“Wishy-washy liberalism” and “the art of getting lost” in Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative:
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142633 , vital:38097 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v44i3.1
- Description: The politics of the protagonist of Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative, Neville Lister, are broadly liberal during apartheid, but show signs of becoming more conservative during the post-apartheid era. In this article, I argue that this development is unsurprising because bourgeois white liberals and conservatives in South Africa continue to cling to the privileges afforded them as the propertied class. For this reason, acknowledgements of privilege and quests for discomfort, while not necessarily dishonest, do not in and of themselves constitute progressive politics. Rather, one can, as Neville does, become comfortable with discomfort so long as it allows one to enjoy a privileged lifestyle. I therefore draw a distinction between the unease argued for in much of what constitutes whiteness studies, and a sense of being lost that seems to demand the loss of the home and its attendant association with control. This sense of lostness emerges in two ways in the novel: in a description of a photograph that contains the spectral presence of a dead child, and in a game that Neville played when he was a young boy. Both of these sections of the text also deal with the limits of art – of writing and of photography in particular. I propose that these self-reflexive episodes suggest the novel’s own limits, and gesture beyond them in ways that are worth consideration by its middle-class readership.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142633 , vital:38097 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v44i3.1
- Description: The politics of the protagonist of Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative, Neville Lister, are broadly liberal during apartheid, but show signs of becoming more conservative during the post-apartheid era. In this article, I argue that this development is unsurprising because bourgeois white liberals and conservatives in South Africa continue to cling to the privileges afforded them as the propertied class. For this reason, acknowledgements of privilege and quests for discomfort, while not necessarily dishonest, do not in and of themselves constitute progressive politics. Rather, one can, as Neville does, become comfortable with discomfort so long as it allows one to enjoy a privileged lifestyle. I therefore draw a distinction between the unease argued for in much of what constitutes whiteness studies, and a sense of being lost that seems to demand the loss of the home and its attendant association with control. This sense of lostness emerges in two ways in the novel: in a description of a photograph that contains the spectral presence of a dead child, and in a game that Neville played when he was a young boy. Both of these sections of the text also deal with the limits of art – of writing and of photography in particular. I propose that these self-reflexive episodes suggest the novel’s own limits, and gesture beyond them in ways that are worth consideration by its middle-class readership.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Willing victims”: a study of Zimbabwean migrant workers in the citrus industry of the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Maisiri, Brandon James
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Migrant agricultural laborers South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Foreign workers, Zimbabwean South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Citrus fruit industry South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Job creation South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Work environment South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Agricultural wages Social aspects South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Marginality, Social South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Migrant agricultural laborers Legal status, laws, etc South Africa , Global Value Chains , International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190657 , vital:45015
- Description: The citrus fruit industry is a large, lucrative industry on the global market. South Africa's citrus fruit industry competes globally and is firmly intergraded into the citrus global value chain (GVC). Sunday River's Valley (SRV) in the Eastern Cape is a powerhouse citrus producer in South Africa. This dissertation interrogates the impact of the citrus value chain on Zimbabwean unskilled immigrant farmworkers in the SRV, positioned at the bottom of the value chain. Mainstream global chain literature, which adopts a neo-liberal approach to development, assumes that businesses in the global south stand to benefit from integrating into global chains. This line of thinking also assumes that, by virtue of the suppliers’ experiencing economic upgrading, farm owners’ employees may experience social upgrading. The idea of social upgrading stems from the International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda, which promotes workers' rights and conditions globally. In the agricultural sector, there is a growing trend of producers (in the global south) employing undocumented immigrant farmworkers. Free market economists perceive these immigrants' employment in the agricultural value chain as a progressive step for immigrants to step out of poverty. This study employs a qualitative research method to analyse social upgrading for immigrant workers in the citrus GVC. This is done by examining the selected workers' working and living conditions against the key pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. Using the critical GVC framework and a Marxist orientation, this study seeks to show that the use of migrant (especially undocumented) labour in the agricultural value chains is not empowering immigrants in the global south but is essentially a strategy of securing cheap and docile labour for profit maximization. While this can be said for local South African workers as well, the migrant workforce is peculiar as their fragile citizenship in South Africa makes them a less resistant labour force to farm owners labour law violations. This study's findings validate this contention, as they show that immigrants employed in the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape are subjected to several Decent Work deficits. The findings also show that these immigrants have no access to mechanisms of empowerment and are barely surviving from their earnings. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
- Authors: Maisiri, Brandon James
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Migrant agricultural laborers South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Foreign workers, Zimbabwean South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Citrus fruit industry South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Job creation South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Work environment South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Agricultural wages Social aspects South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Marginality, Social South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Migrant agricultural laborers Legal status, laws, etc South Africa , Global Value Chains , International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190657 , vital:45015
- Description: The citrus fruit industry is a large, lucrative industry on the global market. South Africa's citrus fruit industry competes globally and is firmly intergraded into the citrus global value chain (GVC). Sunday River's Valley (SRV) in the Eastern Cape is a powerhouse citrus producer in South Africa. This dissertation interrogates the impact of the citrus value chain on Zimbabwean unskilled immigrant farmworkers in the SRV, positioned at the bottom of the value chain. Mainstream global chain literature, which adopts a neo-liberal approach to development, assumes that businesses in the global south stand to benefit from integrating into global chains. This line of thinking also assumes that, by virtue of the suppliers’ experiencing economic upgrading, farm owners’ employees may experience social upgrading. The idea of social upgrading stems from the International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda, which promotes workers' rights and conditions globally. In the agricultural sector, there is a growing trend of producers (in the global south) employing undocumented immigrant farmworkers. Free market economists perceive these immigrants' employment in the agricultural value chain as a progressive step for immigrants to step out of poverty. This study employs a qualitative research method to analyse social upgrading for immigrant workers in the citrus GVC. This is done by examining the selected workers' working and living conditions against the key pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. Using the critical GVC framework and a Marxist orientation, this study seeks to show that the use of migrant (especially undocumented) labour in the agricultural value chains is not empowering immigrants in the global south but is essentially a strategy of securing cheap and docile labour for profit maximization. While this can be said for local South African workers as well, the migrant workforce is peculiar as their fragile citizenship in South Africa makes them a less resistant labour force to farm owners labour law violations. This study's findings validate this contention, as they show that immigrants employed in the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape are subjected to several Decent Work deficits. The findings also show that these immigrants have no access to mechanisms of empowerment and are barely surviving from their earnings. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
“Why me, Lord?”: some social factors associated with the receipt of a donor heart in South Africa
- Authors: Hartle, Raymond
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Heart -- Transplantation -- Social aspects , Heart -- Transplantation -- Recipients -- Psychology , Heart -- Transplantation -- South Africa , Chronic diseases -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146265 , vital:38510
- Description: Since the first human-to-human heart transplant in the world was performed by Prof Chris Barnard in Cape Town in 1967, heart transplantation has become the gold standard to treat people suffering from end stage heart failure. This thesis explores heart recipients’ perceptions and experiences of their chronic heart illness before and after transplantation. It examines the medical experience in terms of the clinical diagnosis, the standard of communication about the illness and the proposed treatment, and the post-transplant regime. It also reflects how recipients make sense of heart disease and learn to live with a transplanted heart. The thesis also shows the extent to which the recipients’ culture and individual identity impact such complex medical issues as end stage heart failure and transplantation. Qualitative research was undertaken in private sector heart transplant programmes in South Africa. The study is underpinned by Mishel’s (1990) uncertainty theory as well as by social constructionism.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Hartle, Raymond
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Heart -- Transplantation -- Social aspects , Heart -- Transplantation -- Recipients -- Psychology , Heart -- Transplantation -- South Africa , Chronic diseases -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146265 , vital:38510
- Description: Since the first human-to-human heart transplant in the world was performed by Prof Chris Barnard in Cape Town in 1967, heart transplantation has become the gold standard to treat people suffering from end stage heart failure. This thesis explores heart recipients’ perceptions and experiences of their chronic heart illness before and after transplantation. It examines the medical experience in terms of the clinical diagnosis, the standard of communication about the illness and the proposed treatment, and the post-transplant regime. It also reflects how recipients make sense of heart disease and learn to live with a transplanted heart. The thesis also shows the extent to which the recipients’ culture and individual identity impact such complex medical issues as end stage heart failure and transplantation. Qualitative research was undertaken in private sector heart transplant programmes in South Africa. The study is underpinned by Mishel’s (1990) uncertainty theory as well as by social constructionism.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“When the rainbow is enuf”: black postgraduate women’s experiences and perceptions of higher education and institutional culture – a case study of Rhodes University
- Authors: Gamedze, Ayanda
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Rhodes University , College students, Black -- South Afrca , Women college students, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147215 , vital:38605
- Description: This thesis sets out to investigate the perceptions which Black postgraduate students hold of the present-day toward Historically White Universities (hereafter referred to as HWUs) in South Africa as unique sites from which to investigate institutional culture and the legacy of educational marginalisation. Black women are of particular focus because of the interlocking nature of social inequalities that uniquely influence their comparable experience in the academy. Rhodes University, a top-ranked traditional university provides the institutional site for this investigation into HWUs. This thesis seeks to further explore the suggestion that desegregation of South Africa's institutions of higher learning have meant access, but not always acceptance. The paper explores what Black women students perceive to be Rhodes University's institutional culture and its impact on their lived realities. Subsequently, these women have learned who they are, and what place they occupy in South Africa today, through navigating a space not necessarily accommodating to Blackness and difference. There exists a plethora of literature on the issues which Black women scholars systematically encounter daily in the academy, in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Nonetheless, there needs to be a further inquiry on the question of belonging of Black womanhood in HWU post the student-led movements of the past few years that have renewed the challenge to South Africa's colonial past, its neoliberal present, and its scourge of gender-based violence. This paper captures an ongoing conversation around the role of Black women in addressing transformation in HWU. As a Black woman in an HWU, I found myself wondering whether there are certain experiences students like me have in common – realities with nuances we call to identify with to some extent. I collected data from six Black women with whom I conducted interviews, and used it to compile this report and its analysis. I believe that the social significance of this study speaks to the importance of hearing the stories of subaltern groups that are positioned in spaces of privilege, yet continue to be defined by the disadvantage of their gender, race, and various other factors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Gamedze, Ayanda
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Rhodes University , College students, Black -- South Afrca , Women college students, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147215 , vital:38605
- Description: This thesis sets out to investigate the perceptions which Black postgraduate students hold of the present-day toward Historically White Universities (hereafter referred to as HWUs) in South Africa as unique sites from which to investigate institutional culture and the legacy of educational marginalisation. Black women are of particular focus because of the interlocking nature of social inequalities that uniquely influence their comparable experience in the academy. Rhodes University, a top-ranked traditional university provides the institutional site for this investigation into HWUs. This thesis seeks to further explore the suggestion that desegregation of South Africa's institutions of higher learning have meant access, but not always acceptance. The paper explores what Black women students perceive to be Rhodes University's institutional culture and its impact on their lived realities. Subsequently, these women have learned who they are, and what place they occupy in South Africa today, through navigating a space not necessarily accommodating to Blackness and difference. There exists a plethora of literature on the issues which Black women scholars systematically encounter daily in the academy, in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Nonetheless, there needs to be a further inquiry on the question of belonging of Black womanhood in HWU post the student-led movements of the past few years that have renewed the challenge to South Africa's colonial past, its neoliberal present, and its scourge of gender-based violence. This paper captures an ongoing conversation around the role of Black women in addressing transformation in HWU. As a Black woman in an HWU, I found myself wondering whether there are certain experiences students like me have in common – realities with nuances we call to identify with to some extent. I collected data from six Black women with whom I conducted interviews, and used it to compile this report and its analysis. I believe that the social significance of this study speaks to the importance of hearing the stories of subaltern groups that are positioned in spaces of privilege, yet continue to be defined by the disadvantage of their gender, race, and various other factors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“What’s good fam?”: African digital sociality and notions of community and family in the UCKAR Facebook group
- Authors: Dube, Hope Mutipeni
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Digital society , Facebook (Firm) , Social media and college students South Africa Makhanda , Education, Higher Social aspects , Sociology Africa , College students Social life and customs , College students Social networks
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/465887 , vital:76665
- Description: This study explores the digital sociality of the UCKAR Facebook group. This student Facebook group was formed during the 2015 #RhodesMustFall period. The acronym UCKAR stands for the “University Currently Known As Rhodes” and signifies hope for the transformation of the university. Qualitative interviews were conducted to investigate how UCKAR Facebook group understood and interpreted their sociality, i.e. what do they mean when they say “we” or “us”; how such understandings emerged from group membership descriptions and interpersonal obligations as well as the actual social interactions and participation in the group through digital practices, that is, posting and commenting. A qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken through grouping together representations of various notions of the nature and purpose of their Facebook group as a social space, or its sociality. The findings revealed how various digital socialities co-exist in the same digital space. They reflect different ways in which group members can relate to each other meaningfully: either as fellow students, activists, student entrepreneurs and customers, caring community members or fellow revellers. I refer to these socialities as “Rhodent sociality”, “comrade sociality”, “hustle sociality”, “ubuntu sociality” and “groovist sociality”. These socialities are evidentially not mutually exclusive, and members can and do engage in multiple socialities within the group or shift amongst them depending on the situation. In this analysis, these socialities are linked to the existing scholarship on digital socialities. The findings suggest that the resilience to survive in an alien cultural space does not only demand a digital space that supports rational political resistance and practical tips to navigate the space as seen in the “comrade sociality” and “Rhodent sociality”. It also requires a digital space which can incorporate elements of communal care, economic survival and at times a Bakhtinian carnivalesque outlet to momentarily invert an unjust society . I call this kind of digital sociality a survivalist digital community, which is a form of digital sociality created by persons who need to survive a space that was not designed for people like them, and is underpinned by survivalist knowledge. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
- Authors: Dube, Hope Mutipeni
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Digital society , Facebook (Firm) , Social media and college students South Africa Makhanda , Education, Higher Social aspects , Sociology Africa , College students Social life and customs , College students Social networks
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/465887 , vital:76665
- Description: This study explores the digital sociality of the UCKAR Facebook group. This student Facebook group was formed during the 2015 #RhodesMustFall period. The acronym UCKAR stands for the “University Currently Known As Rhodes” and signifies hope for the transformation of the university. Qualitative interviews were conducted to investigate how UCKAR Facebook group understood and interpreted their sociality, i.e. what do they mean when they say “we” or “us”; how such understandings emerged from group membership descriptions and interpersonal obligations as well as the actual social interactions and participation in the group through digital practices, that is, posting and commenting. A qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken through grouping together representations of various notions of the nature and purpose of their Facebook group as a social space, or its sociality. The findings revealed how various digital socialities co-exist in the same digital space. They reflect different ways in which group members can relate to each other meaningfully: either as fellow students, activists, student entrepreneurs and customers, caring community members or fellow revellers. I refer to these socialities as “Rhodent sociality”, “comrade sociality”, “hustle sociality”, “ubuntu sociality” and “groovist sociality”. These socialities are evidentially not mutually exclusive, and members can and do engage in multiple socialities within the group or shift amongst them depending on the situation. In this analysis, these socialities are linked to the existing scholarship on digital socialities. The findings suggest that the resilience to survive in an alien cultural space does not only demand a digital space that supports rational political resistance and practical tips to navigate the space as seen in the “comrade sociality” and “Rhodent sociality”. It also requires a digital space which can incorporate elements of communal care, economic survival and at times a Bakhtinian carnivalesque outlet to momentarily invert an unjust society . I call this kind of digital sociality a survivalist digital community, which is a form of digital sociality created by persons who need to survive a space that was not designed for people like them, and is underpinned by survivalist knowledge. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
“We are white”: oral tradition, documented history and molecular biology of Xhosa clans descended from non-African forebears and their expression of this ancestry through the idiom of ancestor religion
- Authors: Hayward, Janet M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Clans -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patrilineal kinship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Genealogy , Oral history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Genetic genealogy , Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Race identity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62939 , vital:28312
- Description: Xhosa clan membership is symbolised by a clan-name (isiduko) and passed along the male line from father to son. This social indicator has a biological counterpart in Y chromosome DNA that passes through successive generations in the patriline. Both relate specifically to a distant patrilineal forebear or apical ancestor. The present study has involved the collection and documentation of oral-historical information relating to the descent of certain Cape Nguni clans from non-African forebears and (where possible) a review of documented accounts of such origins. The research has also included collection of buccal cells from male research participants and analysis of their Y chromosome DNA. This method indicates whether a man’s patrilineal forebear lived in Africa. Otherwise, it indicates the broad geographical region from which he originated, hence providing an additional, independent source of information relating to ancestry that can confirm or challenge claims made based on oral history. Ethnographic research into the performance of distinctive ancestor rituals by clan members explores the continuing relevance of foreign ancestry in the contemporary context of rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study heeds calls for the decolonisation of scholarship in various ways: methodologically, through transdisciplinary research; ontologically, by questioning the utility of the nature: culture and related dichotomies; and epistemologically, because instead of relying entirely on the western academic tradition, it takes account of other modes of knowledge production. In rejection of the notion that only one side of history is true, it records multiple voices – those of the powerful but also the ordinary. The study deals with race and racial identification, but confirms the superficiality of these constructed differences by offering evidence of their submergence in the unifying power of kinship and descent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Hayward, Janet M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Clans -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patrilineal kinship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Genealogy , Oral history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Genetic genealogy , Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Race identity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62939 , vital:28312
- Description: Xhosa clan membership is symbolised by a clan-name (isiduko) and passed along the male line from father to son. This social indicator has a biological counterpart in Y chromosome DNA that passes through successive generations in the patriline. Both relate specifically to a distant patrilineal forebear or apical ancestor. The present study has involved the collection and documentation of oral-historical information relating to the descent of certain Cape Nguni clans from non-African forebears and (where possible) a review of documented accounts of such origins. The research has also included collection of buccal cells from male research participants and analysis of their Y chromosome DNA. This method indicates whether a man’s patrilineal forebear lived in Africa. Otherwise, it indicates the broad geographical region from which he originated, hence providing an additional, independent source of information relating to ancestry that can confirm or challenge claims made based on oral history. Ethnographic research into the performance of distinctive ancestor rituals by clan members explores the continuing relevance of foreign ancestry in the contemporary context of rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study heeds calls for the decolonisation of scholarship in various ways: methodologically, through transdisciplinary research; ontologically, by questioning the utility of the nature: culture and related dichotomies; and epistemologically, because instead of relying entirely on the western academic tradition, it takes account of other modes of knowledge production. In rejection of the notion that only one side of history is true, it records multiple voices – those of the powerful but also the ordinary. The study deals with race and racial identification, but confirms the superficiality of these constructed differences by offering evidence of their submergence in the unifying power of kinship and descent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
“War of the worldly codes”: articulating the gap between legal academia and practice
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66972 , vital:29007
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66972 , vital:29007
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Un-silencing queer Nigeria”: Representations of queerness in contemporary Nigerian fiction
- Authors: Akram, Tahzeeb
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Heterosexism in literature , Patriarchy in literature , Homophobia in literature , Sexual minorities in literature , Nigerian literature 21st century History and criticism , Queer theory Nigeria , Gender identity Law and legislation Nigeria , Gender identity Religious aspects , Sexual minorities Nigeria Social conditions , Nigeria. Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190668 , vital:45016
- Description: This thesis analyses contemporary queer Nigerian fiction, particularly queer representations regarding law, religion and culture in Nigeria’s heteropatriarchal and queerphobic society. I explore a number of authors’ use of different literary forms and platforms to promote and represent non-conforming genders and sexualities in queerphobic Nigeria. These narratives show queer people navigating the heteronormative society vis-à-vis marriage, family, intimacy, work, violence and rights activism. I draw on Western and African gender and queer theories for the concepts, definitions and critical terminologies used in this thesis. African queer theorists and activists are highlighted for their reclaiming queer history from among the early records in Africa as well as contemporary queer Nigerian literature and activism. Religion and queerness are crucial themes in Chinelo Okparanta’s same sex women’s novel, Under the Udala Trees. Using queer African Christian theology against Nigeria’s conservative socio-religious setting, I demonstrate that queerness is not a threat to Nigerian’s Christian faith, and that mutual coexistence of queer sexuality and Christianity advances queer rights in that society. Nnanna Ikpo’s Fimí Sílẹ̀ Forever: Heaven gave it to me’s problematises heteronormative masculinities and the manufacturing of heteropatriarchy and queer masculinities in Nigeria. I examine the protagonists who are both victims of and perpetrators in their queerphobic society. The socio-legal focus I employ examines the impact of the 2014 Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act on Nigeria’s already marginalised and oppressed queer community. There are vast opportunities for queer Nigerian artists to create, publish and promote queer identities in the safe and enabling space of online platforms via physical distancing between the queer community and the queerphobic society. From the digitally published 14: An Anthology of Queer Art’s two volumes, five short stories are analysed regarding different forms of intimacies in queer men’s relationships. These queer contemporary fiction writers offer complex representations of queerness within Nigeria’s heteropatriarchal and queerphobic society that polices non-normative bodies through religion, culture and the law. Such literary texts, digital literary platforms and activism vitally provide queer Nigerians a progressive space to assert queer presence, voices lives and rights to educating and re-socialising their society towards humaneness. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Literary Studies in English, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
- Authors: Akram, Tahzeeb
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Heterosexism in literature , Patriarchy in literature , Homophobia in literature , Sexual minorities in literature , Nigerian literature 21st century History and criticism , Queer theory Nigeria , Gender identity Law and legislation Nigeria , Gender identity Religious aspects , Sexual minorities Nigeria Social conditions , Nigeria. Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190668 , vital:45016
- Description: This thesis analyses contemporary queer Nigerian fiction, particularly queer representations regarding law, religion and culture in Nigeria’s heteropatriarchal and queerphobic society. I explore a number of authors’ use of different literary forms and platforms to promote and represent non-conforming genders and sexualities in queerphobic Nigeria. These narratives show queer people navigating the heteronormative society vis-à-vis marriage, family, intimacy, work, violence and rights activism. I draw on Western and African gender and queer theories for the concepts, definitions and critical terminologies used in this thesis. African queer theorists and activists are highlighted for their reclaiming queer history from among the early records in Africa as well as contemporary queer Nigerian literature and activism. Religion and queerness are crucial themes in Chinelo Okparanta’s same sex women’s novel, Under the Udala Trees. Using queer African Christian theology against Nigeria’s conservative socio-religious setting, I demonstrate that queerness is not a threat to Nigerian’s Christian faith, and that mutual coexistence of queer sexuality and Christianity advances queer rights in that society. Nnanna Ikpo’s Fimí Sílẹ̀ Forever: Heaven gave it to me’s problematises heteronormative masculinities and the manufacturing of heteropatriarchy and queer masculinities in Nigeria. I examine the protagonists who are both victims of and perpetrators in their queerphobic society. The socio-legal focus I employ examines the impact of the 2014 Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act on Nigeria’s already marginalised and oppressed queer community. There are vast opportunities for queer Nigerian artists to create, publish and promote queer identities in the safe and enabling space of online platforms via physical distancing between the queer community and the queerphobic society. From the digitally published 14: An Anthology of Queer Art’s two volumes, five short stories are analysed regarding different forms of intimacies in queer men’s relationships. These queer contemporary fiction writers offer complex representations of queerness within Nigeria’s heteropatriarchal and queerphobic society that polices non-normative bodies through religion, culture and the law. Such literary texts, digital literary platforms and activism vitally provide queer Nigerians a progressive space to assert queer presence, voices lives and rights to educating and re-socialising their society towards humaneness. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Literary Studies in English, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
“Two loves that I have, of comfort and despair”: the drama and architecture of Shakespeare’s sonnets
- Authors: van Wyk Smith, Malvern
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453963 , vital:75301 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2007.9674885
- Description: This essay was delivered as the annual Shakespeare Birthday Lecture of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa in Grahamstown in 2017. It argues that Shakespeare’s predisposition to recognise and develop the dramatic moment turned his initial interest in the normally static and contemplative sonnet into the components of something more like an oratorio of dramatic variations in sonnet form. The author focuses on four sonnets (18, 30, 116, 129) that stake out the thematic and structural range of the whole sequence, and discusses how the poet explores the compositional and indeed architectonic possibilities inherent in the principles and procedures of pursuing ‘variations on a theme’. The sonnets can thus be understood as an ambitious proto-baroque diptych, the two halves of which were to present an elaborate allegory of love versus lust, trust versus deceit, and innocence versus experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
“Two loves that I have, of comfort and despair”: the drama and architecture of Shakespeare’s sonnets
- Authors: van Wyk Smith, Malvern
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453963 , vital:75301 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2007.9674885
- Description: This essay was delivered as the annual Shakespeare Birthday Lecture of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa in Grahamstown in 2017. It argues that Shakespeare’s predisposition to recognise and develop the dramatic moment turned his initial interest in the normally static and contemplative sonnet into the components of something more like an oratorio of dramatic variations in sonnet form. The author focuses on four sonnets (18, 30, 116, 129) that stake out the thematic and structural range of the whole sequence, and discusses how the poet explores the compositional and indeed architectonic possibilities inherent in the principles and procedures of pursuing ‘variations on a theme’. The sonnets can thus be understood as an ambitious proto-baroque diptych, the two halves of which were to present an elaborate allegory of love versus lust, trust versus deceit, and innocence versus experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
“Turn on” fluorescence enhancement of Zn octacarboxyphthaloyanine-graphene oxide conjugates by hydrogen peroxide
- Shumba, Munyaradzi, Mashazi, Philani N, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Shumba, Munyaradzi , Mashazi, Philani N , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190438 , vital:44994 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2015.11.001"
- Description: Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates were characterized by absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis and X-ray photon spectroscopy. The presence of reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide resulted in the quenching (turn on) of Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine fluorescence which can be explained by photoinduced electron transfer. Zn octacarboxy phthalocyaninereduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates “turned on” fluorescence showed a linear response to hydrogen peroxide hence their potential to be used as sensors. The nanoprobe developed showed high selectivity towards hydrogen peroxide in the presence of physiological interferences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Shumba, Munyaradzi , Mashazi, Philani N , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190438 , vital:44994 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2015.11.001"
- Description: Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates were characterized by absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis and X-ray photon spectroscopy. The presence of reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide resulted in the quenching (turn on) of Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine fluorescence which can be explained by photoinduced electron transfer. Zn octacarboxy phthalocyaninereduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates “turned on” fluorescence showed a linear response to hydrogen peroxide hence their potential to be used as sensors. The nanoprobe developed showed high selectivity towards hydrogen peroxide in the presence of physiological interferences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
“Turn on” fluorescence enhancement of Zn octacarboxyphthaloyanine-graphene oxide conjugates by hydrogen peroxide
- Shumba, Munyaradzi, Mashazi, Philani N, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Shumba, Munyaradzi , Mashazi, Philani N , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/240875 , vital:50881 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2015.11.001"
- Description: Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates were characterized by absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis and X-ray photon spectroscopy. The presence of reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide resulted in the quenching (turn on) of Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine fluorescence which can be explained by photoinduced electron transfer. Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates “turned on” fluorescence showed a linear response to hydrogen peroxide hence their potential to be used as sensors. The nanoprobe developed showed high selectivity towards hydrogen peroxide in the presence of physiological interferences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Shumba, Munyaradzi , Mashazi, Philani N , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/240875 , vital:50881 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2015.11.001"
- Description: Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates were characterized by absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis and X-ray photon spectroscopy. The presence of reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide resulted in the quenching (turn on) of Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine fluorescence which can be explained by photoinduced electron transfer. Zn octacarboxy phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide or graphene oxide conjugates “turned on” fluorescence showed a linear response to hydrogen peroxide hence their potential to be used as sensors. The nanoprobe developed showed high selectivity towards hydrogen peroxide in the presence of physiological interferences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
“This may not be your grandmother’s page, but we will definitely talk about her”: Lusaka women and the Zambian Feminists Facebook page
- Authors: Kasanga, Chishimba
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Feminists Zambia , Social media and society Zambia , Facebook (Firm) , Feminism Africa , Women Zambia Social conditions , Sex role Zambia , Patriarchy Zambia , Digital activism , Zambian Feminists
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190122 , vital:44965
- Description: The internet has facilitated the creation of a global community of feminists who use it both for discussion and activism. Recently, high-profile campaigns, such as #MeToo and #AmINext, have garnered massive support online, attracting tens of thousands of women in diverse social and geographical spaces who have used the internet as forums for discussion and a route for activism. However, there are still parts of the world where feminism is a contentious topic, and one such place is Zambia, where the Facebook page Zambian Feminists, seeks to challenge patriarchy and gender non-conformity in a highly heteronormative society. This study investigates how prolific women fans of the Zambian Feminists page contest, negotiate and appropriate meanings from the posts and associated comments into their lives as “everyday feminists”. As a reception study, it inquires into how Lusaka women fans of the page negotiate their roles as strong feminists online and their offline social roles as women, mothers, daughters and wives living in a patriarchal and conservative society. The study draws primarily on qualitative research methods, specifically qualitative focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews, to investigate this audience’s reception of the page’s content. The study establishes that Zambian Feminists is consumed in a complex environment where contesting notions of Christianity, traditionalism, and modernity are at play. The study also shows how a Christian nationalism discourse acts as a stumbling block to women fans identifying as feminists and women fans who identify as members of the LGBTIQ community, as they must negotiate and construct their identity against this prevailing discourse. The study concludes that inasmuch as the Zambian Feminist page provides a platform for women to ‘call out’ and challenge patriarchy, sexism and misogyny, the offline space is more difficult to overcome; Zambian women continue to conform to patriarchal norms as they construct and negotiate their feminism in line with the broader societal gender order. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
- Authors: Kasanga, Chishimba
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Feminists Zambia , Social media and society Zambia , Facebook (Firm) , Feminism Africa , Women Zambia Social conditions , Sex role Zambia , Patriarchy Zambia , Digital activism , Zambian Feminists
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190122 , vital:44965
- Description: The internet has facilitated the creation of a global community of feminists who use it both for discussion and activism. Recently, high-profile campaigns, such as #MeToo and #AmINext, have garnered massive support online, attracting tens of thousands of women in diverse social and geographical spaces who have used the internet as forums for discussion and a route for activism. However, there are still parts of the world where feminism is a contentious topic, and one such place is Zambia, where the Facebook page Zambian Feminists, seeks to challenge patriarchy and gender non-conformity in a highly heteronormative society. This study investigates how prolific women fans of the Zambian Feminists page contest, negotiate and appropriate meanings from the posts and associated comments into their lives as “everyday feminists”. As a reception study, it inquires into how Lusaka women fans of the page negotiate their roles as strong feminists online and their offline social roles as women, mothers, daughters and wives living in a patriarchal and conservative society. The study draws primarily on qualitative research methods, specifically qualitative focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews, to investigate this audience’s reception of the page’s content. The study establishes that Zambian Feminists is consumed in a complex environment where contesting notions of Christianity, traditionalism, and modernity are at play. The study also shows how a Christian nationalism discourse acts as a stumbling block to women fans identifying as feminists and women fans who identify as members of the LGBTIQ community, as they must negotiate and construct their identity against this prevailing discourse. The study concludes that inasmuch as the Zambian Feminist page provides a platform for women to ‘call out’ and challenge patriarchy, sexism and misogyny, the offline space is more difficult to overcome; Zambian women continue to conform to patriarchal norms as they construct and negotiate their feminism in line with the broader societal gender order. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
“The Two Cultures reunited: entomology for everyone”
- Authors: Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Audio , text
- Identifier: vital:587 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018947
- Description: Fifty years ago C.P. Snow delivered his essay, "The Two Cultures", sparking the schism between the Humanities and the Sciences. This lecture explores cultural entomology as a means of reconciling two other cultures: academia and society, and suggests one way of addressing this alienating dilemma.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Audio , text
- Identifier: vital:587 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018947
- Description: Fifty years ago C.P. Snow delivered his essay, "The Two Cultures", sparking the schism between the Humanities and the Sciences. This lecture explores cultural entomology as a means of reconciling two other cultures: academia and society, and suggests one way of addressing this alienating dilemma.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
“The scales were peeled from my eyes”: South African academics coming to consciousness to become agents of change
- Vincent, Louise, Idahosa, Grace E
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Idahosa, Grace E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141759 , vital:38002 , DOI: 10.18848/2327-0055/cgp/v15i04/13-28
- Description: For postcolonial societies, addressing the impact of the previous oppressive system in a bid to attain equity and social justice necessitates transformation in various spheres and sectors of society. As cradles of learning, research, and knowledge development, higher education institutions are one such sphere with a particular duty to contribute to, and embody, social transformation. However, almost 25 years after the country’s first democratic elections, the institutional cultures and structures of many South African universities still bear the imprimatur of past inequities. Existing research suggests that the success of transformation policies is influenced by the extent to which individual staff members exercise agency to effect transformative practices. But what determines whether an individual becomes an agent of change? This paper draws on the experiences of ten academic staff members who have taken actions that can be said to have contributed to shifting in important ways relations and/or practices at one university in South Africa. It adopts a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to understand the lived experiences of participants of having agency and undertaking transformative actions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Idahosa, Grace E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141759 , vital:38002 , DOI: 10.18848/2327-0055/cgp/v15i04/13-28
- Description: For postcolonial societies, addressing the impact of the previous oppressive system in a bid to attain equity and social justice necessitates transformation in various spheres and sectors of society. As cradles of learning, research, and knowledge development, higher education institutions are one such sphere with a particular duty to contribute to, and embody, social transformation. However, almost 25 years after the country’s first democratic elections, the institutional cultures and structures of many South African universities still bear the imprimatur of past inequities. Existing research suggests that the success of transformation policies is influenced by the extent to which individual staff members exercise agency to effect transformative practices. But what determines whether an individual becomes an agent of change? This paper draws on the experiences of ten academic staff members who have taken actions that can be said to have contributed to shifting in important ways relations and/or practices at one university in South Africa. It adopts a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to understand the lived experiences of participants of having agency and undertaking transformative actions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
“The Bag Is My Home”: recycling “China Bags” in contemporary African art
- Authors: Cheng, Yeng
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145676 , vital:38457 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/afar_a_00400
- Description: Frequently used as mobile storage containers or baggage by migrants and traders moving across borders, the mesh bag made of red, blue, and white polypropylene fibers has become a prominent element of African visual culture. This light, strong, and affordable woven bag, often referred to as “China bag” or “Chinese tote,”1 features prominently in recent artistic practices by African artists such as Nobukho Nqaba, Dan Halter, and Gerald Machona. In this essay I examine how these artistic interventions using photography, installation, video, and performance, circulating in galleries, museums, and the streets, contribute to sociological discussions about the ways in which emerging trajectories, relationships, and identities are perceived and debated in the context of the global South.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Cheng, Yeng
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145676 , vital:38457 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/afar_a_00400
- Description: Frequently used as mobile storage containers or baggage by migrants and traders moving across borders, the mesh bag made of red, blue, and white polypropylene fibers has become a prominent element of African visual culture. This light, strong, and affordable woven bag, often referred to as “China bag” or “Chinese tote,”1 features prominently in recent artistic practices by African artists such as Nobukho Nqaba, Dan Halter, and Gerald Machona. In this essay I examine how these artistic interventions using photography, installation, video, and performance, circulating in galleries, museums, and the streets, contribute to sociological discussions about the ways in which emerging trajectories, relationships, and identities are perceived and debated in the context of the global South.
- Full Text:
- 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
- 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
“Still haven't found what I am looking for”: rural black students' perceived work readiness and assessment of labor market access
- Harry, Tinashe T, Chinyamurindi, Willie T
- Authors: Harry, Tinashe T , Chinyamurindi, Willie T
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450527 , vital:74957 , xlink:href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ET-10-2021-0387/full/pdf?title=still-havent-found-what-i-am-looking-for-rural-black-students-perceived-work-readiness-and-assessment-of-labor-market-access"
- Description: Purpose:South African Black graduates experience a transition challenge be-tween the higher education context and the labor market system. The study focuses on rural Black students' perceived work readiness and assessment of labor market access in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: Focus groups and unstructured individual interviews were conducted with 30 final-year students enrolled at a historically Black university in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Harry, Tinashe T , Chinyamurindi, Willie T
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450527 , vital:74957 , xlink:href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ET-10-2021-0387/full/pdf?title=still-havent-found-what-i-am-looking-for-rural-black-students-perceived-work-readiness-and-assessment-of-labor-market-access"
- Description: Purpose:South African Black graduates experience a transition challenge be-tween the higher education context and the labor market system. The study focuses on rural Black students' perceived work readiness and assessment of labor market access in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: Focus groups and unstructured individual interviews were conducted with 30 final-year students enrolled at a historically Black university in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
“Savage” hair and mothers’ hearts: a corpus-based critical discourse analysis of intersectional identities in two South African school setworks
- Hubbard, Beatrice Elizabeth Anne
- Authors: Hubbard, Beatrice Elizabeth Anne
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Women in literature , Women, Black in literature , Critical discourse analysis , Magona, Sindiwe -- Mother to mother , Bulbring, Edyth -- The Mark
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141770 , vital:38003
- Description: This thesis reports on the discursive construal of intersectional physical identities, with particular reference to ‘black’ female characters, in two novels: Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother, and Edyth Bulbring’s The Mark. These novels are prescribed for Grade 10 English Home Language learners in all South African public schools. Gendered identity construction in texts has been widely discussed in critical linguistics, with some research showing that the ways in which bodies are construed reveal the hegemonic and stereotypical gendering of men and women. However, these arguments have not adequately addressed the intersectional nature of identity construction. This thesis employs Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate the complex physical identities of, especially, ‘black’ female characters in these two novels. The inclusion of Corpus Linguistics is essential for uncovering hidden patterns of language choice, while the analytical techniques and theoretical notions from Critical Discourse Analysis provide the explanatory power that underpins the qualitative analysis. The uses to which nine key body parts are put reveal discourse prosodies showing different intersectional realisations for intimacy, power, violence, emotion, and racial marking. These discourse prosodies are most starkly realised in the two body parts, one from each novel, that are statistically most clearly linked to ‘black’ female characters. HAIR in The Mark is used variously as a racial marker, a target for racism, and a symbol for racial pride. HEART in Mother to Mother is used almost exclusively to symbolise the emotional pain of a mother’s love, and how empathy for another mother’s pain can bridge racial divides. Principal findings reveal that both novels provide very necessary lessons in cross-racial empathy, pride in ‘blackness,’ and interracial relationships. However, it is of concern that these novels also exhibit an over-valorisation of motherhood, largely stereotypical depictions of gender roles, and ableist language. In sum, both novels promote some of the transformative principles of the national curriculum, and are shown to have a bearing on nation building.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Hubbard, Beatrice Elizabeth Anne
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Women in literature , Women, Black in literature , Critical discourse analysis , Magona, Sindiwe -- Mother to mother , Bulbring, Edyth -- The Mark
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141770 , vital:38003
- Description: This thesis reports on the discursive construal of intersectional physical identities, with particular reference to ‘black’ female characters, in two novels: Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother, and Edyth Bulbring’s The Mark. These novels are prescribed for Grade 10 English Home Language learners in all South African public schools. Gendered identity construction in texts has been widely discussed in critical linguistics, with some research showing that the ways in which bodies are construed reveal the hegemonic and stereotypical gendering of men and women. However, these arguments have not adequately addressed the intersectional nature of identity construction. This thesis employs Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate the complex physical identities of, especially, ‘black’ female characters in these two novels. The inclusion of Corpus Linguistics is essential for uncovering hidden patterns of language choice, while the analytical techniques and theoretical notions from Critical Discourse Analysis provide the explanatory power that underpins the qualitative analysis. The uses to which nine key body parts are put reveal discourse prosodies showing different intersectional realisations for intimacy, power, violence, emotion, and racial marking. These discourse prosodies are most starkly realised in the two body parts, one from each novel, that are statistically most clearly linked to ‘black’ female characters. HAIR in The Mark is used variously as a racial marker, a target for racism, and a symbol for racial pride. HEART in Mother to Mother is used almost exclusively to symbolise the emotional pain of a mother’s love, and how empathy for another mother’s pain can bridge racial divides. Principal findings reveal that both novels provide very necessary lessons in cross-racial empathy, pride in ‘blackness,’ and interracial relationships. However, it is of concern that these novels also exhibit an over-valorisation of motherhood, largely stereotypical depictions of gender roles, and ableist language. In sum, both novels promote some of the transformative principles of the national curriculum, and are shown to have a bearing on nation building.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“Rwanda cannot be exorcised”: representations of the trauma of the Rwandan Genocide in selected films and novels
- Authors: Jennings, Kathleen
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Rwandan Genocide, Rwanda, 1994 , Genocide in literature , Genocide in motion pictures , Psychic trauma , Postcolonialism , Collective memory Rwanda
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425067 , vital:72206
- Description: Although the Rwandan genocide (itsembabwoko in Kinyarwanda) has often been compared with the Holocaust, in terms of literary and cinematic narratives it has been largely underrepresented, with the notable exception of the release of the films Hotel Rwanda (2004) and Sometimes in April (2005), as well as novels such as Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2003). However, although there is now a larger oeuvre of works on the subject, they are often not widely known or disseminated beyond their countries of origin. Of even greater concern is the fact that most cinematic narratives on itsembabwoko rely on Western narrative structures in their approach to storytelling. As a result, trauma in these narratives largely tends to focus on the experiences of Western protagonists or on Rwandan protagonists from a Western point of view. This tendency can be tied to the use of Western trauma theory in exploring the effects of the genocide on its witnesses and survivors, at the expense of arguably more relevant postcolonial trauma theory. This presents a problem in theorising the trauma of itsembabwoko, which occurred in a highly specific historical context involving the processes of colonization and decolonization, and in which the difficulties in unifying a population which had been split along socio-economic lines since pre-colonial times remained unresolved. Despite its shortcomings in the postcolonial African context, it would be a mistake to dismiss Yale trauma theory entirely, however, since theorists such as Cathy Caruth still provide valuable insights into the effects of trauma on both the individual and the collective. As a result, I have sought to find commonalities between the two schools of thought, so as to create a more nuanced view of itsembabwoko, its repercussions and the violence preceding it. In writing this thesis, I have selected mostly Rwandan authors, often survivors of the genocide, whose works provide an alternative view of Rwanda’s violent history to that presented in the works mentioned above. Given that the majority of the texts I focus on have been released more recently – mostly the mid-2010s – and are less well-known than their Western counterparts, they provide the opportunity to compare first-hand accounts with those that can only partially recreate the terror of anti-Tutsi violence in Rwanda. My analysis hopefully provides a new perspective on the dominant narratives which have shaped the way in which non-Rwandan (predominantly Western) audiences understand the genocide. The overall aim of this thesis, then, is to demonstrate the importance of placing the genocide and its resultant trauma in a broader historical context, with a view to establishing that it is shortsighted to ignore the impact of pre- and post-genocide trauma on the Rwandan people when discussing itsembabwoko. Though this has been achieved in socio-historical studies, such as Mahmood Mamdani’s When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, very little has been produced on literary and cinematic representations of the genocide. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Literary Studies in English 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
- Authors: Jennings, Kathleen
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Rwandan Genocide, Rwanda, 1994 , Genocide in literature , Genocide in motion pictures , Psychic trauma , Postcolonialism , Collective memory Rwanda
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425067 , vital:72206
- Description: Although the Rwandan genocide (itsembabwoko in Kinyarwanda) has often been compared with the Holocaust, in terms of literary and cinematic narratives it has been largely underrepresented, with the notable exception of the release of the films Hotel Rwanda (2004) and Sometimes in April (2005), as well as novels such as Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2003). However, although there is now a larger oeuvre of works on the subject, they are often not widely known or disseminated beyond their countries of origin. Of even greater concern is the fact that most cinematic narratives on itsembabwoko rely on Western narrative structures in their approach to storytelling. As a result, trauma in these narratives largely tends to focus on the experiences of Western protagonists or on Rwandan protagonists from a Western point of view. This tendency can be tied to the use of Western trauma theory in exploring the effects of the genocide on its witnesses and survivors, at the expense of arguably more relevant postcolonial trauma theory. This presents a problem in theorising the trauma of itsembabwoko, which occurred in a highly specific historical context involving the processes of colonization and decolonization, and in which the difficulties in unifying a population which had been split along socio-economic lines since pre-colonial times remained unresolved. Despite its shortcomings in the postcolonial African context, it would be a mistake to dismiss Yale trauma theory entirely, however, since theorists such as Cathy Caruth still provide valuable insights into the effects of trauma on both the individual and the collective. As a result, I have sought to find commonalities between the two schools of thought, so as to create a more nuanced view of itsembabwoko, its repercussions and the violence preceding it. In writing this thesis, I have selected mostly Rwandan authors, often survivors of the genocide, whose works provide an alternative view of Rwanda’s violent history to that presented in the works mentioned above. Given that the majority of the texts I focus on have been released more recently – mostly the mid-2010s – and are less well-known than their Western counterparts, they provide the opportunity to compare first-hand accounts with those that can only partially recreate the terror of anti-Tutsi violence in Rwanda. My analysis hopefully provides a new perspective on the dominant narratives which have shaped the way in which non-Rwandan (predominantly Western) audiences understand the genocide. The overall aim of this thesis, then, is to demonstrate the importance of placing the genocide and its resultant trauma in a broader historical context, with a view to establishing that it is shortsighted to ignore the impact of pre- and post-genocide trauma on the Rwandan people when discussing itsembabwoko. Though this has been achieved in socio-historical studies, such as Mahmood Mamdani’s When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, very little has been produced on literary and cinematic representations of the genocide. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Literary Studies in English 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
“Pragmatic yet principled”: an assessment of Botswana’s Foreign Policy record as a small state
- Authors: Mahupela, Kabelo Moganegi
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/65290 , vital:28722
- Description: Expected release date-July 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Mahupela, Kabelo Moganegi
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/65290 , vital:28722
- Description: Expected release date-July 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014