scholarly journals How can Europeans enter the Kingdom of Heaven? A decolonial challenge to Western European political and public theologies in an age of migration

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Field
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World Order ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Kingdom Of Heaven ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Western European ◽  
European Colonialism

In his 2019 Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture John de Gruchy provocatively posed the question: “Is it possible for a white South African male to enter the kingdom of heaven? The core of his concern was how is it possible for a person who was and is still a beneficiary of Apartheid and colonialism in South Africa participate in the creation of a just and transformed society. This question has a particular poignancy in contemporary South Africa where the beneficiaries of exploitation and injustice continue to live in close proximity to the victims in a society that still reflects the patterns of inequality created by Apartheid. However, the challenge of the question is not limited to one particular situation of exploitation and injustice but reverberates in numerous other contexts. South African Apartheid was an intensified microcosm of European colonialism and hence my question; “How can Europeans enter the Kingdom of Heaven?” Or to phrase it differently, how can Western European political and public theologies contribute to the creation of a just and sustainable world order, in the light of Western European colonial entanglements and Western Europe’s continued benefiting from unjust and exploitative international relationships. I pose this question as a white South African male who has lived in Europe for eighteen years and has recently acquired Swiss citizenship. Hence, the question is self-referring – it challenges the particularity of my own existence that is characterised by complicity, hybridity, and complexity of one who is a beneficiary of Apartheid, whose cultural heritage is influenced by Europe, who has deep roots in (South) Africa; who seeks to do theology while listening to the diverse voices of Africa; yet who now resides in Europe and through taking on the citizenship of a European country has grafted himself into the history and politics of Western Europe and all that this entails. So, the question is this personal – “How do I do political theology in Europe as a white South African, but also as a student of John de Gruchy?”

Social Work and Indigenisation: A South African Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lobelo David Mogorosi ◽  
Dumisani Gaylord Thabede
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Work ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World View ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Global North ◽  
Work Education

For relevance to societal reality and challenges, countries should structure their social work education to deal with specific conditions and cultures. From its global North (i.e. Western Europe and North America) origins, social work has contributed to the expansion of the discipline and profession to the developing world, including South Africa. During the three decades (from the mid-1980s until the present day) during which they have taught social work in South Africa, the authors have witnessed half-hearted efforts to really integrate indigenous knowledge into the curricula. In writings and professional gatherings, scant attention was paid to curricula transformation imperatives enriching practice. To its credit, the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) advocates for decolonisation and indigenisation of social work education. Discussing decolonisation and indigenisation in social work curricula, the paper critiques assumptions of global North ideas, cloaked as if universally applicable. An example is about some principles of social casework – a method of choice in South Africa – which mostly disregards cultural nuances of clientele with a communal collective world view that relies on joint decision-making. A culturally sensitive approach is adopted as theoretical framework for this paper. The paper concludes with recommendations that should help ensure that social work curricula strive towards being indigenous, contextualised and culturally appropriate.

As the Postcolonial Moment Deepens: A Response to Green, Sonn, and Matsebula

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Steyn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
State Power ◽  
World Order ◽  
Whiteness Studies ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Racial Privilege

Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) article is useful in helping to establish and develop whiteness studies in South African academia, and thus to shift the academic gaze from the margins to the centre. The article is published in the wake of three waves of international whiteness studies, which successively described whiteness as a space of taken-for-granted privilege; a series of historically different but related spaces; and, finally, as part of the global, postcolonial world order. Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) contribution could be extended by more fully capturing the dissimilarity in the texture of the experience of whiteness in Australia and South Africa. In South Africa whiteness has never had the quality of invisibility that is implied in the ‘standard’ whiteness literature, and in post-apartheid South Africa white South Africans cannot assume the same privileges, with such ease, when state power is overtly committed to breaking down racial privilege.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS OF POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN FOREIGN POLICY

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo De Rezende Saturnino Braga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
South African ◽  
World Order ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Iconic Image

The foreign policy narrative of South Africa is strongly grounded in human rights issues, beginning with the transition from a racial segregation regime to a democracy. The worldwide notoriety of the apartheid South Africa case was one factor that overestimated the expectations of the role the country would play in the world after apartheid. Global circumstances also fostered this perception, due to the optimistic scenario of the post-Cold War world order. The release of Nelson Mandela and the collapse of apartheid became the perfect illustration of the victory of liberal ideas, democracy, and human rights. More than 20 years after the victory of Mandela and the first South African democratic elections, the criticism to the country's foreign policy on human rights is eminently informed by those origin myths, and it generates a variety of analytical distortions. The weight of expectations, coupled with the historical background that led the African National Congress (ANC) to power in South Africa, underestimated the traditional tensions of the relationship between sovereignty and human rights. Post-apartheid South Africa presented an iconic image of a new bastion for the defence of human rights in the post-Cold War world. The legacy of the miraculous transition in South Africa, though, seems to have a deeper influence on the role of the country as a mediator in African crises rather than in a liberal-oriented human rights approach. This is more evident in cases where the African agenda clashes with liberal conceptions of human rights, especially due to the politicisation of the international human rights regime. 

scholarly journals Religious interfaith work in Canada and South Africa with particular focus on the drafting of a South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain T. Benson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
African Charter ◽  
The Creation ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Protections

Constitutional protections for religious freedom (and related freedoms of conscience, belief and association and equality), once interpreted by courts and tribunals, apply in a precedential manner to future cases. They have an influence well beyond the particular community to which they first applied. For this reason, religious communities have increasingly banded together and sought to intervene or even, on occasion, to initiate legal actions asserting or defending their rights. This article reviews some of the principles around the freedom of religion as understood in South Africa and Canada to show how courts have understood the freedom of religion in its social context. In addition, interfaith cooperation is discussed with particular reference to the recent process which led to the formation of a Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms pursuant to Section 234 of the South African Constitution (which is attached to the article). This section, a unique provision in any constitution, allows for the creation of additional Charters to give greater specificity to the general language of the Constitution itself. As such, it is an encouragement to civil society to determine what it thinks are the important provisions that should be spelled out to give guidance to politicians and the judiciary. Awide variety of religious groups participated in the creation of the Charter. The Charter does not claim to be, nor could it be, exhaustive of such concerns but demonstrates that religions can cooperate across a host of issues in education, health care, employment and other issues. The next stage – passage into law, is still in the future but the first important hurdle has been crossed with the signing of the Charter in October of 2010. The Charter might be a template for other countries though changes would be necessary to deal with local issues.

Coaching in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Segwaba ◽  
Desiree Vardhan ◽  
Patrick Duffy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Impact Evaluation ◽  
South African Government ◽  
Current Position ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
Social Vision ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Creation

The South African government and the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) have committed to the creation of an active and winning nation through sport. As part of the national sports plan, coaching has been identified as a key element in the success of the South African sports system. In this context, SASCOC commissioned the development of the South African Coaching Framework, which was formally launched in 2011. The development and launch of the Framework has been accompanied by the gathering of research and scoping data to inform the processes of planning, implementation and impact evaluation. This article describes the current position of coaching in South Africa and the key issues being addressed through the South African Coaching Framework. The challenges that remain to be faced in maximising the contribution of sport coaching to the sporting and social vision of the nation are also identifed.

THE UNITARY, DEMOCRATIC STATE AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID IN PALESTINE–ISRAEL

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Rumy Hasan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
State Solution ◽  
The South ◽  
Legal Code ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Liberation Struggle ◽  
Fundamental Proposition

This paper utilises a comparison between Apartheid South Africa and Israel to argue that Israel, from its inception, has been an apartheid state, albeit different in form to the South African variety. The fundamental proposition is that only the dismantling of the Zionist legal code, the constitution and discriminatory state structures will ensure the end of apartheid in Palestine–Israel. The sine qua nonfor this is the creation of a single, unitary, democratic state. Accordingly, the goal of the Palestinian liberation struggle should decisively shift away from the 'two-state solution' in favour of a 'one-state solution'. To this end, six theses are presented.

The Rand and the Monetary Systems of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland

1978 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis d'A. Collings
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
National Currency ◽  
The South ◽  
Legal Tender ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Monetary Systems ◽  
The Creation

Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland are among very few countries which, in recent times, have for an extended period and without formal agreement used another national currency as their domestic circulating medium and legal tender. After many years of being de facto part of a larger monetary area using the South African currency, in 1972 the three smaller countries jointly initiated negotiations with Pretoria which led to the creation of an officially recognised Rand Monetary Area in December 1974. Thereafter they chose different arrangemènts which span the spectrum between continued integration with and separation from the monetary system of South Africa. The experiences of these countries, while of interest in themselves, may also be relevant to other governments with dependent currency systems which face similar options.

The Bloody Horse

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Tanigawa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Creation

The Bloody Horse: Writing and the Arts was a Johannesburg-based magazine that published six issues between 1980 and 1981. The idea for the periodical developed from a conversation among Patrick Cullinan (1933–2011), Lionel Abrahams (1928–2004) and Chris Hope (1944–) during the 1974 Poetry Conference in Cape Town. Although the initial conversation led to the creation of Bateleur Press, the trio, alongside Lawrence Herber, began work on The Bloody Horse in 1979 (Cullinan 86). The founders created the magazine to support the increase in ‘writers willing to stick their necks out and say what has to be said’ (Cullinan 86) amid the growing climate of censorship in South Africa. Many of the contributions were politically charged, reflecting Cullinan’s vision that the magazine would reflect ‘the ways in which the writers of this country are reacting to their society’ (Essa 271). The title, The Bloody Horse, is an allusion to South African poet Roy Campbell’s poem ‘On Some South African Novelists’ and highlights the founders’ belief that literature could play a role in South African political discourse. The first issue of The Bloody Horse was published in 1980, and Ampie Coetzee (1939–) served as the magazine’s editor for the duration of its run.

Surplus People and Expendable Children: The Structure of Apartheid and the Mortality Crisis in South Africa

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. De Gregori ◽  
William Darity
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
The South ◽  
Paradigm Case ◽  
Infant And Child Mortality ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Surplus Population

South Africa's apartheid scheme is considered as a paradigm case for the creation and maltreatment of a putatively surplus population. Both active and passive policies are identified that are utilized to contain the numbers of the black population of the nation. Of particular significance is a strategy of neglect that has led to exceptionally high infant and child mortality rates in the “homelands.” In addition, the South African authorities’ efforts to destabilize neighboring regimes in Angola and Mozambique has had similarly adverse repercussions on mortality rates there.

Any Color of the Rainbow—As Long as It's Gray: Dramatic Learning Spaces in Postapartheid South Africa

2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Prentki
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
World Order ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Cultural Intervention ◽  
Theatre For Development ◽  
South African Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Current Practices

Abstract:This article addresses the issue of the relationship between contemporary South African politics and the type of socially committed theater that might be capable of mounting a critique of those politics. The author highlights the contradictions between the aspirations of the Freedom Charter and the realities of subscribing to the neoliberal world order. His contention is that any theater form that is seeking cultural intervention must find a way of representing contradiction if it is to remain true to the experiences of its audiences and its participants. Such a representation can be achieved through a combination of Bertolt Brecht's praxis in relation to contradiction and current practices in Theatre for Development, which themselves draw upon aspects of the antiapartheid resistance theater.

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