OpenUCT :: Browsing by Department "School of African and GenderStuds, Anth and Ling"

Browsing by Department "School of African and GenderStuds, Anth and Ling"

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Open Access
A sea of contested evidence: Disputes over coastal pollution in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
(2022) Beukes, Amy; Green, Lesley; Petrik, Leslie
The City of Cape Town's (CoCT) wastewater management system discharges effluent from households, industries and other sources into the Atlantic Ocean through deep-water marine outfalls in Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay. At total capacity, these three outfalls discharge 55.3 megalitres (Ml) into marine receiving environments daily. With minimal pre-treatment that amounts to screening and sieving, this results in microbial and chemical pollution of the sea (including chemicals of emerging concern), marine organisms, recreational beaches, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This research focuses on contestations over evidence of that pollution in Hout Bay. The study documents the work of independent scientists seeking to provide evidence of coastal pollution obtained via microbial and chemical analyses of water (coastal and inland) and marine organisms (Mytilus galloprovincialis) samples. It also presents accounts of pollution obtained via ethnographic research with local residents, fishers, frequent water users and river activists who have observed and experienced poor coastal water quality. However, the form of evidence that is considered and informs decision-making processes by the CoCT has consistently sought to invalidate these forms of evidence, from both independent scientists and the public. Debates around knowledge of water and contests over evidence that highlight the entanglements of science, politics, and ways of knowing make visible a consistent pattern in coastal water-quality governance by the City, which results in inaction regarding the ever-growing issue of coastal pollution in Cape Town.
Open Access
A sociophonetic investigation of ethnolinguistic differences in voice quality among young, South African English speakers
(2018) Wileman, Bruce Rory; Mesthrie, Rajend
Prior research has suggested that there may be differences in voice quality between black and white speakers of South African English who had attended well-resourced middle-class schools. The principal objective of the study is to address the question of whether there is any acoustic evidence of such differences. The study then proceeds to describe such acoustic evidence for differences in voice quality. The author interviewed 36 female South African English speakers (18 white and 18 black) between the ages of 18 and 22. The research subjects had all attended well-resourced middleclass schools. In order to control for the possibility of substrate influences on voice quality, all black participants were of an isiXhosa language background. High quality sound recordings were conducted, consisting of both a set of read sentences as well as semi-structured interviews, the latter of which formed the core dataset for the subsequent acoustic analysis. The acoustic data were analyzed using VoiceSauce, a program specifically designed for the acoustic analysis of voice quality. Measurements were based on automatically segmented speech samples using FAVE and PRAAT. The VoiceSauce measurement data were statistically analyzed by means of a linear mixed effects regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank sum tests using the statistical package R to evaluate the significance of ethnicity as a variable. The effect of ethnicity was found to be significant for several measures of spectral tilt (including for example, 2K*-5K, H4*-2K*, H1*-H2* and H1*-A1*) and cepstral peak prominence with a nearly significant effect for the subharmonics-to-harmonics ratio. Black speakers exhibited consistently higher values for most harmonic differential measures (for example, H1*-A1*) overall, while white speakers exhibited higher values for fundamental frequency, harmonics-tonoise ratio and cepstral peak prominence. The author concludes that the acoustic evidence is most consistent with the hypothesis that the white speakers overall typically use a voice quality iii characterized by greater vocal fold constriction, thickness and stiffness in comparison to the black speakers, hypothesized to use a voice quality characterized by more breathiness. By providing a description of voice quality variation, the research contributes towards a more complete account of sociolinguistic variation in South African English.
Open Access
Alternatives to the economic rationalisation of renewable energy transitions: The Tsitsikamma Community Renewable Wind Farm Story
(2023) Pressend, Michelle; Matose, Frank; Sitas, Ari
Within the climate mitigation discourse, renewable energy technology is understood as vital to reduce coal energy reliance. This discourse which is deeply anthropocentric in its approach understands 'green' energy transitions largely as reliant on reductionist techno-scientific 'solutions' and green economic growth rationalisation. If energy transitions are not engaged with critically, ongoing injustice and extractive relationships are likely to be perpetuated. The aim of this thesis is to show that alternative renewable energy transitions as responses to global warming need to be informed from a relational perspective. Values that are respectful, regenerative, and reciprocal to nature and each other constitute the concept of relationality. This study focused on the Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm (TCWF) in the Eastern Cape (South Africa) as a site to explore the implementation of a renewable energy project. The site on which the wind farm is built has a colonial land dispossession narrative and the return of the Tsitsikamma Mfengu community to reclaimed land in 1994. The community was a willing partner in the investment of a wind energy public-private partnership. While the beneficiaries were promised improvements to their well-being, instead, the material well-being of this community remains unchanged and the commercial agricultural land degraded. The inequalities and the social-ecological relations of the past persist. The so-called 'win-win' rhetoric is an illusion in climate mitigation approaches and largely serves capital accumulation at the expense of community well-being and restoration of the soil. This study drew inspiration from Moore's (2003) world-ecology framing - history is part of rather than separate from the web of life - a non-dualist version of world history. In the research, a multisited ethnography was used and included tracing the relationships that recognised land history, memory (patterns of material nature of the land) and the entangled relationships between humans and non-humans. The conceptual framing and methodology illuminated erasures consistently overlooked in the anthropocentric climate discourses. As a consequence of those revelations openings for more relational and decolonial conceptualisation(s) based on the profound interrelatedness of life became evident. Relational energy transitions are needed in response to the climate crisis that consider the regenerative possibilities of nature-human interrelatedness. Through this argument, the study contributes an important insight for the uptake of methodology and analysis which transcends the 'resource' logic.
Open Access
And then I was like, “No way!”: A variationist study of be like in young Cape Town speech
(2022) Horn, Elizabeth; Mesthrie, Rajend
Over the last two decades, the adoption of the quotative be like has emerged as one of the prominent examples of ongoing historical changes in English. This has been documented internationally, but the degree to which this change has taken place in South African English remains understudied. This dissertation conducts an apparent-time study of quotative systems in Cape Town. In this study, 1791 quotatives, collected from 64 sociolinguistic interviews, are analysed to assess the use of be like in contrast with older quotative verbs, as well as how the use of different quotatives is constrained by local social and linguistic variables. The judgement sample consists of young participants of four races, White, Coloured, Indian and Black, and a ‘control group' of older White speakers who represent the older norms. There is a focus on race in order to assess how social networks, and therefore language practices, may be deracialising, compared to the relative rigidities of a generation ago. Similarly, there is an emphasis on schooling in order to determine whether former model-C schools may be facilitating language practice change. A combination of statistical analyses in R, including ctrees and logistic regression, is used to determine the degree to which different social and linguistic variables influence quotative choice within the database. The results indicate that there is broad and prolific use of be like among the younger generation. Black and White participants use be like in the highest numbers, indicating that they may be leading the change. Similarly, speakers from former model-C schools use be like more than speakers from other schools, and best exhibit the content of quote and tense and temporal reference constraints on be like. Among them, there is a positive correlation between the use of be like and the expression of quotes containing internal monologue, as well as exclamations and non lexicalised sounds. Be like is also positively correlated with the use of historical present tense.
Open Access
Assisting Africa: a critical analysis of technical assistance in low carbon development practice
(2019) du Toit, Michelle; Chitonge, Horman; Winkler, Harald
Climate change mitigation efforts are increasingly forming part of the agendas of African nations, particularly since the inclusion of voluntary targets for these countries within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement of 2015. This focus towards the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, together with the need to achieve development objectives, has become combined in the practice of ‘low carbon development’ within developing countries. Technical assistance programmes have been set up to support the achievement of low carbon development, and these activities typically flow from the global North to Africa. However the power structures and flows of benefit that underlie these practices have not been the subject of much enquiry and are largely occluded within the climate change mitigation community of practice. With the inclusion of climate change mitigation targets for developing countries together with a direct call for increased capacity building within the Paris Agreement, the volume of technical assistance support focused towards Africa is likely to increase. As such the need to consider what effective technical assistance, that is both equitable and appropriate to the African context, might look like becomes a priority. This study engages with these issues. By considering the literature arising from decolonial studies and development theory together with bringing to the fore the perceptions of African climate change mitigation professionals, it provides a critical analysis of the tacit assumptions that are legitimated within the technical assistance practice in climate change mitigation. The study finds that current modes of technical assistance practice within low carbon development continues to entrench the hegemonic nature of knowledge of the global North, and perpetuates the placement of Africa in a position of extraversion towards the North, assuming African government and climate change practitioners as lacking in knowledge and expertise. The study advocates for a more equal and bilateral flow of knowledge between the two regions in order for African nations to faster and more effectively reach the twin goals of development and mitigation within Africa. It considers the lack of the critical theories of decolonial studies and development theory in climate change scholarship (particularly the absence of African voices in the debate) and brings these alternative voices and theories into low carbon development technical assistance practice.
Open Access
Children's Songs in Nawfija Community, Southeastern Nigeria: A sociolinguistic perspective
(2023) Okeke, Chinazam; Deumert, Ana; Brown, Justin
This thesis studies the Indigenous children's songs of the Nawfija community, in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. The language of communication in the community is the Nawfija variety of Igbo. The research was conducted from a sociolinguistic perspective, shaped by the participants' ideas and perceptions, thereby allowing their voices to be heard. Adopting a qualitative paradigm, the study employed interviews and observations for data collection. 20 participants were interviewed, and observations were carried out in five households. The study draws on language socialization and language ideologies as its theoretical frameworks. The study shows, firstly, that Indigenous songs serve as an important language socialization tool in the Nawfija community. Secondly, it shows that the songs have declined in their use over time. The decline can be linked to the histories of colonialism, a western education model, globalization, and religion. At the same time, new practices have emerged. For example, cell phones, toys, DVDs, and CDs are now often used in child care. In addition, localized English songs, afro-beats, reggae, and hip-hop, are used when looking after children. The research discusses three ideologies surrounding these Indigenous songs, two of which, (i) and (ii), may have contributed to their decline. The ideologies are (i) English equates to intelligence and success, (ii) English is the language of geographical mobility, and (iii) Igbo/Nawfija variety is a language of identity. The study concludes by arguing that, as a result of ideologies (i) and (ii), if these Indigenous children's songs were revitalized, possibly, not all community members would be committed to maintaining them. Therefore, for the revitalization to be successful, people need to appreciate the importance, beauty, and value of their languages and cultural practices (see ideology (iii)). Likewise, the Nigerian academic system should be shaped to reflect their uniqueness and promote their language and its practices, by adopting the local variety as the primary language of education. This will help to strengthen people's knowledge of their history, language, linguistic practices, culture, knowledge, present realities, and future challenges.
Open Access
Colonial and Post-colonial Rangeland Enclosures amid Climate Uncertainty: The Case of Maasai Pastoralists of Kajiado County, Kenya
(2022) Mugambi, Munene Mutuma; Green, Lesley; Matose, Frank
The enclosure of common resources in Kenya's rangelands became more pronounced after Kenya's independence because of adverse land reform policies, which proved ineffective in addressing the prior injustices of the forceful dispossession of Maasai pastoralists by the British colonial authority. The ongoing enclosure of common resources by both state and private capital for economic gain has left the herder community exposed to the adverse effects of climate change. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the adaptive capacity of Maasai to the intersecting stresses of climate change and resource enclosure. It examines the implications of common-resource enclosures for the Maasai livestock economy and the coping mechanisms they have undertaken to build adaptive capacity to changing climate conditions. The analysis employs an ethnographic approach using interviews and participant observation to collect data from field research in Ildamat-Oloyiankalani, Kajiado County, Kenya. The study is embedded in the daily herding and resource foraging practices of Maasai that took place during the prolonged drought period of 2017 and 2018 and in their ongoing experience of the intersecting stresses of climate change and common-resource enclosures. The study unveiled three major insights. First, that a tightening grip over common resources by private property growth has undermined the consensus-based democratic governance of resources, disrupted herders' access rights and exposed them to climate risks. Second, that pastoralists developed collective grazing arrangements and acquired exclusive grazing rights as mechanisms to improve herd mobility and resource access to cope with the intersecting stresses of climate change and the enclosure of grazing commons. Lastly, the study found that the implications of growing resource pressure and climate risk have driven pastoralists to actively assemble to disrupt further enclosure of their commons and to protect their rights. These insights confirm the importance of pastoralists' access rights to rangeland resources. In conclusion, the thesis broadly argues that facilitating extractive capitalism by disrupting pastoralists' access rights through common-resource enclosures adversely affects their ability to cope with the intersecting stresses of climate and environmental change. Therefore, it is critical that resource governing policies facilitate the democratisation of grazing and water resources to protect the commons from further enclosure and to ensure equitable access. This would restore the commons approach and protect the remaining herders' access rights, lowering their vulnerability to the intersecting stresses of climate and environmental change.
Open Access
Cultural and language maintenance and shift in an immigrant African community of KwaZulu-Natal: the Zanzibaris of Durban
(2018) Moola-Nernaes, Sarifa; Mesthrie, Rajend
This thesis makes a contribution to the study of cultural and language maintenance and shift among minority communities in South Africa. It explores the contact situation and implications thereof of the Zanzibari speech community in the post-apartheid Rainbow Nation South Africa. It discusses identity, language, culture and religion of the community against the backdrop of the Simunye (We are one) rhetoric. This thesis also contributes to the documentation of the history and creates an awareness of existence of the Makhuwa and Emakhuwa as a minority language in South Africa. The data was collected using the triangulation method to effectively capture the relevant information and to establish whether language shift is taking place within the community and to what extent. A household survey was used to ascertain whether the home or heritage language was passed down from generation to generation in this intimate, family domain. While the Makhuwa believe that a child learns the home language through the mother’s breastmilk, the survey revealed that the socialisation and continuation of the language was limited. It also looked at whether children were passive recipients in the acquisition of the spoken language/s in the household or whether they played a role in the negotiation of the language chosen in the household. The findings revealed that in the pre-1994 period, the community and parents determined the language of choice in the community and the household. The children had to follow the rules decided by their parents and the Elders in the community. However, there was a shift in the period after 1994 with the children playing a role in the language choice of the household. Interviews were used to capture the historical background of the community and provide a “backdrop” for the research and discussion on maintenance and shift in the community. The interview method was used to provide a better understanding of why the case of the Makhuwa community in Durban is unique and adds to the discussion on minority immigrant communities and their situation in terms of cultural and language maintenance. The research found that the process of language shift had taken place over a long period of time in the community. The gradual shift that had taken place was part of the result of the contact situation between Emakhuwa and both minority and majority languages in the KwaZulu Natal region. However, language shift had been more rapid in the last decade, causing alarm amongst the Elders in the community. The research looked at both cultural and language maintenance or shift in the Zanzibari community of Durban. The findings revealed that while language shift is taking place in the community, and even thought the English language is used more often in the household and cultural domain, the Makhuwa culture is maintained.
Open Access
Dialect variation in a cross-border language: a sociolinguistic study of Silozi in Zambia and Namibia
(2023) Mbeha, Gustav; Mesthrie, Rajend
Silozi came into existence in the early 1800s when Sikololo speakers (Makololo) from South Africa came in contact with the Siluyana speakers (Luyi) in Barotseland. Today the language is spoken by over 700 000 people in Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe collectively. Of the wealth of scholarship on the Malozi and their language, most focused on development and structure. Silozi dialect variation is yet to be explored in depth. This is a study of dialect variation in cross-border Silozi. The focus is on the lexicon and the morphosyntactic structures of the Silozi varieties spoken in the towns of Katima Mulilo (Namibia) and Mongu (Zambia). As an example of mixed-methods research, the data collection was conducted using the language documentation and description approach (see Lüpke, 2010; Himmelman, 1998). The data comprised of lexicon and sample sentences elicited via structured interviews from 70 participants. In addition, metalinguistic questions were used to collect information on essential language use patterns during data analysis. The findings confirmed that Silozi is the official language in Katima Mulilo, but Chisubiya and Chifwe are the dominant lingua francas. Contrastingly, in Mongu, Silozi is the main Bantu language, with others spoken minimally. A consequence of this is that the Katima Mulilo variety contained more lexical borrowings from other Bantu languages compared to Mongu. However, both varieties borrowed more lexicon from English than from the Bantu languages. Morphosyntactically, the Katima Mulilo variety contains grammatical features from Chisubiya that are not present in the Mongu variety. Chisubiya plays a central role in the differences that emerge between the two varieties. Overall, the Mongu variety appeared to be more stable and less susceptible to change. This thesis thus illustrates that there is nuanced variation in cross-border Silozi. Language contact and migration are shown to have been significant factors in ongoing language change in cross-border dialects.
Open Access
Digitisation and access to Archives: Case study of Sarah Baartman and Khoi San Collections
(2018) Cornelissen, Rozanne Leigh; Chirikure, Shadreck
Digitisation is occurring all over the world today. So to bring it to South Africa is one step in changing people’s understandings of Africa, because the information would be accessible to the world and the rest of South Africa. There are many challenges that have been debated around digitisation in Africa such as technological challenges, international relations or external institutions, the creation of a new kind of archive and the various digitising projects that have occurred in Africa specifically for creating online libraries. This study’s focal point is on two collections that are housed at the University of the Western Cape Archive; The Sarah Baartman and Khoi San Collections. The documents with regards to Sarah Baartman are the books of her story and how she became famous, but there is more to the books that we see in the shops or hear of. The collection of documents hold valuable information about her return to her homeland and the research of her descent. The Sarah Baartman Collection consists of the documentation that helped with the return of her remains. The University of the Western Cape Khoi San Collection consists of documentation of the Khoi San Conference that was held in 1994, with regards to the notion of becoming an identity and to view the Khoi San as people and not as just objects of study. The documents are basically faxes and letters that were sent to a Professor Bredekamp at the University of the Western Cape who was a participant in the conference. The University of the Western Cape Khoi San Collection is different from the Bleek and Lloyd Collections in that it is not someone’s journal or research but peoples voices of protecting the Khoi San Heritage. The two collections were chosen due to the fact that there was a gap in how to digitise collections that belonged to indigenous people/ descendent communities within South Africa and how to access these collections. The key purpose of the study is to determine the implications that digitisation has on Public Access. The aims of the study were to investigate the factors that determined decisions about how to digitise an Archive and how does Access impact digitisation. The data for this study was collected by the help of Archivists. The subjects of this study were archivists with the respected expert knowledge in digitisation. A semi-structured questionnaire was emailed to six Archivists. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the same six Archivists; the interviews were recorded on audiotape or hand written. On the basis of the results of this research it can be concluded that archives need to develop policies that incorporate consultations and take into consideration the descendent communities before the digitisation process occurs. There need to be cultural sensitivity towards collections of indigenous people which rarely occurs during digitisation. The recommendations that flowed from this study are: there needs to be further research in the curation of digital archives, needs to be more communication between archives and communities and digitisation policies need to be standardized.
Open Access
Growing Babies, Growing faith: The Formation of Faith in The Life of the Child
(2016) Price, Yusra; Ross, Fiona
The composition and formation of a young child's Muslim identity is situated within a contextual landscape of location, history, demographic, family, community and more which makes every child's upbringing unique. Through multiple interviews, visits and general discussions, this research sets out to understand how caregivers located in Cape Town conceptualise their world, make sense of incorporating religious practice and values into their children's daily lives, and how this is balanced with caregivers' perceptions of what a child can handle at two years old. From our interviews, three themes emerged: firstly, the histories, values and practices of caregivers shape the contextual environment of their children's religious upbringing. Secondly, in addition to Islamic education and practice, a child's feelings and emotions must be nurtured to foreground a positive association with and devotion to Islam. Lastly, notions of time demarcate and shape how caregivers temporalize their child-rearing practices. The aim of this research is to contribute towards the growing discourses around childhood and religion through an ethnography of child-rearing in Cape Town.
Open Access
Immigrant language vitality: exploring the language practices of some Nigerian immigrants in Cape Town
(2023) Umana, Beauty; Mesthrie, Rajend
This study draws on the conceptual framework of language maintenance and shift to examine the phenomenon of West African migration to post-apartheid South Africa. The study aims to determine how immigrants negotiate language and cultural differences, how attempts to integrate into their new society shape or reshape their identities, the consequences of this attempt at integration on their home languages and ultimately, their placement in their new society. It follows a qualitative research methodological approach for data collection where participants' language use and language choices are observed. Unstructured interviews and participant observation were utilised as tools for data collection. The data was analysed using thematic analysis to identify the themes and patterns that emerged from the qualitative data collected. Following an interpretive paradigm, the study was done to record how space, mobility, and anti-immigrant sentiments impact the language choices of immigrants in Cape Town, South Africa. All South African cities are highly multilingual and multicultural including Cape Town. Although South Africa has eleven official languages (now 12 with the recent addition of sign language), many other languages have made their way into the country because of the flow of immigrants from already highly multilingual and multicultural African countries. Migration studies have shown that Africans migrate with complex, fluid and multi-layered linguistic repertoires which develop into an even more complex one in their new society because of their multilingual backgrounds. Although researchers (Vigouroux, 2008; Wankah, 2009; Mbong, 2008; Orman, 2012; Nchang, 2018) have done some work on West African migration to South Africa, these studies have not extensively documented the impact of Nigerian migrants' language practices or choices on the vitality of their heritage languages in Cape Town. The present study, therefore, focuses on some Nigerian immigrants in Cape Town by examining the effect of space and identity negotiation in the diaspora on their home languages. It raises the question: what is the fate of immigrant heritage languages such as Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin English in the diaspora in terms of language maintenance and shift? To the researcher's current knowledge, there is no study on language maintenance and shift with regard to Nigerian Pidgin and Yoruba in Cape Town. Therefore, there is no evidence suggesting the maintenance or shift of these languages. Based on this, the current research set out to investigate the vitality of said languages in Cape Town. In addition, it is important to monitor and document immigrants' languages in the diaspora. Research such as this potentially builds on existing works and expands scholarly knowledge in the field of language maintenance and shift as it relates to migrants' heritage languages. This dissertation explores the vitality of Nigerian immigrants' languages, Nigerian Pidgin and Yoruba, within the context of Cape Town. This is done through an exploration of the linguistic practices of selected Nigerian immigrants residing in some areas of Cape Town, South Africa, focusing on the impact of their language use patterns on the maintenance of their home languages or shift from them. The focus on Yoruba and Pidgin reflects the two main languages of Nigeria today; these are languages that I can monitor in migration. Furthermore, while Yoruba has “ethnic” overtones, Pidgin is more widely construed as “Nigerian”, hence it is necessary to study both together. The analysis of data indicates that immigrants' social positioning as both outsiders and insiders in their new society presents certain challenges to the vitality of their heritage languages. On the one hand, they grapple with the desire to maintain their identities as Nigerians but on the other, they risk exclusion and discrimination which can sometimes be life-threatening should they maintain their cultural affiliations and heritage languages. This places them in a difficult position. This study illuminates some of the challenges immigrants face as they negotiate their place in their new societies.
Open Access
Infant wellbeing and monitoring: An observation of the Road to Health Booklet in Masiphumelele
(2019) Ngcowa, Sonwabiso; Ross, Fiona
The South African government monitors and tracks the health of newborns and the growth of children. The Department of Health (DoH) does this monitoring using the Road to Health Booklet (RtHB). In this dissertation I analyse the use of the booklet in the township of Masiphumelele in Cape Town. The state produced booklet is intended for the child and mother as a patient-held medical health record. Liaw (1993) defines a patient-held record as notes or space provided on a document for the recording of follow up appointments for further investigation by medical doctors. The RtHB is used to record the child’s development, immunisations and HIV related information from birth to the age of twelve years. The dissertation results from ethnographic research with eight black Xhosa1 mothers and caregivers with children under the age of five years old. Mosley, and Chen, (1984), argue that in developing countries where standard child healthcare has been made available, children should survive the first five years of life. In my research, during the period of six weeks between July, August and September 2017, I followed the booklet in to Masiphumelele. From my observation and semi-structured interviews, looking at the state’s role of ‘pastoral’ care, child wellbeing and living in a township, and recording, under the theme of child wellbeing, certain concepts emerged. These concepts were state power, mothering, caring for children, responsibilisation, gender, kinship, fatherhood, child wellbeing knowledge production, social networking. In this dissertation I use ethnographic findings, accompanied by my own personal narratives. I argue that tracking child wellbeing through this booklet, the state exercises what Foucault (1982) referred to as ‘pastoral power’ in ensuring the wellbeing of the populations.
Open Access
Investigating the retention of Kokni lexicon among the youth of Cape Town's Kokni community
(2019) Mohamed, Naasirah; Mesthrie, Rajend
Originating in the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, India, a large group of people immigrated to South Africa. The migrations took place in the period of colonialism in the Cape and Natal, and sometimes extended into the later Union and Apartheid periods. These people have settled into living in Cape Town and could essentially be the largest Kokni group outside of India. Generations later, the language “Kokni” is still spoken (maintained) among the Kokni people. However, this is true for the elders, as they still maintain strong ties to India. The Kokni youngsters however have shifted away from the Kokni language as a result of the schooling system in which English and Afrikaans are dominant. Despite this, some youth still maintain various lexical items from the Kokni language in their everyday conversations in which English and Afrikaans are dominant. The study at hand set out to determine which Kokni lexicon (vocabulary) categories had survived and are still maintained among the post-shift generation of the Kokni youth, who now have English as their main language and Afrikaans as their second language. Additional emphasis was on determining whether gender, birth order, or grandparents in the home affects retention of the Kokni language lexicon (vocabulary). In order to do so, 40 Capetonians of Kokni descent, of both sexes between 18 to 35 years, born and raised in Cape Town, were recorded taking part in sociolinguistic interviews. The mixed-method approach was used to gather the background demographics and lexicon of the youth. Afterward, the data was organised and analysed using Guttman scaling; known as implicational scaling in Linguistics (Guttman, 1944; Babbie, 2011; Mesthrie, Chevalier & McLachlan, 2015). The data shows evidence of particular lexical categories being maintained more than others. Kinship terminology, typical food dishes, counting and every day vocabulary are among these aforementioned lexical categories. This confirms that the Kokni youth have shifted away from the language, toward English and Afrikaans, yet maintained some Kokni lexical categories.
Open Access
It’s in the out sides: An investigation into the cosmological contexts of South African jazz
(2019) Gamedze, Asher; Sitas, Ari
This dissertation is an exploration of some of the philosophical thought and spiritual practices which constitute and are present and represented in and through certain instances of South African jazz. Amilcar Cabral’s revolutionary thought on liberation culture, which allows for thinking the radical impulse of cultural production, forms the foundation of the dynamic frame which we use to hear and think through the music’s content and the context by which it is composed. Through an engagement with the thought and music of the following artists - the Blue Notes, Miriam Makeba, Malombo, Nduduzo Makhathini, Zim Ngqawana, and a few others - we find ourselves in the presence of a liberatory tradition rooted in the cosmological worlds of Southern African people. Musical and spiritual practices of sangomas, the frequency of the maternal, medicinal relationships with plants and the land, and the communion and communication with ancestors are all channels of South African jazz. And the spirit of liberation that emerges in the music is situated in and dances through an encounter between these practices and aesthetics of the Black radical tradition. I provoke and elaborate on this encounter, considering the ambivalent, sometimes invisible, place of Africa in that tradition. Africa’s epistemological absence in much of the Black radical tradition, beyond minor essentialised and, at times, romanticised notions of an irretrievable source, a point of origin, or a site generally relegated to the past, is mirrored by the possibility of a productive synthesis which is improvised through the music. Moving with and for the music, listening to its critique of much of the writing about it and what that writing misses, I make the claim for jazz as a cosmologically-rooted African art form, forming part of a broader liberatory tradition which needs to be heard in relation to the spiritual and philosophical traditions which it extends.
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Language shift, cultural change and identity retention: Indian South Africans in the 1960s and beyond
(2007) Mesthrie, Rajend
Language shift is not a new phenomenon in South Africa: the most significant shifts in the last few centuries have been from Khoe-San languages and Malay to Afrikaans in the Western Cape's Coloured communities and from Indian languages to English among the KwaZulu-Natal Indian communities. This article will focus on the latter, documenting the fate of Indian languages over their 147-year history in South Africa. In this history issues concerning multilingualism, identity and economic integration are of particular significance. The motivation for this article is not to record details concerning the history of Indian languages in South Africa, as this has been done before.' Rather it seeks to understand how and why the rich vein of multilingualism within the community eventually yielded to a largely monolingual habitus. An implicit aim of the article is to suggest how the Indian experience in South Africa shows dilemmas significant to the larger black population today. For lack of space, this comparison will remain an implied one.
Open Access
Living with Mount Mabo: povoados, land, and nature conservation in contemporary Mozambique
(2021) Matusse, Anselmo; Green, Lesley; Matose Frank
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the povoados of Nvava and Nangaze, in the district of Lugela, Zambézia Province, central Mozambique, consisted of field visits that started in June 2016 and ended in April 2018, this thesis is an ethnography of the relationships between people, spirits, animals and landscapes. It examines the cultural, scientific, ethical, and economic stakes of local modes of relating to Mount Mabo, the River Múgue and Mount Muriba that both abide by and surpass the exclusionary forms of science, nature conservation and governance that dominate environmentalism in Mozambique. Focusing on narratives and practices, the study explores concepts such as person, nature and time as mobilized by the state, conservationists and local residents, and describe the respective emerging worlds and their messy interconnections, namely, the conservationists' "Google Forest" premised on techno-science and modernist ideals and seeking to enact a divide between nature and society, the "Neo-extractive" version of landscapes promoted by the Frelimo-run state in its attempt to generate wealth and alleviate poverty also premised on techno-science and modernist ideals that construct nature as a natural resource and "public good" to be owned through DUATs (land use rights certificates) that only the state can grant or revoke; and finally, the "Secret Mount Mabo" as experienced and expressed by local residents whereby landscapes emerge as relational entities demanding ori'a (respect) from the humans with whom they engage in a relation of mutual belonging. In this world, the amwene emerge as the ones who control access to the mountain and forest through their ritual and spiritual power. The study finds that reframing of colonial and neoliberal notions of property, nature, labour and citizenry by conservationists and the state, underlies their technoscientific approaches seeking to protect nature from devastation and impose and their respective versions of nature, human and time—worlds—on local residents. That approach renders dialogues across ontologies extremely difficult. Working with local residents' concepts and practices the study proposes that Mount Mabo conservation efforts are at odds with local ontologies. While these are central to local residents and their practices of world-making, such ontologies occupy a marginal role in conservation project planning, design, and implementation, amid conservationists' attempts to mobilize local residents' alliance in nature protection. These observations draw from and reinterpret contemporary scholarship on political ecology, political ontology, Africanist thought, and decolonial theory, in that they account for different ecological practices and concepts that are linked to practices of wealth redistribution, recognition of other non-modernist ontologies and their colonial legacies. The study proposes that understanding and accounting for these differences and the ways they are made to endure or resisted could help in finding alternatives conducive to ensuring both ecological and local residents' wellbeing in ways that advance decoloniality in Mozambique.
Open Access
Love and desire: concepts, narratives and practices of sex amongst youths in Maputo city
(2004) Manuel, Sandra; Ross, Fiona
This study analyses the perceptions and practices of sexuality among young people in post-colonial and post socialist Maputo city. Using a combination of various methods, it compares sexuality in two different generations and deeply describes two diverse kinds of relationships: occasional and steady relationships. Occasional relationships tend to show a new pattern of condom use that corroborates with the discourse advocated in prevention HIV/AIDS campaigns. The study shows that young women are redefining the gender roles of the wider society through their sexual practices and identities. Namoro (steady) relationships where sex takes the form of unprotected sex are reciprocated by the exchange of the gift of love and the proposition of commitment on the part of the young men. Here, there are major possibilities for HN/AIDS infection. In both kinds of relationships, sex, described by informants in terms of a model of heterosexual penetration, is perceived as a factor that permits transition from childhood to adulthood, bypassing parental and other senior kins peoples' control.
Open Access
Me and My Monsters: A multispecies study on schistosomiasis in Sub-Saharan Africa
(2023) Parrott, Charne; Macdonald, Helen
For such microscopic creatures, schistosomes have become monstrous in scale and impact across the World's tropics, and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Schistosomes are parasitic blood-fluke worms and their disease, schistosomiasis, is an ancient disease that has evolved with humans for centuries and it is through its connections to humans that it has thrived. This dissertation outlines the actor-network surrounding schistosomiasis through a multispecies lens. Tsing et al.'s (2017) ‘monsters' is utilised to argue that schistosomiasis is a man-made disease, and our influence of nature only exacerbates the situation. Secondly, the purpose of this dissertation is to bring illness narratives to expand our understanding of what it is like to live with these parasites. Lastly, it analyses the social, economic and political structures that made and sustains schistosomiasis as the second most important neglected tropical disease in the world (Adekiya et al., 2020). This is a deadly, slow killing disease that affects millions of people around the world, yet it and the people most at risk of contracting it are severely neglected. It is only through an understanding of the interconnectedness of the actors in this network and acknowledging the social, economic and political processes that hinder, or even aggravate, the control of schistosomiasis that a holistic, successful intervention can be designed.
Open Access
Modelling human wellbeing for fisheries management: Science, extraction and a politics of nature in the Walvis Bay, Namibia
(2018) Draper, Kelsey; Green, Lesley; Paterson, Barbara
Based in Walvis Bay, an industrial fishing town in Namibia on the west coast of southern Africa, this thesis argues that via the logic of neoliberalism, relations between scientific knowledge production, historical labour practices, and political decision-making emerge as a way of managing people and nature in uneven ways. Scientific modelling practices in the form of stock assessments, maintain traction as the technological solution for managing natural resource extraction in Namibia. As such, the dissertation explores the efficacy of computer models in the industrial fishing sector and considers how breakdowns between the scientific, social, and political knowledge worlds can be usefully brought into the conceptual model of the fishery for management. With a shift towards a more inclusive management framework that considers the policy issues as well as translating broad goals into measurable objectives, comes a shift in the logic of what fisheries management is meant to mediate and achieve. The logic is no longer as straightforward as producing an estimate of the amount of fishable biomass, but now must account for market conditions, changing technologies for fishing, and a changing climate and ecology. The human dimension is framed around the concept of wellbeing which in fisheries management emerges as an umbrella term for the social world that is reduced through the logic of neoliberalism to the measurable, enumerable, and indexable social and political implications of the use of Namibia’s natural resources. As one of few ethnographies of Namibia and the only one thus far to address the fisheries sector as a site of study, this dissertation investigates the increased dependence on scientific models in the Namibian hake fishery despite declining fish stocks and increased urban poverty and inequalities. The research contributes to the limited studies done on the political economy of Namibia and the rise of fish as national resource in the postcolony. It investigates the relations at risk in everyday life in Walvis Bay and re-imagines the framing of humans and nature for transformative practices of environmental and economic justice.

Browsing by Department "School of African and GenderStuds, Anth and Ling"

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