The Humanities

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Open Access
1914: Rebellie of protes? Vryheid teen imperialisme, Paul Grobbelaar: book review
(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Wessels, Andre
Abstract not available
Open Access
The 23rd African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) conference in Bloemfontein: a Polokwane political hangover?
(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2010-06) Twala, Chitja
The ANCYL played a significant role in the history of the ANC, therefore the actions of its members at their 23rd conference in Bloemfontein were disturbing for the ANC. Already in the build-up it was clear that rivalries between factions were rife and before the conference started there had been disruptions. The article highlights the reasons behind the rivalry and the ANC’s leadership’s handling of the situation. The rivalry was not due to ideological differences but to support for personalities. The ANC leaders and ex-ANCYL leaders aired their dissatisfaction with the unruly conduct and the pursuit of political self-advancement. Many members rejected the outcome of the leadership election and the congress was adjourned. The ANC intervened and at a closed session later that month the election of the five officials and the National Executive Commission was maintained. A number of organizational, policy and leadership issues were discussed. The divisions were, however, still apparent. The conference in Bloemfontein was obviously a political hangover of the ANC’s conference at Polokwane.
Open Access
The A to Z of the Anglo-Boer War, Fransjohan Pretorius: book review
(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2011) Wessels, Andre
Abstract not available
Open Access
Academic writing in Blackboard: a computer-mediated discourse analytic perspective
(University of the Free State, 2012) Brokensha, Susan
English: This article reports on how text-based synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication in Blackboard were employed at tertiary level to encourage students to share their perceptions of academic writing and sensitise them to the writing process. Employing a computer-mediated discourse analytic (CMDA) framework, three research questions were posed: What were the discussion topics in each mode of computer-mediated communication (CMC)? What types of knowledge construction were reflected in each mode? What kinds of discourse features were generated in each mode? The overall conclusions reached were that both modes of CMC reflected conceptual moves, although few theoretical ideas were present in asynchronous CMC and none in synchronous CMC. Asynchronous CMC was also more syntactically complex than synchronous CMC. This preliminary study suggests that both modes may help learners achieve the above aims.
Open Access
The accessibility of a written Bible versus a signed Bible for the deaf born person with sign language as first language
(University of the Free State, 2005-11) Lombaard, Susanna Catherina; Naudé, J. A.; Botha, S.
English: This research aimed to prove that Biblical texts in South African Sign Language are more accessible than written or printed Biblical texts for deaf born people in South Africa who use Sign Language as their first language. The study made use of the functionalist approach in translation to translate six Biblical parts into South African Sign Language (SASL). Mother tongue speakers were used as translators with the assistance of hearing specialists in the fields of religion and translation studies. Translation was done from the original Hebrew and Greek texts into South African Sign Language. After production of the video with the Biblical parts in South African Sign Language, the content of the video as well as the level of understanding of the texts, were evaluated in the Deaf community of South Africa by means of an empirical study done in the Western Cape, Kwazulu Natal, Gauteng, Northern Cape and the Free State. The results of the empirical study proved that the Signed Biblical parts were more accessible for mother tongue Deaf people than the written counterparts. Results from the study also indicated how a signed Bible should look. Conclusions can also been drawn from the study that a Bible in Sign Language is needed for use in the Deaf community in South Africa.
Open Access
Accessing small business support programmes in Maseru, Lesotho
(University of the Free State, 2022) Monese, Azael Limpho; Beder, L.
The terms small and medium enterprise (SME) and entrepreneurship were developed in the late 1940s. In developing these terms, policies emerged that included grants, subsidised credits, and special taxes for SMEs. It also included the establishment of small business support agencies funded by governments for the benefit of SMEs. The agencies were established in Japan, the United States of America (USA), India, Tanzania and Turkey in 1948, 1953, 1954, 1966, and 1976, respectively (Keskin et al., 2010, p. 189). According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), SMEs are essential participants in the economy and the broader business ecosystem (OECD, 2022, p. 19). SMEs play a critical role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, providing employment and decent work for all, promoting sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation, and reducing income inequalities across countries at all stages of development (OECD, 2017, p. 8). In 2016, the government of Lesotho developed the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) policy, aiming to address the issues and problems affecting the development of MSME in Lesotho (Masupha, Beharry-Ramraj and Amolo, 2017, p. 7). The policy identified challenges to MSMEs as access to finance, market access, technological development and innovation, entrepreneurial training, skills development, infrastructural development, and business working space (Molebatsi, 2021, p. 20). Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the small business support programmes in Maseru, Lesotho, by establishing the types of small business support programmes available, determining the barriers for small businesses to access the SMEs support programmes, and lastly, determining what needs to be done to improve existing small business support programmes to ensure that they address SME challenges.
Open Access
Accountability within the governance of intergovernmental relations in South Africa
(University of the Free State, 2020) Pholo, Goitsione Moses Pholo; Coetzee, T.
This study intended to investigate accountability, as advanced by public officials, elected officials, public and private sectors, stakeholders and the citizenry within the framework of governance and intergovernmental relations (IGR) in South Africa. In the process of the investigation, the study as guide solely by addressing the indicators outlined in its problem statement, and the aims and objectives as the frame of reference for the investigation. Accordingly, the study was of the view that there were basic and key concepts of accountability within the governance of intergovernmental Relations (IGR) that needed to develop the public officials, elected officials, stakeholders and the citizenry in order to deliver an accountable state and governance to the electorate. These basic and key concepts of accountability as indicated in paragraph designed and simplified user-friendly integrated governance model (IGM) to guide the intended users. In order to attain the maximum targets set by the study, the abovementioned indicators were adopted for the implementation and monitoring by the intended users to ensure optimum accountability measures within the governance of intergovernmental Relations (IGR). The study set out four indicators to guide the investigation as the means of the frame of reference, and they (i) Demonstrated accountable governance perspectives, which included the intensity of relations, governmental distance, power dependence and bargaining power within the three spheres of government, (ii) Conducted the analysis on the intergovernmental governance and determined the outcomes to live up to the standards, as well as expectations for executed functions, as outlined by the Constitution (1996), (iii) Developed the new integrated governance model (IGM) as an instrument, to guide the intended users towards ensuring the maximum implementation of the accountability measures within the intergovernmental governance, and (iv) Developed the set of practical enforceable findings, conclusions and recommendations for public officials, elected officials, stakeholders and the citizenry within the intergovernmental governance. The outcomes of the findings and recommendations supplemented the intended integrated governance model IGM) for ease of reference to the users. Therefore, the findings, conclusions, recommendations, as well as the integrated governance model (IGM) are the profound solution and the pillar of the study. Hence, the integrated governance model (IGM) of the study made the unique contribution and significance of this investigation.
Open Access
Acculturation as translation: mimicry, satire and resistance in Chewa dance
(University of the Free State, 2012) Nthala, Grant
English: communities of Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. With this particular dance – and indeed with many others – historical connotations, cultural reverberations, and systemic institutionalisation come into play. The hierarchical organisation of the Chewa dance systems and the orderly and enigmatic tendencies of the dance displays are reminiscent of historical phenomena linked to the Chewa diaspora. In essence, mimicry, satire and other forms of enactment (often dramatic) in Chewa dance subtly or candidly unearth acculturative elements within the Chewa ethnicity. This article seeks to illustrate that the Chewa dances gulewamkulu and mganda constitute theatre and that their performance demonstrates a manifestation of traditional Chewa cultural features that have been altered or modified by borrowing from or adapting to other Bantu-related and European cultures.
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
Adherence and sustained access to antiretroviral treatment in the Free State public health sector: a gender perspective
(University of the Free State, 2008-11) De Reuck, Chantell Jacqualine; Pretorius, E.; Van Rensburg, H. C. J.
English: Sustained access to ART and adherence to ARV medications remain crucial for reducing AIDS-related mortality and morbidity, minimising the development of drug resistance, and for appropriate treatment decision-making by health care providers. Thus, the factors associated with non-adherence to ARV medication and poor sustained access need to be identified and addressed. Although there is a preponderance of treatment adherence research, in which social aspects that affect the way patients manage HIV/AIDS and related treatment have been identified, far less attention has been paid to the relevant gender dimensions of treatment, care and support. The aim of this study was to examine how gender influences adherence to ARV medications and sustained access to treatment among patients on ART in the Free State public health sector. To achieve this aim, several methods were deemed necessary. First, current literature was reviewed to identify factors that predict nonadherence to ARV medications and impede sustained access to ART. Second, a framework was adapted to focus on inequalities in treatment from a gender perspective, and to take cognisance of both biological sex and socially constructed gender influences on the health of patients on ARV treatment, with specific reference to access and adherence to treatment. Masculinity and femininity is discussed in respect of the varied resources that an individual has access to and control over, an individual’s decision-making power, the gender norms held by society, and gender roles that men and women are expected to adhere to. Third, an empirical investigation of data from a prospective cohort study was conducted to identify similarities and differences in factors associated with nonadherence to ARV medications and to poor sustained access among men and women on ART in the Free State’s public health sector. A total of 1609 patients were interviewed in face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaires. Patients were interviewed six times during the course of this study with an average six-month interval between interviews. The outcome variables assessed included self-reported seven-day adherence to ARV medication regimens and self-reported adherence to scheduled appointments over a six-month period as a measure of sustained assess to treatment. Sex was used as the dependent variable in all analyses. Demographic, psychosocial/behavioural, clinical, and service delivery variables were all tested for a statistically significant association with non-adherence to medications and appointments in separate sex-disaggregated multivariate regression analyses (P≤0.05). Logistic regression models showed that the strongest predictors of medication nonadherence among men included financial difficulties in visiting hospital facilities and poor treatment knowledge. Among women, tobacco use and perceived stigma were identified as the strongest predictors of medication non-adherence. Self-reported depression or anxiety and experiencing difficulties in visiting clinic and hospital facilities were similarly associated with non-adherence to appointments for men and women. Service satisfaction at clinics and having few self-reported service needs were also independently associated with appointment non-adherence among women, but not among men. Findings for men do however need to be interpreted with caution, as both outcomes, despite being valid measures for the combined sample and among women, were not valid for men. Marked differences and similarities in the factors influencing medication adherence and sustained access to treatment between men and women were identified, reflecting the different lived experiences of men and women on ART in the Free State. Gender-sensitive interventions - as opposed to standardised ones - are thus required to improve adherence and sustained access in this population. Further research and possible interventions are required in respect of gender-sensitive outcome measures for adherence, improving treatment knowledge among men, coping responses to gender role stressors among women, less stigmatising means for taking medications, improving mental health and improving the quality of services rendered at health care facilities.
Open Access
Adolescents’ experiences of stereotypes during identity development
(University of the Free State, 2015-07) Lombaard, E. C.; Naude, L.
English: In this study, adolescents‟ experience of stereotypes during identity development was investigated. During Apartheid South Africa, people were grouped in certain areas according to their racial features. Previous research focused solely on the experiences of white groups. Identity development theories are based on research done primarily on white samples and thus this study focused on black groups. Identity is formed internally through external experiences. Considering the adverse circumstances in which various South African adolescents live, it is essential to consider their identity development process and the factors contributing to it. Since adolescents try out new roles in different groups during their search for an identity, it is clear that it is of importance to investigate how the individuals in the groups experience the stereotypes attached to various groups. Literature regarding identity and stereotypes was utilised to conceptualise these concepts. Thus, this research study was done from a developmental and social psychology perspective. Identity as it develops in the adolescent‟s life phases was viewed within developmental psychology. Stereotypes and stereotyping were investigated from a social psychology perspective, as they are learnt and reinforced socially. A qualitative framework was chosen to give the individuals experiencing these stereotypes a voice. A case study design was used, and focus group sessions were held to discuss group members‟ experiences of identity formation and stereotyping in their lives openly. Seventy-three participants participated in this study and were identified by means of a non-probability sampling method, namely purposive sampling. Data were analysed and interpreted by means of thematic analyses, and various themes and subthemes arose from these data sets. The findings of the study correspond with findings of previous research studies in the same area of interest. Yet, doing this study also made various contributions. This includes that an identity is something internal (traits) and external (social) that should be considered in a three-dimensional time perspective, as the past, present and future are important to who the individual is. Stereotypes are viewed as genetic, learnt, and cognitive shortcuts to simplify the world based on the observable and can be experienced both negatively and positively as a motivation for uniqueness. Resisting conformation is an adaptive response to stereotyping, and the self-fulfilling prophecy can be counteracted if opposition to the expectation is present. It was found that individuals do have a need to stop stereotyping even though they resist conforming, and social acceptance is seen as both a reward striven for and a restriction that limits opportunities, roles and choices. Furthermore, the environment and neighbourhood in which stereotyping takes place and where individuals find themselves is of immense importance. All these factors contribute to stereotyping and the reaction to stereotyping, whether positive or negative, determines the identity that is formed within the individual.
Open Access
The adoption of Fintech applications in wealth banking
(University of the Free State, 2023) Nel, Pierre Retief; Coetzee, J.
Financial technology, or FinTech, offers substitutes for some products used in traditional banking and non-banking finance services. In the financial sector, FinTech is a new idea. This field study’s main goal is to gain insight into wealth clients' perspectives of FinTech adoption within a wealth banking paradigm. It explains the factors that affect how clients perceive using FinTech services in the wealth management industry. The wealth management services industry's traditions and behaviour will alter as well as how AI will be adopted, different generations and population to name a few. This study explored further into the factors that influence wealth clients’ perceptions when adopting FinTech services as part of a large South African bank's wealth management client base. Due to technological advancements, the financial world has been changing quickly, and practically every facet of it now has a new look and feel. FinTech is the term used to describe this technological transformation in the financial sector. Even if the ‘FinTech influence’ has been felt throughout all financial services, the wealth management business is just beginning to experience it in comparison to other financial services industries. The clientele of wealth management is ageing, and younger people and women are significantly underrepresented. Despite the younger populations' interest in FinTech solutions, the wealth services sector currently provides only a few possibilities for them. The distribution of female clients in wealth management is lagging behind overall growth trends. Wealthy customers use a variety of wealth service providers, combine different wealth service options, and maintain a strong personal connection with either their wealth banker, investment manager, or both. FinTech services help wealth management clients operate more effectively while also increasing their usefulness and meeting their needs for services. Financial management clients employ FinTech service offerings from only well-known wealth service providers with confidence. South Africa's wealth management industry lags the US and UK's by several years. Currently, FinTech is seldom present in the core wealth management industry. In the South African wealth market, there aren't many entry-level Robo-advisors, but those that do exist don't pose much of a threat to the market leaders. Wealth management should acknowledge the impact of technology advancements on client behaviour. Ensuring a trusted relationship for wealth management is high priority in evaluating the bank/client relationship when incorporating or planning FinTech services in wealth banking. Also, to understand what drives client perception in relationship quality and how these perceptions need to be combined to find the right balance of quality. It is important for the wealth management business to understand the risk of an aging book and to implement proper wealth transfer strategies to include the next generation. With a diversified and growing investment market with increasing options, wealth management need to look at how they can deliver alternative asset classes to add value to a growing and more diversified client base. Managing complexity such as volatility, and the risk of various different asset classes, might be in the form of robo-advisors. Wealth management need to find the FinTech ‘disruptor’ of the status quo. Overall, FinTech has improved the services offered by the traditional wealth management sector. Wealth management need to accept the future lies in a fully digital FinTech platform that serves as a one-stop shop for all wealth management needs. Digital and online engagement is the future of the wealth management industry and wealth technology. The current nature of advice professionals will evolve, becoming a more individualised one-stop solution thanks to the more sophisticated client interaction digital platforms. South Africa's banking system is in a state of flux and change. On one hand, traditional banking models have seen a decrease in market share as fintech innovations have gained traction within the country. On the other hand, fintech has had its own struggles, with many South Africans still not having access to digital banking services. Fintech refers to the use of technology to offer financial services, including mobile banking, online banking, and digital wallets.
Open Access
Die affektiewe funksionering van jong werkende egpare
(University of the Free State, 1999-11) Slabbert, Anna Maria Elizabeth; Fourie, M. C.; Niemann, S. M.
Abstract not available
Open Access
African metaphysics: recovery towards an alternative modernity?
(University of the Free State, 2021-03) Gobingca, Lindani; Cawood, H. M.
In this thesis, it is argued that the age of modernity, which was initially a Western development, has not only found its way to the global stage and reached its climax, but that there now exists a dire need for an alternative conception of being-in-the-world. As such, it is proposed that traditional African thought, particularly as found in pre-colonial metaphysics, can contribute to the contemporary idea of alternative modernities. Other themes discussed include the decline of metaphysics in Western thought, the effects of colonialism on African thought, and the general disenchantment of the world.
Open Access
African writers' use of symbolism, myth and allusion in presenting the ideology of leadership in post-independence Africa: a study of selected novels by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah
(University of the Free State, 2000-11) Sebolai, Kabelo Wilson; Uwah, M.
This dissertation was aimed at examining African writers' use of symbolism, myth and allusion in presenting the ideology of leadership in the post-independence Africa. Specifically, it focussed on Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Ngugi Wa Thiongo's Petals of Blood and Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah. One of the basic problems of the African continent has been the quality of its political leadership. In most cases, leaders that take over power in Africa after independence are not different from their colonial masters. Having attained power, these leaders exhibit worse oppressive tendencies than their erstwhile colonial masters. The African writers of this period have responded to this harsh reality with works that are critical of the excesses of these leaders. Strange as it seems, although it was fashionable for black writers to pit themselves against the system of apartheid at its peak in South Africa, the same writers have in the main, not yet responded to some of the excesses of the country's leadership in the new dispensation. This research was therefore necessary because of the literary vacuum left by the demise of apartheid in the literary output of South Africa's post-independence period. There is so much the writers have to say in this period especially when one considers the fact that problems experienced in the post-independence Africa in general are beginning to manifest themselves in South Africa as well. While writers in other parts of the continent have produced works that mirror the hopes and aspirations of the masses in the post-independence period, such has not been the case in South Africa. This dissertation was in a small way, intended to serve as a wake-up call to South African writers. It was meant to signal a resuscitation of literary creative writing in the post-apartheid South Africa; a type of literature whose concerns will resemble those of the general post-independence prototype in Africa. The dissertation examined critical novels of other African writers in the post-independence period and presented these as examples for South African writers to follow.
Open Access
Die Afrikaanse evangeliese gesang: 'n literêre ondersoek
(University of the Free State, 1969-01) Gaum, Frederik Malherbe; Beukes, G. J.; Kok, B.; Nienaber, G. S.
Abstract not available
Open Access
Afrikaner nationalism, apartheid and the perversion of critique
(University of the Free State, 2014) Eloff, Rene
In this article I investigate the relationship between Afrikaner nationalism, apartheid and philosophy in the context of the intellectual history of the University of the Free State. I show how two philosophers that were respectively associated with the Department of Political Science and the Department of Philosophy, H J Strauss (1912-1995) and E A Venter (1914-1968), drew on the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd to justify separate development. I argue that their interpretation does not simply amount to a wilful misunderstanding of Dooyeweerd, but rather that the foundational moment of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy involves an interpretive violence that accommodates this interpretation.
Open Access
Afrikaner values in post-apartheid South Africa : an anthropological perspective
(University of the Free State, 2011-07-27) Van der Merwe, Jan Petrus; Erasmus, P. A.
English: The aim of this study is to conduct an investigation from an anthropological perspective, on the impact that post-apartheid South Africa has had on the Afrikaner’s judgement of value, as well as on his identity-formation. Afrikaner values comprise therefore the central theme of three of the main articles, while narratives, myths, religion and identity represent the focus of incidence of the other two articles. Up to and including 1990, an official Afrikaner identity existed, which was largely determined by a grand narrative that was constructed around church membership, an association with political power and party membership, as well as membership of cultural organisations such as the Broederbond. After 1994, the loss of this official identity, has marginalised Afrikaners and plunged them into an existential crisis. In this regard, this study will point out two factors, namely that the Afrikaners’ emotional and intellectual ties with the Afrikaans culture, churches, politics and the Afrikaans language in the post-Apartheid dispensation are in a process of changing, even becoming attenuated; that Afrikaners are increasingly pursuing a new, cosmopolitan identity and way of life. Although commentators differ regarding the question as to what effect the post-apartheid dispensation had, and is still having on Afrikaners, it is undoubtedly true that the political and social transformations that South Africa has undergone since 1994 have indeed been far-reaching in nature and that these transformations largely took the great majority of Afrikaners by surprise. Afrikaners clearly were not prepared for the changes that ensued, with the result that after a period of fifteen years they are being confronted with the dire necessity to reflect on their values, their solidarity, their identity, as well as their role and place in the “new” South Africa. Recent anthropological information on the Afrikaner is limited – Afrikaans anthropologists have largely neglected the study of the changes that the culture and identity of Afrikaners have undergone since 1994. As a result, the contributions of Afrikaans-speaking anthropologists to the discourses surrounding current issues that affect the Afrikaner (religion, morality, identity, narratives and myths), and the characteristics of the so-called “new” Afrikaner, are relatively limited. In this regard the broad aim of the current study is to conduct a comprehensive ethnographic investigation into the current tendencies in Afrikaner culture and identity. Afrikaner values would thus be used as the point of departure from which the ethnographic material will be explored.
Open Access
After the triumph: an anthropological study into the lives of elite athletes after competitive sport
(University of the Free State, 2015-12) Grundlingh, Susanna Maria; Gordon, Robert
English: The decision to retire from competitive sport is an inevitable aspect of any professional sportsperson’s career. This thesis explores the afterlife of former professional rugby players and athletes (road running and track) and is situated within the emerging sub-discipline of the anthropology of sport. I consider the elite sports culture within which athletes apply their sporting trade and show how the everyday life of elite athletes is shaped by the mass media and a culture of individualism. The elite sports culture informs how athletes perceive their bodies after sports retirement. By drawing on the notion of the sports body as a machine I show that professional rugby players disregard the potential future ailments that they may live with once their rugby careers are over. The importance of social networks established during their sporting careers is also explored with specific reference to the role that schools and universities play in promoting social capital. The research, moreover, hopes to contribute to knowledge about the afterlife of sportspeople by considering the interconnectedness between elite athlete’s private decision to retire from sport and the public representation of their sporting lives through sport heritage practices. The study of sports heritage in South Africa has been a largely neglected and hitherto closed field of study. The study concludes that the material culture of South African former sport heroes enables them to live on near perpetuity, as they become symbolically immortalised through sport heritage practices Conceptually this thesis draws on the theory of social capital, the body, the notion of symbolic immortality, and the politics of memory and heritage practices. Empirically, sport museums as expressions of heritage are investigated with specific reference to the preservation of South African rugby heritage at the Springbok Experience Museum in Cape Town and an analysis of the Comrades Marathon House museum in Pietermaritzburg. Besides these, I also visited places where the material culture of former South African sport heroes are exhibited. These included the houses of sports collectors, community sport museums, corporate sport museum, sport stadia and sport heritage exhibitions at prominent South African rugby schools and universities. Semi – structured interviews were conducted with former professional rugby players, athletes and sport heritage practitioners. Participant observation at sport events that commemorated sportspeople of the past also substantiate the findings. Primary sources drawn from the South African Rugby Board’s archives contributed to the understanding of rugby heritage practices prior to the professional era.
Open Access
After universalisms: music as a medium for intercultural translation
(University of the Free State, 2012) Viljoen, Martina
English: Postmodernity is characterised by the fundamentalisation of plurality. As Aleida Assmann (1996: 99) finds, difference is affirmed in the form of deviance, gaps, and radical alterity. Within this intellectual milieu, the acknowledgment of alterity and the acceptance of difference have become foremost ethical claims (Assmann 1996: 99). Appropriating the thought of Goethe, she finds that the emphasis shifts from the embrace of the One to an encounter with the mode of the Two (Assmann 1996: 100). This encounter is marked by awe and surprise, but also by the shrouding of each of the Two as if cloaked in eternal solitude. The question posed in this article is whether Assmann’s viewpoints may enhance a reading of a work from the South African art music repertoire, Hans Huyssen’s Ciacona & Tshikona (2007). Engaging with a broader selection of viewpoints on cultural translation, it is asked whether Assmann’s (1996: 99) notion of otherness is a productive context for mediating a meaningful encounter between cultures and whether, as such, it is relevant to an interpretation of Huyssen’s work. A speculative interpretation of Huyssen’s Ciacona & Tshikona reveals that the work is suggestive of a complex heredity being translated into an ‘impure’ new South African contextuality.