Discourses of Gender and Political Violence in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Cornell ◽  
Nick Malherbe ◽  
Mohamed Seedat ◽  
Shahnaaz Suffla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
African Woman ◽  
South African Woman ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Systemic Nature

Abstract Politically violent women are regularly muted or made exceptional. Yet, underplaying women’s involvement in political violence obscures the systemic nature of such violence. We employ a discursive psychology analysis of an in-depth interview with a South African woman who has been involved in decades of political activism, and identified two discourses: Gendering Politically Violent Symbols and Enactments, where political violence was wielded as a symbol, and Gendering Political Organizing, wherein feminist agencies were directed against political structures. Together, these discourses indicate how gender identity is simultaneously consistent and at odds with political identity and how gender intersects with political violence.

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>

scholarly journals Dictating the local balance of power: Election-related violence in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bruce
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
National Election ◽  
Great Success

The 2009 South African national election has come and gone and was generally regarded as having been a great success. Voter turnout was high and the event took place, virtually without exception, in an orderly and calm manner. Despite this, there were numerous incidents of election-related violence in the build-up to the elections, and a few in the immediate aftermath. The 2009 election therefore cannot be described as having been violence free. That being the case, how should we understand election-related violence in South Africa? Is political violence during election periods here to stay, and is it something that we need to concern ourselves about in relation to future elections?

scholarly journals A portrait of the South African woman manager

1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Van Der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Women Managers ◽  
African Women ◽  
African Woman ◽  
South African Woman ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
South African Women ◽  
Future Management

Women who are currently in responsible management positions provide role models and valuable feedback for the future management development of womanpower in South Africa. This article, based on replies received in a national survey of women who have management and executive status in corporations, presents an overview of South African women managers. Who are they? How do they tend to think? What kind of work areas and habits do they have? How do they explain their own success and the failure of other women to reach the top? And what is important to them in their day-to-day working lives? The data collected in this project have exposed some interesting trends - useful as indicators for management, for women in careers and for parties, academic and other, intent on continuing work in this research area.Vrouens wat tans verantwoordelike bestuursposte beklee, is rolmodelle en gee waardevolle terugvoering vir die toekomstige ontwikkeling van vrouekrag in Suid-Afrika. Hierdie artikel, wat gebaseer is op antwoorde ontvang in 'n landswye opname van vrouens wat bestuurs- en uitvoerende status in maatskappye het, gee 'n oorsig van Suid-Afrikaanse vroue-bestuurders. Wie is hulle? Hoe is hulle geneig om te dink? Watter soort werkareas en -gewoontes het hulle? Hoe verklaar hulle hul eie sukses en die mislukking van ander vrouens om die top te bereik? En wat is belangrik in hulle daaglikse werklewens? Die data in hierdie projek versamel, het interessante tendense blootgele - nuttig as aanduidings vir bestuur, vir vrouens in loopbane en vir instansies, akademies en ander, wat daarin belangstel om verdere werk in hierdie navorsingsarea te doen.

Political Violence in South Africa: The Role of Youth

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-29
Author(s):  
Saths Cooper
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The South ◽  
The Core

A meaningful understanding of the causes of political violence in South Africa and youth’s role in its dénouement must consider some of the historical background to the national struggle for human rights and youth’s specific involvement thereof. The phenomenon of adolescent marchers and activists who characterized the resistance to Apartheid over the last decade has had sequelae and antecedents that reflect the core of the South African dilemma.

History of Photography in Apartheid South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie Thomas
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Black People ◽  
History Of Photography ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Time Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Visual Record

The beginning of apartheid in 1948 saw the emergence of a generation of photographers whose work would come to define South African photography for the next four decades. Many of the most well-known South African photographers, such as Ernest Cole, Bob Gosani Peter Magubane, and Jürgen Schadeberg, worked for Drum magazine in the 1950s, where their images conveyed the experiences of Black people living in cities in the first years of apartheid. Photographers chronicled the Defiance Campaign, the violence of the police, and the growing resistance movements. At the same time, they took portraits and images of everyday life that provide insight into what it was like to live under apartheid. These kinds of images have increasingly been of interest to researchers and curators who have come to recognize the importance of vernacular photography, street photography, and the work of studio portrait photographers. The Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 marked a turning point in the country’s history and was followed by intensified repression and violence, the banning of opposition political parties, the jailing of political leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Robert Sobukwe, and mass forced removals as neighborhoods were declared “whites only” areas. The Soweto uprisings in June 1976 and the protests that followed across South Africa signaled the beginning of a time of increased violence as the apartheid state sought to crush the resistance movements and thousands of protestors were detained without trial, interrogated, and tortured and several political activists were murdered by the security police. By the 1980s, photography had a clear place in the struggle for freedom in the country and many photographers perceived the camera as a weapon to be used against the state. In 1982, the Afrapix collective was formed by a group of photographers committed to opposing apartheid who went on to produce the most significant visual record of this time. The years immediately before the end of apartheid saw an increase in political violence and between 1990 and 1994 more than 10, 000 people were killed. Photographers who documented this time drew the world’s attention to the bitter struggle in the country. They went on to photograph the jubilation when Mandela was finally released from prison and the first free and fair elections when South Africans of all races were able to vote. Some of the most brilliant photographers of the last century documented the apartheid years, and their work plays a key role in how this time period is remembered and understood.

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