scholarly journals Black and White in Ink: Discourses of Resistance in South African Cartooning

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDY MASON
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Black Newspapers ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Vexing Question

ABSTRACT This author contends that cartooning in its various forms in South Africa played an important role in crystallising issues of allegiance and identity, introducing revolutionary concepts into public discourse, undermining the ideological hegemony of the apartheid state and legitimating the political struggle against apartheid. However, in spite of the fact that numerous black newspapers have subsisted to this day, there remains a dearth of black cartoonists in South Africa. The vexing question of why so few black cartoonists have emerged demands an answer. The villains of the piece appear to be the editors of the socalled 'liberal' newspapers who did nothing (and continue to do very little) to identify indigenous cartooning talent or promote the development of black South African cartooning, choosing rather to share the services of a few white cartoonists and to buy syndicated comic strips. Mason analyses this situation and offers a remedy for solving the problem.

We Are the Future: Youth Narratives on Prospects in a Democratic South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elirea Bornman ◽  
Alison Odendaal
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Government

The study reports on an investigation into the perceptions of white and black South African youths regarding the future of the country as well as their own prospects. The qualitative research design consisted of five focus group discussions conducted between 2014 and 2016, and the number of participants involved was 48. White and black participants alike expressed their love for and dedication to the country. Black participants in particular indicated an appreciation of the opportunities and freedom that democracy afforded them and they believed they could bring about change through voting. However, both groups voiced their dissatisfaction and even despair and feelings of fatalism about the country’s political situation and the general stagnation and/or deterioration of conditions. Whereas some white participants felt they had no future in South Africa and intended to emigrate, participants of both the black and white groups expressed the hope that they could make a difference. The conclusion reached was that the optimism and dedication of the youth were vital resources for building a prosperous South Africa, provided that the government heeded the concerns of the young people of the country.

The Socio-Economic Challenges of South African Indigenous Musicians: A Case Study of Venda-Based Vho-Ntshengedzeni Mamphodo

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N G Mugovhani ◽  
Lebogang Lance Nawa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Arts Management ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Indigenous Music ◽  
Entire Country

This article discusses and raises awareness about the socio-economic plight of indigenous musicians in South Africa. Through a qualitative case study of the Venda musician, Vho-Talelani Andries Ntshengedzeni Mamphodo, dubbed the “Father of mbila music,” the article highlights the fact that the welfare of Black South African artists, particularly indigenous musicians in South Africa, is generally a precarious affair. Their popularity, at the height of their careers, sometimes masks shocking details of exploitation, neglect, and the poverty they are subjected to, which are exposed only after they have died. Empirical data identifies this as a symptom of, among other things, cultural policy and arts management deficiencies in the promotion of indigenous music. The article aims to find ways to redress this unfortunate situation, which is partially a product of general apathy and scant regard that these artists have perennially been subjected to, even by their own governments, as well as some members of their societies. All these factors mentioned are compounded by ignorance on the part of South African artists. Part of the objective of this study was to establish whether the exposition of the Vhavenda musicians is a typical example of all Black South African indigenous musicians and, if this is the case, whether the suggested ways to redress this unfortunate situation could contribute to or play a role in alleviating the plight of such artists in the entire country.

J. M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron and the poetics of resistance

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
Eckard Smuts
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
Aesthetic Autonomy ◽  
European Modernism

Since the beginning of his career, J. M. Coetzee’s writing has occupied an uneasy threshold between the literary ideals of European modernism, with its emphasis on aesthetic autonomy, and the demands of socio-historical accountability that derives from his background as a South African novelist. This article revisits one of Coetzee’s novels in which these tensions come to the fore most explicitly, namely Age of Iron, to argue that it is precisely from the generative friction that arises between these two opposing fields that his writing draws its singularly affective force. I begin by considering the agonistic relationship between transcendent ideals and socio-material demands that marks Coetzee’s account of the classic (“What is a Classic?: A Lecture”), describing it as a defining feature of his literary sensibility. The article then moves on to a reading of Age of Iron that focuses on the protagonist Mrs Curren’s efforts, in the midst of the violent political struggle in apartheid South Africa, to speak in her own voice. My thoughts conclude with the suggestion that Coetzee’s perennial staging of the conflict between a desire for autonomous expression and a socio-historical milieu that is indifferent to that desire can be read as an imaginative form of resistance, in the field of literary expression, to both the pressures of historical determinism and the dangers of postmodern insularity.

Ethnic Factors in the Evolution of the South African Military

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Cynthia H. Enloe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Institution ◽  
The Political ◽  
The South ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Ethnic Factors ◽  
The Military

Virtually all of the literature concerning the politics of South Africa analyzes the dynamics of that system within the frameworks of racism, authoritarianism, and repression. Yet, strangely, the political institution which is necessarily the bulwark of such a system—the military—has attracted scant attention except in terms of strategy and armaments.

The Politics of Boundaries: The Shifting Terrain of Belonging for Zimbabweans in a South African Border Zone

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blair Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Border Zone ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Border Town ◽  
Commercial Farms

Abstract This paper examines Zimbabwean immigrants in northern South Africa and the ways through which they are able to claim, or not, some form of belonging. Drawing on the concept of “political subjectivity”, I trace the changes in the power relations shaping the forms of belonging operating on the commercial farms and the border town of Musina since 2000 and the concomitant shifts in some of the Zimbabweans’ tactics in these spaces. In particular, I look at the political subjectivities of “Zimbabwean farm workers” and “Zimbabwean woman asylum-seekers”. This analysis shows what particular imaginaries have become authoritative for differently situated Zimbabwean immigrants and denizens in this region, enabling particular claims for resources, accommodation, and belonging.

Challenges and Complexities of the South African Economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 2-25
Author(s):  
Fiona Tregenna ◽  
Arabo K. Ewinyu ◽  
Arkebe Oqubay ◽  
Imraan Valodia
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Data ◽  
Growth Path ◽  
The South ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Key Characteristics

This chapter discusses the key characteristics and core challenges of the South African economy in the post-apartheid era. South Africa shares some commonalities with other African and middle-income economies, yet has a unique history and some distinctive economic features. South Africa’s economic complexities and challenges are discussed here with reference to six comparator countries. We examine South Africa’s growth path, considering the low rates of economic growth as well as the lack of structural transformation and the unsustainable and non-inclusive nature of this growth. The ‘triple challenges’ of poverty, inequality, and employment are both a manifestation of the nature of this growth path and a constraint on overall growth. This is also briefly evaluated in the context of the political economy and policy context of growth and development in South Africa. The chapter reviews South African economic data, with a focus on microeconomic survey data.

Soviet Freedom in South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-103
Author(s):  
David Johnson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
William Morris ◽  
Olive Schreiner ◽  
Political Journalism ◽  
Political Freedoms ◽  
The Many

The reception in South Africa of the utopian tradition initiated by Marx, Engels and Lenin is analysed, focusing on the period from 1910 to 1930. The chapter examines the early South African dreams of freedom derived from or influenced by classical Marxism: the political journalism of Olive Schreiner from the 1880s to 1920; the novel 1960 (A Retrospect) by James and Margaret Scott Marshall; the Christian-influenced dreams of David Ivon Jones and Josiah Gumede; the 1928 Native Republic Thesis prescribed for South Africa by the Soviet Union’s Comintern; the literary visions of freedom of Edward Roux (inspired by Swinburne) and J. T. Bain (inspired by William Morris), as well as the many dreams expressed in literary form in the pages of The International and successor CPSA newspapers The South African Worker and Umsebenzi; J. M. Gibson’s ideal of an economic freedom that supersedes the political freedoms of liberalism; and the Stalinist telos driven by ‘the deepening economic crisis’ and culminating in the dictatorship of the proletariat. Roux’s political cartoons envisioning freedom and published in Umsebenzi are analysed.

Afrikaner Music and Identity Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2017 ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
P. Eric Louw
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
South African Government ◽  
Boer War ◽  
African Government ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Sports Stadiums

A song about a Boer War general, released in 2006, stirred controversy in South Africa by triggering a gearshift amongst Afrikaners towards re-engaging in the political process. The song “De la Rey”, which became a popular South African hit, captured the alienation many Afrikaners felt at having become a politically marginalized and disempowered ethnic minority within a state where Black Nationalism had become the dominant discourse. The song triggered the De la Rey phenomenon in which Afrikaners became once more politically assertive, following a decade in which this community had been politically dormant. Afrikaners took to singing “De la Rey” as a sort of ‘national anthem' when they gathered in sports stadiums, BBQs, pubs and parties. Twelve months after “De la Rey” was released, the South African government expressed concern the song could become “a rallying point for treason”. The De la Rey phenomenon offers an excellent fulcrum to consider how music can provide a platform for political messages which have consequences for the political process.

Afrikaner Music and Identity Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 733-752
Author(s):  
P. Eric Louw
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
South African Government ◽  
Boer War ◽  
African Government ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Sports Stadiums

A song about a Boer War general, released in 2006, stirred controversy in South Africa by triggering a gearshift amongst Afrikaners towards re-engaging in the political process. The song “De la Rey”, which became a popular South African hit, captured the alienation many Afrikaners felt at having become a politically marginalized and disempowered ethnic minority within a state where Black Nationalism had become the dominant discourse. The song triggered the De la Rey phenomenon in which Afrikaners became once more politically assertive, following a decade in which this community had been politically dormant. Afrikaners took to singing “De la Rey” as a sort of ‘national anthem' when they gathered in sports stadiums, BBQs, pubs and parties. Twelve months after “De la Rey” was released, the South African government expressed concern the song could become “a rallying point for treason”. The De la Rey phenomenon offers an excellent fulcrum to consider how music can provide a platform for political messages which have consequences for the political process.

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