A Note on the Dutch Origins of South African Colonial Architecture

1997 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-206
Author(s):  
Jona Schellekens

The accepted view is that the eighteenth-century colonial architecture of South Africa has Dutch origins. Jan van der Meulen has challenged this view in this journal. Previous research has looked for the origins of the mostly rural South African colonial architecture in urban Dutch architecture, but, as van der Meulen has noted, with meager results. This note suggests that rural Dutch architecture may be a better field in which to look. Much of the argument presented here is based on a comparison between South African colonial gable design and that in the Zaanstreek, a rural-industrial area north of Amsterdam.

Author(s):  
James R. Barnacle ◽  
Oliver Johnson ◽  
Ian Couper

Background: Many European-trained doctors (ETDs) recruited to work in rural district hospitals in South Africa have insufficient generalist competencies for the range of practice required. Africa Health Placements recruits ETDs to work in rural hospitals in Africa. Many of these doctors feel inadequately prepared. The Stellenbosch University Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health is launching a Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Medicine to help prepare doctors for such work.Aim: To determine the competencies gap for ETDs working in rural district hospitals in South Africa to inform the curriculum of the PG Dip (Rural Medicine).Setting: Rural district hospitals in South Africa.Methods: Nine hospitals in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga were purposefully selected by Africa Health Placements as receiving ETDs. An online survey was developed asking about the most important competencies and weaknesses for ETDs when working rurally. The clinical manager and any ETDs currently working in each hospital were invited to complete the survey.Results: Surveys were completed by 19 ETDs and five clinical managers. The top clinical competencies in relation to 10 specific domains were identified. The results also indicate broader competencies required, specific skills gaps, the strengths that ETDs bring to South Africa and how ETDs prepare themselves for working in this context.Conclusion: This study identifies the important competency gaps among ETDs and provides useful direction for the diploma and other future training initiatives. The diploma faculty must reflect on these findings and ensure the curriculum is aligned with these gaps.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Dlamini ◽  
M. Taylor ◽  
N. Mkhize ◽  
R. Huver ◽  
R. Sathiparsad ◽  
...  

Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Kemerink ◽  
L. E. Méndez ◽  
R. Ahlers ◽  
P. Wester ◽  
P. van der Zaag

The promotion of local governance and the transfer of water management responsibilities to water user associations (WUAs) have been central in water reform processes throughout the world, including in the reforms that took place in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper reflects on the notions of inclusion and representation as put forward by the various actors involved in the establishment of a WUA in a tertiary catchment in the Thukela River Basin. The paper describes how the WUA in the study catchment came to be dominated by commercial farmers, despite the South African government's aim to redress the inequities of the past by the inclusion and representation of historically disadvantaged individuals. The authors argue that the notions of inclusion and representation as embedded in the concept of the WUA are highly contested and more aligned with the institutional settings familiar to the commercial farmers. The paper concludes that, unless the inherently political nature of the participatory process is recognized and the different institutional settings become part of the negotiation process of the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of progressive collaboration at catchment level, the establishment of the WUA in the study catchment will not contribute to achieving the envisioned transformation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 32-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay C. Kobayashi ◽  
Farrah J. Mateen ◽  
Livia Montana ◽  
Ryan G. Wagner ◽  
Kathleen Kahn ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Bill (William) Dixon

Review of: Andrew Faull, Police Work and Identity: A South African Ethnography, Abingdon, Routledge, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-138-23329-4 Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, Access to Justice and Human Security: Cultural Contradictions in Rural South Africa, Abingdon, Routledge, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-138-57860-9


2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-389
Author(s):  
SEAN REDDING

AbstractThis article argues that rural South African women's importance as spiritual actors in the period from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries stemmed from their ability to embrace hybrid spiritual identities that corresponded closely to the lived reality of African rural life, and that by embracing those identities, women expanded their roles as social healers. Professing a belief in Christianity did not prevent individuals from practicing as diviners, nor did it prevent Christians from consulting diviners to determine the causes of death or misfortune. Similarly, young women who converted to Christianity often maintained close ties to non-Christian families and bridged spiritual lives on the mission stations with life in their families. Over this time period, women became cultural mediators who borrowed, adopted, and combined spiritual beliefs to provide more complete answers to problems faced by rural African families in South Africa.


2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Cohen

Although a few explorers had reported the finding of fossils in South Africa during the eighteenth century, interested amateurs made the first important collections of fossils during the 1830s. Many new species were discovered and sent back to London, for further study by the newly emerging class there of professional palaeontologists such as Richard Owen (1804-1892) of the British Museum's Natural History Department. As a result of a few pioneers like Andrew Geddes Bain (1797-1864) and William Guybon Atherstone (1814-1898), the study of South African geology and palaeontology was placed on a firm footing by the 1860s. Owen publicly acknowledged their contributions to these new sciences in 1876 in his monumental study of the fossil reptiles of South Africa.1


2020 ◽  
Vol 116 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daan Toerien

Debates about the value of pro-poor tourism indicated a need to revisit the links between the dynamics of tourism and hospitality enterprises and community poverty in rural South African towns. The numbers of tourism and hospitality enterprises in these towns are related to population numbers by a power law with a sub-linear exponent. The residents of smaller South African towns are more dependent on the tourism and hospitality sector than are the residents of larger towns. Measurement of the enterprise dependency indices (EDIs) of these towns provides a valid measurement of their wealth/poverty states. Their EDIs are directly and negatively associated with the strength of their tourism and hospitality sectors. Communities in towns with more tourist and hospitality enterprises are overall wealthier, and vice versa. This finding contrasts with a previous view about tourism and poverty reduction in South Africa. Debates about the benefits of pro-poor tourism should include information about the impact of tourism on community wealth/poverty. The EDI is a simple, yet powerful, measure to provide poverty information. Expressing the number of tourism and hospitality enterprises per 1000 residents of towns enables comparisons of towns of different population sizes. Based on ideas of the ‘new geography of jobs’, it is clear that tourism is part of what is called the traded sector and results in inflows of external money into local economies. Tourism is a driver of prosperity and a reducer of poverty in South African towns.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Reardon ◽  
Oluwatobi Enigbokan ◽  
Gavin George

Background: A paucity of research exists that has examined temporary placements of foreign health professionals in South Africa (SA) as a possible strategy for addressing health worker shortages. The Out of Programme Experience (OOPE) initiative, run by the London GP Deanery, aims to provide a sustainable inflow of British, trainee GP doctors into rural public health facilities in SA.Objectives: The present study explored the experiences of these British doctors working in rural hospitals in SA as part of their OOPE. The reasons and motivations underlying their decision to come to SA were also examined.Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen British doctors who were currently working, or had worked in the past, as part of OOPE in rural health facilities in SA. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.Results: The first theme that surfaced from the interviews was that the most common reasons underlying these doctors’ motivations for coming to SA related to: the type of diseases and advanced pathologies that they would encounter; the challenge and opportunity for professional growth; and the difference in work environment that would confer on them greater responsibility and autonomy, compared to working in similar positions in the British National Health Service. The second theme, central to the participants’ narratives, was the accelerated period of learning that they experienced whilst in SA. Exposure to new and unfamiliar medical cases, a greater level of autonomy and decision-making authority, and resource shortages forced greater reliance on their clinical skills and judgment, which contributed to their professional development.Conclusion: The doctors’ believed the OOPE enhanced their clinical skills and competencies. The findings provide some evidence that attests to the OOPE’s potential to benefit both host facilities and the participating foreign doctors. The findings of the study have practical implications for the further development of programmes to fill vacant posts for health workers in rural South African hospitals. Agtergrond: Daar bly ’n gebrek aan navorsing met betrekking tot tydelike posisies vir buitelandse professionele gesondheidswerkers in Suid-Afrika (SA) as ’n moontlike strategiese oplossing vir die tekort aan gesondheidswerkers in die land. Die ’Out of Programme Experience’ (OOPE) inisiatief, wat deur die ‘London GP Deanery’ georganiseer word, se doel is om ’n volhoubare invloei van Britse dokters-in-opleiding aan plattelandse openbare gesondheidsfasiliteite te voorsien.Doelwitte: Hierdie studie het die ervarings van hierdie Britse dokters, wat as deel van die OOPE-program in plattelandse Suid-Afrikaanse hospitale gewerk het, verken. Die onderliggende redes en motivering vir hul besluite om na Suid-Afrika toe te kom, is ook ondersoek.Metodes: In-diepte onderhoude is met 15 Britse dokters gevoer wat huidiglik, of in die verlede, in plattelandse gesondheidsfasiliteite in SA gewerk het as deel van die OOPE-program. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer en tematiese analise is gebruik om dit te analiseer.Resultate: Die eerste tema wat uit die onderhoude geïdentifiseer is, is dat die mees algemene redes hoekom hierdie dokters na SA gekom het verband hou met die tipe siektes en gevorderde patologie wat hulle in SA sou teëkom. Die tweede tema wat geïdentifieer is, is die versnelde leerkurwe wat hulle ervaar het in SA.Gevolgtrekkings: Die dokters het geglo dat die OOPE-program hul kliniese vaardighede verbeter het. Hierdie studie getuig van die OOPE se potensiaal om beide die plaaslike gesondheidsfasiliteite sowel as die deelnemende buitelandse dokters te bevoordeel. Die gevolgtrekkings van die studie het praktiese implikasies vir die verdere ontwikkeling van programme om vakante poste vir gesondheidspersoneel in plattelandse hospitale in SA te vul.


1992 ◽  
Vol 28 (110) ◽  
pp. 134-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donal P. McCracken

Although there has been a continuous Irish presence at the Cape of Good Hope since the late eighteenth century, the chroniclers of the Irish diaspora have until the late 1980s ignored the continent of Africa. This was in part because relatively few Irish migrants ventured to Africa, but it is also the consequence of two other factors. The vast majority of Irish immigrants to Africa in the nineteenth century went to South Africa, a region which, with some exceptions, has been academically isolated for a generation. Then within South Africa there is much still to be learnt about the nature of English-speaking society in the region. While the meticulous analysis of black and Afrikaner history and society, and of related economic history, has dominated South African historiography for some two decades, professional academics have too often left the field of South African English-speaking studies to the amateur historian and the antiquarian. Thus what in Canada or Australia would be regarded as mainline historical research has in South Africa been sidelined in the name of historical relevancy. In fact an analysis of Irish settlement in southern Africa fills an important gap in the general survey of Irish emigration to the empire and reveals a pattern of Irish settlement very different from other regions of Irish migration.


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