Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (History)

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Browsing by Author "Faculty of Arts"

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    Enduring suffering: the Cassinga Massacre of Namibian exiles in 1978 and the conflicts between survivors' memories
    (University of the Western Cape, 2011) Shigwedha, Vilho Amukwaya; Hayes, Patricia; Dept. of History; Faculty of Arts
    During the peak of apartheid, the South African Defence Force (SADF) killed close to a thousand Namibian exiles at Cassinga in southern Angola. This happened on May 4 1978. In recent years, Namibia commemorates this day, nationwide, in remembrance of those killed and disappeared following the Cassinga attack. During each Cassinga anniversary, survivors are modelled into 'living testimonies' of the Cassinga massacre. Customarily, at every occasion marking this event, a survivor is delegated to unpack, on behalf of other survivors, 'memories of Cassinga' so that the inexperienced audience understands what happened on that day. Besides survivors' testimonies, edited video footage showing, among others, wrecks in the camp, wounded victims laying in hospital beds, an open mass grave with dead bodies, SADF paratroopers purportedly marching in Cassinga is also screened for the audience to witness agony of that day. Interestingly, the way such presentations are constructed draw challenging questions. For example, how can the visual and oral presentations of the Cassinga violence epitomize actual memories of the Cassinga massacre? How is it possible that such presentations can generate a sense of remembrance against forgetfulness of those who did not experience that traumatic event? When I interviewed a number of survivors (2007 - 2010), they saw no analogy between testimony (visual or oral) and memory. They argued that memory unlike testimony is personal (solid, inexplicable and indescribable). Memory is a true picture of experiencing the Cassinga massacre and enduring pain and suffering over the years. In considering survivors' challenge to the visually and orally obscured realities of the Cassinga massacre, this study will use a more lateral and alternative approach. This is a method of attempting to interrogate, among other issues of this study, the understanding of Cassinga beyond the inexperienced economies of this event production. The study also explores the different agencies, mainly political, that fuel and exacerbate the victims' unending pathos. These invasive miseries are anchored, according to survivors, in the disrupted expectations; or forsaken human dignity of survivors and families of the missing victims, especially following Namibia's independence in 1990.
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    A historical and conceptual analysis of the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies (APMHS)
    (University of the Western Cape, 2011) Morakinyo, Olusegun Nelson; Witz, Leslie; Rassool, Ciraj; Dept. of History; Faculty of Arts
    In 1998 the University of the Western Cape together with the University of Cape Town, and the Robben Island Museum introduced a Post-graduate Diploma in Museum and Heritage Studies. This programme was innovative in that not only did it bring together two universities in a programme where the inequalities of resources derived from their apartheid legacies was recognised, but it also formally incorporated an institution of public culture that was seeking to make a substantial imprint in the post-apartheid heritage sphere as part of its structure. In 2003 this programme attracted substantial funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and was rebranded as the African Program in Museum and Heritage Studies (APMHS). While this rebranding of the programme might seem to be innocently unproblematic and commendable as part of the effort at re-insertion of South Africa into Africa after the isolation of apartheid, an analysis of the concepts employed in the rebranding raises serious theoretical, conceptual, and disciplinary questions for heritage studies as an academic discipline and for its connections with other fields, especially the interdisciplinary study of Africa. What are the implications of a programme that brings together the concepts of 'African-Heritage-Studies'? Does the rebranding signify a major epistemological positioning in the study of Africa or has it chosen to ignore debates on the problematic of the conjunction of the concepts? This study address these issues through a historical and philosophical analysis of the programme, exploring how it was developed both in relation to ideas of heritage and heritage studies in Africa and, most importantly by re-locating it in debates on the changing meaning of 'Africa' in African studies.
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    The individual, auto/biography and history in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2004) Rassool, Ciraj; Bundy, Colin; Dept. of History; Faculty of Arts
    This thesis is a contribution to the field of public history, which the author and others at the University of the Western Cape's History Department have over the last decade pioneered in defining and mapping out in South Africa. Rassool's theories about the relationship between history and biography were developed in relation to the life of the Unity Movement leader, I.B. Tabata.
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    Theorising women: the intellectual contributions of Charlotte Maxeke to the struggle for liberation in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) April, Thozama; Lalu, Premesh; Dept. of History; Faculty of Arts
    The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke's legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women's Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history.