Not Yet Uhuru: Aspects of Social Realism in Vonani Bila’s Selected Poetry

This article analyses Vonani Bila’s selected poetry for its ability to produce an ‘air of reality’. The central argument of the article is that Bila embraces an aesthetic of realism, which essentially values unsparing, accurate and sordid representations of the psychological, social and material realities of postcolonial (and democratic) South Africa. Undergirded by the Marxist theory of Social Realism, the qualitative approach and descriptive design, this article purposively selected ten poems from some of the anthologies in which Bila published his poetry, namely; Magicstan Fires, Handsome Jita and Sweep of the Violin. Bila’s poetry can best be situated within the historical contexts that shape his texts, namely; the apartheid era, ideas about capitalism in newly democratic South Africa, the emergence of a vibrant immigrant community in South Africa and idealised notions of achieving equality and prosperity through education in South Africa. This article is mainly a critical analysis, and not a historical account of the apartheid era and democratic dispensation of South Africa. In the analysis, it was noted that Bila’s poetry generally manifests the literary categories of social and psychological realism, respectively. As a social realist, Bila explores the problems of economic inequality and captures the experience of both rural and urban life in a post- and neo-colonial context of South Africa. As a psychological realist, on the other extreme, Bila is concerned with delving beneath the surface of social life to probe the complex motivations and (un)conscious desires that shape his literary personae’s perceptions. The article concludes with the notion that, in his commitment to document the realities of everyday life in South Africa, both at social and psychological dimensions, Bila offers a penetrating insight into the repression, alienation, marginalisation, instabilities, and inequalities that structure post- and neo-colonial South Africa.

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The Changing Face of Irish Ireland: Séamus Ó Grianna's and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's Fictions of the Donegal Gaeltacht

Irish University Review ◽

10.3366/iur.2014.0129 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 357-380

Author(s):

Ríona Nic Congáil

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Women's Movement ◽

Irish Language ◽

Shared Interest ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Historical Fact ◽

Insight Into

Séamus Ó Grianna and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, whose lifespans overlapped only briefly, rank among the most prolific Irish writers of the twentieth century. Their bilingualism, moreover, offers them access to two languages, cultures, and viewpoints. Their shared interest in the Donegal Gaeltacht during the revivalist period, and their use of fiction to explore and represent it, provide their readers with a remarkable insight into the changing ideologies of twentieth-century Ireland, and particularly Irish-Ireland, touching on broad issues that are linguistic, cultural, political, gendered, and spatial. This essay begins by analyzing the narrative similarities between Ó Grianna's Mo Dhá Róisín and Ní Dhuibhne's Hiring Fair Trilogy, and proceeds to examine how both writers negotiate historical fact, the Irish language, the performance of Gaelic culture, the burgeoning women's movement, and the chasm between rural and urban Ireland of the revival. Through this approach, the essay demonstrates that the fictions of these two writers reveal as much about their own agendas and the dominant ideas of the epoch in which they were writing, as they do about life in the Donegal Gaeltacht in the early twentieth century.

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CHAM MUSLIMS IN HO CHI MINH CITY TODAY

Tạp chí Nghiên cứu dân tộc ◽

10.25073/0866-773x/392 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Phu Van Han

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Community Development ◽

Social Life ◽

Development Process ◽

Living Standards ◽

Ho Chi Minh City ◽

Social Characteristics ◽

Muslim Community ◽

The Social ◽

Insight Into

After more than 30 years of national reform, Ho Chi Minh City has made great changes in economy, living standards and society for all population groups, including the Cham Muslim community. The study clarifies the social characteristics, community development trends in the current sustainable development process of the Cham Muslims. At the same time, explore the adaptability of the community, clarify the aspects of social life and the development of Cham Muslims in Ho Chi Minh City. Thereby, providing insight into a unique cultural lifestyle, harmony between religion and ethnic customs, in a multicultural, colorful city in Ho Chi Minh City today.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198793762.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Andrew van der Vlies

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Life ◽

Don Delillo ◽

The Road ◽

Cultural Forms ◽

Lauren Berlant ◽

Postcolonial Politics

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).

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Contaminant organisms recorded on plant product imports to South Africa 1994–2019

Scientific Data ◽

10.1038/s41597-021-00869-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Davina L. Saccaggi ◽

Melanie Arendse ◽

John R. U. Wilson ◽

John S. Terblanche

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Risk Assessment ◽

International Trade ◽

South African ◽

Plant Products ◽

Important Resource ◽

Plant Product ◽

Insight Into ◽

Multiple Contaminants ◽

Propagation Material

AbstractBiosecurity interception records are crucial data underlying efforts to predict and manage pest and pathogen introductions. Here we present a dataset containing information on imported plant products inspected by the South African Department of Agriculture’s laboratories between 1994 and 2019 and the contaminant organisms found on them. Samples were received from border inspectors as either propagation material (e.g. plants) or material for immediate use (e.g. fruit). Material for immediate use was further divided into two sample categories, depending on if contaminants were seen/suspected by the border official or not: intervention or audit samples. The final dataset consists of 25,279 records, of which 30% tested positive (i.e. had at least one contaminant) and 13% had multiple contaminants. Of the 13,731 recorded contaminants, fungi (41%), mites (37%) and insects (19%) were most common. This dataset provides insight into the suite of taxa transported along the plant import pathway and provides an important resource for analyses of contaminant organisms in international trade, which can inform strategies for risk assessment, pathway management and biosecurity protocols.

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Fatigue-management strategies among women with endometriosis in South Africa: a qualitative study

South African Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1177/00812463211020173 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 008124632110201

Author(s):

Zamafiso Nombulelo Sibande ◽

Rizwana Roomaney

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Psychosocial Intervention ◽

Public Hospital ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

Secondary Symptom ◽

Face To Face ◽

Fatigue Management ◽

Insight Into

Fatigue is a common, secondary symptom of endometriosis that has not been qualitatively explored. We conducted individual, face-to-face interviews with 25 women in South Africa about their experiences of endometriosis-related fatigue. Participants were recruited at a public hospital in Cape Town and through several South African endometriosis organizations. Interviews were conducted in English and Afrikaans and ranged from 30 min to 1 hr 16 min in duration. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. We found that both the experience of fatigue and fatigue-management strategies were highly personalized. Participants reported using a variety of cognitive strategies, such as planning, pacing, and pushing through their fatigue to reduce the levels of fatigue. Participants also employed physical strategies such as rest, dietary changes, using supplements, and exercise. We found that while participants often tried fatigue-management strategies suggested to them by others, they struggled to maintain these strategies even when they were successful. There are currently no interventions aimed at reducing endometriosis-related fatigue. The findings of this study provide insight into the management of fatigue in women with endometriosis and may be used to develop a psychosocial intervention for fatigue among women with the disease.

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Social Life Cycle Inventory for Pavements – A Case Study of South Africa

Transportation Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.treng.2021.100060 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 100060

Author(s):

Sheldon A. Blaauw ◽

James W. Maina ◽

Louis J. Grobler

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Life Cycle Inventory ◽

Social Life

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The Younghusband-Waddell Collection and Its People: the Social Life of Tibetan Books Gathered in a Late-colonial Enterprise

Inner Asia ◽

10.1163/22105018-990123783 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 131-171

Author(s):

Hildegard Diemberger

Keyword(s):

Digital Technology ◽

Social Life ◽

First Century ◽

The Political ◽

Academic Institutions ◽

Cultural Biography ◽

The Social ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

New Perspective ◽

Insight Into

AbstractIn this paper I follow the social life of the Tibetan books belonging to the Younghusband-Waddell collection. I show how books as literary artefacts can transform from ritual objects into loot, into commodities and into academic treasures and how books can have agency over people, creating networks and shaping identities. Exploring connections between books and people, I look at colonial collecting, Orientalist scholarship and imperial visions from an unusual perspective in which the social life and cultural biography of people and things intertwine and mutually define each other. By following the trajectory of these literary artefacts, I show how their traces left in letters, minutes and acquisition documents give insight into the functioning of academic institutions and their relationship to imperial governing structures and individual aspirations. In particular, I outline the lives of a group of scholars who were involved with this collection in different capacities and whose deeds are unevenly known. This adds a new perspective to the study of this period, which has so far been largely focused on the deeds of key individuals and the political and military setting in which they operated. Finally, I show how the books of this collection have continued to exercise their attraction and moral pressure on twenty-first-century scholars, both Tibetan and international, linking them through digital technology and cyberspace.

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From the Madrasah to the Museum: The Social Life of the “Kietaabs” of Cape Town

History in Africa ◽

10.1353/hia.2011.0002 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. 369-399 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Saarah Jappie

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Life ◽

Living Room ◽

Family Tree ◽

Personal Journey ◽

The Social ◽

Arabic Script ◽

Two Generations ◽

Place Of Origin ◽

First Time

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.”

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Knowledge management according to organisational size: A South African perspective

SA Journal of Information Management ◽

10.4102/sajim.v15i1.526 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cornelius Kruger ◽

Roy D. Johnson

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Knowledge Management ◽

South African ◽

Middle Management ◽

Senior Management ◽

Urban South ◽

Embedded Knowledge ◽

Personal Approach ◽

African Perspective ◽

Insight Into

Background:To date, few studies have focused on how embedded Knowledge Management (KM) is found in the roots of an organisation. Specifically, not much is known whether employees and managers hold similar perceptions regarding KM or if organisational size plays a role in the establishment of KM maturity.Objective: The objective of this article was to determine what role organisational size plays in the establishment of KM maturity and how different managerial levels viewed their organisations KM maturity.Method: The authors gained insight into KM maturity in different industry groupings over a five-year period from a large urban South African University engaged in numerous collaboration programmes with industry. In total, 434 employees were interviewed over three grouping levels (operational, middle and senior management).Results: The findings support arguments that irrespective of organisational size, knowledge orientated issues are applicable to all organisations. However, with significant differences in scores recorded over all maturity sections in South Africa, the findings indicated that different sized organisations address knowledge-orientated issues differently.Conclusion: Findings challenge the argument that the manner in which knowledge-orientated issues are addressed differ only slightly depending on organisational size. Smaller-sized organisations prefer a more personal approach, whilst larger-sized organisations prefer knowledge transfer via technology. Irrespective of organisational size, commitment holds the key to KM success. Commitment shown by middle management regarding KM is a differentiator.

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