Ameliorating poverty in South Africa through natural resource commercialisation : how can NGO's make a difference?
- Authors: Shackleton, Sheona E
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6615 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016222
- Description: [From Introduction] Some of the poorest rural people in South Africa are turning to the natural resource base for income generation. Using traditional skills they are converting a variety of wild resources into commodities that are sold in the market place. Wood and woven craft, medicines, fresh and processed wild foods, alcoholic beverages, building materials, fuelwood, dried mopane worms, cultural artefacts and brooms are just some examples of the array of natural resource products increasingly seen for sale in local and external markets. Many of the participants in this trade have minimal education, few assets to draw on, and little access to alternative sources of income or jobs. A significant proportion are women, with more than half heading their own households. Many come from households devastated by HIV/AIDS. The cash earned from selling natural resource products, however modest, is of critical importance to the households involved, preventing them from slipping deeper into poverty. “Since I have been making brooms my children no longer go to bed crying of hunger” observed one broom producer. NGOs, particularly those involved in rural development, can play an important role in assisting producers overcome some of the obstacles they face and in enhancing the opportunities to grow this informal sector. , This policy brief is based on the original brief made available for a workshop in August 2006. It draws on, amongst other sources, the results of several case studies of natural resource commercialisation undertaken across South Africa. The project was funded by the South Africa-Netherlands Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD), BP South Africa and the National Research Foundation (NRF). The Center for International Forestry Research, with support from SIDA, provided the funding to share these findings with key stakeholders including government policy and decision makers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Bells in the Province of Southern Africa
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6168 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012356 , http://www.ringingworld.co.uk
- Description: Colin Lewis was Professor of Geography at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa from 1989 until his retirement at the end of 2007. In 1990, with the strong support of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Dr Derek Henderson, he instigated the Certificate in Change Ringing (Church Bell Ringing) in the Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology - the first such course to be offered in Africa. Since that date he has lectured in the basic theory, and taught the practice of change ringing. He is the Ringing Master of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown, South Africa. , The (Anglican) Church of the Province of Southern Africa encompasses South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, the islands of St. Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and other ·South Atlantic groups and extends into Mozambique and Angola. This is the area, with the exception of Angola and Namibia, covered by this exploratory article. Further research will, no doubt, add much information on the bells of the Province. The first bells known to have existed in the area now covered by the Province were reported from St. Helena in 1588, when captain Thomas Cavendish wrote that on the land there was "a church ... [and] a frame ... whereon hang two bells." At that time St. Helena was used by Portuguese seamen and the bells were probably imported from Portugal. They apparently hung outside a church .in the valley in which Jamestown is now sited. No trace of them now exists (Lewis, 2004a).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Professor Emeritus Denis William Ewer MBE FRSSAf 1913 - 2009: biographical memoir
- Authors: Hodgson, Alan N
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6884 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011643
- Description: Denis Ewer went to University College School in London. In 1931 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge (his father had studied mathematics at Trinity) where he read for the Natural Science Tripos, obtaining a B.A. in 1934. In his second year at Cambridge he gained the nickname of 'Jakes' via a literary route (his father's nickname also had literary origins). The word 'ewer' can mean a jug, chamber pot, or jerry, and hence the progress to 'jakes', Elizabethan English for an outside lavatory. It was at Cambridge that he also met the future communist spy, Kim Philby. After graduating, Jakes Ewer moved to the University of Birmingham where he undertook his doctoral studies (graduating PhD in 1940) under H. Munro Fox. World War II, however, temporarily halted any further academic career, and during the war years he was an Experimental Officer for the Army Operational Research Group (Ministry of Supply) achieving the rank of Major. For his work, which included being a Scientific Advisor to the Chief, Air Defence Division, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, he was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
The Bellman's tale - Part 1
- Authors: Berning, J M
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6989 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012412
- Description: Michael Berning was a member of the Rhodes University Library staff from 1965 until his retirement in 1997. He was Tower Captain of the Grahamstown Cathedral during the 1980s.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
The Bellman's tale - Part 2
- Authors: Berning, J M
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6990 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012413
- Description: Michael Berning was a member of the Rhodes University Library staff from 1965 until his retirement in 1997. He was Tower Captain of the Grahamstown Cathedral during the 1980s.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006