Shakespeare’s Tragedies in Southern Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colette Gordon ◽  
Daniel Roux ◽  
David Schalkwyk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Shakespearean Tragedy ◽  
Thabo Mbeki ◽  
Robben Island

This chapter discusses the place of Shakespeare’s tragedies in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. It begins with the imposition of apartheid in 1948 and Afrikaans Shakespeare; it goes on to look at Sol Plaatje’s Setswana translations of Shakespeare; and then considers rhetorical and allegorical treatments of Shakespearean tragedy in relation to Robben Island, Nelson Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki. This is followed by an account of the reception, in South Africa and abroad, of three landmark South African productions in the twentieth century: Janet Suzman’s Othello, Gregory Doran’s Titus Andronicus, and Welcome Msomi’s Umabatha. It concludes with a brief discussion of the representation of Africa in the Globe-to-Globe 2012 festival at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

Leadership Qualities to Foster a Sustainable South African Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Liezel Lues
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Leadership Qualities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
African Context ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Leadership Approaches ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

A democracy requires leaders who demonstrate skills that will strengthen the dispensation, set an example and gain respect, nationally and internationally. Since 1994, South Africa (SA) has had three presidents, each responsible for shaping the country according to his own unique approach. Their leadership has played a crucial role in determining the future of the country over the past 23 years, some areas have been strengthened, but unfortunately others have become weaker than before. It seems that President Nelson Mandela focused on reconciliation. The approach of Thabo Mbeki, his successor, was strategically different in that it focused on the realization of the importance of economic development and wealth creation. During the consequent Zuma era, the concept of leadership was transformed to focus on charisma and populism. The aim of this paper is to review the fundamental, prevailing leadership approaches in SA in the period since the country became a democracy in 1994. The challenges facing South African leaders will be clustered in two themes, namely leadership and economy. Against this backdrop, a theoretical, yet practical discussion is conducted in an attempt to answer the following question: What fundamental leadership qualities are required to ensure a sustainable democracy in the Southern African context?

scholarly journals The symbolic significance of P.T. Mtuze’s poem 'Isinagogo' in Uyavuth’ umlilo

Literator ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-84
Author(s):  
Z. Mtumane
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The South ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Dirty Water ◽  
South African Police ◽  
Robben Island

This article examines the symbols used by P.T. Mtuze in the poem, “Isinagogo”, which is contained in “Uyavuth’ umlilo” (1990). The symbols used in the poem include “isinagogo” (the black barbet), “amavukuthu” (the doves), “izadunge” (the dirty water ponds) and “umphathi wamavukuthu” (the master of the doves). In the discussion it will be illustrated how these symbols represent Nelson Mandela when he was a prisoner, the South African Police, the then State President of South Africa, P.W. Botha, and Robben Island. However, before the actual discussion of the symbols, an attempt will be made to define the concept of symbolism.

Revolution and Non-Violence in Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Mandela

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imraan Coovadia
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Leo Tolstoy ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Robben Island

The dangers of political violence and the possibilities of non-violence were the central themes of three lives which changed the twentieth century—Leo Tolstoy, writer and aristocrat who turned against his class; Mohandas Gandhi, who corresponded with Tolstoy and considered him the most important person of the time; and Nelson Mandela, prisoner and statesman, who read War and Peace on Robben Island and who, despite having led a campaign of sabotage, saw himself as a successor to Gandhi. Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Mandela tried to create transformed societies to replace the dying forms of colony and empire. They found the inequalities of Russia, India, and South Africa intolerable, yet they questioned the wisdom of seizing the power of the state, creating new kinds of political organization and imagination to replace the old promises of revolution. Their views, along with their ways of leading others, are closely connected, from their insistence on working with their own hands and reforming their individual selves to their acceptance of death. On three continents, in a century of mass mobilization and conflict, they promoted strains of nationalism devoid of antagonism, prepared to take part in a general peace. Looking at Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Mandela in sequence, taking into account their letters and conversations, as well as the institutions they created or subverted, placing at the centre their treatment of the primal fantasy of political violence, reveals a vital radical tradition which stands outside the conventional categories of twentieth-century history and politics.

Trinity in the Temptation Narrative and the Interpratation of Noordmans, Dostoyevski, and Mbeki

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-222
Author(s):  
Johann Theron
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
African Context ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

AbstractFirst, this article gives a biblical theological account of the use of the term 'temptation' through out the Bible and relates it to the temptation narrative in Luke. It proposes to show that there is a trinitarian structure in the temptation narrative in Luke. It is argued that the temptation narrative is primarily concerned with the person and work of Christ from a Christological perspective, while it can be related to the believer only from a secondary Pneumatological perspective.Second, this article will focus on the way the temptation narrative has been interpreted by Oepke Noordmans, Fyodor Dostoyevski, and in the South African context by President Thabo Mbeki in his Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture. Noordmans, the theologian, emphasizes the Christo logical aspects of the temptation narrative, while Dostoyevski explores the Pneumatological aspects by looking at humankind in its concrete socio-political and religious situation. President Thabo Mbeki refers to the temptation narrative from an anthropological perspective to indicate how a citizen must live responsibly in South Africa.

Region of Birth and Child Mortality among Black Migrants to South Africa: Is there a foreign-born advantage?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany L Green ◽  
Amos C Peters
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Black Immigrants ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
Child Deaths

Much of the existing evidence for the healthy immigrant advantage comes from developed countries. We investigate whether an immigrant health advantage exists in South Africa, an important emerging economy.  Using the 2001 South African Census, this study examines differences in child mortality between native-born South African and immigrant blacks.  We find that accounting for region of origin is critical: immigrants from southern Africa are more likely to experience higher lifetime child mortality compared to the native-born population.  Further, immigrants from outside of southern Africa are less likely than both groups to experience child deaths.  Finally, in contrast to patterns observed in developed countries, we detect a strong relationship between schooling and child mortality among black immigrants.

The Final ‘Thank You’

Derrida Today ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Grant Farred
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Cup ◽  
The Core ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Black President ◽  
The Moment

‘The Final “Thank You”’ uses the work of Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to think the occasion of the 1995 rugby World Cup, hosted by the newly democratic South Africa. This paper deploys Nietzsche's Zarathustra to critique how a figure such as Nelson Mandela is understood as a ‘Superman’ or an ‘Overhuman’ in the moment of political transition. The philosophical focus of the paper, however, turns on the ‘thank yous’ exchanged by the white South African rugby captain, François Pienaar, and the black president at the event of the Springbok victory. It is the value, and the proximity and negation, of the ‘thank yous’ – the relation of one to the other – that constitutes the core of the article. 1

Michael Harmel (1915-1974): A South African Communist and His Discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Actual Contribution

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>

Michael Harmel (1915-1974): A South African Communist and His Discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Actual Contribution

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>

Liebenberg, Ian, Jorge Risquet and Vladimir Shubin (eds), A Far-away War: Angola, 1975-1989. Stellenbosch: Sun Press 2015, 207 pp.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan F Mutton
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Deputy Director ◽  
Reference Book ◽  
40Th Anniversary ◽  
Military Academy ◽  
Military Studies ◽  
The Military ◽  
Extensive Bibliography

This publication, which consists of an Introduction and eight chapters by different authors, appeared at the time of the 40th anniversary of the entry of South Africa into the Angolan war. It is short but packed with useful information and well-documented with photos, geographical and combat maps, an extensive bibliography of 35 pages, political cartoons and posters,historical surveys and statistics. Edited by the South African Ian Liebenberg (Director of the Centre for Military Studies at the Military Academy in Stellenbosch), the Cuban Jorge Risquet (who participated in the 1988 Angolan peace talks), and the Russian Vladimir Shubin (former Deputy Director of the Institute for African Studies at the Russian Academy of Science), A Far-Away War sheds new light on this prolonged conflict, focusing on the involvement of South-Africa, Cuba, Russia and East-Germany.In doing so, it opens new perspectives and widens the understanding of the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa, not only for the average history and politics reader but also, as a very useful reference book, for the more advanced researcher and academic.

scholarly journals Serological survey of bovine viral diarrhoea virus in Namibian and South African kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) and eland (Taurotragus oryx)

2013 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence P. Scott ◽  
Eleanor Stylianides ◽  
Wanda Markotter ◽  
Louis Nel
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus ◽  
Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽  
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
Diarrhoea Virus ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Tragelaphus Strepsiceros

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a pestivirus that affects members of the order Artiodactyla, including members of the subfamily Bovinae. Little is known about the seroprevalence of BVDV in southern Africa, especially the prevalence in wild ruminant populations such as kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros). A handful of random surveys suggested that seroprevalence ranged between 6% and 70% in southern African wild ruminants. The present study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of BVDV amongst kudu and eland (Taurotragus oryx) from Namibia and South Africa. A BVDV-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed on 50 serum samples from kudu and eland from South Africa and Namibia. The seroprevalence of BVDV in South African kudu was 71%, identical to that in Namibian kudu. The seroprevalence in Namibian eland was 40%. The kudu and cattle farming (free ranging) regions in Namibia predominantly overlap in the central regions, ensuring ample opportunity for cross-species transmission of BVDV. It is therefore important to determine the true prevalence of BVDV in southern Africa in both domesticated and wild animals. In addition, a potential link between BVDV incidence and a devastating rabies epidemic in Namibian kudu was proposed and such a notion could be supported or discredited by comparative prevalence data.

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