scholarly journals Detective Stories During Apartheid: H.I.E. Dhlomo as a Precursor of Drum

Il Tolomeo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Fossati
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
English Language ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Popular Magazine ◽  
Genre Conventions ◽  
Detective Stories ◽  
African Writers

This article aims to contribute to the discussion of English-language crime fiction by black South African writers before 1994 by exploring H.I.E. Dhlomo’s relatively overlooked contribution to the genre in the first decade of apartheid. In particular, I intend to close read three detective stories written between the late 1940s and the early 1950s by Dhlomo, namely “Village Blacksmith Tragicomedy”, “Flowers”, and “Aversion to Snakes”, and compare them with the more celebrated stories published by Arthur Maimane in the popular magazine Drum a few years later. Notwithstanding their different re-elaboration of the tropes of crime fiction, I argue that both Dhlomo and Maimane resorted to this productive strand of popular literature to reassert a claim to knowledge denied to Africans, saturating their texts with new local meanings and exceeding Western genre conventions.

The Significations of Representing Dialect in Writing

1992 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Toolan
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Avoidance Strategy ◽  
African Writers

This article reviews some of the constraints and implications involved in the reporting of speech in fiction and elsewhere, paying particular attention to some of the issues that attend the representation of dialect. A number of cases are discussed, but a specific focus is the apparent absence of rendering of urban black South African speech in the fiction of the pre-eminent contemporary white South African writers, J.M. Coetzee and N. Gordimer. This absence of ‘giving voice’ is interpreted as an avoidance strategy, seemingly necessary but certainly troubled, given the charged socio-political context, in which for these authors to represent the voices of those individuals could too easily be construed as appropriation. In this case; as in others discussed, questions of power, distance versus affinity, and rights of free expression and of silence are involved.

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.

Disclosing Child Sexual Abuse during Forensic Assessments of the Black South African Child

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jabulani Makhubele ◽  
Selelo Frank Rapholo
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
South African ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
African Child ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Forensic Assessments ◽  
South African Child ◽  
Forensic Interviewers

Child sexual abuse is a social and health issue that affects citizens across the globe. It has a number of physical, psychological and emotional consequences. Children are reluctant to talk about their involvement in sexual abuse owing to various reasons. Therefore, forensic interviewers need to understand the process of disclosure when conducting forensic assessments. They also need to be watchful of various dynamics that are likely to have an impact on the disclosure rate. The aim of this study was to describe the dynamics during forensic assessments in the context of the black South African child when disclosing child sexual abuse. A descriptive design using stratified random, purposive and convenient sampling techniques to select the participants was employed, resulting in 14 participants (13 were females and only one was male). The data were collected by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews and were thematically analysed using the Nvivo program. The findings reveal that personal characteristics of the child and the interviewer, their communication abilities, blind assessments and informed allegation interviews have an impact on forensic assessments of black South African children. It is concluded that the dynamics of disclosing child sexual abuse during forensic assessments in terms of the variables of the study are not unique, except in terms of sociocultural value systems, beliefs and customs. As a result, it is recommended that the forensic interviewers come to the developmental level of the child, speak his/her language or use translators for him/her to understand, and to follow blind assessments interviews as opposed to informed allegation interviews. However, informed allegations interviews are recommended when assessing very young children.

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