scholarly journals Psychic Unhomings, Amnesia, and the Risk of Decosmopolitanization in Damon Galgut’s The Impostor (2008)

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Michela Borzaga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Structural Disturbances ◽  
Apartheid Regime

The apartheid regime has left behind a range of chronic and structural disturbances of home/lands in contemporary South Africa. This article examines the representation of housing in Damon Galgut’s The Impostor. In this post-apartheid novel, houses feature prominently; they are not only the axle around which the plot revolves, but characters in their own right. Houses are depicted as relational and dynamic sites, invested with traumatic repressed material. By drawing on critical house studies, psychoanalysis, memory, and postcolonial studies, it will be shown that there is a strong intersection that needs to be unpacked between inhabited spaces, the mnemonic economy of the self, its displacements and unexpected flights, and the larger socio-economic and political sphere. This article argues that houses in Galgut’s novel emerge as psychological and affective contents, as symptoms of historical amnesia and displaced whiteness; characters’ psychic disturbances find fertile terrain in a country which, while parading itself as “new” and “open”, risks regressing towards new forms of “decosmopolitanization” (Appadurai).

La Traviata Affair

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Roos
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Colored People ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Group A ◽  
La Traviata ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Opera Production ◽  
The Way

Opera, race, and politics during apartheid South Africa form the foundation of this historiographic work on the Eoan Group, a so-called colored cultural organization that performed opera in the Cape. The La Traviata Affair: Opera in the Time of Apartheid charts Eoan’s opera activities from its inception in 1933 until the cessation of its work by 1980. By accepting funding from the apartheid government and adhering to apartheid conditions, the group, in time, became politically compromised, resulting in the rejection of the group by their own community and the cessation of opera production. However, their unquestioned acceptance of and commitment to the art of opera lead to the most extraordinary of performance trajectories. During apartheid, the Eoan Group provided a space for colored people to perform Western classical art forms in an environment that potentially transgressed racial boundaries and challenged perceptions of racial exclusivity in the genre of opera. This highly significant endeavor and the way it was thwarted at the hands of the apartheid regime is the story that unfolds in this book.

Patients’ Perceptions of Caring and Uncaring Nursing Encounters in Inpatient Rehabilitation Settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan C Cheruiyot ◽  
Petra Brysiewicz
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Inpatient Rehabilitation ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
The Self ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Interview Guide ◽  
Being There

This study explores and describes caring and uncaring nursing encounters from the perspective of the patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation settings in South Africa. The researchers used an exploratory descriptive design. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data through individual interviews with 17 rehabilitation patients. Content analysis allowed for the analysis of textual data. Five categories of nursing encounters emerged from the analysis: noticing and acting, and being there for you emerged as categories of caring nursing encounters, and being ignored, being a burden, and deliberate punishment emerged as categories of uncaring nursing encounters. Caring nursing encounters make patients feel important and that they are not alone in the rehabilitation journey, while uncaring nursing encounters makes the patients feel unimportant and troublesome to the nurses. Caring nursing encounters give nurses an opportunity to notice and acknowledge the existence of vulnerability in the patients and encourage them to be present at that moment, leading to empowerment. Uncaring nursing encounters result in patients feeling devalued and depersonalised, leading to discouragement. It is recommended that nurses strive to develop personal relationships that promote successful nursing encounters. Further, nurses must strive to minimise the patients’ feelings of guilt and suffering, and to make use of tools, for example the self-perceived scale, to measure this. Nurses must also perform role plays on how to handle difficult patients such as confused, demanding and rude patients in the rehabilitation settings.

DEMOCRACY AT THE SERVICE OF FOREIGN POLICY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. FREDDIE
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Foreign Policy Change ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Apartheid Regime

The article examines the place and role of democracy and human rights in South Africas foreign policy. The author analyzes the process of South Africas foreign policy change after the fall of the apartheid regime and transition to democracy. He gives characteristics of the foreign policy under different presidents of South Africa from 1994 to 2018 and analyzes the political activities of South Africa in the area of peacekeeping and human rights on the African continent.

Disappointed Remains: Trauma, Testimony, and Reconciliation in Post-apartheid South Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Field
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Democratic Elections

The apartheid regime in South Africa and the fight against the same, followed by the reconciliation is the crux of this article. The first democratic elections held on April 27, 1994, were surprisingly free of violence. Then, in one of its first pieces of legislation, the new democratic parliament passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995, which created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. At the outset, the South African TRC promised to “uncover the truth” about past atrocities, and forge reconciliation across a divided country. As oral historians, we should consider the oral testimonies that were given at the Human Rights Victim hearings and reflect on the reconciliation process and what it means to ask trauma survivors to forgive and reconcile with perpetrators. This article cites several real life examples to explain the trauma and testimony of apartheid and post-apartheid Africa with a hint on the still prevailing disappointments and blurred memories.

scholarly journals “Incompleteness” and the Quest for Multiple Identities in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard C. Lategan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
The Self ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Alternative Approach

The article explores the contours of multiple identities in contrast to singular identities in situations of social complexity and cultural diversity. Nyamnjoh's concepts of “incompleteness” and “frontier Africans” imply an alternative approach to identity formation. Although the formation of one's own, singular identity is a necessary stage in the development of each individual, it has specific limitations. This is especially true in situations of complexity and diversity and where the achievement of social cohesion is an important goal. With reference to existing theories of identity formation, an alternative framework is proposed that is more appropriate for the dynamic, open-ended nature of identity and better suited to encourage the enrichment of identity. The role of imagination, a strategy for crossing borders (with reference to Clingman's concept of a “grammar of identity”), the search for commonality, and the effect of historical memory are discussed. Enriched and multiple identities are not achieved by replacement or exchange, but by widening (existing) singular identities into a more inclusive and diverse understanding of the self.

The Market Theatre of Johannesburg in the New South Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-374
Author(s):  
Hilary Burns
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New South ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Black Artists ◽  
The Past ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

The Market Theatre of Johannesburg opened in 1976, the year of the Soweto Uprising – the beginning of the end for the oppressive apartheid regime. Founded by Barney Simon, Mannie Manim, and a group of white actors, the theatre's policy, in line with the advice to white liberals from the Black Consciousness Movement, was to raise the awareness of its mainly white audiences about the oppression of apartheid and their own social, political, and economic privileges. The theatre went on through the late 'seventies and 'eighties to attract international acclaim for productions developed in collaboration with black artists that reflected the struggle against the incumbent regime, including such classics as The Island, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, and Woza Albert! How has the Market fared with the emergence of the new South Africa in the 'nineties? Has it built on the past? Has it reflected the changes? What is happening at the theatre today? Actress, writer, and director Hilary Burns went to Johannesburg in November 2000 to find out. She worked in various departments of the theatre, attended productions, and interviewed theatre artists and members of the audience. This article will form part of her book, The Cultural Precinct, inspired by this experience to explore how the theatres born in the protest era have responded to the challenges of the new society.

scholarly journals Self-perceived employability among undergraduate students at a South African university

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doret Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
Managerial Implications

Orientation: South Africa has been suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment since 2008. The youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the South African labour market and unemployment amongst the youth is considered one of the most critical socio-economic problems in South Africa. Increasing one’s employability is essential to securing employment and enhancing one’s well-being.Research purpose: This study aimed to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university.Motivation for the study: Currently, there is a scarcity of published research on the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at higher education institutions in South Africa.Research approach/design and method: The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used. Convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. Data were collected through a web-based survey, using a standardised coded questionnaire that consisted of a five-point Likert-type scale.Main findings: The results indicated that the respondents were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills and knowledge to become a successful citizen and employee.Contribution/value-add: The study shed light on the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university and consequently contributes to the existing literature on employability in the South African context.

scholarly journals Shouting against Silence: André Brink's Voices of Truth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shelley May Dixon
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Female Narratives ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
African Writer ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Eventual Loss ◽  
Geographical Locations

<p>This thesis investigates the notion of 'Truth' upheld by the South African writer André Brink and discusses his deconstruction of the processes of truth-making. I argue that Brink understands fixed narratives, or received 'truth', as constructed to the detriment of alternative narratives, resulting in their subjugation and eventual loss. In response to authoritative discourses, Brink advocates an ongoing and evolving series of challenging narratives which refuse the closure of narrative possibilities. He urges a constant process of un-forgetting and remembering, a contestational activity that undermines the truth-claims of any oppressive group. Three central texts have been chosen as exemplary of Brink's directive to contest fixed truth claims. The first of these, Devil's Valley, offers an opportunity to examine the novelistic (and often postmodernist) blurring of distinctions between binary oppositions such as 'fact' and 'fiction', 'past' and 'present', 'real' and 'unreal'. In undermining the ostensibly dichotomous nature of these pairings, Brink challenges the bases upon which prejudicial systems such as the Apartheid regime rely. In doing so, he reveals the constructions behind both prejudice and hegemonic discourses, and ultimately undermines these foundations. Similarly, Imaginings of Sand provides a means by which to further explore Brink's engagement with prejudice, and most specifically, with the patriarchal oppression of women. I suggest that Brink's female narratives, in which multiplicity and endless possibility are foregrounded, again contest the constraints imposed by a dominant discourse, offering alternative versions. My final textual examination focuses on A Chain of Voices, in which both the polyphonic narration and the thematic content exemplify the concerns discussed previously Brink's usage of various imagery related to oppressive relationships, I claim, provides metaphors for the manner in which binary relationships are co-dependent, rather than dichotomous, undercutting the justifications associated with privileging certain narratives over others. Brink's Truth, I argue, involves an ongoing contestational process of narratorial imagining, a revisionary project central to both the prejudicial environment of Apartheid South Africa, in which much of Brink's work was written, and also to the larger context of prejudice in all its forms and geographical locations.</p>

A Jesus Community in South Africa: Self-Actualization or Need for Security?

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Stones
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
The Self ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Jesus Movement ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Personal Orientation Inventory ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
Personal Orientation

22 members of the Jesus movement in Johannesburg, South Africa, were presented with Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory, to assess perceived changes in self-actualization as a function of their religious conversion. The control group, comprising 22 mainstream-church denominational members who had not undergone rapid and emotional conversions, was matched with the Jesus People for age, sex, home-language, and occupation of father. The self-perceptions of the Jesus People were significantly mote self-actualizing than were those of the members of the control group in the before-conversion condition. Perceived self-actualization decreased as a function of their religious experience. It is also suggested that the reported changes may be due to a “rising expectations” effect.

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