UWCScholar

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Recent Submissions

Unearthing presence in the artefacts of slavery at the Cape: the production of archaeological narratives in post-apartheid South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, 2025) Karating, Robin-lea
‘Unearthing presence in the artefacts of slavery at the Cape: The production of archaeological narratives in post-apartheid South Africa’ is concerned with analysing and reading the archaeological projects on slavery in what was known as the Cape since 1990. It focuses on how archaeologists articulate their work on slavery and how it is transcribed and memorialised at sites around the greater Cape Town area. These sites include the Iziko Slave Lodge, Prestwich Place Ossuary, the South African Sendinggestig Museum/Slave Church Museum and Leeuwenhof Slave Quarters, as well as wine estates such as Vergelegen and Solms Delta. It also draws on two key maritime archaeological projects namely the Meermin and São Josè ship wrecks and investigates the claims made, the practices of maritime archaeology and how these wrecks have been memorialized in exhibition at the Iziko Slave Lodge. All these sites and projects form part of the production of archaeological narratives and the archive of slavery at the Cape. Each of these sites seemingly contribute to the makings of archaeological knowledge as fact and indicate the powers involved in the memorialization of slavery in the Cape by showcasing archaeology as the dominant voice in these narratives. This study reads these sites in terms of the concepts of absence and presence as well as missingness which underpins the process of becoming lost and invisible and analyses how archaeologists through their findings have tried to produce and inscribe slave lifeways at these sites. It investigates what happens to the enslaved bodies and narratives in each of these cases and discusses these in terms of agency and the attachment of personhood to the slave remains by the various stakeholders involved in the processes of memorialization at certain sites.
What does it take to operationalise gender transformative approaches across different African contexts?
(Women's Health and Action Research Centre, 2025) Amde, Woldekidan; George, Asha; Jacobs, Tanya; Mjijelwa, Vuyolwethu; Schaay, Nichola
Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent in the world. Governed by 54 recognised sovereign states, its people celebrate multiple traditions and speak countless dialects and languages apart from those inherited by varied colonial legacies. Despite historical and ongoing debts, it has one of the fastest growing global economies and vast natural resources. Its full potential, however, is not realized due in part to the lack of progress and regression on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The inertia and, in some contexts, the pushback on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights are alarming and unprecedented.1 Thirty years after Beijing, sub-Saharan African women experience the highest rates of intimate partner or sexual violence. Of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage, 15 are in Africa (WHO).4,5 There is also a pushback in terms of sexual rights across the continent, whether in terms of contestations regarding female genital cutting in the Gambia or Kenya, or further restrictions, including increased criminalisation, of those who are not exclusively heterosexual in Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Shaping the African research agenda for gender transformative approaches to sexual and reproductive health and rights: A scoping review taking stock to re-align and move forward
(Women's Health and Action Research Centre, 2025) George, Asha; Amde, Woldekidan; Jacobs, Tanya
Given the imminent threats to gender equality, it is critical to take stock of what is documented in terms of gender transformative approaches supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights across the African continent. This scoping review found 52 articles published between 2012-2022 from PubMed and Scopus. We describe the geographic distribution, terms, the conceptual frameworks and social theories used, program areas, target populations and intervention approaches, as well as study designs and outcomes found. While a substantial body of evidence on gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights across Africa is building, it remains skewed geographically, programmatically, and analytically. More rigorous research is needed about the dynamics of shifting gender power relations undertaken in partnership with social movements and practitioners who can ensure more ownership and accountability for gender justice in sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa over the long term.
Reconstructed wood carbon aerogel with single-atom sites for flexible Zn–air batteries
(American Chemical Society, 2025) Iwuoha Emmanuel; Chen, Zehong; Zhong, Linxin
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have become vital air cathodes for metal−air batteries, but fabricating monolithic SACs with high catalytic activity and mechanical strength is currently lacking. Herein, an all-natural wood carbon aerogel with single-atom sites is reconstructed via modulating the multi-interactions within lignocellulosic components. Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) constitutes an oriented scaffold via physical interweaving and strong electrostatic repulsion, while lignosulfonate, acting as a multifunctional bioligand, coordinates with metal ions and forms hydrogen bonds with CNF to prevent the agglomeration of adjacent metal atoms. The resulting carbon aerogel features a biomimetic channel-ordered microstructure with M−N4 active sites (M = Cu, Fe, and Co), leading to outstanding mechanical elasticity and oxygen reduction and evolution activities with a half-wave potential of 0.881 V. Therefore, the SA-Cu@NCA-based aqueous Zn−air battery (ZAB) exhibits a high specific capacity of 779.3 mA h g−1 and long-term stability, while the flexible ZAB with SA-Cu@NCA as an integrated cathode delivers a high specific capacity and impressive operating stability even under harsh structural deformations. This study presents a viable approach for the sustainable production of flexible SACs for wearable and portable electronics.
Inadequate last-mile pharmaceutical waste management is a neglected threat to environmental and public health: a call to action
(BMJ Publishing Group, 2025) Ravinetto, Raffaella; Coetzee, Renier; Bradley, Hazel
In 2024, the WHO’s Division on Access to Medicines and Health Products issued a call to action for sustainability in the pharmaceutical sector. The initiative, ‘Greener Pharmaceuticals’ Regulatory Highway’, underscored the need to reduce the environmental footprint of medical products. It explicitly called on the regulatory community to adopt initiatives towards ‘innovative approaches in the manufacturing, distribution, and usage of medical products. This timely initiative aligns with the growing recognition of interconnectedness between climate change, pollution— including ‘pharmaceutical pollution’—and public health. However, the need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions should not overshadow other relevant areas for action in the pharmaceutical sector. Here, we focus on the negative environmental impact of the inappropriate elimination of pharmaceutical waste generated at the last mile in healthcare