Acting Africa

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren Kruger
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The South ◽  
Colonial Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Offers ◽  
The Invisible

I begin with two images of African actors. The first, from Asinamali by the South African playwright Mbongeni Ngema (1985; Plate 23), shows a group pose drawn directly from protest theatre—angry men in prison khaki, with fists clenched, bodies tensed in readiness and, one can assume, voices raised against the invisible but all too palpable forces of apartheid. The second, from the centenary celebrations of the American Board Mission in South Africa (1935; Plate 24), portrays the ‘smelling-out of a fraudulent umthakathi’ (which can be translated as diviner or trickster), which were followed, on this occasion, by other scenes portraying the civilizing influence of European settlers. While the first offers an image of African agency and modernity in the face of oppression, the second, with its apparently un-mediated reconstruction of pre-colonial ritual and, in its teleological juxtaposition of ‘tribal’ and ‘civilized’ custom, seems to respond to the quite different terms set by a long history of displays, along the lines of the Savage South Africa Show (1900), in which the authenticity of the Africans on stage was derived not from their agency but by their incorporation into the representation of colonial authority.

Evolution of South Africa's Racist Constitutions and the 1983 Constitution

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Xia Jisheng
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
State Law ◽  
The South ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fundamental State ◽  
History Of ◽  
South African Constitution

Since the enforcement of 1983 constitution, several years have passed. The 1983 constitution is the third constitution since the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910. By observing the history of the constitutional development in more than seventy years in South Africa and the content of the current South African constitution, it is not difficult to find out that the constitution, as a fundamental state law, is an important weapon of racism. South Africa's white regime consistandy upholds and consolidates its racist rule by adopting and implementing constitutions. The aim of this article is to analyze and expose the essence of the South African racist system in mis aspect.

scholarly journals Sideswipes and Backhanders: Abolition of the Reasonable Chastisement Defence in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-203
Author(s):  
Julia Sloth-Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Correct Decision ◽  
The South ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article reviews the abolition of the defence of reasonable chastisement by the South African Constitutional Court on the grounds that it infringes the Constitution. After detailing the history of the abolition of corporal punishment in a democracy with the Constitution as supreme law, the article dissects the reasoning of the Constitutional Court. It argues that judgment in Freedom of Religion South Africa v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development (hereafter FORSA), whilst overall positive in its result, is probably a low water mark in the development of children’s rights jurisprudence in South Africa. There are a number of inadequacies and strangely deferential statements in the FORSA decision. Whilst inescapably coming to the constitutionally correct decision, the reluctance of the Court to reach this point, and its desire to accommodate the religious and cultural beliefs of the appellants, is evident. The way forward has, as a result, been left rather obscure.

"The Struggle Made Me a Nonracialist": Why There was so Little Terrorism in the Antiapartheid Struggle

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The South ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
White Allies ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Congress

Most theories of terrorism would lead one to have expected high levels of antiwhite terrorism in apartheid South Africa. Yet the African National Congress, the country's most important and influential antiapartheid political organization, never sanctioned terrorism against the dominant white minority. I argue that the ANC eschewed terrorism because of its commitment to "nonracial internationalism." From the ANC's perspective, to have carried out a campaign of indiscriminate or "categorical" terrorism against whites would have alienated actual and potential white allies both inside and outside the country. The ANC's ideological commitment to nonracialism had a specific social basis: It grew out of a long history of collaboration between the ANC and white leftists inside and outside the country, especially those in the South African Communist Party.

Beyond Memory

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Mojapelo ◽  
Sello Galane
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
South African ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
African Music ◽  
The South ◽  
Accurate Picture ◽  
History Of ◽  
South African Music

South Africa possesses one of the richest popular music traditions in the world - from marabi to mbaqanga, from boeremusiek to bubblegum, from kwela to kwaito. Yet the risk that future generations of South Africans will not know their musical roots is very real. Of all the recordings made here since the 1930s, thousands have been lost for ever, for the powers-that-be never deemed them worthy of preservation. And if one peruses the books that exist on South African popular music, one still finds that their authors have on occasion jumped to conclusions that were not as foregone as they had assumed. Yet the fault lies not with them, rather in the fact that there has been precious little documentation in South Africa of who played what, or who recorded what, with whom, and when. This is true of all music-making in this country, though it is most striking in the musics of the black communities. Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music is an invaluable publication because it offers a first-hand account of the South African music scene of the past decades from the pen of a man, Max Thamagana Mojapelo, who was situated in the very thick of things, thanks to his job as a deejay at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This book - astonishing for the breadth of its coverage - is based on his diaries, on interviews he conducted and on numerous other sources, and we find in it not only the well-known names of recent South African music but a countless host of others whose contribution must be recorded if we and future generations are to gain an accurate picture of South African music history of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

South Africa, philosophy in

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Duvenage
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
African Philosophy ◽  
The South ◽  
Analytical Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
British Idealism

Although it is incorrect to refer to an independent South African philosophical tradition, South Africa is nevertheless the location of an interesting history of philosophical institutionalization. This institutionalization is closely intertwined with the colonial and postcolonial history of Western expansion (Dutch and English) and the reactions it unleashed within the South African context. It is especially interesting to trace the influence and the application of Anglo-American and continental origins in South Africa. Even in contemporary South Africa, philosophers who are working in fields such as postmodernism, postcolonialism, feminism and analytical philosophy do so mostly under the influence of contexts beyond South Africa’s borders. After the early Dutch influence in South Africa (1652–1806) a British colonial educational system emerged during the nineteenth century. From the first institutions of higher education (the South African College in Cape Town, and the University of the Cape of Good Hope) the first tertiary institutions emerged in the early part of the twentieth century at Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and Pretoria. Although other universities were subsequently instituted, these four can be considered the four founding residential universities in South Africa. It is also at these universities (and at Colleges in Grahamstown, Bloemfontein, Durban and Pietermaritzburg) that British idealism had a major influence on the early stages of South African philosophy (1873–1940). Against this background figures such as Fremantle (Cape Town), Walker (Stellenbosch), Hoernlé (Johannesburg), Lord (Grahamstown) and Macfadyen (Pretoria) were instrumental. From the 1930s the hegemony of British idealism was challenged by analytical philosophy (mainly at English-speaking South African universities) and continental traditions (mainly at Afrikaans-speaking universities). Since the political transformation of South Africa (1994) African philosophy has also emerged as a major philosophical tradition. The challenge for philosophy in contemporary South Africa is to explore those intellectual traditions that have shaped philosophy in South Africa, to know where they are coming from and to understand how they were transformed under (post)colonial conditions. Such a (genealogical) perspective provides a historical and material corrective to arguments that might otherwise strive to reconcile cultural values and ideas in an apolitical and ahistorical manner.

Towards a concise history of South Africa

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-289
Author(s):  
Robert Ross
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
The South ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Governmental System

This article discusses the problems inherent in writing a short historical survey of South Africa. Such surveys are periodically necessary in order to provide a perspective for monographic studies. This one is organized around the argument that South Africa, for all its internal divisions, has become a single country, and traces the processes of colonial conquest, economic integration and the ideological importance of mission Christianity through which this has come about. Furthermore, the recent changes in the South African governmental system provide a narrative conclusion that was not there in the past and which soon will be no more.

scholarly journals The SACC since 1994: Ecumenism in Democratic South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Michael Womack ◽  
Jerry Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The State ◽  
The South ◽  
South African Council ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages

Prior to 1994, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) was a major role-player both globally and within South Africa, fulfilling a vital role in the struggle for justice in South Africa. Yet, since 1994 the SACC has all but disappeared from both the global as well as the popular South African ecumenical scene. The history of the SACC since 1994 is relatively unknown and sparsely documented. This article attempts to fill in some of that missing detail and to explore what has happened to the SACC since 1994. Working predominantly from news articles and documents from the SACC, the authors have endeavoured to piece together the state of the SACC since 1994. This article shows how the SACC emerged from the brink of closure and has once more started to function as a prophetic voice in South Africa. This movement from almost extinction to a rejuvenated function has been designated into three stages, namely survival, discernment and regeneration. However, the challenges are not over and this article concludes by highlighting two main challenges that the SACC is currently facing.

scholarly journals Rand rebellion of 1922: the perception in British public opinion

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-381
Author(s):  
Alexey D Streltsov
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
South African ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
African Union ◽  
The South ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Press

The article presents the research of the problem of white miners uprising in Witwatersrand in January-March 1922. The aim of the research was to surround the causes of the uprising, the reaction of British establishment and press, as well as the leader of the South African Union. Based on a number of sources, are shown the history of the issue and the driving forces of the rebels. The article contains an indication of both the traditional factors of the strike, characteristic of the industry of the fi rst half of XX, and the specifi c features of South Africa that aff ected the uprising. The author paid attention to the way of analyzing by the British press the causes of the uprising, and how various publications appreciate it, depending on their ideology. Besides, is considered the signifi cance of the uprising for further decision-making by the British leadership on colonial policy.

Black American Music and the Civilized-Uncivilized Matrix in South Africa

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-30
Author(s):  
Johann Buis
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Black People ◽  
Reception History ◽  
American Music ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Press ◽  
History Of The South

In a recent article by Veit Erlmann in the South African journal of musicology (SAMUS vol. 14, 1995) entitled “Africa Civilized, Africa Uncivilized,” Erlmann draws upon the reception history of the South African Zulu Choir’s visit to London in 1892 and the Ladysmith Black Mambazo presence in Paul Simon’s Graceland project to highlight the epithet “Africa civilized, Africa uncivilized.” Though the term was used by the turn of the century British press to publicize the event, the slogan carries far greater impact upon the locus of the identity of urban black people in South Africa for more than a century.

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