complementary measures, the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The focus group study reported here tested the understanding of the NWI when translated into isiXhosa, a language spoken by 6 million South Africans, or 16% of the country’s population. A challenge for the NWI in measuring national well-being is the tendency for meaning to get ‘lost in translation’ in the wording of the instrument, owing to the disparities that exist between levels of living in developed and developing nations. The focussed discussions with native isiXhosa speakers conveyed the different shades of meaning associated with the six domains that make up the NWI. The isiXhosa keywords for the domains of social conditions, the natural environment, national security, and management of the country’s affairs (government) were readily understood, but discussants asked for further clarification of keywords for the domains relating to the economy and business. Conversations showed up the close link between personal and national well-being: discussants drew upon their personal and parochial life experiences along with their knowledge of current affairs to evaluate the nation’s quality of life. They described the social contract between citizens and their government to create a ‘caring society’ that promotes well-being across key domains of national life. Many of the reference standards used to evaluate national well-being were ones postulated to influence personal well-being (Michalos A.C, Social Indicators Research 16(4): 347–413 1985 ). The study also pointed to a potential problem for longitudinal studies if the bipolar satisfaction scale, formerly used to measure the International Wellbeing Index’s PWI and NWI, is changed to a unipolar one. Findings from this pilot study confirm the potential of the NWI as a tool for measuring national well-being cross-culturally.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
The party-state in the land occupations of Zimbabwe: the case of Shamva district
- Authors: Bhatasara, Sandra , Helliker, Kirk D
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71353 , vital:29836 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909616658316
- Description: There has been significant debate about the land occupations which occurred from the year 2000 in Zimbabwe, with a key controversy concerning the role of the state and ruling party (or party-state) in the occupations. This controversy, deriving from two grand narratives about the occupations, remains unresolved. A burgeoning literature exists on the Zimbabwean state’s fast-track land reform programme, which arose in the context of the occupations, but this literature is concerned mainly with post-occupation developments on fast-track farms. This article seeks to contribute to resolving the controversy surrounding the party-state and the land occupations by examining the occupations in the Shamva District of Mashonaland Central Province. The fieldwork for our Shamva study focused exclusively on the land occupations (and not on the fast-track farms) and was undertaken in May 2015. We conclude from our Shamva study that involvement by the party-state did not take on an institutionalised form but was of a personalised character entailing interventions by specific party and state actors.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
The principle of complementarity and hybrid courts: the case of the Special Criminal Court for the Central African Republic
- Authors: Juma, Laurence , Chigowe, Lloyd
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125219 , vital:35747 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-110b0e557f
- Description: This paper seeks to locate the place of hybrid courts in the Rome Statute’s complementarity model using the Central African Republic’s Special Courts as a case study. The introduction of the Special Courts when the International Criminal Court has already intervened in Central African Republic has raised some concern regarding the Special Courts relationship with the International Criminal Court, especially whether it may defeat the complementarity regime established under article 17 of the Rome Statute. This paper seeks to dispel this concern. It argues that the creation of the Special Criminal Court should never be perceived as an indictment to the Rome Statute principle of complementarity, but instead a useful attempt to close the impunity gap that has arisen as a result of the collapse or dysfunctionality of national criminal justice system.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
The “Pleasure Streets” of exile: queer subjectivities and the body in Arthur Nortje’s London poems
- Authors: Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68432 , vital:29255 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2018.1447865
- Description: Publisher version , In this article, I aim to expand our understanding of Arthur Nortje as a poet of “exile” by exploring the dialectic between self-loathing and pleasure, as well as between engagement and isolation, which he portrays performatively through his London poetry. While critics have emphasised Nortje’s “marginality” or “liminality”, both as an “exile” and a “coloured” South African, I draw on the critical writing of Zoë Wicomb in order to extend readings of his poetry beyond this tragic paradigm. I furthermore take up Sarah Nuttall’s suggestion that Nortje’s London poetry describes a degree of immersion within the city and that this aspect of his work demands further study. After tracing Nortje’s playful use of literary influences and his reworking of the trope of flânerie, I provide a series of close readings of poems in which Nortje depicts an exploration of queer subjectivities, staged within the city. In his London poetry, Nortje subverts and eludes fixed racial, sexual, national and class identities. Nortje’s London poetry exemplifies how South African literature was developed in response to the alienating condition of exile, but also through engagement with the places where exile occurred.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
Thermoluminescence of annealed synthetic quartz: the influence of annealing on kinetic parameters and thermal quenching
- Authors: Dawam, Robert R , Chithambo, Makaiko L
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/110050 , vital:33218 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2018.06.004
- Description: The thermoluminescence of synthetic quartz annealed at various temperatures up to 900 °C is reported. Glow curves measured at 1 oCs−1 following beta irradiation to 40 Gy from a sample annealed at 500 °C and from an unannealed one consist of a prominent peak at 70 °C and secondary peaks at 110, 180 and 310 °C. In comparison, the glow peak from the sample annealed at 900 °C consists of three peaks but with the main peak at 86 °C and other lower intensity peaks at 170 and 310 °C. Kinetic analysis was carried out on the main peak only in each case. The order of kinetics of this peak was determined to be first order using various methods. The activation energy was evaluated as an average of 0.90±0.02eV for the unannealed sample and the one annealed at 500 °C. However, when the synthetic quartz is annealed at 900 °C, the activation energy decreases to 0.65±0.02eV. The main point of interest however concerns thermal quenching. It was noted that for the sample annealed at 500 °C as well as the unannealed one, the maximum intensity of the main peak decreases with heating rate. This phenomenon is associated with thermal quenching. When the same experiment is carried out using quartz annealed at 900 °C and irradiated to the same dose, namely 40 Gy, the intensity increases with heating rate. This would imply that this sample is not affected by thermal quenching. Using the notion that the radiative and non-radiative recombination routes are competitive, we repeated the experiment using a low dose of 3 Gy. In this case, the intensity decreased with heating rate showing that the process can be tuned. The activation energy for thermal quenching for the samples annealed at 900 °C, 500 °C and unnannealed one was found as 0.65±0.02eV, 0.82±0.02eV and 0.95±0.06eV. Evidently, annealing affects recombination processes in synthetic quartz.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
Thermoluminescence of the persistent-luminescence phosphor, BaAl2O4: a stuffed tridymite
- Authors: Pandey, A , Chithambo, Makaiko L
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/113048 , vital:33693 , hhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2018.01.004
- Description: BaAl2O4 is a stuffed tridymite used as a long-lasting phosphor. The thermoluminescence of BaAl2O4 prepared by solution-combustion is reported. Analysis of the sample using X-ray diffraction shows that it formed as a single phase compound with a hexagonal structure following annealing at 1200 °C. A broad photoluminescence emission band between 300 and 650 nm was detected due to excitation at 248 nm. The phosphor showed a natural TL peak at 102 °C for measurement at 1 oCs−1 and, when beta irradiated to 100 Gy, two broad peaks at 123 and 318 °C also for heating at 1 oCs−1. The analysis of the main glow peak at 123 °C suggests that it is a combination of several collocated peaks, that is, peaks embedded within each other. We resolved four such components labelled peaks 1 to 4. The thermoluminescence decreases with heating rate in a way consistent with thermal quenching whose activation energy was determined as ∼0.65eV using peak 3. Interestingly, this value of the activation energy for thermal quenching for BaAl2O4, a stuffed derivative of silica, is similar to literature values for quartz (a silica), suggesting that the recombination centre in the two cases may be similar.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
Thermoluminescence of α-Al2O3: C, Mg annealed at 1200° C
- Authors: Kalita, Jitumani M , Chithambo, Makaiko L
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111030 , vital:33365 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2018.03.003
- Description: Stimulated luminescence in α-Al2O3:C,Mg has thus far been studied for samples annealed at temperature no higher than 900 °C as can be seen by an examination of the literature. We report the thermoluminescence (TL) features of α-Al2O3:C,Mg annealed at 1200 °C. A glow curve measured at 1 °C/s from the samples annealed at 1200 °C shows eight peaks at 54, 80, 102, 173, 238, 290, 330 and 387 °C. Kinetic analyses show that the peak at 54 °C follows general order kinetics (b = 1.3) whereas the rest follow first order kinetics. The values of the activation energy of the peaks are between 0.77 eV and 1.90 eV and the frequency factors are of the order of 1010–1014 s−1. The intensity of the peaks at 54, 80, 102 and 173 °C increase with heating rate whereas those of the peaks at 238 and 290 °C decrease with heating rate. The decrease of intensity of the peaks at 238 and 290 °C with heating rate is due to thermal quenching whereas the increase of intensity of the peaks with heating rate indicates an inverse thermal-quenching-like behaviour. Interestingly this behaviour is observed only after annealing at 1200 °C. The activation energy for thermal quenching as calculated using the peaks at 238 and 290 °C are (1.02 ± 0.16) eV and (1.33 ± 0.15) eV respectively. Regarding the dosimetric features, the dose response of the peaks at 54, 80 and 102 °C are sublinear within 1–10 Gy and the peak at 54 °C saturates above 6 Gy. In contrast, the response of the peak at 173 °C is sublinear with 1–4 Gy and superlinear between 4 and 10 Gy. The peaks are found to fade at different rates and the rate of fading is also affected by annealing.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
‘I don’t belong nowhere really’: the figure of the London migrant in Dan Jacobson’s ‘A Long Way from London’ and Jean Rhys’s ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’
- Authors: Naidu, Samantha , Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68422 , vital:29254 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2018.1461477
- Description: Publisher version , In this article we compare and contrast the figure of the migrant, central to Dan Jacobson’s short story ‘A Long Way from London’ ([1953] 1958. A Long Way from London and other stories. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson), and to Jean Rhys’s short story ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’ ([1962] 1987. The Collected Stories. New York: Norton), both of which are set in London in the early to mid-twentieth century. The main argument is that these figures, as migrants in London from South Africa and the Caribbean respectively, similarly occupy a liminal space despite stark differences in class, race and gender. In both stories this liminal space is described through evocations of London as a hostile diasporic space, lacking in hospitality, and experienced by the migrant figure as a place of confinement and incarceration. Also, both stories utilize the technique of silence or lacunae when it comes to issues of specific discrimination and abuse, such as racism or sexual exploitation. For the purposes of comparison, the character Manwera from ‘A Long Way from London’ and, Selina, the protagonist of ‘Let Them Call It Jazz’, are selected for analysis. Particularly, their respective responses (Manwera’s pride and dignity, and Selina’s recovery after a breakdown, and her musical talent) to the exigencies of migration are suggestive of ‘adaptive strength’ (Steve Vertovec and Robin Cohen [1999] 2001. Migration, Diasporas and Transnationalism. Cheltenham and Northampton MA: Elgar Reference Collection, xviii), a common feature in transnational literature which attempts to celebrate liminality and multiplicity as key characteristics of a transnational subjectivity. In addition, the protagonist of ‘A Long Way from London’, Arthur, offers a contrast to Manwera and Selina, not only because of race and class, but because he is depicted as having adapted to and assimilated into British culture, while being strangely detached from and ambivalent about both homeland and diasporic home. Varying forms of adaptive strength are portrayed in both stories, but they close with intimations of bleak futures for the migrant figures. The essay thus concludes with the observation that in these two stories, the figure of the London migrant is rendered as facing further grave challenges, and that all three figures ‘belong nowhere’ (Rhys [1962] 1987 Rhys, Jean. [1962] 1987. The Collected Stories. New York: Norton. [Google Scholar] , 175).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
“I slipped into the pages of a book”: intertextuality and literary solidarities in South African writing about London
- Authors: Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68402 , vital:29252 , https://doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2018.1482882
- Description: Publisher version , In this article, I argue that London plays a dual role in South African writing, as a “real” city at a particular moment in history, and as a textual, imaginative space. For many South African writers, London comes to stand metonymically for English culture and literature even if their attitude toward Englishness and Empire may be one of ambivalent critique. The intertexts invoked in South African representations of London forge literary solidarities, and foreground belated postcolonial engagements with modernity that are significantly displaced from the “margin” to the “center” of modernism (and Empire) itself.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018
“Telling freedom” or “telling the spades back home how to behave”? re-examining Peter Abrahams’s writing in London
- Authors: Thorpe, Andrea
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68412 , vital:29253 , https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/eia.v45i1.3
- Description: Publisher version , This article considers the notable dearth of recent scholarship on Peter Abrahams’s writing in the context of his exile and his complex, shifting ideological self-positioning throughout his career. To attempt to address this lacuna in South African literary criticism, and to partially explain why Abrahams has been under-researched, I look at key moments during his early career, including the publication of Dark Testament (1942), Song of the City (1945) and Return to Goli (1953). By focusing on texts by Abrahams that were published during his time in London, I also wish to address the significance of the city in the history of South African literature, and in African anti-colonial and anti-racist thinking more broadly.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2018