Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This presentation explores the ways in which music, together with cultural forms such as poetry, theatre, and dance, was used to garner international support for the struggle against apartheid. From the mid-1970s exiled political groups, particularly the African National Congress (ANC), came increasingly to recognize the value of culture in promoting the struggle abroad. 1974 saw the establishment of the Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble, a London-based grouping that was to achieve considerable success in Europe. Mayibuye was an agitprop group whose performances consisted of an awareness-raising narrative about apartheid interwoven with poetry readings and rousing renditions of freedom songs. In the late 1970s, as increasing pressure forced many of Mayibuye’s performers into more direct political work, another group was in the budding stages of development closer to home. The Amandla Cultural Ensemble originated amongst ANC exiles based largely in military training camps in southern Africa, and became a popular ambassador for the movement across Africa, Europe, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere. It offered large-scale, increasingly professionalized performances incorporating jazz, theatre, and dance. Its performances were intended not only to raise international awareness about apartheid, but also – perhaps more importantly – to present an alternative vision of a future, more inclusive South African culture. Drawing on original archival material, photographs, and documentary footage, this presentation explores developing conceptions of the value of cultural work amongst South African political exiles in the 1970s and 80s, and the ways in which culture was actively recruited to promote the anti-apartheid struggle abroad.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper argues that democratization is fundamentally a process of radically reforming power relations not only between the state and society, but also between societal actors. In order to understand the conditions under which citizens are empowered to practice citizenship, rather than to simply delegate powers, we need to have a deeper understanding of the multi-level, complex and intertwined relations between economy, society and state that configure democratic possibilities. It develops this argument through a case study of the contestation of local government transformation in Durban South Africa. The paper argues that the neo-liberal policies and increasingly technocratic mode of governance supported by the ANC have been successfully challenged by a group of state reformers with strategic ties to civil society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: What was the social geography that faced the planners of democratic South Africa at the start of their efforts to remake the apartheid city? Durban, much like South Africa’s other two megacities, was planned for segregated residence, interaction, and social and economic development during the apartheid era. The legacies of such planning have haunted efforts at planned integration since the fall of apartheid. There are two main goals that motivate this paper. The first, part of a larger research project to describe and understand the progression of South African cities post transition, involves descriptively analyzing 1996 as a baseline for study of post transition changes to the apartheid city, and as a baseline for understanding the massive task of planning for integration undertaken by the state. The second is to use this descriptive analysis to pose questions, identify mechanisms, and begin to infer lived meaning that will inform analysis of change to the city as part of the larger project. After a brief review of South Africa’s experience with and emergence from apartheid, I conduct a descriptive quantitative spatial analysis of Durban following the end of apartheid. Included in this analysis is understanding in Durban of the racial residential structure, its connection to existing (primarily transportation) infrastructure, and the extent and shape of race-based segregation. Throughout the paper I propose mechanisms and hypotheses that may help explain and inform future study of causality associated with this spatial social geography.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: South Africa has gone through many changes since the end of the apartheid regime and the election of a majority black Government of National Unity (GNU) in 1994. After the initial euphoria from both the continent and international community during Nelson Mandela's tenure as the country's first black President, the country is now being evaluated on the policies and results of the government. This paper seeks to examine the role that race plays in the formulation and implementation of these policies, particularly the foreign policy of South Africa towards the African continent. While current President Thabo Mbeki speaks of an African Renaissance led by South Africa, the country has many challenges to overcome. Even as black South African's continue to maintain political power, most recently with the African National Congress's landslide 69.7 percent of the vote in April 2004's National elections, white South Africans, who make up a minority, continue to retain nearly half of all income. It is hypothesized that while the shift to majority black leadership has led to the assertion of a more benign, human rights orientation towards Africa, the domestic realities of the state have hindered the implementation and reprioritization of Africa as the center of the country's foreign policy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: White men who refused to serve in the apartheid army for political reasons profoundly threatened the South African state?s gender order and the operation of the social and political binaries upon which apartheid rested. Contesting hegemonic definitions of masculinity is inherent in pro and anti-conscription discourses. The refusal to undertake military service or the refusal to perform military camp obligations after completing initial mandatory service placed men outside the accepted means of graduating to and maintaining ?real? manhood. The critique offered in the act of objection can sometimes be premised in the starkest terms. Objection was a performative act and one that negotiated with gendered concepts such as patriotism, bravery, cowardice and commitment to South Africa. The testimonies of individual objectors construct objection in mimetic terms to military service: the act of objection developed objectors sense of selves, bravery and personal fulfilment. This paper will use the individual testimonies of objectors and the literature and messages of the End Conscription Campaign (a movement established to oppose the draft) to interrogate the contestation and efficacy of war resistance in a militarised, masculine state.