Browsing by Author "Israel, Paolo"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Baswahili and Bato ya Mangala: Regionalism and Congolese diasporic identity in cape town, 1997-2017
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Vuninga, Rosette Sifa; Israel, Paolo
    My research is on regionalism among Congolese migrants of South Africa with the focus on the tensions between Baswahili (Kivu inhabitants) and Bato ya mangala (Kinshasa inhabitants) in the city of Cape Town. The two groups incarnate the geopolitical East and West of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), respectively. I locate the tensions between these two regional groups in Cape Town in the DRC�s politics as well as that of the host country, South Africa. In the DRC, the tensions between Baswahili and Bato ya mangala are rooted in the identity politics and discourse of the post-Mobutu era, mainly that which emerged from the major events that have shaped the dynamics of the DRC�s crisis since the late 1990s.
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    In the shade of coal: A micro-history of resettlement and the mining industry in Tete province, Mozambique, 2009-2018
    (University of the Western Cape, 2024) António, Bernardino; Israel, Paolo
    The narratives and stories of the daily experiences of the local communities with the Vale mining project show that it has disrupted not only the lives, livelihood, and ecology but also the cultural and spiritual factors of the local communities in Moatize. Nevertheless, the power asymmetry between the various actors involved in the extractive industry (the mining company, local government, local communities and civil society organisations), dominated by the mining companies, has influenced how the mining issues have been negotiated at the local level. The emergence of the coal mining projects in Tete province displaced thousands of families from their homelands, where they have lived for generations. Thus, many scholars and civil society organisations have sought to analyse the socio-economic and environmental impact of the phenomenon. However, most of these studies have focused on the macro issues, preventing us from accessing peculiarities and details that can widen our understanding of the phenomenon. In contrast, my research, through a micro-historical approach, focuses on the singularities of the Vale resettlement, exploring a range of issues, such as the group of potters displaced by the Vale mining company to initiate its mining activities, the cemetery constructed by the mining company in Cateme and the conflict around the exhumation of the bodies from the old cemetery. However, besides the resettled communities, my research also analyses the ecological effects of the Vale mining activities on the local communities close to the mining site, which Nixon calls “Displaced without moving.”
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    Mueda massacre: the musical archive
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017) Israel, Paolo
    As in Pidjiguiti in Guin�-Bissau or Baixa de Cassanje in Angola, the massacre that occurred in the northern Mozambican town of Mueda on 16 June 1960 has been inscribed in the nationalist narrative as the breaking point of anti-colonial unrest and the trigger of the armed liberation struggle. In the past 20 years several scholars have questioned the central tenets of the nationalist interpretation, especially the idea that the aim of the demonstration was political independence � a claim considered too lofty to be articulated by a mass of illiterate peasants guided by leaders enmeshed in ethnic organisations. Caught between the rhetorics of resistance and revisionism, the colonial archive and oral testimony, the event itself has been rendered illegible. To rescue 16 June from such deadlock, this article turns towards a different kind of historical material: song. Proceeding archaeologically, it moves from songs that reproduce the official version; through more ancient songs, which express some direct experience of the event, however layered and reformulated; to songs that were sung at the time of the massacre. These songs and the echoes they elicit from other sources pave the way to a re-interpretation of the event: from the point zero of a vanguardist history of national consciousness, to a utopian moment in which independence appeared as a possibility, however unclearly understood, the political imagination expanding beyond any consideration of objective constraint.
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    Of borders and crossings: The lives of a healer in northern Mozambique
    (Journal of Southern African Studies, 2022) Israel, Paolo
    Background: Daria Trentini�s book is a narrative exploration of the life and practice of a healer in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula. Ansha, the titular protagonist, was a Makonde migrant from the province of Cabo Delgado who moved to Nampula, converted to Islam and set up a �spirit mosque� in which the Koran and herbal knowledge were used to cure afflictions. Spirit possession (majini) was central both to illness and healing. A being of many worlds, Ansha crossed, navigated and negotiated a number of borders: between ethnicities, regions and religions; between sickness and health, the city and the countryside, the spirit and the human domain. Indeed, the figure of the border � especially the notions of �border crossing� and �border events� � provide the book with its central conceptual anchoring
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    Portrait of a mobile political subject: The figure of the Afghan Mujahedeen in South Africa in the 1980s.
    (University of Western Cape, 2019) Moosa, Medina; Grunebaum, Heidi; Israel, Paolo
    This mini-thesis engages with the period of the Cold War between 1979 and 1989 to examine the shifts and contradictions that emerged around the figure of the �terrorist� and the �freedom fighter with a focus on the Afghan Mujahedeen. From 1979 to 1989, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan. This period was witness to the formation of the Mujahedeen who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and also against the political ideologies of communism. In so doing, the Mujahedeen became political allies for the South African apartheid government as well as others fighting against the communist agenda
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    Solidarity and the struggle for Zimbabwe: Zimbabwean African National Union (ZANU) in Mozambique (1975-1980) Clinarete
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) Munguambe, Clinarete Victoria Luis; Israel, Paolo
    This dissertation examines the relationships of solidarity that developed between the Mozambican people and the Zimbabwean liberation movement ZANU, between 1975 and 1980, considering them in their multifarious aspects and attempting to understand the dynamics at work. Scholars have not paid sufficient attention to Mozambique's role as the host country of the Zimbabwean liberation movement. This dissertation is intended to fill this gap in the literature, by engaging critically with the history of ZANU-Mozambique relations, seen from the perspective of the Mozambicans themselves. My argument is that Mozambican support to ZANU was marked by a spirit of mutual cooperation and brotherhood between people who shared a similar historical and cultural background, which is a major factor behind the support offered by Mozambican people to ZANU. But, this solidarity was also the consequence of an authoritarian effort by the Mozambican ruling party, FRELIMO. to impose a specific political and ideological consciousness. This consciousness was shaped through the creation of legal instruments to ensure popular support such as the creation of the Solidarity Bank in 1976; by the use of an authoritarian discourse which relied on a 'vocabulary of ready-made ideas'1; and by the use of such methods as the cartoon figure, Xiconhoca, stigmatising all those who did not support solidarity with ZANU as traitors or sell-outs.
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    Th��tres and mikilistes: Congolese films and Congolese diasporic identity in the post-Mobutu period (1998-2011)
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Vuninga, Rosette Sifa; Israel, Paolo
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    Utopia Live: Singing the Mozambican struggle for national liberation
    (History Department, University of the Western Cape, 2009) Israel, Paolo
    This article engages a historical reconstruction of the formation of Makonde revolutionary singing in the process of the Mozambican liberation struggle. The history of ?Utopia live? is here entrusted to wartime genres, marked by heteroglossia and the use of metaphor, and referring to moments when the ?space of experience? and the ?horizon of expectation? of the Struggle were still filled with uncertainty and the sense of possibility. Progressively, however, singing expressions were reorganised around socialism?s nodes of meaning. Ideological tropes, elaborated by Frelimo?s ?courtly? composers, were appropriated in popular singing. The relations between the ?people? and their leaders were made apparent through the organization of the performance space. The main contention of the article is that unofficiality, heteroglossia, metaphor and poetic license, although they feature in genres that have been marked out as ?popular? in academic discourse, are by no means intrinsically ?popular?. Much on the contrary, they are the first victims of populist modes of political actions, that is, of a politics grounded on a concept of ?people?.
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    Zimbabwean Reggae and Dancehall: A History of Generations (1981 to recent times)
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Charivanda, Lazarus Charles; Israel, Paolo
    The Zimdancehall phenomenon is a growing subculture in Zimbabwe�s entertainment industry and as such it is attracting scholarly attention, hence the literature around it is burgeoning. The aim of this research is to trace the beginnings of incorporating Caribbean inflections, particularly Jamaican, into local music. Its objective is to investigate how reggae has been received and used in a local context ever since Bob Marley performed on the eve of independence, until the present Zimdancehall generation. As a keen music follower, my motivation to study Zimbabwean dancehall music is another township story located in one of the many of Zimbabwe�s township spaces which I grew up in. Growing up in the dusty townships of Mkoba in Gweru, rap, hip hop and reggae were the music we grew up listening to, both at school and at home. I also frequently listened to dancehall music, which could be downloaded from the internet and shared through CDs and radio cassettes. Locally, urban grooves was the music of the time, until 2008 when I first heard the music of Winky D. He provided a different music approach focused on the downtown and Ghetto/shanty townships. Winky D�s music was strictly dancehall oriented and it immediately had an impact on the youth including myself. Going on to study history for post graduate studies, particularly the field of Popular Culture and Performance, my interest in Zimdancehall was further aroused and I considered it as an area worthy of study. During the course of this research my interest to carry on was reinforced by discovering that there is a small burgeoning academic literature that has been written about Zimdancehall. Most of the literature is found in newspaper and magazines and entertainment columns, a number of which have been written by Fred Zindi.1 Fundamentally, Zimdancehall is characterized by its orality in the form of hard hitting-lyrics sung in urban lingo. It also provides a social commentary on issues such as poverty, unemployment, hustling or finding ways of getting by, the consumption of drugs as well as criticizing the maladministration of local government.