Asserting an Eritrean identity in the face of imposed racialisation: National identity claims of some Eritrean refugees in South Africa

Identities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The Face

The Prophetic Voice of the Church in a Democratic South Africa – A Theological Reflection

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lufuluvhi Maria Mudimeli
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black Liberation Theology ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

This article is a reflection on the role and contribution of the church in a democratic South Africa. The involvement of the church in the struggle against apartheid is revisited briefly. The church has played a pivotal and prominent role in bringing about democracy by being a prophetic voice that could not be silenced even in the face of death. It is in this time of democracy when real transformation is needed to take its course in a realistic way, where the presence of the church has probably been latent and where it has assumed an observer status. A look is taken at the dilemmas facing the church. The church should not be bound and taken captive by any form of loyalty to any political organisation at the expense of the poor and the voiceless. A need for cooperation and partnership between the church and the state is crucial at this time. This paper strives to address the role of the church as a prophetic voice in a democratic South Africa. Radical economic transformation, inequality, corruption, and moral decadence—all these challenges hold the potential to thwart our young democracy and its ideals. Black liberation theology concepts are employed to explore how the church can become prophetically relevant in democracy. Suggestions are made about how the church and the state can best form partnerships. In avoiding taking only a critical stance, the church could fulfil its mandate “in season and out of season” and continue to be a prophetic voice on behalf of ordinary South Africans.

Muslims and the Crisis of British National Identity

2019 ◽  
pp. 221-243
Author(s):  
Martin Pugh
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Mainstream Society

This chapter demonstrates how, despite their experience of prejudice, Muslims became involved in a gradual process of integration into mainstream society; in this period they largely thought of themselves as ‘black’ or as Asians, rather than as Muslims. First-generation British Muslims had been fairly relaxed about social behaviour and religious observation. Meanwhile, the second generation of Muslims were not in Britain as temporary economic migrants, and consequently were less passive than their predecessors, more confident and aware of their opportunities and rights in Britain. For them, integration into mainstream society went hand in hand with an increasing assertiveness in the face of prejudice and an awareness of their identity as Anglo-Asians. By the 1980s and 1990s, the younger generation were becoming alienated from their parents due to familiarity with a secular society; many regarded the world of the mosque as boring. Muslims also began to reflect mainstream practice in other ways: more women in their twenties remained unmarried and, with their better language skills and qualifications, they were more likely to be in paid employment.

scholarly journals Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris expansion in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ielyzaveta M. Ivanova ◽  
Craig T. Symes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sturnus Vulgaris ◽  
Anthropogenic Change ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
The Past ◽  
Entire Country ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Common ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Using Data

The Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris has progressively expanded its range in South Africa since its introduction into Cape Town in the late 19th century. In the past few decades it has extended this range into Gauteng province. Using data from the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2, this paper examines the spread and relative abundance changes for the species across South Africa over the past 10 years, with a detailed look at the recently-colonised Gauteng. Across South Africa, the Common Starling's distribution has shifted, and grown. As it spreads north along the coastline and northwards inland, some of the former range has been lost. In Gauteng, the species has shown a range and abundance expansion over the same period. If the observed trends are to continue, this species is likely to eventually become a prominent species across the entire country, and further north into the sub-region. However, the potential impact that this species has on indigenous avifauna is unknown and, in the face of rapid anthropogenic change, remains to be investigated.

The Sense of National Identity among the Marian Exiles (1553–1558)

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 99-108
Author(s):  
David M. Loades
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Face

Dr Cox and others with him came to Frankfort out of England, who began to break that order that was agreed upon; first in answering aloud after the minister, contrary to the church’s determination; and being admonished thereof by the Seniors of the congregation, he, with the rest that came with him made answer, That they would do as they had done in England; and that they would have the face of an English church….Thanks to the Brieff Discours, a partisan account published for polemical purposes almost twenty years later, the ‘Troubles’ which began with this gesture form one of the best-known aspects of the Marian exile. However, because of the context within which the compilers of that work were operating, it is usually seen simply as a liturgical conflict between the protagonists of the 1552 Prayer Book, and those of the Geneva rite, which had been printed in English as far back as 1550. In fact, the issues which it raised were far wider, embracing the whole conduct of ecclesiastical affairs, and the nature of the English church.

scholarly journals Exploring ambivalent oxygen machine–people–world relations through the lens of postphenomenology

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 426-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Oxygen Therapy ◽  
Heart Diseases ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship

Technologies for medicinal oxygen delivery at home are increasingly part of the global health technology landscape in the face of rising rates of chronic lung and heart diseases. From the mere notion of harvesting and privatizing oxygen from the atmosphere to its status as both dangerous and therapeutic, and finally to its capacity to both extend and limit life, oxygen as therapy materializes its status as an ambivalent object in global health. This analysis of ethnographic material from Uruguay and South Africa on the experience of home oxygen therapy is guided by philosopher Don Ihde’s postphenomenology – a pragmatic philosophical approach for analysing the relationships between humans and technologies. Participants related to their oxygen devices as limiting-enablers, as markers of illness and measures of recovery, and as precious and limited resources. Oxygen was materialized in many forms, each with their own characteristics shaping the ‘amplification/reduction’ character of the relationship as well as the degree to which the devices became ‘transparent’ to their users. Ihde’s four types of human–technology relations – embodiment, hermeneutic, alterity and background relations – are at play in the multistability of oxygen. Importantly, the lack of technological ‘transparency’, in Ihde’s sense of the term, reflects not only the materiality of oxygen but inequality too. While postphenomenology adds a productive material and technological flavour to phenomenology, the author argues that a critical postphenomenology is needed to engage with the political-economy of human–oxygen technology relations.

Securing Security

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Reference Object ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
Sociocultural Contexts

There is presently no shortage of conceptual models to account for the fact that security have begun to play an increasingly important role in more and more spheres of life. However, most of these explanations rely on a figure of thought in which security is freshly brought to bear on something which has not previously been a target of security. This chapter develops an alternative approach. Drawing on my ethnographic findings from South Africa, I start out from the observation that, once it has been established, security needs to be secured if is to be maintained in the face of potentially adversarial forces. Thus, what is explored is a particular logic of security in which security becomes its own reference object. It is argued that this logic gives rise to security linkages of a particular kind, linkages that are not based on a forward-driving expansion of security agendas but, rather, on protectively and recursively backing up already existing measures. By attending to security’s recursiveness we can address some of the ways in which the “rooting” of security assemblages occurs in sociocultural contexts.

The Resilient Constitution

2021 ◽  
pp. 277-309
Author(s):  
David Dyzenhaus ◽  
Alma Diamond
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Extreme Pressure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
The One

This chapter evaluates the so called 'transitional constitution' of South Africa and the 'permanent constitution' of Colombia. Through a comparative approach, it contends that constitutions are better understood in terms of their resilience rather than either being transitional or permanent, and that a 'resilient constitution' is the one capable of springing back even after being subjected to extreme pressure, as long as leaders maintain their commitment to governing within the limits of the law. In this sense, the differences between the Colombian transitional justice and the South African case do not stem primarily from the 'permanence' of its Constitution, but rather from the difficulties and tensions inherent to any transitional justice process, because it derives from some of the very rights it is designed to promote. The chapter then details how the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court on transitional matters can be understood as having moved from an understanding of the Constitution as permanent, to one of resilience that does not represent a new power grabbed by the Court. Rather than that, it signals an understanding of the role of the Court in maintaining a constitutional order even in the face of existential threats to it.

How Civic is Russia's New Civil Religion and How Religious is the Church?

2017 ◽  
pp. 125-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Teper
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The Face ◽  
Political Model ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Religious Elements ◽  
The Church

This chapter demonstrates how and why a shift in the balance between civic and religious elements of a civil religion can take place, using Russia as an illuminating case study. Post-Soviet Russia is used to demonstrate how religion can be utilized to reinforce national identity and the legitimacy of the political system in the face of their civic weaknesses. The chapter demonstrates how, eventually, the civic-democratic political model officially designated during Yeltsin's presidency gradually changed to a more religiously grounded one, albeit a model that is not fully recognized, during Putin's rule. Moreover, the Russian case allows us to differentiate between two possible levels of civil religion: an official and openly communicated secularism, and an established church religion, promoted by the establishment in more subtle but not necessarily less aggressive ways. It further shows that just as the state has to adopt religious features in order to be deified, religious institutions have themselves to become more secular to be suitable for adoption as the state's civil religion.

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