Melancholia of Freedom: Social Life in an Indian Township in South Africa. Thomas Blom Hansen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. 384 pp.

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-385
Author(s):  
OLAF ZENKER
Author(s):  
Andrew van der Vlies

This chapter considers the representation of impasse in three novels by Ingrid Winterbach, widely fêted in South Africa as one of its leading Afrikaans-language writers: Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat (2006; The Book of Happenstance, 2008); Die benederyk (2010; The Road of Excess, 2014); Die aanspraak van lewende wesens (2012; It Might Get Loud, 2015). It discusses the forms of precarious life at issue in these texts, and tests the usefulness of work by Lauren Berlant (on the ‘cruel optimism’ of neoliberal social life; on the cultural forms—including the ‘situation tragedy’—that reflect it) and David Scott (on the tragic nature of post-utopian postcolonial politics) for reading it. This chapter introduces a key concern of the book, the intertextuality through which its writers participate in local and global conversations (here involving J.M. Coetzee and Don DeLillo).


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 100060
Author(s):  
Sheldon A. Blaauw ◽  
James W. Maina ◽  
Louis J. Grobler

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 369-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saarah Jappie

Ebrahiem Manuel sits opposite me, about to embark upon his story. His living room is filled with material manifestations of his research: boxes overflowing with books and papers cover his entire sofa, newspapers and articles line the floor, and collages of images and texts hang on the walls and sit in the cabinets. It is clear that he is consumed by his passion for heritage, and his personal journey of discovery. He speaks in an animated, almost theatrical tone, raising and lowering his voice, stressing certain syllables, alive as he tells his story of “the ancient kietaabs.”The journey began in 1997, when Ebrahiem returned to South Africa after years at sea, working as a cook on shipping vessels. Upon his return, he began a quest to learn about his personal heritage, inspired by a dream he had had about his grandfather. This search led him to an oldkietaab, given to him by an elderly aunt. This was not the first time he had come across the old book; he remembered seeing it as a child, amongst other kietaabs, stored out of reach of the children, on top of his grandfather's wardrobe. It was inside this book that a possible key to his ancestors was to be found.This significant find was a range of hand-written inscriptions inside the book, in Arabic, English, and an unknown script. The Arabic script and its corresponding English transliteration read “Imaam Abdul Karriem, son of Imaam Abdul Jaliel, son of Imaam Ismail of Sumbawa.” Here was his family tree, starting from his great-grandfather and leading to two generations before him and, it seemed, their place of origin, the island of Sumbawa in eastern Indonesia. Ebrahiem then decided to go to Indonesia to solve what had become the mystery of “the ancient kietaab.”


Author(s):  
Leonard Y. Andaya ◽  
J. Noorduyn ◽  
Ben Arps ◽  
Philip Yampolsky ◽  
Victoria M. Clara van Groenendael ◽  
...  

- Leonard Y. Andaya, J. Noorduyn, Bima en Sumbawa; Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de Sultanaten Bima en Sumbawa door A. Ligtvoet en G.P. Rouffaer, Dordrecht-Holland/Providence-U.S.A.: Foris publications, ix, 187 pp, maps, indexes. - Ben Arps, Philip Yampolsky, Lokananta; A discography of the national recording company of Indonesia 1957-1985, Madison, Wisconsin: Center for Southeast Asian studies, University of Wisconsin, Bibliographical series No. 10, 1987. XIII + 433 pp. - Victoria M. Clara van Groenendael, Ward Keeler, Javanese shadow plays, Javanese selves, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. xvii + 282 pages. Illustrations, photographs, bibliography, glossary, index. - Jean Gelman Taylor, Leonard Blussé, Strange company. Chinese settlers. Mestizo women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Dordrecht: Foris publications, 1986. - V.J.H. Houben, R.B. van de Weijer, Tussen traditie en wetenschap; Geschiedbeoefening in niet-westerse culturen, Nijmegen 1987., P.G.B. Thissen, R. Schönberger (eds.) - V.J.H. Houben, J. van Goor, Indië/Indonesië; Van kolonie tot natie, HES, Utrecht 1987. - F.G.P. Jaquet, Th. van den End, Gereformeerde zending op Sumba (1859-1972), een bronenpublicatie, bewerkt door Th. van den End. Alphen aan den Rijn: Aska, 1987. XIV, 743 pp. Uitgave van de Raad voor de Zending der Nederlands Hervormde Kerk, de Zending der Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland en de Gereformeerde Zendingsbond in de Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk. - R.E. Jordaan, Roland Werner, Bomoh/Dukun; The practices and philosophies of the traditional Malay healer, Berne; Institute of Ethnology (Studia ethnologica Bernensia 3), 1986. 106 pp., illustrations and photographs. - P.E. de Josselin de Jong, Werner Kraus, Zwischen reform und rebellion: Über die Entwicklung des Islams in Minangkabau (Westsumatra) zwischen den beiden Reformsbewegungen der Padri (1837) und der Modernisten (1908), Beiträge zur Südasien-Forschung, Südasien-Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Band 8S, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1984. 236 pp. - Wolfgang Marschall, Pietro Scarduelli, L’isola degli antenati di pietra; Strutture sociali e simboliche dei Nias dell’Indonesia, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1986. IX + 232 pp., 22 pl., 28 figs. - Nigel Phillips, C. Skinner, The battle for Junk Ceylon; The syair Sultan Maulana, Dordrecht: Foris, 1985. viii + 325 pp. - Harry A. Poeze, Mavis Rose, Indonesia free; A political biography of Mohammad Hatta. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, viii + 245 pp. - D.J. Prentice, Elisabeth Tooker, Naming systems: The 1980 proceedings of the American Ethnological society, The American Ethnological society, 1984. vii + 107 pp., Harold C. Conklin (eds.) - Patricia D. Rueb, Christine Dobbin, Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy; Central Sumatra, 1784-1847, London/Malmö; Scandinavian Institute of Asian studies, Monograph series no. 47, 1987, 300 pages, illustrated. - P.C. Verton, Ank Klomp, Politics on Bonaire; An anthropological study. Assen/Maastricht: Van Gorcum, 1986.' [Translated by Dirk H. van der Elst] - Leontine E. Visser, Elisabeth Traube, Cosmology and social life; Ritual exchange among the Mambai of East Timor, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1986. xxiii + 298 pp., figs., photos, index.


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