Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Africa Studies)

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Open Access
Ukuthwasa initiation of amagqirha: identity construction and the training of Xhosa women as traditional healers
(University of the Free State, 2009-05) Mlisa, Lily-Rose Nomfundo; Nel, J. P.; Pretorius, E.
English: The study explores ukuthwasa initiation process amongst amaXhosa women in the Eastern Cape Province. The focus is on the training of women amagqirha in three areas in the Eastern Cape. The study looks at how the women are trained as amagqirha and how they construct their multifaceted identities during their tedious five-year training process. The Komanisi iphehlo is used as a paradigmatic model school for the training of amagqirha. The ritual of ukuthwasa is analysed as a transformational practice that operates changes in those who undergo it. A brief review of the interface between ukuthwasa and Christianity is included and reflections in specific historical and socio-cultural contexts are provided. AmaXhosa have been shaping and reshaping their ethnicity, religious culture, their identities and political systems during the course of political instability and economic and social-cultural challenges, including challenges during the democratic government. Such challenges affected amaXhosa as a nation and their religious life, as traces of such can be observed in transformations that have affected ukuthwasa practice. The study reveals the structure of the training process and incidents that led to the evolution of ukuthwasa, ritualism, symbolism, myth or magic and possible inexplicable realities of the world of ukuthwasa, to reveal the epistemologies and existential realities of ukuthwasa and female experiences. The polymorphism of ukuthwasa demands the use of various theoretical approaches to explain the process and practice of ukuthwasa. Consequently, that led to the use of a triangulation approach as a method of choice to collect, analyse and interpret the data. The grounded theory method was used. The life histories of four trainers and the spiritual journey of the researcher are used as retrospective data to explain the process, existential experiences and practice of ukuthwasa. In total, 115 participants, including amagqirha, faithhealers, public community members, family members of those who thwasa, initiates and key public figures have been interviewed through structured and unstructured interviews. Verification and soundness of data collected are maintained by means of verifying data through focus groups. Results reveal that the amaXhosa experience ukuthwasa as a cultural initiation process that helps in nurturing, awakening and stimulating the person’s umbilini (intuition), which is an inborn gift used in divining. Umbilini is the only skill used to assess, diagnose and treat their clients and patients. Therefore amagqirha use inductive ways of assessing their clients. Through ukuthwasa initiation, women are able to understand their ‘self’ better. Ukuthwasa also instils maturity and opens up insights into their other gifts such as ‘leadership’ skills. In that way, ukuthwasa enhances their identities. In addition, amaXhosa understand ukuthwasa as a reality and an inborn gift that runs in families. The result is also that ukuthwasa is a complex and abstract phenomenon that unfolds as a long process and is never completed fully in its entirety; only death relieves a person from its demands. It is fraught with various crises and to reject it is to invite continuous crises and ultimately madness and death; the best way is to accept it. To treat ukuthwasa as a possession and as a psychological phenomenon or syndrome is to underestimate the primary factor of the inborn disposition’s importance as cultural text and cultural discourse. Variations in the structure and procedures carried out in ukuthwasa are identified within the cultural group and other Nguni cultures, as well as at national and international level. Furthermore, there is an inevitable interface between ukuthwasa and Christianity. The amaXhosa believe in one, universal world. The infusion of cultural doctrines with Christian values leads amagqirha to construct their multiple identities as amagqirha, faith-healers, powerful healing women as well as women leaders in the cultural and Christian healing profession.
Open Access
Land reform and poverty alleviation in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe
(University of the Free State, 2014-01) Makunike, Blessing; Kondlo, Kwandiwe
The study is an investigation into the linkage between, landownership and poverty alleviation in Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe. The focus is directed by the fact that in Zimbabwe, the poorest live in rural areas. The problem of rural poverty has been attributed, in part, to lack of access to land due to historical imbalances arising from colonialism. The objective of this study is to find out how the livelihoods of those who were resettled have been transformed. Despite heated debate among scholars on Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform, a systematic investigation of the relationship between access to land and poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe is generally weak; consequently, there are gaps in the analysis of land occupation processes and what is required for sustainable agrarian livelihoods. Indeed, the programme of land reform is crucial to the resolution of rural poverty. It is, therefore, important that such a programme be implemented in a fair, just and sustainable manner in the interest of all the stakeholders within the ambits of the law and constitution of Zimbabwe. The approach followed in the discussion can be described as moving from the macro to the micro in that the thesis covers broad but very important contextual issues about the political history of the land question in Zimbabwe and then narrows down to a discussion of land reform and poverty in Mashonaland East. The theoretical position of the study is that the land question in Zimbabwe is by and large, a political issue. The key argument is that distribution of society’s scarce resources in Zimbabwe is primarily informed by political calculations rather than non-partisan concerns for alleviation of poverty at the grassroots of society. Land is finite and therefore a scarce resource and its redistribution has largely been informed by political calculations rather than consistent criteria to deal with the plight of the rural poor based on measured levels of need and poverty. The politicization of land reform in Zimbabwe has a lot to do with the reproduction of power of the ruling ZANU-PF political elites. Poverty in Zimbabwe emanates from lack of access by the poor majority to resources and other material means of life. The theoretical perspective is that government’s decisions on who gets land leads to poverty as the vulnerable groups and less politically connected are not always prioritized for access to land. The research paradigm used is the sustainable livelihoods approach, which is influenced by qualitative methodology. It emphasizes the complexity of rural class structures and the contingency of individual agency. This approach has, at its center, the individual or individual households, and tries to understand how each household derives its livelihood. The theory of justice is also partially used to inform the assessment of the social character of land reform beneficiaries, in relation to grievances, the procedure of the reform, the social organization of beneficiaries, and the intended impact of the reform. Because of the economic and political environment in which the study was done, simple random sampling was used to select respondents for discussions and interviews. This approach was justified because it gave each unit an equal chance of being chosen. But the study is based, on the overall; on a case study method hence the findings may have limited generalization to contexts outside Mashonaland East. The narrative of the Zimbabwean state is that the land reform programme met its targets. Resettlement benefited a broad set of people. However empirical evidence examined during the research shows that there was no significant reduction in rural poverty levels, beneficiary selection was not done in a just, fair and transparent manner and productivity was generally low. The thesis argues that the land reform programme in Zimbabwe is in a crisis characterized by a lack of transparency and presided over by a state that is itself unclear about the redistribution strategy that it wants to pursue. There is an ambiguous implementation plan as well as inadequate capacity enhancing policy parameters that are vital to enable a fair and objective evaluation of the whole programme.
Open Access
Financing rebellion: the Rhodesian state, financial policy and exchange control, 1962-1979
(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Nyamunda, Tinashe; Phimister, I. R.; Cohen, A. P.
English: This thesis examines the history of finance and exchange control under the Rhodesian Front (RF) government between 1962 and 1979. Outlining the background to Southern Rhodesia’s incorporation within Britain’s imperial network from 1890 to 1962, the study’s primary focus is on how the Colony emerged from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963 to reconstitute a financial system capable of operating independently from Britain. The Rhodesian case study illustrates the antagonism between British financial interests and colonial financial policies. The political impasse over the Rhodesian question centered on finance as a tool of coercion by London, and conversely, as a rebel bulwark against the metropole. Following UDI in 1965, financial and economic sanctions were imposed by Britain and subsequently the United Nations (UN). The various settlement negotiations that ensued were unsuccessful in stopping the rebellion until the Lancaster House Conference in 1979. The process whereby Rhodesia survived sanctions by the use of financial measures supported by strategic political alliances and trade arrangements with South Africa and Portugal is clearly examined. It was not until the escalation of the guerrilla struggle in the 1970s that the rebel monetary system began to buckle. The study traces the measures taken by Britain and the UN to end the Rhodesian rebellion, including the effects this had on London as well as the geopolitical implications for Southern Africa, notably South Africa and Zambia. It utilizes primary material from Zimbabwean, South African and British archives to determine the different strategies involved and their effects on Britain and Rhodesia. The thesis also discusses the extent to which broader international events influenced developments in Rhodesia, for example, the collapse of the Bretton Woods financial system in 1971, the oil shock in 1973 and the global economic recessions which they triggered and their effects on the Colony. Central to this analysis is how Salisbury’s financial administration was coordinated by a Ministerial Economic Coordination Committee to sustain the different elements of the Rhodesian rebellion at different stages until a point was reached when the only option was compromise at Lancaster. Not limited to an examination of the effects of sanctions, the thesis is a study of a neglected area of Zimbabwean and general economic history: colonial financial systems in their transition to a postcolonial state.
Open Access
‘Mabhurandaya’: the Malawian diaspora in Zimbabwe: 1895 to 2008
(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Daimon, Anusa; Phimister, I. R.; Oelofse, M.
English: This thesis historicizes the connections between identity, marginality and agency amongst an African diasporic community in Zimbabwe. It uses the case of people of Malawian ancestry or Mabhurandaya as a window into examining how their experiences in Zimbabwe, from the 1890s until the inception of the Government of National Unity in 2008, were shaped by various dynamics. More specifically, it situates and historicizes the place of identity in the marginalization of the Malawian diaspora in Zimbabwe and their counter-initiatives in managing and adapting to challenges. Having come into Zimbabwe initially as migrants under the colonial labour migration (Chibaro/Mthandizi) system before gradually settling down permanently as part of a diasporic minority, some Malawian descendants carved a niche for themselves in what became their permanent ‘home’. Malawian identities emerged and were constructed, imagined, as well as contested in various spaces across Zimbabwe. Fluid and multiple identities were fashioned or negotiated based on foreign ancestry, migration experiences, ethnicity, gender, class, education and unique socio-cultural motifs. Officially dubbed ‘native aliens’ by the Rhodesian state and later simply as ‘aliens’ by the post-colonial state, or more commonly as Mabhurandaya by the Zimbabwean indigenes, Malawian communities became an integral component of Zimbabwean social, economic and political history. Nonetheless, the colonial and post-colonial state historically marginalised migrant descendants with diasporas living as minorities in states of unbelonging. At the same time, the Malawian diaspora exerted individual and collective agency to cope and adapt to the several challenges and anxieties they faced in Zimbabwe. They made their own history, and found ways to assert and express themselves. Their experiences were not homogenous but were multi-layered, varying according to gender, age, education, occupation and settlement. They were also multi-dimensional and often cyclical in nature, manifesting themselves in intricate life cycles of marginality and agency over time. The thesis provides a critical and historical analysis of the above dynamics, which is empirically grounded in specific case studies across Zimbabwe.
Open Access
The impact of the Second World War on Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), 1939-1953
(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Tembo, Alfred; Phimister, I. R.; Spence, Daniel Owen
English: The thesis explores the impact of the Second World War on colonial Zambia. The situation faced by the British government during the hostilities required a collective effort to fight a total war against the Axis powers. A supreme effort was demanded not only by Britain and her Allies, but also of Britain in partnership with her Empire. This is a study of how the colony of Northern Rhodesia went about the process of organising its human and natural resources on behalf of the imperial government. Thematically-organised, the thesis begins with the recruitment of personnel for the Northern Rhodesia Regiment. It explores the role of traditional authority and government propaganda but also brings to the fore African agency. It also argues that some sections of the African and European populations were opposed to the colony’s war effort. The colony’s contribution to the Allied war effort was also extended to the supply of base metals to the Allies. Its mining industry came to operate like an appendage of the British war economy, with the imperial government buying the commodity at a controlled price. Furthermore, Northern Rhodesia supplied rubber and beeswax following the fall of Allied-controlled South-east Asian colonies at the hands of the invading Japanese in early 1942. Just as the colony’s mining industry had become important to the Allies in wartime, the mines came to play an even more significant role in the reconstruction of the battered British economy post-war. The new relationship was based on the need for Britain to have access to the very valuable copper industry’s dollar-earnings, especially following the devaluation of sterling. As the City of London lost its importance as the world’s financial centre, the copper companies also shifted their offices to central Africa. This movement was accompanied by growing settler political influence which eventually led to the creation of the Central African Federation. Just as the war affected the British home front, so too, it did that of Northern Rhodesia. The war impacted the lives of ordinary people through commodity shortages, profiteering, inflation, hoarding, and the black market. The colonial government responded by taking an active role never before witnessed in the history of the colony to control these vices. The thesis ends with a discussion on the demobilization process in which African servicemen felt cheated by an Empire-wide system of racial hierarchy. Although expanded government propaganda machinery contributed to the growth of an African political voice, most ex-servicemen remained concerned about personal affairs, and directed their frustration at their traditional leaders who were active in the recruitment process. Contrary to older arguments, African servicemen did not play an active role in nationalist politics. On a wider historical plane, through a detailed examination of the economic, political, military, social, and agricultural sectors of Northern Rhodesia this thesis is the first major study of the impact of the Second World War on the colony. In so doing, this thesis significantly modifies a number of historiographies and opens up space for creating a more comprehensive history of the Second World War in Africa. Lastly, this thesis also helps to broaden imperial historical debates by its examination of the “second colonial occupation” of Northern Rhodesia after the war.
Open Access
Urban protest, citizenship and the city: the history of residents' associations and African urban representation in colonial Harare, Zimbabwe
(University of the Free State, 2015-11) Chitofiri, Kudakwashe; Phimister, I. R.; Roos, N.
English: This thesis is an account of social movements in the African part of the city of Salisbury in colonial Zimbabwe. It explores how the emergence and character of the “Location”, as shaped by segregatory policies which viewed Africans as temporary sojourners in the city, influenced the development of African urban social movements. In doing so, it argues that the reluctance of the colonial authorities and business to invest in basic infrastructure and social services for the Location was the core reason why Africans organised themselves for the improvement of conditions in their segregated part of the City. Seeing themselves as permanent dwellers long before this fact was acknowledged by municipal authorities, many Africans came gradually to understand their collective strength. The emergence of African urban movements was thus a result of a realisation by Africans of the strength of the collective in confronting colonial authorities. This study argues that African trade unions and labour organisations were influenced by the state of affairs in the townships to become mouthpieces for all African urban dwellers. Even later nationalist organisations became de facto township residents’ associations because of the centrality of urban grievances for African Location residents. Investigating the impact of the Depression and the Second World War on the direction and character that African urban representation assumed in the post 1940s period this thesis argues that it was the conditions brought about by increased African urbanisation such as overcrowding and other accompanying urban ills that led to the emergence of, and increase in, narrowly focussed African urban representative unions and associations in the post war period. The thesis also assesses the operations of residents’ representative groupings in an environment of heightened national struggle for independence. It refocuses debates on African agency by exploring “African voices” in the urban arena as they engaged with colonial authorities about the manner in which the Location was imagined, arranged and managed. It captures moments of organised confrontation with colonial authorities by African urban residents organisations from 1908 when the first African Location was created in Salisbury right up to independence in 1980. Paying due regard to the changing and different attitudes of successive colonial governments and local authorities over time and space, the thesis examines the impact of such shifts on the nature and form of African representation.
Open Access
Acquisition, ownership and use of natural resources in South Eastern Zimbabwe, 1929-1969
(University of the Free State, 2015-12) Ndumeya, Noel; Phimister, I. R.; Masakure, C.
English: This study examines patterns of natural resources distribution and land use in south eastern Zimbabwe, originally known as Melsetter, and later Melsetter and Chipinga Districts. The study focuses on land utilisation, water, game and indigenous timber uses from 1929 to 1969. Prior to white occupation of this area, Africans owned and used these resources under precolonial communal tenure systems. The means by which these resources were seized, particularly in what became the white settler areas of the Melsetter and Chipinga Highlands, is traced from the mid-1890s onwards. Thereafter changing ownership and land use transformations are examined in detail among the diverse inhabitants of this region. African livelihood experiences during the Great Depression of c 1929-1939 are closely analysed, and their agency is brought out through the ways in which they challenged colonial policy. In the pre-1945 era, although the best land had already been alienated, Africans continued to use these resources as labour tenants. That the Melsetter District had great agricultural potential partly explains why it attracted white settlement as early as the mid-1890s. The study also analyses why, when compared to other white settled districts, for more than fifty years after colonial occupation, Melsetter remained an agriculturally backward and undercapitalised settler region. After the Second World War, parts of the region were transformed by the acquisition of land by corporate timber concerns. In the 1960s, coffee growers who arrived mostly from east Africa settled in parts of this region. By embarking on commercial coffee production, they had a significant impact on the agricultural history of the area. These secondary land acquisitions are explored at three levels; firstly, as a local reflection of changing global political and economic conditions; secondly, the intensive use of land resources, and how this had a direct impact on the Africans who formerly utilised this land as tenants and, thirdly; changing African reactions especially where this led to direct confrontation. These historical developments are examined within the broad context of the heterogeneous societies inhabiting this region.
Open Access
A survey of sacred sites and construction of sacredness of space in the Free State
(University of the Free State, 2016) Moephuli, John Thabo; Nel, P. J.
English: The research presented in this thesis focuses on the nature and extent of sacred sites in the Eastern Free State, namely Mautse, Motouleng, Modderpoort and Oetsi. An explorative survey was required because of the lack of evidence of the locations as well as their cultural and spiritual bearing. To achieve this objective, a working model with descriptive categories has been devised and employed in such a way as to allow comparisons between the sites. Apart from the inventory, an attempt has also been made towards a conceptual analysis of the modes of sacred ascriptions to the sites by user communities. The opening chapter of the thesis addresses the general background of sacred sites. In the general background a distinction is drawn between sites that have assumed status of being historical commemorative sites or group heritage sites, e.g. The National Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein and localised sacred sites in the Eastern Free State that are deemed as living heritage with active community and individual involvement. The thesis reflects the Heritage Resource Act of 1999 as a mechanism that defines living heritage with respect to cultural practices and indigenous knowledge entrenched in user communities. The context of the sacred sites in question has an influence on the history of the Caledon Valley in which the four sites are situated. The thesis shows that the Caledon Valley was riddled with tribal contestations between the Basotho and Boers because it was a fertile region. The methodology employed in this study is ethnographic and this relates to field research at the sites, it is descriptive, explorative and analytic. Furthermore, the thesis addresses the literature review with respect to the views of scholarly input in the subject of sacrality. The second chapter addresses the general outline of the descriptive categories of the thesis; they range from the geography/topography of the sites to the external dynamics of the sites and the conceptions of sacrality as perceived by the user communities. Pictures of the physical localities at the four sites are reflected in the chapter, which exposes the memo-history of the tribes of Mohokare as well as oral transmissions of the history of the sites. The status and significance of the sites are dealt with as cultural and religious expressions of the user communities. The thesis shows that the significance of the sites is anchored on the authority of the ancestors. Various ritual dynamics of the sites are reflected in the thesis, the evidence of “ritual making” at the localities is primordial but the study shows popular support for ritual performances by cultural and religious practitioners. The third chapter deals with data analysis and interpretation of the information obtained from informants in the fieldwork interviews. These interviews are extensively captured in the Addendum of the thesis. The presentation of data is aligned to the field interviews carried out at the sites with the research informants/participants. The thesis shows that obtaining information about a locality requires language proficiency of the site and respect for the informant who gives the data. The data obtained from fieldwork shows an entwinement of cultural practices with religious work at the sites from the apostolic faith movement, other i[dependent Christian groups and indigenous belief systems. Chapter four focuses on the comparative nature of the sites in accordance with the working model presented in chapter two. The thesis in this chapter addresses similarities and dissimilarities of the topography, the comparison of the sites’ impressions, site internal localities similarities/dissimilarities, the history, memo-history and legends of the sites are compared. It also focuses on the ascription of sacrality to the sites, which is generated through the Ancestors who in their spiritual authority assign a spot and or place to perform a ritual. The thesis addresses the aspect of sacrality as the core dimension that describes the sacred work of the sacred locations. The fifth chapter is a response to the research questions posed in chapter one, these questions addresses the nature of sacred sites and the determination of sacrality to the sites. The thesis further addresses the distinctive features of the sites in the Mohokare region and the similarities between commemorative sites like the National Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein and the sites under investigation in the study. The site image transformation of the sites relates particularly to Mautse and Motouleng and is important to the user communities. This aspect relates specifically to the on-going erection of buildings/dwellings on the grounds of the above-mentioned sites. The thesis further focuses on the complex theories of sacrality offered by distinguished scholars namely, Eliade, Smith, Turner and Sheldrake. The theoretical conclusions maintain that sacrality should be valued in relation to the context of the sites and that the complex nature of ascription of sacrality should be honoured. Furthermore, a critical analysis of the scholarly views on the determination sacrality is engaged in this chapter. The outcomes of the research process in this study have signalled a need to engage all stakeholders at the sites, local government and heritage agencies to design protective regimes and rehabilitation programmes for the healthy outlook of the sites. Finally, the tribes that claim exclusive rights to the sites and the physical localities must be further engaged to determine legitimate ownership of the sites. The spiritual ownership and the physical ownership must be probed further.
Open Access
Inkatha and the National Party, 1980-1989
(University of the Free State, 2016-01) Houldsworth, Adam; Phimister, I. R.; Roos, Neil
English: This thesis explores Inkatha and National Party politics in the period 1980-1989, focusing particularly on the relationship between them. It considers the nature of both parties’ political outlook, their objectives and how they sought to achieve those objectives. It asks what sort of relationship each party sought with the other and what significance they attached to this. It undertakes a detailed comparison between the politics of Inkatha and the National Party, thereby bringing each into clearer perspective. It is a leitmotiv of accounts of Inkatha that its politics were paradoxical and ambiguous. This thesis offers a clearer understanding of Inkatha’s ambiguous politics by providing the first characterization of the coherent philosophical assumptions which underpinned Inkatha’s politics and were reflected in aspects of its politics which, prima facie, appear irreconcilable or inconsistent. It is argued that Buthelezi, Inkatha’s leader, articulated a conservative political outlook which resembled that of philosopher Edmund Burke. It is contended that this form of Burkean conservatism was expressed not only in Inkatha’s criticisms of the African National Congress and revolutionary radicalism, but also in its opposition to National Party ideology and policy. By presenting the distinctive and coherent political outlook of Inkatha, this thesis poses a challenge to the reductionism of many prominent accounts which seek to understand the party solely in terms of its interests and the tactics employed in the pursuit of those interests. A better corroborated account is provided of Inkatha’s political priorities and how these reflected the changing circumstances of power contestation. New illustrations are offered of how Inkatha’s priorities and its perception of practical realities manifested themselves in its political approach towards both the National Party and the ANC. Previously unstudied Government documents are used to give novel insights into the politics of PW Botha’s National Party. It attempts to show in greater detail the fundamental differences of approach and objectives with Inkatha, and to reveal that these contrasts remained stark despite apparent shifts in the National Party’s politics in the second half of the 1980s. These unused documents are utilized in a clearer characterization of the politics of senior National Party cabinet minister Chris Heunis, which highlights many significant differences with the approach of his party leader, and a number of noteworthy similarities with Inkatha politics. This underscores the contingency of politics in the upper echelons of the National Party, and is particularly significant given that Buthelezi expressed hope for the emergence of more reformist tendencies within the National Party. However, it is argued that even Heunis did not attach the same degree of significance to Inkatha, and envisage the same role for it, that Buthelezi sought. Despite significant differences in their political approaches, both Heunis and PW Botha increasingly perceived a solution to the problems amongst young, urban Africans to be crucial to achieving their objectives. In the second half of the 1980s, they both believed that changing economic and demographic realities, in combination with heightened African radicalism, had rendered Inkatha unable to provide the type of leadership for Africans that was crucial for the National Party to resolve its political difficulties. This thesis suggests that Buthelezi’s failure to persuade the National Party to adopt his preferred approach to political change was not due solely to his stark political differences with PW Botha.
Open Access
Pilgrimage to sacred sites in the Eastern Free State
(University of the Free State, 2016-01) Du Plooy, Shirley; Nel, P. J.; Post, P.; Van Beek, W.
English: There are many pilgrimages and revered forms of travel in South Africa. However, no systematic anthropological studies have been conducted into these journeys. Filling this void, this is a multisite ethnographic study of pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State province. Following a qualitative methodology, the purpose of this combination inductive-deductive study was to explore the pilgrimage phenomenon, describe pilgrimages to Mantsopa, Mautse and Motouleng, and explain the reasons pilgrims have for undertaking pilgrimages. Situated in the Mohokare (Caledon) River Valley, the sacred sites of the eastern Free State attract visitation from a range of site users. Predominantly Sesotho-speaking, but also coming from across the country and neighbouring countries as well, groups of mostly Apostolic, ZCC, Roman Catholic and more recently Protestant congregants or lone journeyers travel to the sites, mainly over weekends. Seeking to commune with the divine, pilgrims come to report and make prayer requests. Important motives for their pilgrimages are to search for and solidify ancestor connections, and to secure blessings. Further incentives comprise complying with the commission and instruction to visit the sites, and the healing implications of these pilgrimages. Some visitors to the sites make the trip but once, whereas other site users periodically return a number of times a year and yet others reside permanently at the sites for years. The beautifully vibrant, colourful and complex pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State call for a rethinking and broadening of the pilgrimage lens. The mainly Anglophone and Western conception of classic pilgrimage is too narrow to accommodate the range and complexity of motivations, traditions, people and behaviours associated with pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State. This heterogeneity further leads to jostling and vying for favour, clientele, narrative dominion and overall legitimisation among the pilgrim communities. Being journeys and places of substance required an acknowledgement of the significant role that the immaterial plays in all that is pilgrimage. This meant that culturalistic and hylomorphic models proved inadequate in capturing a more complete pilgrimage story. Instead, within a relational epistemology and ontology, the entwinement, enmeshment, entanglement and entrapment of the material and immaterial, the animate and inanimate, the present and absent things, bring the sacred sites, the pilgrimages and the pilgrims into existence.
Open Access
Deviance and colonial power: a history of juvenile delinquency in colonial Zimbabwe, 790-c.1960
(University of the Free State, 2016-02) Mhike, Ivo; Phimister, I. R.; Law, K. V.
English: This thesis is the first comprehensive study of juvenile delinquency in colonial Zimbabwe. Based on a detailed reading of archival sources generated by central government in various departments, urban municipalities, and autobiographies, it reconstructs important dimensions in the labelling and treatment of juvenile delinquency between 1890 and 1960. In doing so, it explores the socio-political development of Southern Rhodesian society and demonstrates the diversity and shifting notions of what constituted deviance and delinquency during this period. Taking issue with the existing historiography which narrowly focuses on black juvenile delinquency this thesis challenges the notion that racial distinctions overshadowed all else in the construction of juvenile delinquency, arguing that delinquency transcended race and was equally influenced by the analytical categories of class, gender and ethnicity. Through analysing the state’s ideas regarding juvenile institutions and rehabilitation, it plots the contours of the shifting notions of what constituted social and colonial order. While some Southern African historiography discusses aspects of white juvenile delinquency and racial heterogeneity, this study demonstrates how delinquency is a prism that refracts on the deep divisions within white society. It suggests a different view of empire relations by exploring the fissures within groups and the limits of racial co-operation. In addition, this thesis takes important steps toward historicising the development of childhood in colonial Zimbabwe; in doing so, it significantly modifies a number of historiographies, and opens up space for creating a more comprehensive history of childhood and youth in Africa.
Open Access
Policing the Witwatersrand: a history of the South African Republic Police, 1886-1899
(University of the Free State, 2016-02) Muller, Cornelis Hermanus Muller; Phimister, Ian; Koorts, Lindie
English: This thesis fills a lacuna in the historiography of the institutional dimensions of colonial policing in southern Africa. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 led to the rapid industrialisation of the South African Republic’s agrarian based economy. The mines and resultant industries attracted a diverse group of people from across southern Africa and beyond to the newly established town of Johannesburg. The government, however, struggled to accommodate the needs of this society and was intermittently branded as an impediment to development and progress. Located within the broader framework of colonial history, the establishment and development of a police force offers a particular lens through which to examine the political, social and economic forces that characterised this period. This thesis aims to account for the institutional development of the South African Republic Police. Concomitantly, it places these developments within the context of late nineteenth-century state formation in colonial southern Africa. Based on a close inspection of archival sources, the thesis follows a largely chronological narrative, in which particular themes accounting for the development of the police are highlighted. It gives a detailed analysis of the bureaucratic and administrative strife between the officials tasked with law enforcement and colonial administration. The thesis argues that the alleged inefficiency of the police was directly linked to the battle for command and control of the force. By examining aspects of recruitment, reorganisation and reform, the thesis also addresses conceptions of colonial identity and politics. Race, class and ethnicity influenced interaction within the police force, but also had important consequences for the relationship between the police and the wider society. The evolution of the police is therefore investigated by accounting for aspects relating to crime and crisis; the view of the police held by the policed; the interaction between the police and the mining industry, and the role the police played in heightening the tension between Pretoria and London in the run-up to the South African War. By accounting for the institutional development of the police, more insight is gained into the role of the police in colonial society. The latter also casts more light on our understanding of the South African Republic’s administrative functioning and its internal politics.
Open Access
South Africa and the 'Congo Crisis', 1960-1965
(University of the Free State, 2016-02) Passemiers, Lazlo Patrick Christian; Phimister, I. R.; Cohen, A. P.
English: On 30 June 1960, the Belgian Congo gained independence. Congo’s newfound freedom was soon disrupted by a period of severe socio-political chaos and conflict that became known as the ‘Congo crisis’. The exact nature of the relationship between South Africa and the Congo crisis largely remains unknown. The thesis addresses this historiographical omission by asking three main questions. First, how was South Africa involved in the Congo crisis? Secondly, what was the rationale for its involvement? Thirdly, how was the Congo crisis perceived inside South Africa? Besides significantly strengthening and expanding the existing historiography on Pretoria’s involvement and South African mercenaries, hitherto neglected aspects of the crisis are also examined. These include an analysis of white refugees who fled from Congo to South Africa; the Pan Africanist Congress’ and South West African People’s Organisation’s involvement in the ‘Congo alliance’; and the views and opinions of South Africans from across the racial and political spectrum on the Congo crisis. The primary material used in this study consists of archival sources in South Africa, Belgium, Britain, and the United States. This material is complimented by South African newspapers and periodicals, as well as oral interviews. The Congo was of considerable importance to South Africa. Not only was it a central part of Pretoria’s foreign policy, it also influenced the exile politics of South Africa’s nationalist movements. In addition, it influenced South African perceptions of its own turbulent socio-political changes, as well as the political transformation of the African continent. The Congo crisis was used and abused by both proponents and opponents of apartheid South Africa in pursuit of their objectives. South Africa’s relationship with the Congo crisis altered its internal and external politics during the first half of the 1960s. The scope of this thesis aligns itself with research on Southern African dynamics of the Cold War and African decolonisation, as well as South African foreign policy and Southern African liberation movements. It makes a significant contribution to the historiography on foreign interference in the Congo crisis, particularly the involvement of Southern African states.
Open Access
Corrective rape and black lesbian sexualities in contemporary South African cultural texts
(University of the Free State, 2017-01) Lake, Nadine Catherine; Björklund, Jenny
The increased visibility of black lesbian identities in South Africa has been met with a severe backlash in the form of what activists term corrective rape. South African newspapers started to report on the incidence of this phenomenon in 2003 with black lesbians emerging in newspaper discourse as particularly vulnerable victims. The term corrective rape has been used to define rape that is perpetrated by heterosexual males against lesbian women in order to ‘correct’ or ‘cure’ them of their lesbian sexuality. The increased recognition of lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex rights in post-apartheid South Africa has meant increased visibility for sexual minorities but has simultaneously been marked by an increase in homophobic discourse and violence. Newspapers have reported on the brutal nature of corrective rape and have given sensationalised accounts of these rapes and violence. Black lesbian women have thus entered into the public sphere in post-apartheid South Africa as victims of homophobic rape and violence. Discourse in mainstream media or the printed press has contributed to the framing of black lesbians as unintelligible victims. Contemporary scholarship on black lesbians has consistently referenced the violence associated with their identity. The primary aim of the study is to clarify how lesbian women are represented in cultural texts and to identify counter discourses that focus on lesbian agency and desire, which is less commonly associated with their sexuality. Previous research on corrective rape has largely focused on the intersection between black lesbian identity and sexual violence as well as men and masculinities in a post-apartheid context. While this study deems it important to highlight prominent debates and media representations of black lesbian sexuality in South Africa it considers it important to resist the reproduction of narratives that associate black lesbian women with sexual violence. This study turns to literature in the post-apartheid context to examine how narratives of sexual violence challenge representations of women as objectified victims of violence. Rozena Maart’s novel The Writing Circle forms an important part of the literature chapter in this study. The recognition of oppression in women’s narratives of sexual violence and resistance on the part of the female characters in the novel constitute central counter discourses. The thesis also examines an autobiography and its potential to lend inclusion to the narratives of those formerly excluded on account of their race, gender and sexual identification. An analysis of Zandile Nkunzi Nkabinde’s poignant autobiography illustrates the power of narrations of lesbian agency to undermine the gender norms that historically have restricted representations of black lesbian identity. The study examines how lesbian identities can be reconceptualised in public lesbian cultures or in queer archives. An archive of lesbian belonging that features in this study includes the portraits of lesbian women and their narratives in the work of visual activist and photographer Zanele Muholi. The narratives of survivability, mourning and belonging in Muholi’s archive uncovered and identified in this study assist in raising consciousness around the multiplicitous nature of black lesbian sexuality in Africa and beyond.
Open Access
Government, community and the university in Africa today: the case of the National University of Lesetho
(University of the Free State, 2017-01) Mushonga, Munyaradzi; Hudson, H.; Wilkinson, A. C.
This study is an investigation into relations of power between government, community and the university in Africa today. The purpose of the study is to examine the nature of contestations and contradictions among triadic actors in respect of the university in Africa today. The principal research question it seeks to address is: what kind of contestations and contradictions of normative and ideological principles take place in the Triad of government, community and the university, via the case study of the National University of Lesotho (NUL)? Key objectives of the research included developing a new interpretive framework for the study of Africa and African Studies; examining how triadic contestations are a product of history; showing the preponderance of discourses of representation in universities in Africa today; and analysing the various forms of resistance immanent in universities in Africa today, occasioned by pervasive and dispersed power. To attempt to address the principal question and to meet the stated objectives, the thesis deploys key pillars of Postcolonial Theory (PC) namely representation, hybridity, agency and resistance together with the decoloniality variant through the power-knowledge-being-discourse nexus to examine relations and technologies of power in the interplay between the Government of Lesotho (GOL), the Community (global and local) and the National University of Lesotho (NUL) from 1945 to 2014. A triangulated approach was adopted in this study. Data was collected from several archival and secondary sources as well as from a wide cross-section of informants from the GOL, the Community and NUL. Multiple methodological strategies were used to collect such data – observation, interviews and unstructured questionnaires. Data was then analysed qualitatively using the grounded theory approach together with content, textual and discourse analysis methods. Theoretically and conceptually, the study suggests new approaches and new dimensions to Africa and African Studies and Higher Education Studies (HES) in order to enhance our understanding of contemporary African politics and society particularly in the 21st century. It makes a case for seeing the relations between state and non-state actors as complex, constitutive and interconnected transactions in net-like spaces which are forever evolving due to the ubiquity of „power to‟, „power with‟ and „power within‟. Findings of the study show that there are complex contestations and contradictions of both normative and ideological principles among triadic actors – not only over the meaning and purpose of the university in Africa today, but also over its control and governance. This I have demonstrated by, first, providing a theoretical/conceptual framework as well as a historical context for interpreting and understanding these contestations; and second, by empirically validating the preponderance of discourses of representation and „othering‟, hybridity, agency and resistance in the Triad in general, and in a Higher Education (HE) institution (NUL) in particular, across space and time. On the basis of these findings, I call for a constructive reading of PC which must be complemented by decoloniality theory, hence proposal for a new interpretive framework, the Integrated Postcolonial Framework (IPCF) that can respond better to complex relations of power. I also highlight some limitations of the study and also make some recommendations for further research in order to bring to the fore more concrete data regarding the purpose and mission of a university in Africa in a fast decolonising yet globalising environment.
Open Access
The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) collective and the socio-political construction of security
(University of the Free State, 2017-02) Van Rooyen, Frank Charles; Hudson, Heidi
English: The focus of this thesis is on the formation and functioning of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) collective. The study aims towards an understanding of whether and to what extent the IBSA collective is socio-politically constructed with respect to its security collaboration. At the outset it should be noted that the concept of ‘security’ as used in this study reflects post-Cold War trends in security thinking and regionalism. As such, IBSA’s security collaboration is placed in the context of evolving debates and practices related to regional security community-building and the fostering of human security. The IBSA collective’s constituted form of security shows the oppositional forces of national needs and the challenges of working towards global equity, all the while providing (contested) leadership positions from within the global South. On one hand this may help to ensure greater equity in world affairs, while on the other hand vested and parochial national interests detract from this effort. These paradoxes highlight the hybrid nature of the IBSA collective’s composition, an enduring theme in the study. This forms the context from which the study embarks. In the debate that surrounds the degree and manner in which IBSA can attempt to shape and enhance the elements of human-centric security, the study conceptually derives an integrated approach that is founded upon critical social constructivism and postcolonialism, compacted in the shape of ‘pillars’ that lay out a conceptual framework diagram. The synthesised theories are empirically applied to three functional areas of cooperation – maritime trade, energy and defence cooperation – through the consistent application of the ‘pillars’ noted above. The qualitative case study design highlights the inclusion of issues that enhance trustworthiness, so that the study can ascertain if associated aspects of human security with sectoral IBSA cooperation have been enhanced. With respect to maritime trade cooperation the study finds minimal yields, although the causal link between increased intra-IBSA trade and IBSA trade cooperation efforts could not be established for certain. In terms of energy cooperation, the study determines that adequate projects have come on stream, and that the complexity of the issues requires time for knowledge transfers. The study finds that the defence cooperation presently effects a minimal enhancement of physical and/or military security, but that its very nature makes long-term dividends probable. All three (of sixteen) IBSA working groups place emphases on constitutive discourse, dialogue, socialisation and identity-formation. They not only symbolise the tenets of social constructivism at work – from the bottom up – but also define trilateral relations and provide continuity and strength to the IBSA socio-political structure. The study thus provides greater understanding of the IBSA collective’s security collaboration. It confirms that – to varying gradations – sectoral cooperation enhances aspects of regional human security, and shows that the IBSA collective has had embryonic successes at international level, where great potential lies.
Open Access
State, civil society and the politics of economic indigenisation in Zimbabwe, 1980 to 2016
(University of the Free State, 2017-03) Ndakaripa, Musiwaro; Phimister, Ian; Pilossof, Rory; Twala, Chitja
English: Using a broad civil society conceptual framework, this thesis examines the relations between the state and interest groups concerned with economic indigenisation in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2016. During this period, the state maintained that the indigenisation policy addresses colonial injustices by facilitating the entry of indigenous people, mainly blacks, into the mainstream economy. The state also claimed the policy curbs the exploitation of natural and human resources by foreign capital. Emerging from the liberation struggle, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government adopted a pragmatic approach to accommodate the interests of both white and black interest groups in the 1980s. The state’s rather weak support of black enterprises during the 1980s is described in this study as proto-indigenisation. The state’s interactions with business associations and trade unions on matters of proto-indigenisation are explained using Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony which advances that governments use both ‘persuasion’ and ‘coercion’ to dominate social groups. Statist analysis, which explains how states use their power to side line civil society on national affairs, is also useful because the government often ignored the demands of black interest groups when it felt their demands threatened the economy. Peter Evans’ embedded autonomy concept which applauds dense ties and cooperation between the state and society on economic policies best explains the collaboration between the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the government on the black advancement policy (in which blacks were appointed and promoted on the labour market). The adoption of Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in the 1990s led to increased demands by indigenous interest groups for affirmative action measures to facilitate black entry into the mainstream economy. The complex relations between the state, indigenous and established interest groups on indigenisation are explained within the context of neoliberalism. Indigenous interest groups feared that neoliberal economic reforms would benefit large white and foreign enterprises only and demanded a stronger role for black entrepreneurs. Paradoxically, despite accusations levelled against them, ‘neoliberal’ established business associations such as the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) and CZI supported black enterprises. This reveals the complex nexus between neoliberalism and indigenisation in the 1990s. Between 2000 and 2008, the state’s relations with interest groups concerned with indigenisation were shaped by the country’s political and economic crisis. The emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its ties with pro-democracy civil society had the effect, in reaction, of cementing patronage ties between the ZANU-PF government and indigenous interest groups. These patronage ties are explained using the public choice concept which contends that interest groups’ interactions with political elites are influenced by the need for economic gain. Attempts to adopt a plural approach to indigenisation in the 2000s through the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) failed because of the ZANU-PF government’s unilateral tendencies. Statist analysis is used to explain how the ZANU-PF government enacted the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act of 2007 despite fierce opposition from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), MDC parties and established business associations. During the power sharing government era, between 2009 and 2013, ZANU-PF implemented the Indigenisation Act in a typical statist fashion. Dissenting voices from the MDC parties, the RBZ, established business associations, and other civil society organisations were ignored. The ZANU-PF government’s reconsideration to review the Indigenisation Act in the post-power sharing era vindicates voices critical of the indigenisation programme. Arguably, for much of the post-colonial period, the ZANU-PF - controlled state was hegemonic on indigenisation. Although the views of interest groups were occasionally considered, the state formulated and implemented the policy in a manner which mainly protected its own interests. Succinctly, state-civil society relations on indigenisation in Zimbabwe have been complex and evolving. These relations are explained in this thesis using various conceptual analyses.
Open Access
Knowledge transfer and British expertise in Zambian urban planning
(University of the Free State, 2017-03) Garnett, Helen; Law, K.; Phimister, I. R.
English: This thesis examines the relationship between the history of technical assistance and present day urban planning practice in Zambia and builds on multiple literatures spanning the field of planning history, technical assistance and planning knowledge transfer. It bridges a scholarly gap in the understanding of how historic ties impact on the way in which planning knowledge travels. Focusing on technical assistance and urban planning during the period 1962 to 2015, this thesis demonstrated that the conventional historiography has not sufficiently addressed the way in which post-colonial planning and technical assistance continued to instil British norms, values and standards beyond Zambia’s independence. It explores three key post-colonial mechanisms of soft power and technical assistance: bi-lateral technical assistance through the Overseas Service Aid Scheme; volunteering in the form of the Voluntary Service Overseas and; planner education in both Britain and Zambia. Through focusing on these mediums it examines how outdated planning ideologies remain ingrained in post-colonial Zambia some fifty years after independence. To understand how early technical assistance resulted in a further embeddedness of colonial planning logics, the thesis draws on archival material held within Britain and Zambia, as well interviews carried out with contemporary actors involved in the planning knowledge transfer process. Focussing on everyday experiences of planners, these primary sources identify how this history affects contemporary knowledge transfer. In doing so it uncovers the way that colonial planning logics emerge within, and affect the way that knowledge transfer takes place, as well as highlighting some of the complexities and enduring characteristics between colonial ideologies, post-colonial technical assistance, and everyday urban planning practices in post-colonial countries. The thesis concludes that independence witnessed a modification in the knowledge relationship between Britain and Zambia, and that rather than contemporary knowledge transfer opening up new routes and ideas, it merely follows a well-established colonial and post-colonial path. In tracing these continuities, this thesis demonstrates the centrality of history to contemporary planning practices. In doing so, this thesis opens up space for more comprehensive conversations between scholars of planning history, technical assistance and planning knowledge transfer.
Open Access
A history of Rhokana/Rokana Corporation and its Nkana Mine Division, 1928-1991
(University of the Free State, 2018-02) Munene, Hyden; Phimister, I. R.; Van Zyl-Hermann, D.; Money, D.
English: This dissertation is a detailed historical account of the corporate structure, labour relations and profitability of the Rhokana Corporation and its Nkana mine. Thematically and chronologically organised, it starts with the discovery of viable ores on the Copperbelt in the late 1920s, which attracted foreign capital from South Africa, Britain and the United States of America, prompting the development of the Nkana mine and the formation of the Rhokana Corporation in the early 1930s. The study concludes with the re-privatisation of the Zambian mining sector in 1991. It draws heavily from primary data housed in the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia, National Archives of Zambia, United National Independence Party Archives and Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Archives, as well as interviews with key players in the Zambian copper mining industry. In doing so, the thesis contributes to the historiography of the political economy of the copper industry in Zambia. While the subject’s existing historiography has examined themes of corporate structure, labour relations and profitability in isolation and for relatively short periods when assessing the development of the Northern Rhodesian/Zambian mining sector, this thesis combines all three themes in Rhokana/Nkana’s history, investigating them over a long time period in order to construct a detailed historical perspective. The dissertation argues that Rhokana for a time was the most important mining entity in the Northern Rhodesian/Zambian mining industry. Rhokana was both an investment firm on the Copperbelt and a mining company through Nkana mine. The Corporation was consulting engineer to the mines owned by Rhodesian Anglo American Corporation on behalf of its parent company, the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. It also invested in certain of the mines owned by the Rhodesian Selection Trust. Rhokana contributed significantly to the development of the copper industry in Zambia. Its corporate and labour policies influenced the Copperbelt as a whole. Employing the largest labour force in the mining sector, Rhokana spearheaded the labour movement on the Copperbelt. Its Nkana mine was also the largest producer of copper in the Northern Rhodesian mining industry between 1940 and 1953, and contributed hugely to the war economies of Britain and the United States of America. Throughout its history, Nkana was also a major source of cobalt. After nationalisation of the mining sector in 1970, Rhokana surrendered its investments in the wider copper industry, but remained central to the Copperbelt’s smelting and refining operations, owning the biggest metallurgical facilities in the industry. Through all of this, Rhokana’s corporate strategy evolved over time, as the Corporation cooperated with key stakeholders in the copper industry in order to safeguard its operations and profitability.
Open Access
Differenciating dysfunction: domestic agency, entanglement and mediatised petitions for Africa's own solutions
(University of the Free State, 2018-07) Nzioki, Mutinda (Sam); Keet, Andre; Konik, Inge
Africa’s optimistic expressions of a reawakening, a rising, to its own solutions remain nervously alive, albeit haunted by the reversals that quenched all previous enthusiasms concerning a rebirth. Still, this study draws creative impetus from African wisdom voiced in the Akamba idiom, Mbéé ndì Mwéné (No one can claim ownership of what lies ahead/the future). Being so, this study proceeds as a contemporary re-entering into part of the existing terms which calibrate the question of how to get Africa right. This process obliges consultations with earlier African voices and ideas that committed to ‘own solutions’ to post-independence problems, or rather more unflatteringly, ‘dysfunctions’. As a contemporary inquiry, this effort contends that posing adequate questions that can get to the heart of present normative life or public culture – as Lewis Gordon and Achille Mbembe put it – requires thinking in African scholarship and practice proceeding in ontological commitments which enable sharper specification of Africa’s difficult situations: for instance, bursts of ethno-religious violence, perilous migrations, xenophobia/Afrophobia, and corruption. However, seeing that many an Africanist scholarship makes these very claims, key to this challenge are the terms and approaches developed for sharper specification and adequacy, as these relate to locating, affirming and/or disregarding numerous important processes immediate to Africa’s conditions. In this regard, key concepts in this study are Africarise, differenciation, mediatisation, ground, and our way, with the central approaches being co-theorisation and relatedly, transversalism which involves creative interconnection with ideas and practices. Further still, because current life has increasingly seen mediatised expressions dominate social production, sharper specification of Africa asks of this African scholarship to connect with other generative grammars and methods of encountering Africans and Africanity. Those connections draw on established concepts that have often spoken Africa, alongside African ideas whose capacity remains un-utilised, as well as mediatised expressions in the street. However, while this process of connections and openings will unveil ugly clashes and contradictions, it offers even greater cause for affirmingpossibilities in Africa’s future.