Magister Artium - MA (History)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9296

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 105

Wearing cloth: a witness in motion
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Hendricks, Zena
Like photography, the epistemological work of cloth is relegated to evidence of historical events or contexts. In relation to history, the material meanings of cloth are often relegated to stand as a supplement to textual evidence, due to their assumed cultural meanings and associations. This project positions cloth as an active witness to the process of making, and contesting histories. This is shown through a close looking at how the practices of making embedded in cloth, through the motion of the hand and natural material effects, actively mimic history-making practices in the everyday. To do so, this mini-thesis sets up the foundation of a philosophy of cloth by drawing on the similarities and differences between the medium of cloth and the medium of photography as makers of meaning. This philosophy of cloth is further founded upon the conceptual understanding of artistic orientations as an act of political witnessing. To further build and apply this philosophy, this mini-thesis hones into the artistic practices of Johannesburg- born visual artist Senzeni Marasela. Marasela is multimedia artist who works around performance, photography, drawings and most extensively, textiles and embroidery. For the purpose of this study, I hone into her six-year long performance (2013-2019) of wearing a tailored, traditional Xhosa isishweshwe dress in various daily spaces in South Africa and abroad. I also look at the residues of this performance through a close reading of Marasela’s retrospective exhibition, Waiting for Gebane, shown at the Zeitz MOCAA museum (2020-21). By interrogating these aspects of Marasela’s work, cloth is shown to exhibit a concurrent practice of deconstructing and reconstructing in the everyday as bodies navigate the burden and psychological weight of the pasts while fashioning a new path. The practices of cloth, namely style, styling, embroidery, stitching and material decay, show cloth to be an active witness to these complexities with the daily spaces of the post-apartheid South Africa.
The secret lives of documentaries
(Univeristy of the Western Cape, 2024) Kell, Dara
This research is an inquiry into the documentary form and the impact of editorial choices. It asks how suited this form is to the telling of movement stories. It does so by examining the editorial decisions made in one particular film, An Unsettling Force, a film about a diverse anti-poverty movement launched in the United States in 2018 called the Poor People’s Campaign. By comparing the completed 50-minute film to the interviews from which it was compiled, this study seeks to illuminate and complicate the form of the conventional documentary film, and invite questions about alternative ways to tell movement stories on film. This study focuses on two key themes. Firstly, it explores the theme of leadership by examining how An Unsettling Force deals with stories from movement leaders and foot soldiers. I interrogate the types of stories and ideas that got left out, and reflect on the implications for films about poverty and social movements, drawing on the work of documentary, visual history and oral history scholars. I argue that both external pressure from the film industry as well as internalised prejudices caused the filmmaker to focus on central characters—by necessity mostly excluding the foot soldiers from this film—and I ask whether this may have had the unintended impact of undermining the objectives of the movement itself. The findings make the case for a more expansive view of documentaries, one which sees them as incomplete works in need of supplementation through footnotes, non-linear innovative media forms, or poetry. By examining the lacunae in An Unsettling Force and asking which particular material was omitted and why, this thesis aims to bridge the study of social movements and activism with documentary film theory.Campaign
The Katana of Africa: biographical productions of Yasuke through multimedia representations.
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Edwards, Amir
The way of the samurai is contingent on fealty, courage, respect and honour. These are perhapsa few of the most recognizable traits of the samurai caste in feudal Japanese society as the samurai have long been an intrigue for those inside and outside of Japan. The point of referencewhich this thesis has been inspired, focusses on the sixteenth century historical figure, Yasuke an East African who was enslaved by Europeans, taken across the trade route seas to Japan and through a complicated journey - is considered to be the world’s first black samurai in history. Yasuke’s story is one that can be erroneously viewed as simply fictional but there is much more that lies beneath, and that exceeds, the historical figure. This research focusses on the impact of both biographical and micro-historical narratives on historical research outputs and reproduction. Furthermore, it addresses the way in which historical production is constructed, utilized, distorted and how it inspires mass media projectsand fuels representation. Yasuke’s history has inspired numerous forms of media depictionsand iterations, highlighting the importance of biographical research and the way in which historians exhume and exalt histories that have been buried under grand narratives. By using the historical figure’s lived experience, this thesis first embarks on contextualizing the historically based literature of multiple regions including East Africa, Portugal and Japanduring the sixteenth century. From this point the research explores, as if through a magnifying lens, into the depths of Yasuke and his journey in feudal Japan. The thesis then examines both historical and fictional literature, the latter which has been inspired by the former, methodologically with the application of narrative theory which delves into the intricacies of the life and representations of Yasuke. Ultimately, this thesis contends with the possible limitations of biography and the perceived limitlessness of fictionality as it pertains to historic conjecture.
The making of a community museum from a women's club in the BORAVAST area of Botswana, 1968 to 2023
(Univeristy of the Western Cape, 2024) Gabonthone, Tshepiso
This thesis is a comprehensive exploration of the journey undertaken by the Women's Club in the BORAVAST area of Botswana, spanning the years from 1968 to 2023, into the establishment and evolution of a community museum. This initiative reflects a unique intersection of history, culture, and women's empowerment within the BORAVAST community. Emerging in the late 1960s, a group of visionary women from the BORAVAST area set out on a mission to conserve and celebrate the rich traditions of their culture i.e., crocheting sewing, and baking bread. This endeavour evolved into a community museum project throughout the years, demonstrating women’s tenacity and determination. This study intends to shed light on the multidimensional process that aided in the formation and growth of the community museum. It will dive into the historical context, emphasizing the socio-cultural value of the BORAVAST area and the Women's Club's essential role in preserving its history and looking at the history of women who were members of the women's club, what they were doing at the women's club and who were the members of the women's club. The thesis also tackles the obstacles encountered along the road, as well as the techniques used to overcome them, such as fundraising initiatives, community participation, and partnerships with government and non-government organizations.
The forensic, the missing and the memorial: how missing persons of apartheid state sanctioned violence are memorialised through the mediation of the work of the forensic
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Pretorius, Nicola
This mini-thesis is concerned with a text panel titled, ‘THE MISSING’ and a display cabinet that contains exhumed artefacts recovered alongside human remains of persons categorised as missing on exhibit at the //hapo museum at Freedom Park Heritage Site, located in Pretoria, South Africa. The question this mini-thesis asks is how missing persons of apartheid are memorialised at //hapo museum. It is through an analysis of this memorialisation, that the forensic emerges in two distinct ways, first as a category and then as part of the practice of exhumation. In exploring these notions, I critically examine the category “missing” as it has been presented at //hapo and the work of the forensic in relation to the work of memorialisation efforts. The position of the text panel (within //hapo) requires a disruption of time, a looking back and it is only through this looking back and turn to the past that ‘THE MISSING’ text panel is seen. In chapter 1, I examine the //hapo museum and how it sits within the larger post apartheid museum moment. I suggest thinking of the text panel through the exhibitory practice of the “dilemma label”. It is through exploring the inscribed accounts of the text panel that the forensic emerges, which is the work of Chapter 2. I also suggest that through forensis, that the text panel is a forum (of field and forum). I cast the text panel as forum as it is a public space where the results of the investigation (the field) is then presented, mediated and potentially contested. In chapter 3, I do an exhumation (of sorts) of the cabinet displays at //hapo museum that contain exhumed artefacts recovered alongside human remains of persons categorised as missing. I argue that the text panel at //hapo is headed by ‘THE MISSING’ which then resides alongside a set of cabinets display which contain the exhumed artefacts are a memorialisation effort by Freedom Park and the //hapo museum curators. The ‘museum-cemetery’ is both concept and category, which creates a practice but also a space that re-figures the dead within that dynamic space and within political and historiographical charged ways. It is a dynamic political space for the dead to be made/ unmade and through which their death can be processed and reconfigured. I make use of this concept and category to understand the text panel and the display cabinets together as a single ‘museum – cemetery.’ It is through positioning the display cabinets as a coffin and the text panel as a gravestone, that this connection can be made clear. The ‘museum-cemetery’ confines but also potentially remakes the afterlives of the artefacts. In a way this dynamic political and historical making and unmaking of the artefacts, also works to both rest and unrest the missing persons of apartheid, disrupting their afterlives but in an attempt to memorialise them.
The African hair salon: mitigating xenophobic violence through feminist solidarities in post- apartheid South Africa.
(Univeristy of the Western Cape, 2024) Mthonti, Fezokuhle
Xenophobic violence first entered the post-apartheid South African public imagination in 1994 when community organizations in Alexandra accused migrants from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi of causing crime, sexual attacks and unemployment and forcefully evicted them in a campaign called ‘Operation Buyelekhaya’, meaning ‘go back home’. In 1999, six white police officials were shown on national television racially assaulting and abusing eight illegal immigrants from Mozambique. From about 2006 onwards the number of immigrant shopkeepers killed has increased significantly. The violence toward immigrant shopkeepers intensified in 2008, but was overshadowed by the wide-scale xenophobic attacks that swept the country in May and June, which started in Alexandra, Johannesburg, in which violence was extended to individuals believed to be ‘foreigners,’ regardless if they were shopkeepers or not. The 2008 attacks saw sixty-three people killed, including twenty-one South Africans, nearly 700 injured, and thousands forced to flee their homes and businesses. The attacks also drew wide-scale international media coverage and condemnation from the South African government. In all of these cases, male immigrant shopkeepers represent the dominant imagenof African immigrants that are subject to xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Mapping MAPP: jazz pedagogies & praxes of freedom
(University of the Western Cape, 2025) Verghese, Benjamin
During its active years, the community arts organisation Musical Action for People’s Power (hereafter MAPP) functioned in a multitude of ways, as a: concert organiser; provider of sound (systems); co-participant in workshops and solidarity events with other community or youth groups and trade unions; but mainly as an “educational body”, which in 1989, semi-formally transitioned into a school for music education, renaming itself Musical Action for People’s Progress. As a pedagogic site, MAPP produced an education through arts practice which undid, in its methodology and practice, apartheid’s segregationist education policies and was deeply embedded in the mass democratic movement and other circuits of comradely organisation(s). Despite its active role, it has no presence in academic literature, its archive of different mediums is sparse, and its impact is not fully understood. This research project maps the network of pedagogies, people, places, and politics of MAPP in an effort to analyse the conditions which led to its formation, the people who contributed to MAPP’s cultural work, and the everyday events and changes during its eight years of activity. In particular, the project asks whether the practices and pedagogies of MAPP through jazz inform a philosophy of art-making as a practice of freedom. It does so through archival and historiographic methodologies based on critical practices of cartography, black study, jazz pedagogy, and DJ scholarship.
Die rol van die African Political Organisation in die Suid-Afrikaanse politiek, 1902-1924
(Universty of the Western Cape, 1987) Morris, Noel Edgar
Die bruin bevolking wat ontstaan het as gevolg van die ver-menging wat gedurende die vorige eeue tussen die verskillende bevolkingsgroepe plaasgevind het, vorm ‘n integrale deel van die heterogene bevolkingsamestelling van Suid-Afrika. Van meer belang vir die studie, egter, is die kunsmatige sameflansing van ‘n Unie en die nasleep wat dit vir die bruinmense polities, ekonomies en sosiaal ingehou het. Unlewording het ongetwyfeld tn nuwe eca in dle geskiedenis van Suid- Afrika ingelul wat nie slegs vir dle witmense nie, maar ook vir die bruin- en swartmense verreikende gevolge ingehou het. Dit was juis dle kompromie tusser Boer en Brit wat die bruinmense veronreg, verkleineen en sonder erkenning gelaat het. Die bruinmense was van medeseggenskap en besluitneming oor sake rakend hulle Iot en toekons uitgesluit. Die ondemokratiese, ontkennende en onde'lrdagte optrede sou nocCwendig tn reaksie uitlok waarvan die weerklank vandag steeds hoorbaar is. Met ‘n geas van wantroue, onsekerheid, vrese ea protes, is die toekoms tegemoet gegaan.
Re-imagining family photography through Zanele Muholi’s lens.
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Am, Vuyisanani; Mnyaka, Phindezwa
This study examines Zanele Muholi’s photographs in relation to the genre of family photography. This study questions whether we can consider Zanele Muholi’s photos as part of family photography. Family photography documents events. It captures celebrations, birthday parties and graduations and rarely ever captures pain and sadness. This study questions the heteronormativity and patriarchy that is reinforced by family photography. This study also questions notions of identity and belonging through two selected works, Somnyama Ngonyama and Faces and Phases. Muholi photographs members of the LGBTQI community, capturing scars, funerals and celebrates same-sex tenderness. The study therefore questions the definition of what family photography is when considering the photographed LGBTQI community that Zanele Muholi portrays, and aims to expand understandings of this genre while simultaneously engaging it critically.
Radio as a domain of freedom: aurality, memory and object biography in the Eastern Cape.
(Universty of the Western Cape, 2024) Kobokana, Siyanda; Rassool, Ciraj
This thesis examines the role of radio as a domain of freedom in apartheid South Africa, exploring how it functioned both as a tool of state control and a site of resistance. Through the concepts of aurality, memory, and object biography, this study considers the ways in which radio shaped political consciousness and personal identity, particularly within Black communities. Using the Panasonic RF-2200 radio owned by the author’s grandfather as a focal point, the thesis explores insurgent listening a form of engaged and resistant listenership that defied state censorship and enabled communities to participate in the liberation struggle. Drawing on oral histories, archival research, and critical media studies, this research argues that radio was more than a means of broadcasting; it was a mediating object through which individuals and communities constructed meaning, remembered the past, and imagined alternative futures. By engaging with scholars such as Liz Gunner, Sekibakiba Lekgoathi, and Marissa Moorman, the thesis situates radio within broader debates on sonic heritage and historical acoustemology, demonstrating how sound technologies contributed to both oppression and resistance. The study also considers how the legacy of insurgent listening extends beyond apartheid, influencing contemporary social movements such as #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to discussions on media and resistance, arguing that radio, as both a material object and a site of listening, played a crucial role in shaping historical memory, political engagement, and subjectivity in South Africa.
The making and re-making of Platteklip precinct as heritage of Cape Town
(Universty of the Western Cape, 2024) Johnson, Wendy; Witz, Leslie
Platteklip precinct, one of the sites along the slopes of Table Mountain, has been layered with histories of communities over several hundreds of years, and it continues to be used by people as they believe in the spiritual value of the water from the mountain flowing down the gorge. In the early 2000s Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) launched a significant heritage intervention, trying to transform this into a heritage precinct through tourism. The motivation behind this was to generate an income for the National Park which can be seen as the basis on which heritage was made. This thesis attempts to critically analyze these interventions by TMNP to make the Platteklip precinct a heritage of Cape Town. I discuss the way that this has been done, the format it took, the decisions that were made, as well as the ideas to carry this forward. I also look at additional interventions that might be made to create a culture of heritage in the precinct. As part of my research, I explore archival material on the history of the Platteklip precinct, the history of TMNP and locate the interventions in the area in broader studies on the making of heritage.
The legacies of copper mining in Namaqualand
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Cloete, Romario Fabiano; Benson. Koni
In the 1850s, Namaqualand experienced a copper mining boom, the first of its kind in South Africa. Copper mining became the economic heartbeat of Namaqualand and people flocked to the Northern Cape to work in the copper mines. This mining mania did not last, and in the early 2000s the copper mines eventually closed. This mini-thesis investigates the economic, social, and environmental legacies of copper mining and its afterlives on local communities in Namaqualand both before and after the copper boom, with a particular focus on the experiences of mining workers and their descendants who contributed to the success of the mines. This study documents and amplifies these narratives to counteract hegemonic historical perspectives that continue to privilege the experiences of mining companies and overlook the voices of miners and marginalised community members. In seeking to understand how mining pasts have been assembled and exhibited to the public, the research highlights the legacies of copper mining in Namaqualand, the resilience of the Namaqua people, the values and counter-representations held in naming practices, landscape, and in language and memory, and the importance of inclusive heritage preservation and public history.
A land occupation called Covid in the time of COVID-19
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Mvimbi, Yanathi; Benson, Koni
Most people would associate the word “Covid” with the coronavirus pandemic that disrupted people’s lives globally in 2020. However, in this research, besides referring to the pandemic, “Covid” refers to a land occupation in Cape Town, South Africa. Living without proper housing is one of the hardest struggles that millions of poor black South Africans experience every day. Reflecting ongoing spatial apartheid, it is one of the greatest injustices of the democratic era that many people still do not have a decent home. This research seeks to understand the struggles that people went through during and after COVID-19 in the land occupation that resulted in the informal settlement named Covid. The mini-thesis documents how settlements like Covid are publicly represented through a critical reading of a selection of news articles, government media statements and nongovernmental organisation (NGO) reports. The paper examines how these ‘outsider’ perspectives represent and construct socioeconomic rights, poverty and inequality and how this impacts their attitudes and solutions to homelessness in Cape Town. The study highlights the roles of NGOs and social movements in the fight against spatial injustice during and since the pandemic. Most importantly, all these perspectives are contrasted with how Covid residents represent themselves and their decision to occupy land.
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.”
Things pretty dull: Materiality and the making of Muizenberg in the 20th and 21st centuries
(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Hiscock, Jenna; Witz, Leslie
The purpose of this research is to explore processes of historical production and ideas about public space in Muizenberg, South Africa. It argues that the dominant narrative told about Muizenberg from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reinforces colonial hegemony concerning public space, development and progress. This research attempts to challenge and undermine this narrative. In order to do so, this research looks at postcards of Muizenberg as a way of re-reading history and historical production. Throughout, I explore whether the postcard can become an intervention for re-reading Muizenberg and its dominant histories. What can such a reading address? What sort of events are included in these dominant histories, who is present and absent, and which representations are included or excluded by local historians? Beginning with an analysis of the ‘golden years’ of Muizenberg, I problematise dominant production of Muizenberg’s history, and discuss how it is depicted on postcards, particularly within books produced by local historians. I engage with the postcard as a material object, looking at ‘more’ than its image, considering both its sides, and the stamps, addresses, messages, physical appearance, manufacturer, etc.
The politics of representation in the inanda heritage route: A case study of the Phoenix Settlement, Ohlange Institute and Inanda Seminary
(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Simelane, Ayanda Siphesihle; du Toit, Marijke
The thesis is a case study of three main sites on the Inanda Heritage Route, namely, the Phoenix Settlement, Ohlange Institute and Inanda Seminary. This is an important heritage route in post-apartheid KwaZulu-Natal, established in line with national government projects aimed at transforming the cultural landscape. As such, the route represents a particular approach to South African public history, strongly focused on a narrative of opposition to racial segregation and apartheid. The thesis provides a detailed analysis of the exhibitions found at the Phoenix Settlement, Ohlange Institute and Inanda Seminary. I discuss the overall dominance of biographical narration?featuring the lives and achievements of mission educated Africans and in which Gandhi is also presented as an important figure.
Popular history in South Africa in the 198Os: the politics of production
(University of the Western Cape, 1994) Rousseau, Nicky; Minkley, Gary; Witz, Lesley
Popular history, like indeed other histories, is informed by different ideas about the relationship between the past, the present and the political uses of history. However, a major problem in trying to explore these ideas as they developed in South Africa in the period under review, is that they remain for the large part embedded in popular history texts. A consistent and conscious theorisation has not been much evident - at least not at a published level. The triennial conferences of the WHW are thus perhaps unique in the opportunity they accorded to projects to reflect on their experiences and more generally to raise issues and debates relating to popularisation. At the same time, and perhaps precisely because it was one of the few arena6 where such reflection was happening, the relative paucity of research to emerge from these quarters is particularly regrettable. while not all would agree with Crais' assertion that the programmatic separation of the popularisation section2 from the mainstream academic one resulted in "exclusionary practices"3, it does seem undeniable that they enjoyed a different and lesser status.
Being and neoliberalism: A conceptual history of the subject
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Naidoo, Kiasha; van Bever Donker, Maurits
The idea of neoliberalism, as both a guiding principle for economic policy decisions and a governing rationality, is a pertinent issue of our time. The concept itself is often used to describe the contemporary mode of political economy but when we look closer, it is notoriously elusive. Scholars such as Michel Foucault and Wendy Brown seek to conceptualize neoliberalism as a governing rationality. What these scholars share is a reading of neoliberal governmentality in terms of the subject. In social and political philosophical critiques of neoliberalism which inherit from this Foucauldian line of thought, the subject is a central figure. However, thinking on the subject did not begin with a consideration of neoliberalism, it has a long philosophical history. I discuss this through a conceptual history of the subject and in doing so, understand the neoliberal subject as another iteration of subjectivity.
Visual technologies and the shaping of public memory of disappeared persons in Cape Town (1960-1990)
(University of the Western Cape, 2021) Rahman, Ziyaad; Hayes, Patricia
The starting point of this thesis is the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Missing Person�s Task Team (MPTT), two instruments of the post-apartheid government, both of which have directly attended to the disappeared dead. The disappeared dead are defined in this thesis as persons abducted and subject to enforced disappearances, as well as those killed in other political circumstances whose bodies were buried by the apartheid state, in some cases as unnamed paupers, thus denying families the opportunity to bury and mourn according to familial or cultural norms. Today the MPTT still seeks to locate the gravesites of the disappeared dead, to exhume, identify and to return the mortal remains to their families.
The African child and the hidden curriculum at Blythswood Institute: Three snapshots
(University of Western Cape, 2021) Nogqala, Xolela; Rousseau, Nicky
This mini-thesis seeks to understand how the colonial and apartheid state imagined the African child in South Africa through education policies and their associated hidden curriculum. It asks what educational project was deemed suitable for the African child and how did this project configure her future? At the core of this enquiry is a preoccupation to understand how institutions, their curricula and objects rid themselves of colonial precepts. In working through this, I employ Blythswood Institute as a provocation to think and to historicise the education of African children, such as those at Blythswood, in three moments: colonialism and the founding of Blythswood in 1877; apartheid and the passing of the Bantu Education Act of 1953, and the post-apartheid times of democratic South Africa.

Browse

Recent Submissions