Discourse, culture and the law

AILA Review ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 78-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pulie Thetela
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
African Context ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Law

The aim of this paper is to analyse the nature of the courtroom discourse in an African context. The nature of courtroom discourse has been extensively discussed and and analysed in non-African contexts. This paper, however, makes a unique contribution by analysing the nature of courtroom discourse in multilingual courts in Southern Africa. The contribution is unique because it investigates the probematic nature of courtroom interpretation, using the theoretical notion of crosstalk, in multilingual communities when the communicative styles of the participants are divergent and conflicting. More significantly the paper illustrates the potential impact of a special register hlonipha-the language of respect for women. The paper concludes by looking at ways in which through register we can intrerrogate power relations in courtroom discourse and examine the implications of such power discrepancy on the delivery of justice.

scholarly journals An ecology of difference: fence-line contrast photographs as scientific models in ecology

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirin Hongslo
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Textual Theory ◽  
African Context ◽  
Land Use Policies ◽  
Fence Line

Political ecologists have long acknowledged the links between knowledge and power. Recently there has also been a growing interest in detailed studies about knowledge production within critical political ecology. This article is a study of the use of photographs in scientific articles on dryland ecology, and investigates the functions of photographs. Contrary to the straightforward manner in which they are presented, photographs are not value-free documentary proofs of 'how things are.' Rather, photographs constitute arguments in their own right. Using photographic and textual theory, this study analyzes two articles that include photographs of fence-line contrasts between two different management regimes. Contrasting areas divided by a fence-line is a methodology that demonstrates how management differences lead to differences in vegetation. In a Southern African context, however, differences across a fence tend to encompass deep racial and economic divides, and the fence-line photos risk encompassing these differences. This article argues that the fence-line contrast photographs in this study function as models that order the causal links between vegetation dynamics, land tenure and land management. These models correspond closely to equilibrium models in range ecology, and the fence-line photographs thus contribute to a degradation narrative that has been influential for land reform policies in Southern Africa, and that feeds into land use policies that favor private land ownership in communal areas.Keywords: Critical political ecology, fence-line photography, scientific models, rangeland ecology, Southern Africa

scholarly journals The Threat of Gullibility: Faith and Christian Behaviour in Southern Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarisayi Andrea Chimuka
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Church

Gullibility is understood variously as ranging from outright stupidity to indecision raised by the epistemic indeterminacy of the testimony of others. The activities of tricksters fall within this range. These activities happen in almost every sphere of our lives—in business, religion, the law, politics and so forth. Tricksters dangle “beautiful illusions” and sway people into believing that they have something to offer them. As a result, people throw caution out of the window. In the Christian religion for example, the air is drenched with claims about what God is saying to the Church during these last days! Those who claim to have direct contact with God tend to have an edge over those who do not have direct access to God. It is in such contexts that religious imposters arise. Prophets and firebrand preachers have sprung up and are promising the masses either prosperity, or healing, even in cases where ailments have confounded scientists. Many people are swayed into believing them sheepishly. It is against this backdrop that some end up being cheated. Often this tendency is labelled gullibility. If gullibility is understood as a belief in something with no substantiating facts, does this make the affected persons foolish? If someone believes that another person is endowed with special gifts from God, which can help them, is this belief unwarranted? In this article I seek to unpack the concept ‘‘religious gullibility’’, with the hope of plugging the holes.

A Law Unto Itself: Chinese Communist Party Leadership and Yifa zhiguo in the Xi Era

Modern China ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Trevaskes
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Xi Jinping ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
The Law ◽  
Key Aspects

This article explores the political significance of “governing the nation in accordance with the law” 依法治国 ( yifa zhiguo) in the Xi Jinping era. It examines party statements and propaganda about the necessity of exercising party leadership over all key aspects of law-based governance, particularly the politico-legal system. The aim is to understand the strategic need for yifa zhiguo as part of the ideological repertoire of the Xi leadership. The argument is that yifa zhiguo is essentially an ideological and strategic message about power relations under Xi and the capacity of the party to withstand various threats to its credibility and thus ultimately to bring about the nation’s and party’s rejuvenation.

African Biography and Historiography

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
Political Biography ◽  
Biographical Dictionary ◽  
African Context ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Vast Range

Biography in the African context can take many forms, from brief entries in a biographical dictionary or obituary in a newspaper to multivolume studies of single individuals. It can encompass one or many subjects and serves both to celebrate the famous and illuminate obscure lives. Biographies can be instructional as well as inspirational. Sometimes, it is hard to draw a line between biography and autobiography because of the way a work has been compiled. An attempt is made to understand this vast range of forms, with reference to social and political biography. The main focus is on work produced since the 1970s, with examples drawn from all regions of sub-Saharan Africa (although Southern Africa is better represented than others, as is English-medium material). Matters that preoccupy biographers everywhere, such as the relationship between writer and subject and the larger relationship between biography and history, are raised. Biography can be an excellent entry point into the complexities of African history.

Power relations in sexual agreements among male couples in Southern Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 904-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaynab Essack ◽  
Ingrid Lynch ◽  
Chammah J. Kaunda ◽  
Rob Stephenson ◽  
Lynae Darbes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Male Couples ◽  
Sexual Agreements

Indigenous rights and the persistence of industrial capitalism: Capturing the law–ideology–power triple-helix

2020 ◽  
pp. 030913252097344
Author(s):  
Leah S Horowitz
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Triple Helix ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Law

This article examines the power relations that unfold when Indigenous-led struggles invoke settler-colonial law toward protection from industry’s impacts. Building on Critical Race Theory, I posit a ‘triple-helical’ relationship between law, power, and ideology, which coproduce one another, mediated by nudges from individual agents. I argue that the triple-helix of Indigenous rights to protection from industry’s impacts has stagnated, due to industrial capitalism’s pushback through social regularization processes as well as its capture of formal and informal regulators and of discourses and ideologies. I conclude with a research agenda for applying the triple-helix framework to Indigenous-led engagements with industry.

Challenges to cooperation on water utilisation in the Southern Africa region

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nola Redelinghuys ◽  
André J. Pelser
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Water Relations ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
The Future ◽  
Water Issues ◽  
Regional Perspective

Transboundary water relations in Southern Africa are governed by an elaborate and intricate policy framework. In spite of this framework, the future of sustained cooperation on water utilisation in the region is still precarious and uncertain. Some subtle and unresolved dilemmas that may constrain future cooperation need to be dealt with. Two of these underlying dilemmas, namely the importance attached to national sovereignty and the strategic nature of water in the region, are explored in this article. These dilemmas form critical undercurrents that steer nations away from cooperation, cause stagnation in policy implementation and hamper progress in facilitating sustained solutions in transboundary water issues. Stemming from this background, this article argues for (a) the importance of a stronger regional perspective on water to steer countries away from the need to protect sovereign interests and (b) addressing the nature of current power relations in the region where water is concerned.

Pidgin and Creole Languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 888-898
Author(s):  
Gabriele Sommer
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
African Context ◽  
Creole Languages

Pidgin and Creole Studies represent a well-established field in linguistics. In the African context, however, the study of pidgins and creoles is still much less advanced. African pidgin and creole (PC) languages fulfill vehicular functions, whereas not all lingua francas in Africa are to be regarded as pidgins and creoles. While a map shows the distribution of African PC languages arranged from North and West to Central, East and southern Africa, they are further grouped and characterized in the text according to their main lexifier languages, by their presumed origins, the major contact languages involved and—if known—the actual linguistic outcome(s) of these respective contact situations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document