The Kindness of Strangers: Single Mothers and the Politics of Friendship in Interwar Cape Town

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Jackson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Work ◽  
Normative Standards ◽  
Welfare Workers ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Just as a friend is often defined as somebody we like, friendship is thought of as a social, moral, and emotional good. The aura of friendship is in its virtue. But the meaning of friendship depends on who claims it and who the person appears to be whom they describe as their friend. This essay investigates the meaning of friendship in the lives of single mothers in South Africa between the two world wars. The context is Cape Town, where single mothers classified as “white” or “European” attracted the attention of the state. In case records pertaining to the 1913 Children’s Welfare Act, the meaning of friendship was contested between magistrates, police detectives, welfare workers, and single mothers themselves. The struggle over how a case should be resolved was to a great extent a struggle over the meaning of friendship. To the authorities, “friends” were a disturbing presence in the lives of single mothers. While the image of healthy, secure, and stable colonial family units was articulated around the relationship between a mother and a child, it was underwritten by the taken-for-granted presence of a male provider. Analyzing cases where men were in various ways absent forces our emphasis away from the normative standards that guided child welfare work and into the messier social realities against which those standards were applied.

scholarly journals Spatial economic attributes of O.R. Tambo and Cape Town airport-centric developments in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masilonyane Mokhele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Transportation Accessibility ◽  
Normative Models ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Background: The concentration of development around airports is a topical subject on the relationship between transportation, accessibility and the distribution of land use. Notwithstanding the existing literature on the analysis of airports and surrounds, and normative models of airport-led development, extensions are required on the empirical analysis of spatial economic attributes of airports and surrounds.Objectives: Objectives of the article were twofold: firstly, to establish the economic activity mix and reasons for the location of firms on and around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports; and secondly, to analyse linkages between firms on and around the two airports as well as linkages those firms have with their metropolitan, regional, national and international contexts.Method: The article focused on the South African case studies of O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports and used a telephone survey as the primary data collection method.Results: The article discovered that the developments around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports are spatial clusters that are also linked with other airports in South Africa and beyond.Conclusion: The article extended existing knowledge by providing insights on the spatial economic characteristics of airports and surrounds. The findings can be improved upon with work on other case studies, and potentially be used as bases for extending a theoretical framework that describes and explains the spatial economic forces that drive development on and around airports.

scholarly journals Sounding the Cape: Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis-Constant Martin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Rhythmic Pattern ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Musical Genres ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Musical Styles

For several centuries Cape Town has accommodated a great variety of musical genres which have usually been associated with specific population groups living in and around the city. Musical styles and genres produced in Cape Town have therefore been assigned an ìidentityî which is first and foremost social. This volume tries to question the relationship established between musical styles and genres, and social --in this case pseudo-racial --identities. In Sounding the Cape, Denis-Constant Martin recomposes and examines through the theoretical prism of creolisation the history of music in Cape Town, deploying analytical tools borrowed from the most recent studies of identity configurations. He demonstrates that musical creation in the Mother City, and in South Africa, has always been nurtured by contacts, exchanges and innovations whatever the efforts made by racist powers to separate and divide people according to their origin. Musicians interviewed at the dawn of the 21st century confirm that mixture and blending characterise all Cape Town's musics. They also emphasise the importance of a rhythmic pattern particular to Cape Town, the ghoema beat, whose origins are obviously mixed. The study of music demonstrates that the history of Cape Town, and of South Africa as a whole, undeniably fostered creole societies. Yet, twenty years after the collapse of apartheid, these societies are still divided along lines that combine economic factors and 'racial'categorisations. Martin concludes that, were music given a greater importance in educational and cultural policies, it could contribute to fighting these divisions and promote the notion of a nation that, in spite of the violence of racism and apartheid, has managed to invent a unique common culture.

scholarly journals RESURRECTING SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD (1972–2008): JOHN KANI, WINSTON NTSHONA, ATHOL FUGARD, AND POSTAPARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gibson Alessandro Cima
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The State ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Arts Festival ◽  
Brooklyn Academy Of Music

On 30 June 2006 at the annual National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, two giants of South African protest theatre, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, performed as the original cast of the landmark struggle drama Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1972). The revival marked the first production of the play in over twenty-five years. After its brief stint at the National Arts Festival (30 June–5 July 2006), the play transferred to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town (11 July–5 August) and then entertained a monthlong run at the State Theatre in Pretoria (17 August–17 September). After its turn at the State, the production stopped shortly at the Hilton College Theatre in KwaZulu Natal (19–23 September) before settling into an extended engagement at Johannesburg's Market Theatre (28 September to 22 October). In March 2007, the original cast revival of Sizwe traveled to the British National Theatre before finally ending its tour at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 2008.

scholarly journals Editorial

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Francois Venter
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Political Dominance ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

This second edition of 2006 offers an interesting range of topics, in this instance all covered by South African authors.In her analysis of the "institutions supporting constitutional democracy" established by the South African Constitution, Professor Christina Murray of the University of Cape Town argues that thethe institutions share the roles of providing a check on government and of contributing to transformation.  The newness of democracy, the great demands on the state and the political dominance of the governing party in South Africa are identified as the greatest challenges of the institutions discussed.

scholarly journals Co-location of a Government Child Welfare Unit in a Traditional Aboriginal Agency: A Way Forward in Working in Aboriginal Communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-44
Author(s):  
Linda Kreitzer ◽  
Jean Lafrance
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare Workers ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Supportive Leadership ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Aboriginal Child Welfare ◽  
Welfare Workers ◽  
The Relationship

This article describes the learning that took place in the context of a provincial family enhancement unit within an Aboriginal child welfare agency. Many benefits were identified for the workers, the families, and the relationship to the community. Most notable were the positive effects on non-Aboriginal government staff who were immersed in a more traditional Aboriginal agency. Key learnings include the importance of relationship in child welfare practice, the desire of child welfare workers for greater creativity in their responses to children and families and the need for more supportive leadership in the creation of the conditions necessary for this to happen. Recommendations are made to provincial officials to assist in the creation of such an environment.

The State and New-build Gentrification in Central Cape Town, South Africa

Urban Studies ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 2565-2593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustav Visser ◽  
Nico Kotze
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The State
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