Browsing by Author "Field, Shaun"

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    Rewriting post-colonial historical representations: the case of refugees in Zimbabwe's war of liberation
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Magadzike, Blessed; Field, Shaun; Mulaudzi, Maanda
    'Rewriting postcolonial historical representations: The case of refugees in Zimbabwe's liberation war' focuses on the historicisation of the experiences of people who were refugees during Zimbabwe's liberation war, fought between 1966 and 1980. It uses the narratives of former refugees from Mutasa and Bulilima Districts as a way of capturing their histories of the war period. When Zimbabwe attained independence in 1980, the country embarked on a historicisation project that was ably supported by a memorialization one. The aim of these twin projects was to capture the experiences of people who had either participated in the war or had been affected by it. Whilst all the other key players in that war such as the political leadership, the war veterans, the former detainees and even the ordinary peasants' experiences have been captured in these projects, there has been an absolute silence on those of people who were refugees. The same also applies to the omission of the refugee's voice in the continued regeneration of such histories that has been taking place since the year 2000 in Zimbabwe. Using the central question that asks about the experiences of displacement in Zimbabwe's liberation war, the research argues that we can only understand the totality of that war, the interactions that took place and the identities it created if the refugee figure and voice are represented on the historical record.
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    “Wars are won by men not weapons”: the invention of a militarised British settler identity in the Eastern Cape c. 1910–1965
    (2019) Ovenstone, Georgina; Van Sittert, Lance; Field, Shaun
    This thesis is concerned with the invention of South African Anglo identity, and aims to provide a new perspective on how this identity was constructed in the Eastern Cape from c.1910 to 1965. In particular, it considers the ways in which the museum developed to construct South African Anglo identity in the Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown. In the nationalisms of the postcolonial states, independent countries possessed museums in their capitals. These institutions constituted an essential part of national heritage, were crucial for the advancement of education, and operated as a means through which the ‘imagined community’ of the nation state was itself curated and sustained. Postcolonial nationalisms are imagined through the grammar provided by empire. In other words, they are imagined in terms of the administrative and archaeological evidence that colonialism has ‘gathered’ and displayed in its museums. The visual representation of the artefact became a powerful signifier for national identity because of everyone’s awareness of its location in an infinite series of identical symbols. This thesis’s primary focus is on how South African Anglo identity was invented in two key sites in Grahamstown, namely, the school and the museum. It will illustrate how rifles, which were used by the cadet corps at St Andrew’s College, and which were carefully selected and displayed in the 1820 Settlers’ Memorial Museum’s Military Gallery, came to play a central role in symbolizing and militarizing Anglo identity in the eastern province in the twentieth century. In particular, this study will argue that although English identity was reinvented following the 1820 settlers’ centenary in Grahamstown, it was not imagined as a military identity until after the Second World War, and the return of the veterans to St Andrew’s College and the cadet corps. Importantly, it will indicate that the school and the museum comprised key sites through which South African Anglo identity was constructed to reflect images of the British soldier, who in the Eastern Cape, could adapt to local conditions.