Magister Artium - MA (English)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/16395

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Browsing by Subject "Apartheid"

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    Music memoir as an evocation of cultural legacy: The Zayn Adam story
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Jegels, Llewellin RG; Martin, Julia
    Musicians of colour are under-represented in the South African archive, in part due to the ravages of apartheid and the lack of resources to chronicle their trajectories outside of the production of their music alone. In this biography, I excavate the story of Zayn Adam, an iconic member of the popular 1970s Cape Flats band, Pacific Express, and construct a narrative based predominantly on a four-hour interview he had with Jonathan Stevens, a co-member of the Cape Minstrel band, the Golden Dixies, plus interviews I conducted with Paddy Lee-Thorp, Zayn’s former manager, Zayn’s son, Danyaal and Glenn Robertson who helped manage Zayn’s last show. I explore the relationships between the various bands and their creation of music fusion as a means of transcending economic realities which forced this artistic reinvention upon which they had to rely as a means of survival, particularly when performing in white clubs. I also explore the role of music as a form of cultural commentary and cultural memory against the backdrop of apartheid. Each chapter is titled after a popular song that reflects the spirit of the chapter. In the essay that follows, I reflect on the process of writing the biography, considering the challenges of historiography in general, and of biography in particular.
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    Visual trauma: Representations of African bodies in the 1983 Contre Apartheid Exhibition
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Petersen, Charlise; Wittenberg, Hermann
    After the 1976 student uprising, South Africa entered a period of increased violent state repression. The struggle against apartheid also became increasingly globalised, as can be seen in the UN resolution and the rise of various international anti-apartheid organisations. My thesis looks at the various ways in which art was used as a response to the crisis of late apartheid in the 1980s, focusing on a landmark international exhibition, the Art Contre Apartheid exhibition which opened in Paris on 1983. It examines the context and history of the Art Contre Apartheid collection, and follows its path to its current location at the Mayibuye Archive at the University of the Western Cape, where it mostly languishes in packing crates. My research locates its analysis of the works in broader debates around art and politics during the struggle years in South Africa, but also to highlights the continuities and contrasts between international responses to apartheid, and local struggle art produced in the period surrounding the launch of the exhibition. Some of most compelling works of art in the collection depict the human form, and register acts of torture. The analysis focuses specifically on depictions of a fragmentation and dismemberment of the human body. Drawing on Elaine Scarry's argument about the limitations of language as an adequate response to trauma, my research develops an analysis of these works that demonstrates how the body becomes a privileged site in which violent political contestations are made visible. The thesis also deals extensively with the 'absence of form', which highlights the various instances in the ACA collection where abstract art was used as a signifier of pain, and thus the unspeakable effects of apartheid.