Magister Artium - MA (Anthropology/Sociology)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9286

Browse

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12

?Anything about us, without us, is against us?: An ethnography of the genocide reparations and decolonial movements in Namibia
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Van Wyk, Bayron; Becker, Heike
This thesis explores decolonial memory activism and queer activism in Namibia. It demonstrates how activists have mobilized in intersectional struggles (Becker 2020; 2022) against the structural remnants of colonialism. The activists have pointed to how racist-, patriarchal- and heteronormative hierarchies that were imposed through German and South African colonialisms have remained and are taken even further in the postcolony. In this sense, activists have targeted colonial monuments, colonial laws and the colonization of human remains in their decolonial campaigns. I specifically focus on the #ACurtFarewell petition against the Curt von Fran?ois statue, the formation of the Namibia Equal Rights Movement calling for the recognition of same-sex relationships, and the campaigns by the Namibia Genocide Association (NGA) and other activists for the recognition of the graves of Prisoner-of-War graves to show respect to those who died during Germany?s colonial genocide (1904-1908) in Namibia.
The changing faces of the klopse: performing the rainbow nation during the Cape Town carnival
(University of the Western Cape, 2013) Oliphant, Chanell; Becker, Heike
This thesis explores the embodied aesthetics of performance in the making of belonging in post-apartheid South Africa, through an investigation of the klopse, also known as Cape Minstrel and the ?Coons?, which are part of the annual New Year?s carnival in Cape Town. For this thesis I use the word klopse to refer to the carnival troupes. I map how from its inception the carnival aesthetics changed and came to represent something new and different as the participants engaged with the changing South African and Cape Town society. These changes are explored in connection with both coloured identity politics in the context of the ?rainbow nation? discourse and the efforts to represent carnival in Cape Town as a colourful event in a global city to international and national visitors. I argue that at the core of it is the issue of belonging which is embodied through the aesthetics.
A critical analysis of the effects of tourism on cultural representation: a case study from Leboeng
(University of the Western Cape, 2004) Mamadi, Masete; Becker, Heike; Faculty of Arts
Cultural tourism is a vehicle for economic growth. Cultural representations are made in order to make the cultural tourism sector a more vibrant one. Given this argument, research in cultural tourism should take a critical stance in the analysis of cultural representations. An understanding of the meaning of culture is necessary to analyse the comparison of daily life with cultural representations. Observing the daily lives of host communities creates a conductive environment for realising and understanding the gaps between tourists experiences and the daily realities of the host communities. This research analysed how people represent their culture to tourists through the sale of crafts and dance performances. The research was carried out in Leboeng village, on the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, near the small town of Ohrigstad.
Dunoon, iKasi lami (my township): young people and the performance of belonging in a South African township
(University of the Western Cape, 2013) Makhale, Lerato Michelle; Becker, Heike
This study focuses on young people and how they etch a sense of belonging in the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town, in multicultural, post-apartheid South Africa. The study mainly focuses on a group of performers known as Black Ink Arts Movement (Black Ink), who are based in Du Noon township, near Cape Town, South Africa. The study looks at how young people who are involved in community performance projects; it also engages with their varied audiences. Lastly, the thesis shows the performers? day to day lives when they are not on stage to see what it means to be young and black in Du Noon as a member of Black Ink
Fashion, performance and the politics of belonging among Muslim women in Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2013) Hendricks, Hibah; Becker, Heike
This thesis explores how the hijab fashion market has emerged in Cape Town and how Capetonian Muslim women are appropriating hijab fashion as a means of redefining themselves as Muslim South Africans instead of ?Cape Malays?, the ethnic label given to Muslims in the Western Cape during the apartheid era. I argue that through self stylisation Cape Malay women are performatively rejecting the ethnicisation of Islam during apartheid. I show that ?Cape Malay? women are using hijab fashion to perform their ?Muslimness? in order to claim a positive and legitimate spot in the ?rainbow nation? as Muslims as a religious-cultural category, and not as ?Malays?, an ethnic category, while simultaneously claiming their belonging to the global umma (Muslim community)
Life beyond protests: An ethnographic study of what it means to be an informal settlement resident in Kanana/Gugulethu, Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2018) Gaqa, Mzulungile; Becker, Heike
This study explores the lives of Kanana residents, an informal settlement in Gugulethu Township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It pays particular attention to their everyday lives to dispel negative and simplistic representations of informal settlement residents when they collectively take part in protests. Although there are extensive reasons for the protests in the informal settlements, the media and the South African government have reduced these protests to portraying them as demands for ?service delivery?, and furthermore as criminally induced protests. I point out that this problem is partly due to scholarly work that does not engage these misleading representations and illustrate the lives of shack residents in the ordinary, when they are not protesting. Thus the focus of this thesis is life beyond protests. I argue that the lives of shack residents who participate in the protests are complex. As opposed to negative and simplistic representations, this thesis illustrates that one needs to be immersed in the lives of shack residents so as to understand them as identifiable human beings who make meaning of their lives. I explore their lives in the shack settlement further and argue that these human beings live their ordinary harmonious lives centred on the practice of greeting. To highlight the complexity of life of protesting informal settlement residents this thesis makes a point that there exist unsettling realities in the shack settlement; unsettling realities that make residents feel to be less of human beings. Kanana residents, therefore, draw from these perpetual unsettling realities to organise and protest. This thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between September 2015 and February 2016. During fieldwork, I observed and interacted in informal conversations with Kanana residents. With the main co-producers of this work, I carried out their life histories and further in-depth interviews.
Love relationships, texting and mobility : an ethnography of cell phone use in intimate relationships among labour migrants in Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2013) Motau, Marjorie Disebo; Becker, Heike
This thesis explores the different ways in which labour migrants in contemporary South Africa make use of cell phones in their daily lives to maintain their love relationships. I start by tracing the history of labour migration and show how the gradual change of migration has played a role in the assertion of labour migrants in their communities in Cape Town. I look specifically into the use of cell phone by Setswana and Sesotho speaking migrants in Delft, Thornton, Brackenfell and Gugulethu. While the focus of the research is on the role of cell phones in maintaining love relationships between migrants and the partners they left behind ?at home?, I also show how the negotiation of the cell phone in the social lives of migrants helps build wider social networks. The value of the functions of the cell phone through employed communication patterns that encourage social relations and interactions are also the focus of this thesis.
Olufuko revisited: female initiation in contemporary Ombadja, Northern Namibia.
(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Kautondokwa, Erastus T.; Becker, Heike
This thesis analyses post-independence Namibian Heritage and identity discourse and its contestations through the contemporary public performance of olufuko. Olufuko is the ritual of female initiation that marks the transition of young girls into adulthood. The initiation has been an important aspect of the Aawambo women's identity that live in north-central Namibia and southern Angola as it is believed to legitimise womanhood. I show how Owambo residents embrace regional or ethnic diversity through the performance of olufuko as a way of expressing their belonging. Throughout the thesis, I also reflect on the fact that through national attendance at, participation in, and performing of olufuko by state representatives and individuals, from all the regions of Namibia and beyond, people have expressed their belonging to a nation state. During olufuko ceremonies, both regional and national state representatives advocated the ideas of nation-building through 'unity in diversity', which emphasises the diversity of ethnic backgrounds while harmoniously coexisting. Following Becker (2004), and Becker and Lentz (2013), my central argument is that in the contemporary dispensation, national citizenship in Namibia appears to be defined largely through the emphasis on regional or ethnic diversity. In my discussion, I show how the state appropriated and mediated the olufuko ceremony as a national event, though it was performed at the regional level. I show how national identity was visibly represented by national symbols such as the national flag and anthem and how it was audibly live broadcasted by state television and radio during the event. This signified the event as national. The thesis further investigates how national heritage is discussed in post-colonial Namibia by looking into the controversies between the state and ELCIN religious leaders which emanated from the performance of olufuko. The thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between December 2012, during olufuko ceremonies that took place in villages in Ombadja, and August 2013, when it culminated in participant observation during the public olufuko ceremony at Outapi, Ombalantu.
Our memories of the liberation war: How civilians in post war Northern Namibia remember the war.
(University of the Western Cape, 2003) Akawa, Martha; Becker, Heike
This research looks at the gap that exists between public representation and personal narratives of the Namibian liberation war. Having observed the absence of private narratives in the grand national memory, I address the questions of how civilians remember the war of liberation and how that shapes their lives in postcolonial Namibia. I am interested in how civilians remember and how they relate the memories and the experience of the past, how they locate themselves in public history and their perspectives on national memory and commemorations. The Namibian government has reconstructed the liberation struggle as one where all Namibians fought against colonialism, but it has excluded and suppressed the memories of ordinary citizens of the country. I conclude that national memory is one-sided as it has not included the memories of all Namibians. The civilians have fought and contributed towards the attainment of independence, but their contributions are neither acknowledged nor rewarded.
The production of gospel music: An ethnographic study of studio-recorded music in Bellville, Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Thompson, Robin L.; Becker, Heike
This thesis explores the production of music with musicians, singers and music producers who adhere to and promote Pentecostalist Christianity. The music they produce is a recently emerged genre, which I call 'Pentecospel'. I have coined this term to refer to a contemporary form of religiously inspired popular music, which is performed by young musicians belonging to various Pentecostal churches in Cape Town. I argue that 'Pentecospel' music is an emergent social form of self-representation, which is framed around Pentecostalism and the sound of Cape Town, as identified by Martin (2013). Young musicians and singers in Cape Town are absorbing and appropriating global styles of music, concepts and beliefs and music making techniques within their own musical compositions and transform their music performances in a way that enhances their local popularity. Thus, I elaborate on the processes of production through technical and social interpretations. This thesis will explore how performance, engaging audiences, the social interaction between people and technology, and the creation of their own unique sound on their musical instruments are linked to visual approaches located in the anthropology. This thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork which took place mostly between December 2014 and February 2015. During this period, I worked with music producers and young people who have recorded at the 'Sounds of the Nations Africa: Cape Town' recording studio in Bellville, Cape Town, sharing their experiences of everyday life in and outside the studio. My three month long fieldwork included in-depth interviews, conversations and discussions, photographic and video material, and activity field notes. I made use of these methods in order to record my observations in the recording studio, during rehearsals and in public performances focusing on the social and musical interaction with the performing artists I got to know, through participant observation. I include my own participation as a musician and audience member with the use of these methods, in recording music in the 'Sounds of the Nations' recording studio for their upcoming album "Sound of Africa" and in public performances.
Re-situating and shifting cultural identity in contemporary Namibia: the experience of rural-urban migrants in Katutura (Windhoek)
(University of the Western Cape, 2008) Nghiulikwa, Romie Vonkie; Becker, Heike; Faculty of Arts
This thesis explores the shifting cultural identities of young Owambo migrants living in Babilon, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Windhoek, Namibia. Through an investigation of their social, cultural and economic lives, I show how these young people invoke their Owambo-ness, but how they also transcend their ethnic identifications through engaging in an emerging Namibian youth culture, which cuts across rural-urban, ethnic, and socio-economic divides. I argue that young migrants from Ovamboland, who intend to escape their poverty stricken rural homes and arrive on packed busses, bringing with them few possessions and great expectations, constantly shift and resituate their cultural identities while trying to make a living in the city. These young people are eager to engage fully in a better life and hope to find employment in the urban economy. For many, however, this remains just that - hope. In their daily lives, the young migrants replicate, reproduce and represent rural Owambo within the urban space. Using the examples of 'traditional' food and small-scale urban agriculture, I explore how their ideas of Owambo-ness are imagined, enforced and lived in Babilon. I argue that although migrants identify themselves in many ways with their rural homes, and retain rural values and practices to a large extent, this does not mean that they would remain "tribesmen", as earlier, how classic studies in Southern African urban anthropology argued (Mayer 1961; Wilson and Mafeje 1963). They also appropriate "ideologies" and practices of the emerging Namibian youth culture, especially popular local music and cell phones. My study thus shows that the migrants develop multiple, fluid identities (with reference to Bank 2002); they identify concurrently with the urban and the rural and develop a synthesis of both. The thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between February and May 2008. During the fieldwork, I engaged daily in informal discussions with many residents of Babilon, and carried out life history interviews, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with key research participants.
The social uses of internet enabled cell-phones among young women in Eersteriver
(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Leoschut, Lara Tracy; Becker, Heike
The central research question this thesis explores is whether or not the availability of new social media alters the concepts of gendered personhood in working-class neighbourhoods on the Cape Flats. The arguments I will present all speak to my central argument that there is not only a relationship between ?good? daughterhood and new social media, but that this relationship consists of young women in Cape Town namely Eersteriver, using their internet enabled cell-phones as a means of exploring the social and virtual realm without putting their title of a ?good? or ?respectable? girl at risk. I will incorporate comparative arguments from different bodies of academic literature which speak to the key question and arguments presented in this thesis so as to provide a global perspective. A brief socioeconomic history of the area will also be included in this thesis so as to provide some social context for my research. This thesis shows how young women of Eersteriver use the freedom, privacy and anonymity that they believe the internet and social media freely offers, to push the boundaries of good daughterhood and respectability. This thesis further demonstrates how social media have changed young women?s understanding of what social interaction is as well as their ?doing? intimacy. I further show that their very interaction via their internet enabled cell-phones is a social form of gift giving. This research is particularly important because it is located at the intersection between gender issues and the study of new social media. This study explores how new gendered subjectivities emerge from performances and representations of personhood in new social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook, and how understandings of ?good? daughterhood and respectability are altered and thus crafted into these practices. Literature in this area of research is still on the rise, so I am confident that this study will make a valuable contribution to this growing body of literature which speaks to young women and new ICTs.

Browse

Browsing by Author "Becker, Heike"

Results Per Page

Sort Options