Browsing by Author "Wong, Eve"

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    The Doctor of District Six: exploring the private and family history of Dr Abdullah Abdurahman, City Councillor for District Six of Cape Town (1904-1940)
    (2016) Wong, Eve; Bickford-Smith, Vivian; Adhikari, Mohamed
    Abdullah Abdurahman is best-known in South African historiography for his four-decade career as the first coloured City Councillor of Cape Town and the President of the African Political Organisation. However, most literature on Abdurahman lack study on the personal and intimate life that animated his politics. Often painted as a tragic narrative of a dynamic man who failed in his struggle against racial segregation in the first half of the twentieth-century, Abdurahman is largely neglected in South African historiography. This project is a partial biography of Abdurahman focused on examining his personal and family life. Research for this project began with the exploration of the well-known Abdurahman collections at the University of Cape Town and Northwestern University and then expanded to include British, American, and Turkish records. This thesis follows a thematic structure, focusing on Abdullah as a son, a doctor, a husband and a father, with a final chapter focusing on Abdullah's many identities. Through the biographical method, this thesis explores the changes and continuities in coloured, Cape Malay, Indian and Muslim politics, attitudes, and identities at the Cape from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The complications and nuances brought about by the ways identities intersect with race, gender, class, religion and other ethos are revealed by focusing on the personal and the intimate. Situating Abdullah Abdurahman within global flows of people, ideas, faith communities, and political ideologies, this thesis allows insight into how coloured, middle-class, Muslim families lived in the early twentieth century and the limits of nonracialism and political organisations of the time. By reincorporating Abdurahman's personal and family life into historiography, the influence of affect and emotions in politics, the import of childhood and early political socialisation, and the role of education in producing citizenship and subjectivity rise to the fore. This unveils themes of how political philosophies are generated, challenged, and transmitted between and across generations. This thesis argues for a transnational and trans-generational approach to considering the contributions of marginalised groups in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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    Fabulous Khoisan:the politics of apoliticality in the indigenous Khoisan revivalism movement in South Africa; an exploration of sincerity,stickiness and fabulation in the emergence of a missing people
    (2025) Wong, Eve; Burgess, Marlon
    This dissertation critically reimagines postcolonial marginality, challenging the traditional 'before' and 'after' dichotomy to explore marginality as a dynamic, ongoing process of identity formation and resistance. Focusing on the Indigenous “Khoisan Revivalism” movement in South Africa, it examines how young, urban, and working-class individuals claiming Khoisan identity navigate intersections of cultural sincerity, political disengagement, and social justice. The work highlights the emergence of a resilient and marginalised “missing people.” whose identities are continuously shaped through historical struggles and contemporary aspirations. Rejecting essentialist notions of race, “mixedness,” and authenticity, this study positions “sincerity” as central to understanding identity production. Linking sincerity to Sara Ahmed's “stickiness” of affective flows and Gilles Deleuze's “fabulation” demonstrates how marginalised communities transform erased histories into tools for agency, actionable hope, and collective empowerment. Fabulation, in particular, enables the reimagining of suppressed identities, bridging historical realities with speculative futures. Tracing the historical contexts of “coloured” and “Khoisan” peoples, the dissertation troubles the boundaries of these definitions through interdisciplinary ideas. It reveals how gaps and incompleteness provide fertile spaces for identity reimaginings, offering fresh perspectives on how individuals claim and redefine belonging. Methodologically, the research combines ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and cultural analysis while addressing the ethical complexities of representation. It also investigates how Khoisan identity is appropriated, authenticated, and politicised in legal frameworks, traditions, and state policies, exposing tensions between cultural revitalisation and sociopolitical alienation. With its focus on “cultural, not political” investments, the study challenges dominant, elite-driven identity discourses. By shedding light on South Africa's “missing people,” this work reframes marginalisation as a negotiation of identity and agency and a suspension between fear and desire. It is a compelling call to recognise the vibrancy and creativity of Khoisan revivalists as they reclaim belonging and craft new visions for social justice in an increasingly fragmented world.