Browsing by Author "Field, Sean"

Now showing 1 - 16 of 16
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    Activist memorialization : bearing witness at St. George's Cathedral
    (2011) Van Mill, Sarah; Field, Sean
    The purpose of this thesis is to address the question: how can memorialization contribute to social transformation? Specifically, in what ways is memorialization activist? To answer this question I worked with St. George’s Cathedral’s Crypt Memory and Witness Centre on their Bearing Witness exhibit, conducted primary and secondary literature surveys (namely academic articles and books, and periodicals from 1980-1986), story-telling focus groups and individual interviews. The exhibit group consisted of 17 former South African squatters who fasted at St. George’s Cathedral in 1982, demanding rights to live and work in Cape Town. Of the group of 17, I conducted personal interviews with seven women and three men.
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    Beyond the refugee label : identity and agency among Somali refugees
    (2007) Buyer, Meritt; Field, Sean
    As the world refugee population continues to rise, so the debate over how to best assist those who have been displaced intensifies. Humanitarian practices often have a disempowering effect on individuals instead of helping them to become self-sufficient. This problem is compounded by the gap between the realities on the ground and the overarching policies of both governments and organizations. In South Africa, the plethora of social issues, the lack of long-term solutions for refugee resettlement and the unsuccessful implementation of national policies relating to refugees contribute to the xenophobia that has become prevalent across the country. When the xenophobic sentiment turns violent, the Somali community has been targeted in the most extreme ways. Using the oral history methodology, this study draws on 17 life story interviews with Somali refugees residing in the Cape Town area. The interviews focus on the refugees' experience with humanitarian organizations and the government policy of their host country. By exploring their memories of Somalia and their relationship to their homeland, as well as their experiences in exile, it becomes evident that the Somalis' personal histories impact on how they negotiate the different forms of assistance that are available, or the lack thereof. Those who have had little control over their own lies in the past continue to have greater difficulty reaching their financial and educational goals, integrating onto South African society, and accessing the rights granted to them by law. Those who historically had some amount of agency continue to do so, despite the disempowering effects of mass assistance programs. In order for governments and organizations to be successful in their mission to assist and resettle refugees, they must have a more complete understanding of the history and cultural norms of assistance of the communities with whom they are working, as well as the realities of the current circumstances. The oral history method, with its ability to account for personal subjectivity, narrative authority, and historical agency, allows for in-depth exploration into the impact of policies created by the external bodies of international aid organizations, national governments, and local organizations at the grassroots level.
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    Culture, gender and patriarchy : a study of sixteen female teachers in gender specific schools of Lesotho
    (2005) Monyane, Temelo; Field, Sean
    Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-109).
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    The empathy imperative : primary narratives in South African history teaching
    (2008) Geschier, Sofie M M A; Field, Sean; Soudien, Crain
    National and international literature on intergenerational dialogue presents the sharing of primary narratives as necessary to prevent an atrocity from happening again. International literature on history education and memory studies questions this ‘never again’ imperative, pointing out that remembrance does not necessarily lead to redemption. The aim of this research is to conduct a similar exercise by investigating the following paradox within South African history education. On the one hand, public spaces such as the District Six Museum and the Cape Town Holocaust Centre acknowledge and involve primary witnesses in the education of the younger generations. On the other hand, South African history teachers are expected to know how to bring about change, while their multiple positionings, being both teachers and primary witnesses to the Apartheid regime, are neglected. The thesis sets out to address this paradox through a case study of means by which Grade Nine history teachers and museum facilitators use and construct primary narratives about the Holocaust and Apartheid Forced Removals in classroom and museum interactions with learners. A dialogue with the interrelated fields of oral history, trauma research and memory and narrative studies, as well as positioning theory and pedagogical theories on history education and the mediation of knowledge forms the theoretical basis for the study.
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    "The father of the revolution": history, memory and the FNLA veterans of Pomfret
    (2016) Claassen, Christian; Field, Sean; Mulaudzi, Maanda
    The "official" narrative of the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola, or FNLA) as presented by FNLA documents and scholars such as Christine Messiant and Inge Brinkman, paints a picture of a liberation movement that fragmented and lost its credibility over time, from its inception in 1962 to its demise in 1978.In part, this was due to the actions, or rather inaction of its authoritarian and highly paranoid leader Holden Roberto. In contrast, however, former FNLA fighters I have interviewed remember the FNLA and Holden Roberto as having been the righteous and just vanguard of the Angolan struggle against Portuguese colonialism, and later against the MPLA Soviet"puppet" regime. For the ex-FNLA fighters, the FNLA stood for progress, inclusivity, and justice, to the extent that many of these former fighters have proclaimed their continued loyalty to the FNLA to this day. By making use of concepts such as memory, myth, as well as senses of place, belonging and identity, this thesis will examine these two divergent narratives, and will posit that the respondents' reflections on the FNLA are ultimately tied to their present identities as forgotten and betrayed war veterans.
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    Generations of meaning : memory, technology and the South African audio archival context
    (2008) Meyer, Renate; Field, Sean
    Like it or not, the past infects the world we live in, the decisions we make, the very choices we see to lie before us. If we ignore its influence, we do not escape its power.
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    Imagining the city: memories and cultures in Cape Town
    (2010) Field, Sean; Meyer, Renate; Swanson, Felicity
    The overriding strength of this book is that it places people – ordinary people – at the centre of memory, at the centre of historical and contemporary experience, and thus at the centre of re-imagining and owning the city of Cape Town. It is as they speak – what they choose to say, what they choose to remain silent about, that we become aware of the possibilities of the city, if it really did embrace all its people, in all of their diversity. Imagining the City makes an important contribution to public discourse about a vision for, and ownership of the city by affirming the memory of its inhabitants, and by hinting at the work that can, and should still be done in foregrounding memory and culture in the re-imagination of Cape Town as a city.
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    Introduction: Approaching Oral History at the Centre for Popular Memory
    (2008) Field, Sean
    At its dialogic centre, oral history research methodology involves interactions between an interviewer eliciting and listening to a narrator framing and performing their memories through spoken words, sentences and stories. But oral history per se, as this South African Historical Journal collection will demonstrate, is much more than interface between interviewer and interviewee. This is because oral history is constructed through dialogues about memory, ways of ‘writing’ and ‘speaking’ words, diverse forms of dissemination and archiving, and multiple ways of interpreting memories and stories that reveal the nuances of subjectivity, agency and identity formation. South African oral history as a research methodology and practice has moved from its humble beginnings in the 1970s to its resurgence in the post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) period. There are now, probably, far more oral history projects happening outside of universities in a variety of sites such as schools, museums, archives and non-governmental organisations. However, a variety of questions and challenges remain for oral historians, such as the need for appropriate ethical standards for oral history research, dissemination and audiovisual archiving.
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    Keeping up with the Queers: White gay and bisexual men's experiences of relationship intimacy and conflict in Cape Town, 1966-2008
    (2021) Kleinschmidt, Adam Elliot; Mbali, Mandisa; Field, Sean
    Between 1966 and 2008, the social, political and cultural landscape of South Africa changed considerably for queer people living in Cape Town. This thesis intends to explore white gay and bisexual men's experiences of intimacies and conflict in their close relationships during the latter half of apartheid and early democratisation. Interviews and correspondence with eleven men that probed their personal developmental histories, their interactions with social institutions like education and the army, and their intimate relationship histories all revealed information that contributes towards three bodies of literature: firstly, that intersectional histories of race, class and sexuality can be found in social groups that have both privilege and oppression; secondly, that queer identity development is affected by families of origin and social institutions; and thirdly, the queer spaces in Cape Town are reflections of both the queer community and of mainstream heterosexist society. As a result of these findings, it can be stated with conviction that conflict and intimacy in close relationships is an amalgamation of social and personal developments, and that race, class and sexuality have informed the ways in which white queer men perceive themselves and their community. While this research was limited by the small case study size and by minimal archival work, the merits of this case study can be expanded by further oral history projects.
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    Politics and prosthesis : representing disability in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
    (2016) Price, Neroli; Field, Sean; Kar, Bodhisattva
    This dissertation aims to put two seemingly stable and unchanging categories, namely the 'nation' and the 'body', into conversation with each other in order to interrogate how the disabled body, in particular, became a site for nation building in South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy in the 1990s. More specifically, this dissertation aims to explore how, framed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), different bodies took on disparate meanings that both affirmed and challenged the emergence of the euphemistically termed, 'New Nation'. Relying on insights from disability studies, postcolonial scholarship and critical race and gender studies, this dissertation endeavours to interrogate how the emergent post-apartheid state relied on the collective memory and identity generated through particular ideas of violence and politics evidenced by the injured bodies on display at the TRC. Drawing on the TRC transcripts, the TRC Final Report and the Truth Commission Special Report coverage of the proceedings, this dissertation seeks to ask new questions about the shifting and uneven sites of embodied meaning-making in post-apartheid South Africa.
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    Televising truth commissions: the interaction between television, perpetrators, and political transition in South Africa
    (2020) Anderson, Michelle E; Evans, Martha; Field, Sean
    This research explores the portrayals of perpetrators in television broadcast coverage of truth commissions within politically transitioning societies, particularly how these discourses may influence the perceptions and experience of transition out of conflict. It focuses on the narratives constructed around apartheid-era perpetrators who participated in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as shown by the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) weekly broadcast, Truth Commission Special Report. It also considers how this informs perpetrators in speaking about their own histories. The SABC broadcasts aired between the 21st of April 1996 and the 29th of March 1998. It acted as a key news source on the workings of the TRC for a large group of citizens. An average of 1.1 to 1.3 million people tuned in each week for the first year, and an average of 510,000 people tuning in during its second year on air.1 The TRC hearings were recorded and filmed, and parts of these recordings were included in the SABC programme, along with further research by Special Report journalists. This included stories from the apartheid era that were not told through the TRC, further interviews with perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and communities, as well as reference to news and legal documents. As SABC describes it, the Truth Commission Special Report series “contributed to the TRC's pursuit of revealing the truth about, and engendering a deeper engagement with, South Africa's past conflicts.”2 The series was hosted and produced by well-known anti-apartheid journalist and Afrikaner Max du Preez, whose own identity became central to the narrative put forth. His team of journalists and producers included other Afrikaners such as his long-time colleague Jacques Pauw, and the young Anneliese Burgess. Otherwise, “his team of journalists varied over the twenty-three months of the series, generally including five and seven people who were racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse.”3 As South Africa transitioned out of the apartheid state, transparency of the transitional mechanisms taking place was essential for the transformation of governance and the appearance of accountability.4 This demand acted as one of the driving forces for the intense media involvement in the country's chief transitional process, namely the TRC. This research hinges on the hypothesis that the media's involvement in the South African transitional process went beyond the provision of transparency and may have influenced people's perceptions and experience within the transition per assertions by scholars such as Parver and Wolf, Fischer, Kent, and Mihr, 5 among others. It uses this as a starting point to then investigate the series' narrative as a source of these perceptions and the subsequent experiences of the subjects. This points not only to outcomes, but also their influencing factors with the intent to suggest recommendations for more intentional media coverage of political transitions, with perpetrators being one facet of such.
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    The Gukurahundi "genocide": memory and justice in independent Zimbabwe
    (2019) Ndlovu, Nompilo; Field, Sean; Mulaudzi, Maanda
    Operation Gukurahundi (1982-1987) commenced and endured within the Midlands and two Matabeleland Provinces of Zimbabwe through a Fifth Brigade army – trained by the North Koreans, and which was accountable to former President Robert Mugabe. This army sought to find 400 armed dissidents, but their excessively violent actions ultimately resulted in 20 000 civilians being killed, thousands being tortured and/or disappearing as well as 400 000 persons brought to the brink of starvation due to targeted food limitations within these regions. The story of Gukurahundi is complex and multifaceted, but significantly it was about the political annihilation of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), as an opposition party, as well as their supporters - predominantly from these targeted provinces. Essentially, the key aspect that this study speaks to is: How has state denial and produced silences of Gukurahundi shaped survivor memories across generations; and contributed to justice in independent Zimbabwe? Amidst produced silences, Gukurahundi memory remains existent over 30 years after the occurrence and is nuanced in various ways. The study therefore looks into the memory traces of the post-Gukurahundi period through select reminiscences as shared by 30 survivors of Gukurahundi who offer a telling around what happened during Gukurahundi, and in the aftermath as key informants to the research. This study thus draws attention to ‘ordinary’ people’s stories, as narrated by them, and discusses them against oral history theory. In this regard, the research objectives are to analyse various memory debates associated with this occurrence, such as the nexus between memory and silence; gender and memory; spatialities of memory; as well as intergenerational memory. Another important gleaning which becomes a thread throughout the research is the connection between memory and language(s). Linkages between memory and justice are made, with reference to select initiatives across a variety of actors which are relied upon on as a means to address, memorialise as well as to survive Gukurahundi. Oftentimes these actors – including survivors themselves – address Gukurahundi outside of the Government of Zimbabwe’s arrangements. Finally, this research aims or hopes to contribute to post-conflict commendations.
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    The Public Life of Abortion and the Making of South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act
    (2022) Koekemoer, Ronel; Field, Sean; Sen, Anandaroop
    This thesis is a study of the making of post-apartheid South Africa's abortion law, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996. It focusses on how abortion as a public interest issue at the time of SA's transition from apartheid to democracy shaped the arguments, actors and arenas involved in the development of CTOP. This has the broader goal of denaturalising these institutions and evaluating the role of contextual factors in assessing CTOP's institutional legacy on abortion practices and, by extension, access. Aside from a means to terminate pregnancy, in different historical moments and geographical contexts, abortion has had various meanings and represented specific interests. A more recent manifestation is abortion as a complicated and contested subject of public debate. My dissertation establishes what the public life of abortion looked like at the time of SA's transition and how this public life influenced the law and its legacy for reproductive rights and justice. Medical and legal experts, civil society organisations, and aborting women formed a core network of voices that informed South Africa's progressive law. These contexts and publics require interrogation because of how they constructed CTOP as permissive and liberal. The concomitant perceptions of rights, empowerment, and democratic participation overshadowed the tangible ways that CTOP restricts abortion access.
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    Turning up the Volume: Dialogues about Memory Create Oral Histories
    (2008) Field, Sean
    This article sketches an overview of South African oral history since the 1970s and argues that while oral history projects have grown rapidly since 2000, insufficient attention has been given to international debates about memory, myth and subjectivity. It then explores the conception of oral history being constructed by ‘dialogues about memory’, and how this furthers our understanding of narrative, agency and identity formation. This conception also compels us to reflect on the position of the oral historian. The article then argues that ‘traces’, especially the mental imagery evoked during acts of remembrance, have implications for conducting and interpreting oral history dialogues. This is in a context shaped by post-apartheid memory politics and our anxieties over the fragility of memory traces and the urgent desire to record and conserve before these traces are lost. But dialogues about memory continue to creatively produce oral histories in the present.
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    Ukusebenza nethongo (Working with Spirit): the role of sangoma in contemporary South Africa
    (2005) Wreford, Jo Thobeka; Sichone, Owen; Field, Sean
    This thesis represents a typically boundary-crossing ethnographic experience and an unconventional anthropological study, its fieldwork grounded in the author's personal experience of ukuthwasa - initiation, training and graduation - to become a sangoma, a practitioner of traditional African medicine, in contemporary South Africa. The study is contextualized within the contemporary health dispensation in South Africa in which two major paradigms, traditional African healing, considered within the spiritual environment of sangoma, and biomedicine, operate at best in parallel, but more often at odds with one another. Given the unprecedented challenge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country, the thesis suggests that this situation is unhelpful and proposes first, that a more collaborative relationship between medical sectors is vital. Secondly, the thesis suggests that anthropologists can play an important role in achieving an improved dialogue, by producing research grounded in the spiritual aetiology of sangoma but comprehensible to academic science and applicable within collaborative medical interventions. The thesis introduces 'sacred pragmatics' to embody the disarmingly matter-of-fact quality of sangoma healing which is nevertheless always underpinned by the authority of ancestral spirit solicited in terms that are reverent. Ancestral authority in sangoma is advanced as a credible near equivalent to Jung's 'collective unconscious', and the contemporary phenomenon of white sangoma is proposed as a potential source of social and political healing. In the light of the spiritual foundation of sangoma, the absence of spirituality in biomedicine is discussed and its effect on relationships between medical sectors analysed. The umbilical and ambiguous connection of sangoma and witchcraft is acknowledged, a relationship theorised as having transformative potential within kin and community. The theoretical arguments are set against the evidence of fieldwork which is characterised as experiential and described reflexively. The thesis constitutes a start in what the author hopes will develop into an ongoing conversation between traditional African healing, academe and biomedicine in South Africa.
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    Urban agriculture in Cape Town : an investigation into the history and impact of small-scale urban agriculture in the Cape Flats townships with a special focus on the social benefits of urban farming
    (2010) Dunn, Shirley; Bickford-Smith, Vivian; Field, Sean
    Urban agriculture (UA), defined in this study as the cultivation of crops and the farming of poultry and livestock within city boundaries, is not a new phenomenon. There are noticeable gaps in the literature in respect of Cape Town: a lack of information on the history of the practice and a relative lack of information on the social benefits. Life history interviews were conducted with 30 small-scale, informal UA farmers in the Cape Flats areas of Guguletu, Philippi, Nyanga, KTC and New Crossroads. It was found that UA has been practised in various parts of the Cape Flats since the early 20th century. It was found that Cape Flats farmers have derived and continue to derive a variety of benefits from both the products and the processes of their UA activities, including food security, health and income generation, as well as significant social benefits.