AA 2016 Volume 48 Issue 2

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/5754

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    How the war economy centred in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is fuelling the conflict in the Great Lakes Region (1998-2016)
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Mokose, Manapo Tebello; Solomon, Hussein
    Millions have been killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite various mediation efforts and having one of the largest United Nations/ African Union peacekeeping forces in the world, the carnage continues to claim more victims. What this paper argues is that the underlying war economy must be seen as the basis of the ongoing violence and only its eradication and replacement by a peace economy will there be any hope for sustainable peace both in the DRC and the broader Great Lakes Region. To this end, the paper provides a historical background to the conflict, and then proceeds to contextualize this economy within the war and peace economy literature. The intricacies in the war economy are then unravelled followed by certain policy recommendations to end the violence.
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    The fourth and fifth generations of African scholars: a South African case study
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Mapaya, Madimabe Geoff
    In the so-called African millennium, it is perhaps excusable to pretend that African scholarship has come of age. Almost 20 years after the seminal article by Professor Thandika Mkandawire, which proffered a generational profile of the African scholar, it is perhaps opportune now to revisit the subject. Following on this historical masterpiece, the present article seeks to present a critique of what has become the hallmark of African scholarship albeit from a narrow South African perspective. It does so by taking into account some of the factors (good or bad) responsible for the status quo. A random sample of academic articles, including interviews with a number of African scholars, was used to formulate the argument in this article. A critique of the human capital in selected South African universities was also essential in completing a picture of academic progress or lack thereof. While not undermining the milestones reached, a kind of introspective reflection on the state of African scholarship can only aid the advancement of African knowledge enterprise; hence this instalment.
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    Right to reply: response to the academy
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Stolp, Mareli
    Abstract not available
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    Deconstructing Disney’s divas: a critique of the singing princess as filmic trope
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Potgieter, Liske; Potgieter, Zelda
    This article contributes to the discourse of the body and the voice in feminist psychoanalytic film theory by exploring the currently under-theorised notion of the singing body in particular, as this notion finds manifestation in Disney’s Singing Princess as filmic trope. Analyses of vocal musical coding follow her trajectory across 13 Disney princess films to reveal deeper insight into what she sings, how she sings, and why she sings. In this manner, it is argued, the Singing Princess gradually emerges from her genealogical roots as innamorata, a position of vocal corporealisation and diegetic confinement, to one wherein her voice assumes a position of authority over the narrative, and from one of absolute submissiveness and naïve obedience to a greatly enriched experience of her own subjectivity.
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    Reviews
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Williams, Christian
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    South Africa after 20 years of democracy: a case study
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Labuschagne, Pieter
    The two decades spanning the end of the 20th and the start of the 21st Century were important phases in the global process of democratisation. The 1990s were epitomised by the ground-breaking 1991 publication of Samuel Huntington’s The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Huntington’s book crowned the global success of democracy, with a growing number of states adopting the principles of democracy. It seems that the next decade from 2000 to 2010 would be the continuation of the democratic trend with authoritarian regimes and their leaders toppling before the “next wave of democratisation”. This notion was strengthened by a significant number of countries, including Turkey, Egypt, Libya and Ukraine, disposing of their leaders and adopting democratic principles. However, it seems that the transition from an authoritarian to democratic rule was more challenging, with the new democracies progressively showing distinct signs of vulnerability in sustaining democracy. The challenges to new democracies seemed to coincide with a wider, more comprehensive disillusion with democracy in general. The scepticism towards democracy increased at a juncture when authoritarian rule seemed to pose a real challenge to democracies, with the rise of China on the global stage. The article is concluded with an investigation into the state of democracy in South Africa in the form of a case study. The reference in the article to other countries is for explanatory purposes only.
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    Ending party cleavage for a better polity: is Kwasi Wiredu’s non-party polity a viable alternative to a party polity?
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Matolino, Bernard
    Africa’s current democratic outlook is a relic of the crowning vestige bequeathed by the colonial metropolis as a sign of the African’s attainment of political freedom. As if to suggest that at the occasion of the attainment of that freedom, the African had become human, the metropolis demanded that formerly colonised territories had to democratise. This democratisation had to be of the same hue as of the metropolis. A particular aspect of Western democracy that has been deemed problematic on the African continent is its adversarial form crystallised by open and vicious competition for power between political parties. First to reject this party-polity were the first generation of African leaders. Disastrously for them, both their theories and practices were to be discredited, and as the personae fell so did their theories. The prominent African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu has led a sustained onslaught on the party-polity. He has attempted to show that this polity has several problems including that it is a poor version of democracy as well as that its structures promote considerable harm in the form of unb ridled competition for power, which all result in exclusionary politics. In the process of arguing for a more inclusive polity, consensual democracy, Wiredu has set his sights on outlining the precise nature of how such a polity is more democratic while at the same time shunning party politics. What I seek to do here is to present an assessment of some of Wiredu’s arguments in support of consensus as a non-party polity. I wish to argue that the attempt of doing away with party politics is not very compelling. I also wish to show why those who read Wiredu’s position as a return to a one-party state should receive a sympathetic hearing.
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    Anthony Van Dyck and the trope of the black attendant
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Van Haute, Bernadette
    This article examines Van Dyck’s use of the motif of the African attendant in his extant oeuvre in order to establish patterns and strategies of representation of the racial other. It reveals the artist’s paternalistic interpretation of a trope that was aesthetically informed by examples set by Titian and Rubens but adapted to the tastes of his patrons as determined by the fashion of the time and place. By considering the iconography in conjunction with the reception of the works I disclose the varying connotations of the motif demonstrating the artist’s wit in developing early visual forms of racial humour. These unique adaptations expose Van Dyck’s use of ridicule as a pattern of paternalism rooted in his social ambitions and Christian convictions yet always subject to the conditions of display. The value of this research lies in its contribution both to Van Dyck scholarship and to the history of race and racism in early modern Western Europe.
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    Right to reply: Power and ethics in humanities research: a response to Stolp
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Horn, Lyn; Van Niekerk, Anton; Theron, Therina; Swartz, Leslie; Le Grange, Lesley
    Abstract not available