6. European Genealogies and South African Identity in Burger's Daughter

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-131
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African Identity

Mapping South African Identity

Transfers ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
Florian Krobb
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
African Identity

Main Reef Road, South Africa, 1999; Nicolaas Hofmeyr (director and writer); 88 minutes; Free Filmmakers Production

scholarly journals ‘deep wounds… left… in hearts and minds’: South African Public History

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Julia C. Wells
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Public History ◽  
African Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
To Come ◽  
Oral History Interview ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Public history practise in South Africa holds out much promise of further things to come. It can close the gulf between history and heritage. This chapter argues that the role of the public historian should not be conflated with the dynamics of the heritage sector, but suggests how trained academics can indeed put their skills to work in a society that is passionately interested in understanding itself and how its pasts created the present. The student movement sharply raised the image of universities in crisis, requiring a whole new, relevant curriculum and rethinking the ways that universities relate to their publics. Public historians can work towards creating invented spaces for co-production of knowledge, moving beyond the traditional oral history interview. The divide between academia and communities is huge and needs to be constantly tackled, providing access to the secluded information of the professional world. I suggest that due to their privileged place in society, many historians have been unable or unwilling to engage with the recovery agenda – the massive need for affirmation of African identity, capacity and culture. A handful of dedicated public historians do not fit this mould and have been exemplary in rolling up their sleeves and boldly engaging with the messy complications of dealing with non-academic communities to produce new forms of historical knowledge, based on inclusiveness.

The role of place and identity as core contributing success factors in Jayan Moodley’s Keeping up with the Kandasamys and Kandasamys: The Wedding

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 229-246
Author(s):  
Sogen Moodley ◽  
Arushani Govender
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Place Identity ◽  
Community Members ◽  
African Identity ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Place And Identity

Keeping up with the Kandasamys (Moodley 2017), a family comedy co-written and directed by Jayan Moodley, was the first cinematic feature to be set in the post-apartheid Indian township of Chatsworth, Durban and generated R16.3 million at the box office. The film delves into the matriarchal rivalry of neighbouring families while showcasing the unique Chatsworth subculture. This box office success prompted the release of the sequel Kandasamys: The Wedding (Moodley 2019), which broke its own sales record, earning R18.9 million. As filmmakers who were intimately involved in the production of the sequel, and who engaged with viewers and community members, we provide a critical analysis, reflecting on why the films attracted large audiences and galvanized an outburst of fandom. This article postulates that Indian South African audiences identified with the authentic portrayal of the nuances of every-day life in Chatsworth, resulting in feelings of visibility and nostalgia. In attempting to explain the phenomenal support from these audiences, the authors examine theories of place identity and literature on Indian South African identity, inferring that the intersection of place, and the representation of Indian South Africans in the features, is significant to the films’ success.

O clever ‘He’s streetwise.’ When gestures become quotable

Gesture ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather J. Brookes
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
South African Society ◽  
African Identity ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Core ◽  
Central Characteristic ◽  
Everyday Communication

Among urban black South Africans in the province of Gauteng, quotable gestures are a prominent feature of everyday communication. Most notable is a gesture commonly glossed as clever meaning ‘streetwise’ and ‘city slick.’ An analysis of the clever gesture in everyday communicative situations shows that it conveys a variety of meanings and functions related to the core paradigmatic meaning of ‘seeing’ and the core sociointeractional function of acceptance and inclusion. ‘Seeing’ is an important cultural value in black urban society particularly in relation to being clever. ‘Seeing’ is also the central characteristic of modern urban African identity in contrast to the ‘non-seeing’ rural, tribal, and primitive African. The clever gesture is a focused expression of this key social division within South African society. Consideration of the clever gesture in relation to its social role and the gestural repertoire suggests that key cultural concerns determine both quotable status and semantico-grammatical nature.

The Struggle for African Identity: Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-277
Author(s):  
PAL AHLUWALIA
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
African Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACT This paper examines South African President Thabo Mbeki's notion of the African Renaissance. Representations of Africa have been challenged in the past by movements such as negritude and pan-Africanism. Thabo Mbeki's proclamation of the African Renaissance can be seen as another attempt to fight and challenge prevailing representations of Africa. An African Renaissance that does not degenerate into essentialism (particularlism) has the potential to transform the lives of the many Africans who have been ravaged by the continuing legacy of colonialism. The author argues that if the call for an African Renaissance is to have any lasting impact on the African condition, it must be careful to avoid taking the essentialist positions advocated by earlier ideological movements such as negritude. The essay contends that the call for an African Renaissance is an important effort which needs to be adopted by Africans beyond the borders of South Africa.

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