Inadequate menstrual health management and human rights
- Authors: Hartley, Gemma-Maé
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422506 , vital:71953
- Description: Various human rights bodies have suggested that Inadequate Menstrual Health Management (MHM) could contribute to violations of human rights or, at the very least, is connected to the fulfilment of human rights. Despite recognition of this, there has not been thorough analysis of whether inadequate MHM is a violation of human rights, particularly in political discussions on the philosophy of human rights. Using a liberal cosmopolitan framework, this thesis attempts to bridge this gap and, ultimately, to argue that inadequate MHM constitutes a violation of human rights. This assertion brings with it various complications due to the heavily contested nature of human rights, their correlative duties, and the requirements for a lack of fulfilment to be considered a violation. I address each complication in turn. I argue that the traditional approach to human rights violations fails to consider the various ways that human rights are violated in our contemporary, globalised world. I suggest that structural violations of human rights should not be ruled out, particularly when we consider severe poverty and its by-products. Ultimately, the question of inadequate MHM is concerned with the content of human rights. If inadequate MHM were a violation, it would be a violation of women’s socio-economic rights. However, both group rights and socio-economic rights are contested. This thesis therefore justifies these rights. Group-differentiated rights are argued to be necessary for substantive equality. This is particularly the case when we consider the various risks women face simply because they are women. Women therefore need special protections and provisions for their human rights to be fulfilled. Socio-economic rights are necessary for the well-being and dignity of individuals everywhere. We can justify them even if they are costly, vague, and demanding on states, as critics argue they are. Therefore, if we can accept socio-economic rights and women’s rights, we can argue that inadequate MHM is a structural violation of human rights. Thinking about inadequate MHM in this way means we can respond to it with a level of urgency. This has the potential to improve the well-being, development, and dignity of women. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2023
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- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
The governance of schools for internally displaced learners in Puntland, Somalia: a top-down or bottom-up approach to education peacebuilding?
- Authors: Ramaite, Adivhaho Florence
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406807 , vital:70309
- Description: This study examines educational governance in schools for internally displaced learners in Puntland, Somalia. Many Somalis have been internally displaced from the south and central of Somalia and neighbouring regions because of armed insurgence, as well as climate and ecological disasters. Communities of internally displaced Somalis who have settled in the north-eastern region of Somalia, together with the Ministry of Education and nongovernmental organisations such as Relief International, have established schools for internally displaced learners. The study uses interviews with teachers, school principals and school committee members to examine their experiences of how schools are governed, specifically in terms of the bottom-up and top-down approaches to peacebuilding education. This research study is the first of its kind to examine the experiences of education actors in internally displaced person schools in Somalia. It provides crucial, new information on northern NGOs and how they shape the governance of knowledge and resources in Somali schools and how Somali education actors interpret and respond to these interventions. Drawing on education studies and international relations, it develops a transdisciplinary framing of peacebuilding education and specifically focuses on the top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacebuilding education provision. It weaves these two disciplinary perspectives together to help establish the implications of the security sector in education and broadly post-conflict reconstruction. The study finds that donors, international NGOs and government actors use a top-down approach to education, which may sit at odds with local needs and priorities. It finds that Somali knowledge and values are marginalised in the curriculum and teachers’ professional development and that the distribution of resources such as teacher salaries and school feeding programmes is fragmented, opaque and lacking in accountability. The study emphasises that the exclusion of local voices may further contribute to the causes underlying conflict. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
Joice Mujuru and the Zanu-PF Women’s League 1973-2014: opportunities and limits of maternal dignity (musha mukadzi) and self-preservation
- Authors: Mataruse, Sisasenkosi
- Date: 2022-04-07
- Subjects: Mujuru, Amai Joice T R (Amai Joice Teurai Ropa) , ZANU Women's League , Women and democracy Zimbabwe , Women Political activity Zimbabwe , Political leadership Zimbabwe , Sexism in political culture Zimbabwe , Patriarchy Zimbabwe , Women Zimbabwe Social conditions , Maternal dignity (musha mukadzi)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/292748 , vital:57012
- Description: The foundations of African feminisms are intertwined with the historical liberation of the African continent. Joice Mujuru’s five decades in Zimbabwean political parties are no different in showing the gendered nature of the fight against the intersectional oppressions of nation, race, class and gender. The research aimed to examine the political life of Joice Mujuru between 1973 and 2018 in various political roles and what this might mean for how women political leaders participate and make decisions as autonomous individuals within political parties in Zimbabwe. This study is a political biography of Joice Mujuru’s ideas and leadership in political parties in Zimbabwe since 1973, when she joined the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) as a guerilla of its military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Mujuru was the only woman in the first ZANU-PF cabinet in 1980. She served the Zimbabwean government in different cabinet positions and became the first female vice-president in 2004, until her ousting in 2014. This study is based on an interview with Mujuru, and nine interviews with one Member of Parliament, two independent political party candidates, three academics, two CSO activists, the leader of LEAD political party in Zimbabwe and personal communication with a celebrated Zimbabwean writer. The study uses the concept of “patriarchal bargain” (Kandiyoti, 1988; Makhunga, 2016) and “femocracy” (Mama, 1995b) to show that Mujuru’s participation in political parties has been shaped by compromising and negotiating a complex web of patriarchal constraints for acceptance and respect. This study shows that wifehood and motherhood, the idea of musha mukadzi (‘woman as home’), stands out as a defining factor for Mujuru in her identity formation as a political party leader and how she views the roles of other women in Zimbabwean political parties and politics. I term this political identity maternal dignity, which is a collective set of ideas of maternal respect determining women’s participation in political parties. The study shows that Mujuru uses dominant ideas of maternal dignity as a tool of self-presentation and self-preservation to survive as a political leader. Mujuru’s expulsion from ZANU-PF and her subsequent leadership in other political parties demonstrates the ways in which maternal dignity limits women from shaping alternative ideas of leadership outside of respectable womanhood. Through a political biography of Mujuru, the study reaches the conclusion that post-independence Zimbabwe offers limited space for women’s leadership, whether those women have liberation history credentials or not. The strategy of maternal dignity that Mujuru has used to navigate her political career is a “patriarchal bargain” with limited possibilities for women’s meaningful participation, and the transformation of political parties and governance in Zimbabwe. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-04-07
Inkcitha nzila nobomi obutsha (The release of the widow and life after mourning): Xhosa widows and citizenship
- Authors: Jimlongo, Gcotyelwa Nomxolisi
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Widows South Africa Eastern Cape , Women, Black South Africa Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) South Africa Eastern Cape , Widows Social conditions , Widowhood Psychological aspects South Africa Eastern Cape , Widowhood Economic aspects South Africa Eastern Cape , Widowhood Social aspects South Africa Eastern Cape , Mourning customs South Africa Eastern Cape , Feminist economics South Africa Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192220 , vital:45206
- Description: This study examines the everyday conceptions and navigations of citizenship by Xhosa widows. It examines widows’ own understandings and experiences of citizenship once the official mourning period, known amongst amaXhosa as ukuzila, has ended. The study draws from 14 interviews with Xhosa widows from the Amalinda, Tsholomnqa, Mdantsane, Magcumeni, KwaNonkcampa, and Dimbaza areas in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This thesis contextualises claims to widowhood in the context of democratic South Africa, and the various ways in which widowed women conceptualise their lives after ukuzila. While ukuzila itself is written about in the literature, the contentious claims to widowhood and the ways in which women come to make sense of their lives in the post-mourning period remains largely unexplored. Interviews were conducted with women who had undertaken customary and/or civil marriages, had divorced or separated from their partners, or had cohabited. They reveal that widowhood is tenuous and as such, remains contested and contestable. The study demonstrates that much of the claims to widowhood are made because of the undeniable labour that women perform during the partnerships, where they are the primary economic providers. The study shows that whether in the formal and informal sector, women have been central in building the economic livelihoods of their families. In the post-mourning period, the theme of ukuhlala (to stay) that is articulated by widows, shows that they choose to remain in their marital homes to protect what they have laboured for. The findings demonstrate that the key to ‘good’ widowhood is intricately linked to ‘good’ motherhood. For Xhosa widows, much of their decision-making, and livelihood strategies, rests on how they craft good livelihoods for their families. These include a negotiation of feminist economies with woman-centred networks, a reliance on spirituality, as well as negotiations for dignity and respect within the homestead through the protection and maintenance of what they have built over the years. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Shifting Norms and Practices of International Criminal Justice: Exploring African State and Non-State Agency at the International Criminal Court
- Authors: Mtero, Shingirai
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192875 , vital:45273
- Description: Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
The roots run deep?: Understanding branch politics within the African National Congress
- Authors: Mkhutle, Nhlanhla Handsome
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: African National Congress , Manipulative behavior Political aspects South Africa , Cartels South Africa , Power (Social sciences) South Africa , Patronage, Political South Africa , Political party organization South Africa , Branch politics
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190261 , vital:44978
- Description: This thesis explores the functioning of branch politics within the African National Congress (ANC) and the influence of branch politics on the organization and its structures. The ANC has many of the characteristics of a mass party. In mass parties, mass participation is supposed to be promoted through the activities of party branches. This thesis documents the weakening of the ANC’s local level structures and their political control over the organization’s decisions. ANC branches are investigated as democratic vanguards of ANC’s mass party persona, in relation to their functioning as the most basic units of the organization. The thesis reflects on branch members’ experiences in different ANC branches to understand the interplay between branch politics, political power, and patronage politics within the ANC. This research project also explores the possibility of manipulation of ANC branches by senior leaders and would-be-leaders of the ANC. The thesis then concludes by summarising the state of branch politics within the ANC and giving recommendations on further study with regards to branch politics of the ANC. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
“Munhu wese ihama yako (everyone is your relative)”: Ubuntu and the social inclusion of students with disabilities at South African universities
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: College students with disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170578 , vital:41938 , 10.21504/10962/170578
- Description: Background: During apartheid, South African students with disabilities (SWDs) were educated in special schools and taught an inferior curriculum. Black learners with disabilities were discriminated against on grounds of both race and disability. Following South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) government put in place arrange of new laws to address the educational and other needs of those disadvantaged under apartheid, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The South African government is a signatory of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which has resulted in the country assuming obligations to promote inclusive education for ASWDs. However, research (see, for instance, Chiwandire & Vincent 2019; Chiwandire 2019; Mutanga 2019; Majoko & Phasha 2018; Mutanga et al. 2018; Mutanga 2017a; Chiwandire 2017; Israel 2017) has shown that SWDs continue to fare differently in comparison to their non-disabled peers in terms of participation in education with the likelihood of success. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have thus been urged to create conducive environments for the academic inclusion of SWDs with particular attention being paid to lecturers employing inclusive instructional strategies as well as flexible curricula, if they are to ensure the equal opportunity for academic success of SWDs in the regular classroom setting. The focus, to date, on academic inclusion, while important, has meant that issues relating to the social inclusion of SWDs have received minimal attention. Purpose: To date, there is a dearth of South African studies which have investigated the social inclusion needs of SWDs on South African campuses. Although a number of studies have given voice to the perspectives of SWDs and lecturers, with respect to their experiences in relation to matters of academic inclusion in South African higher education (HE), few have focused on Disability Unit Staff Members(DUSMs) who are pivotal to ensuring fair and equitable policies and practices for SWDs in HEIs. Disability Studies (DS) as a field has been criticised for being dominated by voices from the Global North, which fail to consider or effectively theorise Global South disability experiences in a contextually relevant way. The thesis argues that the failure to recognise the value of diversity and to treat SWDs as valued and welcomed participants in South African HEIs partly stems from policy, practice and relationships being informed by the Western individualist paradigm that prizes individual achievement and success rather than cooperation and mutuality. The African philosophy of Ubuntu, which stresses values of communalism, hospitality and respect for human dignity is offered here as an alternative starting point for achieving genuinely inclusive campuses. Methods: In-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 participants, most of whom were, at the time of being interviewed, Heads of Disability Units and DUSMs based at 10 different universities in four of South Africa’s nine provinces. Data were coded and analysed using Braun & Clarke’s (2006) method of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Results: The findings of this study indicate that South African campuses are ableist spaces in which the social needs of SWDs are not prioritised. The thesis argues that in order for campuses to become genuinely inclusive, South African campuses ought to seek to inculcate in their members the values of the African worldview Ubuntu, in contrast to the dominant Western individualist orthodoxy. SWDs are being excluded and denied a sense of belonging and equal participation despite universities giving lip service to embracing such inclusive education-oriented values as co-operative learning. Non-disabled students steeped in Western individualism, which affirms the solitary pursuit of individual success rather than the value of interdependence and diversity, end up marginalising SWDs who are seen as less capable. DUSMs addressing the needs of SWDs through an ableist/Western individualist lens are not challenging unfair practices which are impairing the dignity of SWDs, particularly students with physical disabilities who are being forced to “fit into” oppressive inaccessible built environments on campuses. These DUSMs may unwittingly re-inscribe ableist assumptions that normalise discrimination against SWDs. Conclusions and Recommendations: Ubuntu values offer a starting point for building mutual respect and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. The thesis finds however that as was the case in traditional African communities, which embraced the values of Ubuntu, acts of leadership are required if Ubuntu’s values of human dignity, mutual respect and acceptance are to be fostered on campuses. In a range of important ways, the dignity of SWDs is not respected at HEIs in South Africa. This includes, for example, such practical matters as the inaccessibility of toilets to wheelchair users and the lack of appropriate signage for blind students. Disrespectful attitudes and assumptions about SWDs on the part of non-disabled university members also result in SWDs’ human dignity being impaired. Ubuntu’s value of hospitality stresses the importance of promoting relations of group solidarity and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. Both academic inclusion-oriented programmes and the promotion of a wide range of social activities, involving both SWDs and non-disabled students, can play an important role in cultivating the formation of long-term fruitful and respectful friendships between SWDs and non-disabled students. An enabling classroom environment alone is not enough to holistically address the social inclusion needs of SWDs. South African HEIs that embrace the Ubuntu values of communalism, human dignity and hospitality will be in a position to respect the needs of SWDs as “whole persons”. Amongst other things, this requires DUSMs to be fully empowered to make important decisions regarding vital matters such as disability inclusion, and it necessitates university management to relinquish their power, so that they may work collaboratively with DUSMs and SWDs, all on equal footing, to ensure that HE funding allocation, policy and planning also prioritises the social needs of SWDs.
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- Date Issued: 2021
A comparative analysis of the use of participatory practices by indigenous trusts and mainstream development NGOs in Zvimba Communal Area Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mbanje, Bowden Bolt
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Caritas Zimbabwe , Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT) , Non-governmental organizations -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Community development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Rural development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Zvimba Communal Land (Zimbabwe)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167099 , vital:41437
- Description: This thesis compares the extent to which participatory practices have been used by Caritas Zimbabwe, a mainstream NGO, and the Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT), an indigenous Trust, in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe. Participatory development initiatives are common practice in NGO and government development work in Zimbabwe. The thesis begins with a discussion of two aspects of participatory development (PD). Firstly, PD is discussed in relation to decentralization processes where central government transfers administrative and financial authority to sub-national government units in order to enhance the participation of rural communities in development interventions. Secondly, PD is discussed in relation to the increased role of NGOs in development work. During the 1980s and 1990s, shifts in development thinking resulted in NGOs being perceived as important actors who could attend to the development gaps left by an economically incapacitated state. Both NGOs and sub-national government units were seen to be closer to rural communities and so were thought to be in a better position to enhance the participation of these communities in meaningful development projects. An analysis of the practices of the NGO and CSOT under consideration in this study shows that while there has been much rhetorical commitment to participation, community participation in the development interventions of the NGO and the CSOT is inadequate. In introducing and implementing development interventions, there has been a tendency by both the NGO and CSOT to give priority to organizational preferences over local needs. While recognizing the participatory efforts made by mainstream development NGOs (Caritas in particular) and indigenous Trusts (Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust in particular) in Zimbabwe, this thesis also considers the impact of other factors on participatory development initiatives. A major observation from the study is that in as much as we expect genuine participatory approaches which include grassroots communities’ inputs from the project’s conceptualization all the way to its evaluation, the challenge is that the elites at the higher level (central government and donor offices) have their own development preferences and interests while the elites at the lower levels (local government and NGO offices) also have their own priorities and needs. Consequently, local communities tend to be confined to implementing development projects foisted on them by elites at the higher level as well as those at the lower level. Worse still, the study shows that elites at the lowest level (community) sometimes hijack or take advantage of the imposed projects. Participation has been stalled by elites at various levels of the participatory development ladder. Thus, unless power imbalances are seriously addressed at all levels, participatory development will remain elusive.
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- Date Issued: 2020
A comparison of representations of the imperative of higher education change as „transformation‟ versus „decolonisation‟ in South African public discourse
- Authors: Makgakge, Rebecca Dineo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education in mass media -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Discrimination in education -- South Africa , South Africa -- Colonial influence , Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142498 , vital:38085
- Description: The context of higher education in South Africa which has been shaped by the legacies of the old apartheid system is faced with a paramount task of the continuous process of restructuring and change. In shaping the restructuring and change of the higher education system the concept of transformation has been a constant theme for the post-apartheid government policies. However more recently we have seen the heightened prominence of the concept of change understood as decolonisation of South African higher education – as opposed to “transformation‘. This thesis was concerned with how these concepts of change, “transformation‘ and “decolonisation‘ have been used in debates surrounding higher education in South Africa. The thesis compares and contrasts the ways and context in which they are used. This study of 177 South African newspaper articles taken form independent media stables from the time 2008 to the present provides an analysis of representations of higher education change as “transformation‘ and as “decolonisation‘ evinced in the corpus. This required using both content and framing analysis as a method to analyse the corpus. Three themes emerged from the analysis that are relevant to the comparison between South African higher education institutional change represented as “transformation‘ and South African higher education institutional change represented at “decolonisation‘: the first theme concerns the differences and similarities in how the two terms are defined; the second theme concerns how the two ideas play themselves out when it comes to curriculum change and the final theme concerns the implications of seeing change as “transformation‘ and seeing change as “decolonisation‘ for changing institutional cultures.
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- Date Issued: 2020
An analysis of South Africa’s food security policy frameworks from a food sovereignty perspective: challenges and implications for genuine long-term food security
- Authors: Hoepfl, Jason
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Food sovereignty -- South Africa , Food security -- South Africa , Food security -- Government policy -- South Africa , Food security -- Climatic factors -- South Africa , Food policy -- Government policy -- South Africa , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , Food industry and trade -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162851 , vital:40990
- Description: Food price volatility, ecological shocks and unprecedented levels of hunger and obesity are increasing concerns within food security governance, as is the emergence of food sovereignty in broadening critical discussions around food, water, energy and environmental crises. This thesis analyses this changing terrain in the context of South African policy. It analyses shifts in policymaking and the capability of South Africa’s food security policy frameworks to include food sovereignty principles and in so doing support genuine long-term food security. A shift in policy priorities from household production, trade and income opportunities towards social safety nets and nutritional interventions is identified. This focus is constrained by an inability to affect structural changes within a deeply inequitable food landscape. An emphasis on commercial farming and unwillingness to challenge large agribusiness, value chains and corporate retail has enabled social differentiation in access to food and the country’s colonial land dispensation to continue. Consequently, markets have continued to be antipathetic to the needs of poor producers and consumers in South Africa. To overcome these structural constraints, food security policy needs to be framed within a more radical normative agenda. This is important for challenging inequitable power relations and asserting the social and ecological imperatives of healthy food systems. Food sovereignty has significant potential to support a normative agenda by supporting the multiple farming practices, enterprises and livelihood strategies pursued by poor farmers, the unemployed and working poor whilst preserving sensitive environments for future generations. Determining the future of food security is not the privilege of the few with economic clout or power to govern but the right of all. The incorporation of food sovereignty principles in policymaking is therefore paramount for achieving genuine long-term food security.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Choreographies of protest performance as recruitment to activism and the movement of perception during the 2015 re-emergence of student activism at Rhodes University
- Authors: Qoza, Phiwokazi
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: College students -- Political activity -- South Africa , Student protesters -- South Africa , Student movements -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Performance art -- Political aspects -- South Africa , Protest songs -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141692 , vital:37997
- Description: It has been argued that individuals participate in activism due to an identification with the preferences and interests of an emerging group of actors or in solidarity with a pre-existing network that has resorted to a number of protest repertoires in order to make claims or demands. Additionally, an emerging instance of protest is often linked to an image of previous protest events through the employment of a combination of master frames which function as discursive articulation of the encounter in familiar terms, creating a frame resonance which recruits adherents and constituents. To understand why some bystanders to protest transcended to actors in protest and the development of frames within a protest cycle, a performance ethnography is employed to observe and analyse choreographies of protest which took place at an institution of higher education in South Africa during the 2015 re-emergence of wide-spread student activism. It is found that in encountering an atmosphere of protest there emerged a relation of feeling, referred to as “feeling the vibe or atmosphere”, which those who became protest performers resolved in ways which increased their capacity to act in favour of co-constituting that atmosphere. During the encounter between the bystander body and the atmosphere of protest, non-linear somatic communication, characterised by active and passive gestures and postures, occurred through which protest performers developed contact and connection with other bodies as a result of the displacement of space. This thesis suggests that participation in activism can be about going with the flow of movement in an uncertain and ambiguous moment and is not limited to an identification with the pre-existing organization of preferences and interests as a frame of resonance emerges to signify somatic communication which differentiated bodies in the duration of protest performance. Therefore, this thesis uses the theory of affect to situate student activism in-between the politics of performance and the performance of politics whereupon the rhythm of song creates an opening for the kinaesthetic to create form from spontaneous movement of the body as an event of the movement of perception and the perception of movement.
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- Date Issued: 2020
The international community’s implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Principle: a Comparative Study of Sudan and Libya
- Authors: Nizeimana, John Bosco
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Responsibility to protect (International law) , Humanitarian intervention -- Libya , Libya -- Foreign relations -- 1969- , Libya -- Politics and government -- 1969- , Humanitarian intervention -- Sudan , Sudan -- Foreign relations , Sudan -- Politics and government -- 1985-
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162631 , vital:40962
- Description: In the history of international relations, the adoption of the R2P principle in 2005 was widely understood to be a break-through in the international community’s efforts to respond to massive human rights violations and atrocities. Despite this, the international community’s implementation of the R2P has been widely contested, including in relation to its application in Sudan and Libya. There is agreement in the literature that, in both cases, the implementation of the R2P failed to achieve its intended purpose of protecting civilian populations. This thesis addresses the question of why the R2P failed in Sudan and Libya. Most explanations concerning the failure of the R2P in Sudan and Libya tend to focus on the politics of big power countries. The study argues that the failure to implement the R2P is related to the interactions between regional organisations and the international community (global organisations like UN) in attempting to solve large-scale human rights violent conflict. The study is firmly embedded in scholarly debates about humanitarian intervention so as to demonstrate the fact that this study is part of efforts to advance knowledge of scholarly debates on humanitarian intervention in this contemporary world order. The study combines a case study approach and qualitative research approach to achieve a nuanced understanding of the reason why the R2P failed in Sudan and Libya. The study relied on the use of documentary reviews and in-depth interviews of experts to collect data which was analysed using critical discourse analysis. The thesis demonstrated that the implementation of the R2P was characterised by a breakdown of the relationship between regional actors like the AU and global institutions like the UN. This breakdown contributed to the failure of the R2P in Sudan and Libya. The lack of financial and operational capacity for rapid deployment, the internal divisions with the AU, and the lack of political will within the AU members states were also cited as obstacles to the realisation of the R2P efforts in Sudan. To establish in-depth knowledge the study revealed other factors related to the politics of big power countries and how they played a part in the failure of the R2P in Sudan and Libya. Among these factors include implementation inconsistencies, the ICC factor, the absence of UNSC consensus in the response over Darfur and Libya, and the veto power factor and its implications in the efforts of the international community in both cases. This study also showed that the implementation of the R2P may not work effectively if left only to international actors to implement. Regional and sub-regional actors are important stakeholders of the R2P, and their interactions with the international community in actualising the implmementation of the R2P on the ground are essential. The manner in which the R2P was applied in Sudan and Libya is an indication its implementation requires improved interaction between regional actors and the international community at all level of collaboration including at global, regional and sub-regional level. This can build a strong foundation to drive the effective implementation of the R2P in future interventions. The findings of this thesis will significantly improve the available literature on the reason why the R2P failed in Sudan and Libya, particularly by paying much attention to the role of regional and sub-regional actors.
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- Date Issued: 2020
The Islamic Bloc at the United Nations Human Rights Council
- Authors: Rist, Duncan Graham
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: United Nations Human Rights Council , Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , International relations , International relations -- Moral and ethical aspects , Political leadership -- Moral and ethical aspects , Power (Social sciences) -- United States , Human rights -- International cooperation , Liberalism -- International cooperation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142759 , vital:38114
- Description: Uncertainty as to the future of the liberal international order and the position of the United States within an international system in which it is not the hegemon remains a topic of debate amongst scholars of International Relations (Acharya: 2017; Duncombe and Dunne: 2018; Ikenberry: 2009, 2011, 2014; Nye: 2012 and Monteiro: 2011/2012). Fukuyama’s (1989: 4) “end of history” has not happened and a resurgence of populist leaders within established liberal democratic countries has contributed to a rapid decline of moral and ethical leadership and has further compromised the future of the liberal international order (Duncombe and Dunne, 2018: 27). As the relative power of the United States declines and the future of the liberal international order becomes increasingly uncertain, support for its future must be sought from outside the West (Duncombe and Dunne, 2018: 25 and Ikenberry: 2009). This thesis seeks to locate where potential non-Western support for the future liberal international order may be found. It does so through an analysis of how Islamic states who are part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation vote on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The OIC has a significant presence at the UNHRC and can influence the direction of the liberal international human rights regime. The evidence examined in this research project suggests that the future liberal international order and human rights regime can indeed expect some form of cooperation from the OIC. However, the OIC, and by extension Islamic states, would likely offer more support at least for human rights, if a more common understanding were to be found.
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- Date Issued: 2020
The political thought of Thomas Sankara and its contemporary relevance
- Authors: Kabwato, Levison M
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Sankara, Thomas , Sankara, Thomas -- Influence , Burkina Faso -- Politics and government -- 1960-1987 , Cabral, Amílcar, 1924-1973 , Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961 , Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909-1972
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146556 , vital:38536
- Description: On 4 August 1983, a thirty-three year-old army captain seized power in Burkina Faso and embarked on what can be described a revolutionary journey. Over the next four years, until his assassination in 1987 the government, led by Captain Thomas Sankara, attempted to redeem Burkina Faso from the clutches of neo-colonialism. Through popular mobilisation and organisation, infrastructure (schools, hospitals, bridges) was built, millions of children were vaccinated and diseases such as river blindness were eliminated. Women, long-subjugated by patriarchal systems took up space and led their own initiatives in freedom, including holding senior roles in the public service. On the international stage, practical solidarity was extended to countries either fighting or threatened by neo-colonialism despite the fact that Burkina Faso was poor and was itself threatened by France and her lackeys. What Sankara inherited in August 1983, twenty-three years after Burkina Faso’s independence, was a fragile neo-colonial state which was not allowed by dominant imperialist interests to set an example of what true independence means. So, in just four years, it was all over. Sankara was assassinated by his comrades and the revolutionary project he had led came to a halt. The tragedy of Sankara was the tragedy of all those attempts at revolution which occur before mass movements have had the opportunity to develop and organise themselves independently of the state. Despite this, it is apparent today that Sankara has been influential on current political movements and parties in Africa, from Burkina Faso to South Africa. One of these political movements is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa. This half-thesis is an investigation of Sankara’s political thought. It also examines the extent to which his answers to questions of nationalism and pan-Africanism both matched and differed from his predecessors. To accomplish the latter, a brief but critical analysis of the writings of Amílcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah is made.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Understanding popular resistance to xenophobia in South Africa: ‘people think’ and the possibility of alternative politics
- Authors: Parker, Jemima
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Xenophobia -- South Africa , Nationalism -- South Africa , Lazarus, Sylvain -- Political and social views , Political culture -- South Africa , Social change -- South Africa -- Political aspects , Discourse analysis -- South Africa -- Political aspects , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994- , Political science -- Philosophy , Political sociology -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115006 , vital:34069
- Description: This thesis is concerned with the crisis of xenophobia in South Africa. It argues, firstly, that xenophobia itself is not primarily a reaction to poverty, inequality, or any other set of social conditions. Rather, xenophobia must be considered to be a collective political discourse which has arisen in post-apartheid South Africa from an exclusionary conception of state nationalism. Where this work may be distinguished from the majority of research on xenophobia in South Africa is in the fact that its particular focus is on instances where ‘ordinary’ South Africans have challenged and resisted xenophobic violence in their communities through collective political mobilisation. I suggest that these sites of resistance deserve careful consideration in their own right. I argue that they may demonstrate a subjective break with the oppressive politics of state nationalism through the affirmation of alternative political conceptions. Drawing on the political theory of Sylvain Lazarus, and his principal thesis that people are capable of thinking politics in ways which can subjectively think beyond the social and the extant (underscored by his political and methodological axiom, people think), this thesis argues that these sites of resistance show that people – and especially those who are considered to be marginalised from the domain of legitimate politics – can and do think politically, and it is in the thought of people that new and potentially emancipatory visions of politics may emerge.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Walking at the intersection of Seamon’s place ballet and Relph’s insideness: understanding how students experience the university as a place through their everyday habitual walking
- Authors: Mtolo, Siyathokoza Monwabisi
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Seamon, David , Relph, EC , College students -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Attitudes , Walking -- Sociological aspects , College students -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Political activity , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes , Student movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162901 , vital:40995
- Description: Walking as a way to experience a place is a relatively understudied area of phenomenological study. Furthermore, globally (the world) and locally (South Africa) the study of the experience of tertiary education institutions as walked environments is minimal (see Puig-Ribera et al., 2008; Speck et al., 2010; Mtolo, 2017). However, the events of the South African #MustFall moment – especially the #RhodesMustFall part of the moment and how it began with the desecration of a statue that was walked past and found to be a misplaced artefact in a society that is in postcolonial/post-Apartheid times and space – highlighted the pressing need to study the experience of the university as a place through which habitual walking takes the student through moments of movement, rest, and encounter that are a highly consequential way in which placeness is experienced. This study is a way to document how students at Rhodes University experience the university’s placeness quality, through habitual walking, in an example of the way in which a place is experienced through moments of movement, rest, and encounter. For this study in-depth mobile interviews were conducted with 12 student participants from Rhodes University. The interviews were video-recorded as the participants talked while traversing through habitually walked areas of the campus that are the meaning-infused spaces which make up the Rhodes University that they traverse through on a daily basis. The dissertation found that in the experience of Rhodes University, through habitually walking its placeness, people experience moments of movement, rest, and encounter that are highly targeted and personalised. The experience of the Rhodes University campus is an experience of people and the built-up and decorated environment along similar lines. People bring to the experience of their walked space past experiences which inform consequentially how any space that is walked is experienced. People further employ strategies to ensure that the experience of walking a space is more to their desired quality as an experience, which ends up being meaningful and most likely to affect future instances of walking through meaning-infusing and meaning-infused space. Ultimately, the habitual walking of Rhodes University consequentially informs the relationship between students and Rhodes University’s placeness, as the walking is a way of learning how to be within a placeness that is engaged through alternating moments of movement, rest, and encounter that incrementally ‘open’ for experience Rhodes University in such a targeted manner that every student eventually has their personal and customised Rhodes University by virtue of it being just those sites and situations which have been engaged through habitual walking.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Between drones and al-Shabaab: United States extra-judicial killings in Somalia, sovereignty and the future of liberal intervention
- Authors: Koloko, Mojalefa
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Somalia -- Politics and government -- 1991- , Somalia -- History -- 1991- , Somalia -- Foreign relations -- United States , Somalia -- Foreign relations -- 1991- , Military assistance, American -- Somalia , Extrajudicial exeutions -- Somalia , Shabaab (Organization)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67657 , vital:29125
- Description: This study examines the nature of the United States intervention in Somalia, specifically the use of drone strikes that first targeted the militant Sunni Islamist transnational group, al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, and now target the Somali organisation, Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahidin, commonly known as al-Shabaab. The use of drone strikes in the US led war on terror has raised concerns about sovereignty as the extra-judicial killings are conducted without the consent of the concerned states. Furthermore, drone strikes also raise questions about the processes of liberal intervention as the US conducts them without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. It is argued in this study that what is understood to be the “golden era” of liberal interventionism is a legacy of the post-Cold War unipolar dominance of the United States in global governance and security. It is argued that US unipolarity was accompanied by a shifting perception regarding the security position of weak states, whose weakness becomes understood as a source of global insecurity. This perception that so called “weak” and “fragile” states are sources of threats is a departure in International Relations theory, because the discipline is historically preoccupied with studying the actions of powerful states and their consequence for the global order. It is argued that the discourse on the war on terror, and its focus on “failed states” as breeding grounds for alleged terrorists, represents the height of the repositioning of less powerful states from a peripheral status in IR analysis and practice, to their current position that are now being represented as core sources of threat to international peace and security. Through life history interviews with Somali nationals in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage, South Africa, the study examines the consequences of US actions from the eyes of Somali people. The findings of this study show that despite all the controversy surrounding the legitimacy of the war on terror, the manner in which it is conducted, as well as the tactics that it employs, the majority of Somali participants showed an overwhelming support for the US intervention. Participants expressed support for the US extra-judicial killings because they are understood to undermine al-Shabaab strength which is a major source of insecurity. The study also shows that the lack of necessary collaboration between the US intelligence and the Somali ground forces has resulted in high numbers of civilian deaths, which participants fear can be used by al-Shabaab to recruit and radicalise more Somalis. The study also shows that most Somalis resent the presence of the African Union Mission in Somalia because Kenya and Ethiopia are seen as 10 pursuing national interests that are not invested in Somali peace and stability. The study concludes that US extra-judicial killings have failed to constrain the actions of al-Shabaab. Somalis expressed that the leadership of current president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo, holds the unique possibilities of creating national unity that rises above clan divisions and the radical Jihadist ideology of al-Shabaab.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Pyramidal deliberative democracy
- Authors: Danielsen, James
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Democracy , Information technology -- Political aspects , Internet in public administration , Political participation -- Computer network resources , World politics
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/74502 , vital:30309
- Description: This dissertation has two main objectives. First, to outline an ICT-facilitated model of democracy called ‘pyramidal democracy’ that reconciles deliberative democracy with mass engagement. Second, to suggest how this model of democracy might engender the democratisation of the global economy and thus the provision of a basic level of economic security for all global citizens. At the core of the model is the pyramidal deliberative network, a means of organising citizens into small online deliberative groups and linking these groups together by means of an iterative process of delegate-selection and group-formation. The pyramidal network enables citizens to aggregate their preferences in a deliberative manner, and then project social power by authorizing the delegates at the top-tier of the pyramidal network to communicate their social demands to elected officials or to other points of authority. The envisioned outcome is the democratisation of the public sphere by means of the proliferation of deliberative networks in the government, market, and civil society spheres. Transnational pyramidal networks may make it feasible to instantiate a new citizen-based schema of global governance and, thereby, facilitate the reform of the United Nations and enable a transition towards global peace, sustainability, and distributive justice. Distributive justice might be achieved by means of implementing the six components of a democratised economy: participatory budgeting, fee-and-dividend taxes, a basic income, monetary reform, workplace democracy, and the sharing economy. Taken together, these components might enable the universal provision of a social minimum – a universal basic income sufficient for basic security and real freedom. Taken to its logical conclusion, a democratised economy may also enable a transition towards a post-scarcity economic order characterised by a maximal stock of humanmade and natural capital that would not exceed the sustainable carrying capacity of the earth.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Regional thickening as game-changing: examining transnational activities of gender and women-focused civil society actors for region-building in Southern Africa
- Authors: Nedziwe, Cecilia Lwiindi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: International relations , Southern Africa Development Community , Regionalism -- Africa, Southern , Africa, Southern -- Foreign relations -- 1994- , Women in development -- Africa, Southern , Women -- Social conditions -- Africa, Southern , Women -- Political activity -- Africa, Southern , Women in public life -- Africa, Southern , Civil society -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95420 , vital:31154
- Description: This thesis argues that norms, in general, have proliferated in a neo-liberalising context since the 1990s, in particular norms on gender, and how they have changed to indicate new agency and influence, amounts to game change. Despite growing transnational activities, regionalisation and the increasing interface between state and non-state regionalism in a transnational context since the advent of liberalisation and democratisation, analyses in regional International Relations (IR) studies, so far, largely maintain linear logic. The increasing non-state processes, and their connection to state processes in norm creation, norm adaptation, norm diffusion and implementation around broad questions of security including in the area of gender, amount to regional thickening. Regional thickening revealed in terms of increasing regionalisation, regionalism, and region-ness whose effect is game-changing challenges mainstream linear approaches in regional IR studies. Game-changing here, refers to, processes promoting the development of norms mentioned above in the interest of contributing to improved security across a region. This study is focused on Southern Africa, defined here, as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. This study’s analytical approach is informed by alternatives to mainstream approaches, emphasising processes, rather than linearity inherent in regional IR studies. By privileging the actual game-changing processes, interactions, and agency around the norm development cycle, this study examines how regional thickening in a transnational context promotes game-changing activities, promoting the development of the norm cycle, seeking to have improved security. A mixed method approach involving gathering of information from multiple primary and secondary sources are used. The study found transnational activities and regionalisation of gender and women-focused civil society actors, game-changing. These civil society actors organised in two ways. First, by way of advocacy and in seeking representation within intergovernmental policymaking structures at a regional level. Second, by way of organising around transnational communities in a transnational context in the interest of addressing gendered insecurities at localised levels. Regional thickening as game-changing here pointed to a growing recognition and participation of civil society actors in intergovernmental policymaking spaces as having created a groundswell for game change at localised levels. This led to policy development, adaptation, diffusion, and implementation by both state and non-state actors contributing to norm changes, improved social policies, and to greater security. The actual changes emerging from these actors’ activities on the ground are in terms of unlearning patriarchal behaviours, opening up development for women, and increasing their living standards, education, health, and their freedom. In assessing the transnational environment on gendered insecurity in Southern Africa, this thesis developed an innovative framework of regional thickening as game-changing. This framework plots how game-changing developed, evolved, and its importance in addressing gendered insecurity. The thesis has proposed that game-changing transnational activities and regionalisation that change, and diffuse norms to break learnt behaviour, have helped disrupt rigid institutionalisation, and are aiding to bring non-linear discourses to the fore.
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- Date Issued: 2019
“It’s something you kind of get used to”: female academics at South African universities narrate their experiences of contrapower harassment
- Authors: Munyuki, Chipo Lidia
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Power (Social sciences) , Sex discrimination in higher education -- South Africa , Women college teachers -- South Africa , Sexual harassment in universities and colleges -- South Africa , Sexual harassment of women -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92875 , vital:30758
- Description: Sexual harassment continues to be a pernicious problem in institutions of higher education globally and findings indicate that women are the main victims. Extant research has focused largely on experiences of sexual harassment on the part of students. Under-researched are the experiences of academics concerning what Benson (1984) terms “contrapower” harassment -- that is, harassment experienced by academics from subordinates such as students. South Africa’s Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions reported that there exists a culture of silencing around the prevalence of sexual harassment in higher education institutions in South Africa (Soudien Report 2008:37). The concept of power has been pointed out as central to understanding sexual harassment (Cleveland and Kerst 1993:49). Utilising three main constructs in Michel Foucault’s conception of power, namely the idea that power is ubiquitous and omnipresent in social relations; that power disciplines – creating docile bodies and the internalisation of self-regulation, and finally the idea that power is productive – power produces knowledge, truth and forms of resistance, I interpret the experiences of contrapower harassment in its sexual and non-sexual forms on the part of female academics at various universities in South Africa. Given that there is a paucity of qualitative research documenting experiences of contrapower harassment on the part of female academics, this thesis draws on 13 in-depth qualitative interviews with female academics at various South African universities who have experienced contrapower harassment from their students and subordinates at any point in their teaching careers. Their narrated experiences provide insight into the phenomenon of contrapower harassment. These insights provide a window into how female academics continue to experience themselves as being out of place in post-apartheid institutions that are expected to be accommodating of all.
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- Date Issued: 2019