No Will to Know: The Rise and Fall of African Civil Registration in Twentieth-Century South Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Breckenridge
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
African Women ◽  
Biometric Identification ◽  
Vital Registration ◽  
Civil Registration ◽  
Women And Children

Vital statistics have been politically fraught in South Africa for decades, not least because the state made very little effort to record information about the well-being of African women and children. This chapter shows that in the last years of the nineteenth century a working system of vital registration was developed in the colony of Natal and in the native reserves of the Transkei. From the beginning this delegated bureaucracy faced opposition from African patriarchs, from parsimonious white elected leaders and from the advocates of coercive systems of biometric identification. In the early 1920s, under the weight of mostly unfounded accusations of corruption, the system of registration by means of ‘native agency’ was deliberately terminated, despite the general enthusiasm of the magistrates charged with maintaining it.

scholarly journals Blinded Like a State: The Revolt against Civil Registration in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Loveman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Civil Registration ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Law

The first reports of popular disturbances in connection with Decree 798, calling for obligatory civil registration of births and deaths in the Brazilian empire, surfaced in the early days of January 1852. In the ensuing weeks, men, women, and children from across the impoverished northeastern Brazilian backlands convened in small settlements and towns to protest the decree. Local authorities reported being forced to abandon their posts, fleeing from the “mass of ignorants,” who, armed with knives and stones, threatened violence against those who would implement the law. Disturbances were reported in at least thirty-one localities, with crowds estimated at one hundred to several thousand people.

scholarly journals The reconstitution of African women's spiritualities in the context of the Amazwi Abesifazane (Voices of Women) project in KwaZulu-Natal (1998-2005)

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bernice Stott
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Narrative Therapy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
National Archive ◽  
The Body ◽  
Government Support ◽  
African Women ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Kwazulu Natal

This study will investigate and critically evaluate the reconstitution of African women’s spiritualities in the context of the Amazwi Abesifazane project. This project forms part of the endeavours of Create Africa South, a Non Governmental Organisation situated in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, which was initiated by the artist Andries Botha. It encourages women, post trauma, to ‘re-member’ themselves by creating memory cloths of embroidery and appliqué reflecting on their experiences in pre- and post-apartheid South Africa. This interdisciplinary study theorises that it is an archive that speaks about African women resisting destructive forces and reconstituting their spiritualities through the therapeutic effects of creativity. The study will not include research into the many other activities undertaken by Create Africa South. Rupture is implied in the use of the word ‘reconstitution’. Reconstitution encompasses the act of constituting again the character of the body, mind and spirit as regards health, strength and well-being of the women (McIntosh, 1970:261). In this study, spirituality is defined as the way in which the women in the Amazwi Abesifazane project reflect upon and live out their belief in God. The power of storytelling is examined from the perspectives of narratology, narrative therapy, sewing and orality/literary studies as resources for the women’s reclamation of their lives. Defining feminisms in South Africa is problematised by issues of race, class and culture. In a context of poverty, everyday survivalist strategies are the diverse forms of resistance seen in the Amazwi Abesifazane project. The women’s stories, cloths and interviews are triangulated as primary data. They are examples of the rich art of resistance against despair and are located in a paradigm of hope. In conclusion, I strongly call for government support in declaring the project a national archive. The multidimensional mediums of the Amazwi Abesifazane/ UbuMama projects nurture the women’s creativity and revitalise their spiritualities towards personal and national transformation.

scholarly journals Performance of verbal autopsy methods in estimating HIV-associated mortality among adults in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. e000833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron S Karat ◽  
Noriah Maraba ◽  
Mpho Tlali ◽  
Salome Charalambous ◽  
Violet N Chihota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Verbal Autopsy ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Hiv Status ◽  
Civil Registration ◽  
Art Initiation ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Hiv Negative

IntroductionVerbal autopsy (VA) can be integrated into civil registration and vital statistics systems, but its accuracy in determining HIV-associated causes of death (CoD) is uncertain. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of VA questions in determining HIV status and antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and compared HIV-associated mortality fractions assigned by different VA interpretation methods.MethodsUsing the WHO 2012 instrument with added ART questions, VA was conducted for deaths among adults with known HIV status (356 HIV positive and 103 HIV negative) in South Africa. CoD were assigned using physician-certified VA (PCVA) and computer-coded VA (CCVA) methods and compared with documented HIV status.ResultsThe sensitivity of VA questions in detecting HIV status and ART initiation was 84.3% (95% CI 80 to 88) and 91.0% (95% CI 86 to 95); 283/356 (79.5%) HIV-positive individuals were assigned HIV-associated CoD by PCVA, 166 (46.6%) by InterVA-4.03, 201 (56.5%) by InterVA-5, and 80 (22.5%) and 289 (81.2%) by SmartVA-Analyze V.1.1.1 and V.1.2.1. Agreement between PCVA and older CCVA methods was poor (chance-corrected concordance [CCC] <0; cause-specific mortality fraction [CSMF] accuracy ≤56%) but better between PCVA and updated methods (CCC 0.21–0.75; CSMF accuracy 65%–98%). All methods were specific (specificity 87% to 96%) in assigning HIV-associated CoD.ConclusionAll CCVA interpretation methods underestimated the HIV-associated mortality fraction compared with PCVA; InterVA-5 and SmartVA-Analyze V.1.2.1 performed better than earlier versions. Changes to VA methods and classification systems are needed to track progress towards targets for reducing HIV-associated mortality,

Beyond Freedom's Reach: An Imperfect Centering of Women and Children Caught within Cuba's Long Emancipation and the Afterlife of Slavery

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 122-144
Author(s):  
Karina L. Cespedes
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Black Women ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
African Women ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Free People Of Color ◽  
Sexual Deviancy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Free People

AbstractThis article examines Cuba's long process of gradual emancipation (from 1868–1886) and the continual states of bondage that categorize the afterlife of Cuban slavery. The article addresses deferred freedom, re-enslavement, and maintenance of legal states of bondage in the midst of “freedom.” It contends with the legacy of the casta system, the contradictions within the Moret Law of 1870, which “half-freed” children but not their mothers, and it analyzes the struggle for full emancipation after US occupation, with the thwarted attempt of forming the Partido Independiente de Color to enfranchise populations of color. The article argues that the desire to control the labor of racialized populations, and in particular the labor of black and indigenous women and children, unified Cuban and US slaveholders determined to detain emancipation; and provides an analysis of the re-enslavement of US free people of color at the end of the nineteenth century, kidnapped and brought to the Cuba as a method of bolstering slavery. The article draws on the scholarship of Saidiya Hartman and Shona Jackson to provide an assessment of the afterlife of Cuban slavery, the invisibility of indigenous labor, the hypervisibility of African labor in the Caribbean deployed to maintain white supremacy, and it critiques the humanizing narrative of labor as a means for freedom in order to address the ways in which, for racialized populations in Cuba, wage labor would emerge as a tool of oppression. The article raises an inquiry into the historiography on Cuban slavery to provide a critique of the invisibility of indigenous and African women and children. It also considers the role and place of sexual exchanges/prostitution utilized to obtain freedom and to finance self-manumission, alongside the powerful narratives of the social and sexual deviancy of black women that circulated within nineteenth-century Cuba.

Cape Town Gujarati and its relation to Gujarati dialectology: A study of retroflex boosting

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajend Mesthrie ◽  
Vinu Chavda
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Group ◽  
Notable Feature ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Abstract This paper has two purposes. Firstly, it provides a bird’s eye view of the characteristics of a variety of Gujarati in diaspora, viz. that spoken in Cape Town, South Africa for almost 150 years. Secondly it focusses on one notable feature, viz. the prominence of retroflexes over dentals, and connects this with other dialects of Gujarati in India and with Western Indo-Aryan. We analyse the speech of 32 speakers born or brought up in South Africa, and resident in Cape Town. We show that Cape Town Gujarati retains the dialect variation of late nineteenth century Gujarati as identified by Grierson, Sir George A. 1908. Linguistic survey of India. Vol IX, part II: Indo-Aryan family, Central Group – Rajasthani and Gujarati. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. In particular, it resembles the Surti dialect, in keeping with the fact that the area around Surat district provided the bulk of migrants to Cape Town in the nineteenth and twentieth century. We then focus in detail on a prominent, but little-studied, phenomenon of Gujarati dialects: the variable occurrence of retroflex stops where Standard Gujarati has dentals [t̪ t̪h d̪ d̪h]. We demonstrate the considerable amount of such “retroflex boosting” in the Cape Town variety. We provide a detailed and replicable methodology from variationist sociolinguistics for studying this boosting that we believe illuminates the study of its occurrence in modern dialects in Gujarat.

African Studies in Czechoslovakia: Achievements and Perspectives

1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 213-222
Author(s):  
Peter Skalník
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
African Studies ◽  
World War ◽  
Dark Continent ◽  
Zambezi River

Scientific research of African societies and cultures in Czechoslovakia has developed only in the last two decades. Nevertheless, to precede the research there was a relatively extensive background shaped by the tradition of travelers whose interest was centered especially on geography, biology, and descriptive and collective ethnography. The most important of these travelers were Dr. Emil Holub (1847-1902), who crossed South Africa as far as the Zambezi River and published several books, most of which are now available in English, about his experiences; Remedius Prutký, a missionary who visited Ethiopia in 1751-1753 and not only described his travels but even compiled a vocabulary of the Amharic language; and Dr. Stecker and Čeněk Paclt, who traveled in the nineteenth century through Ethiopia and South Africa, respectively. In the twentieth century there was a considerable number of Czechoslovak travelers who acquainted their compatriots with the “Dark Continent.” Before World War II, three professor of Semitology at Charles University, Prague -- R. Dvořák, R. Ru̇žička, and A. Musil -- started to study Ethiopian languages and history. The well-known Austrian scholar of Czech origin, Dr. Pavel Šebesta (Schebesta) became one of the best specialists in the anthropology and ethnography of the Pygmies.

African Nationalism in South Africa: Origins and Problems

1970 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donovan Williams
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Port Elizabeth ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
African Nationalism

Many of the characteristic strains of African Nationalism in South Africa, as were manifest during its peak in the 1950s, may be traced back to the historical situation on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony in the early nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the Port Elizabeth–East London–Alice triangle remained a highly significant area for nationalist ideas and action, and this derived from the effects on the Xhosa of the Black–White confrontation which began here 150 years earlier. In the early part of the nineteenth century the fundamental competition for land and cattle led to White military and missionary actions which, coupled with the preaching of Christianity, promoted attitudes among the Xhosa which may be seen in all subsequent African Nationalism.

The Strange Coincidence of Gregor Mendel and Louis Pasteur: Both Scientific Geniuses Were Born in 1822

1995 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-61
Author(s):  
Luigi Gedda
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Genetic Knowledge ◽  
Gregor Mendel ◽  
The Way

This year, the French are commemorating the centenary of the death of their distinguished countryman Louis Pasteur, chemist and bacteriologist. Yet few people in France or elsewhere will be aware of a fact which I recently discovered: Louis Pasteur and the Czech geneticist Gregor Mendel were born in the same year - 1822. That Pasteur and Mendel are exact contemporaries is a most significant coincidence, for their respective careers symbolize the parallel and contiguous development of medical and genetic knowledge in the nineteenth century. This in turn paved the way for man to discuss, investigate, increase and spread understanding of human reproduction, disease and life-span, and to utilize scientific understanding of these subjects to increase the well-being of mankind in the twentieth century. Indeed, the human relevance of these biomedical discoveries caused them to eclipse those of other branches of knowledge in this century.

Joseph Maiden and the National and Transnational Circulation of Wattle Acacia spp.

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi Frawley
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Active Agent ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Major Producer ◽  
The Subject

During the nineteenth century and in the early years of the twentieth century wattle was circulated by botanists, botanical institutions, interested individuals, commercial seedsmen and government authorities. Wattle bark was used in the production of leather and was the subject of debate regarding its commercial development and conservation in Australia. It was also trialled in many other locations including America, New Zealand, Hawaii and Russia. In the process, South Africa became a major producer of wattle bark for a global market. At the same time wattle was also promoted as a symbol of Australian nationalism. This paper considers this movement of wattles, wattle material and wattle information by examining the career of one active agent in these botanical transfers: Joseph Maiden. In doing so it demonstrates that these seemingly different uses of the wattle overlap transnational and national spheres.

On Being in Time: Modern African Elites and the Historical Challenge to Claims for Alternative and Multiple Modernities

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Dlamini
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Alternative Modernities ◽  
Multiple Modernities ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter examines the ways in which African elites define their relation to the Europe with which they were confronted by the settlers in both appreciative and combative terms. It considers how scholars might use the idea of temporality — identified by both C. A. Bayly and Peter Wagner as being central to a subject's experience of modernity — to engage critically in debates about what Shmuel Eisenstadt has called ‘multiple modernities’ and Dilip Gaonkar has referred to as ‘alternative modernities’. Drawing on a specific historical case, involving a group of Christianised African elites in colonial South Africa from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the chapter demonstrates the importance of temporality as a dimension of what it meant to be modern.

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