GDR development policy with special reference to Africa, c. 1960-1990
- Authors: Van der Heyden, Ulrich Klaus Helmut
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Germany -- Foreign relations -- Africa , Germany -- Foreign economic relations -- Africa , Africa -- Foreign relations -- Germany , Africa -- Foreign economic relations -- Germany , Africa -- Politics and government -- 1960- , Africa -- History -- 1960-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2531 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001860
- Description: This thesis explores the political, economic and theoretical underpinnings of the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR’s) development policies towards the Third World between c.1960 and 1990. Particular attention is paid to Africa. Case studies of assistance to SWAPO and the ANC further focus the attention of the reader on southern Africa in particular. Aspects of both military and civilian aid are considered, including both development initiatives overseas in Africa, and development training for Africans within the GDR itself. Since German “reunification”, the GDR’s history has been explored largely from a West German perspective. The present work attempts to provide a more balanced view of successes and shortcomings of the GDR’s policies towards, and interaction with, African countries and liberation movements. It also aims to bring to the attention of English-speaking readers German archival sources, other primary sources and published works which they would otherwise have been unlikely to encounter. From its formation, the GDR made strenuous efforts to develop relations with countries which were either free from colonial dependency or were struggling for freedom. Over the course of thirty years, it followed a number of different approaches, and developed diverse objectives. These were shaped in the wider context of the cold war, the Hallstein doctrine (which established that the FRG – and, in effect, its allies - would not establish or maintain diplomatic relations with any state that recognised the GDR), the relationships between the GDR and partner socialist states, and the economic difficulties faced by the GDR. Arising from this complex situation, from time to time, both internally in the GDR and in terms of its foreign affairs, tensions and discrepancies arose between theoretical objectives and political and economic reality. Despite these severe constraints, during the period under review, the volume and range of the GDR’s relationships with developing countries increased dramatically. For example, between 1970 and 1987, the number of developing countries with which the GDR had foreign economic relations on the basis of international agreements grew from 23 to 64. Viewed within its economic context, the state was arguably far more committed to development aid than the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, there is a great deal of evidence that “solidarity” with developing nations and the oppressed enjoyed a considerable degree of popular support.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Politics, polemics and practice: a history of narratives about, and responses to, AIDS in South Africa, 1980-1995
- Authors: Tsampiras, Carla
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: AIDS (Disease) -- Government policy -- South Africa AIDS (Disease) -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- History AIDS (Disease) -- South Africa -- Public opinion -- History AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- History South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century African National Congress Health Policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2517 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001653
- Description: The ongoing urgency of addressing AIDS in South Africa has kept academics and activists focussed primarily on the immediate crises of AIDS ‘in the present’. This thesis, covering the period 1980 – 1995, examines narratives about, and responses to, AIDS ‘in the past’ and explores the interplay between these narratives and elites in medical and political communities trying to address AIDS during a period of political transition. The thesis begins by examining the hegemonic medico-scientific narratives about AIDS that featured in the South African Medical Journal, an important site of enquiry as AIDS was primarily conceived of as a ‘medical issue’. The SAMJ narratives, which often relied on constructed ‘AIDS avatars’, framed understandings of the syndrome and influenced responses to it by medical and political communities. The first community that the thesis explores is the African National Congress (ANC) in exile, which had to address AIDS in exile communities and prepare health strategies for ‘the new South Africa’. Secondly, the thesis analyses government responses to AIDS and argues that four phases of response can be identified. These phases were characterised by minimum concerns about obtaining information and providing health advice; efforts to gather infection data while exploiting political and public fear; attempts to extend health education and (belatedly) encourage broader engagement; and finally, consultative, democratic ideals. The thesis then examines the National Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA) a progressive medical organisation that worked with the ANC on influential health (and AIDS) strategies. NAMDA members ‘crossed over’ between various medical and political communities and both reinforced and challenged hegemonic AIDS narratives. Finally, the thesis moves from the abstract, via the practical, to the personal and concludes with a detailed account of the experiences of two sexuality activists at the intersections of these communities and narratives. By focussing on these medical and political communities, and analysing the relationships between these communities, the existing AIDS narratives, and individuals, the thesis also reveals the constructions of morality, ‘race’, gender, and sexuality that infused them. In doing this it shows how polemic and politics combined to influence practical responses to, and personal experiences of, AIDS.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Perceptions and constructions of cholera in the Eastern Province Herald and Daily Dispatch, 1980-2003
- Authors: Van Zyl, Kylie
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Daily Dispatch (East London, South Africa) Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) Journalism -- South Africa -- 20th century Journalism -- South Africa -- 21st century Cholera -- Reporting -- South Africa Epidemics -- Reporting -- South Africa Mass media -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2566 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002419
- Description: While the growing literature on South Africa’s healthcare and epidemics has often mentioned cholera in passing, there is as yet little academic work dedicated to it. This thesis addresses that deficit by examining the causes, spread and extent of cholera in South Africa between 1980 and 2003. Furthermore, it examines cholerarelated coverage in two newspapers, the Daily Dispatch and the Eastern Province Herald to determine how cholera and people with cholera were represented, and show how changes in the coverage of two major epidemics between 1980 and 2003 exemplify the political transition in South Africa, reflect changing political ideologies and reveal the shifting role of media within this period. The thesis argues three main points. Firstly, that representations of cholera and those who were sick with cholera were based on long-standing tropes connecting disease, class and ‘race’. Secondly, that policy-making based on these tropes influenced the unfair distribution and quality of health resources along racial lines, resulting in cholera outbreaks during the apartheid era. Failure to address these inequities post-apartheid, and the replacement of racial bias with discrimination on the grounds of socioeconomic development, resulted in further cholera outbreaks. Thirdly, using Alan Bell’s newspaper-discourse analysis framework to examine cholera-related articles the thesis compares and contrasts apartheid and postapartheid coverage in the two newspapers. This analysis reveals that during the 1980s the coverage was uncritical of the government’s handling of the epidemic or of its racially-discriminatory healthcare system. The newspapers uncritically accepted government-employed medical professionals as the final authorities on the epidemic, excluding alternative viewpoints. The coverage also “blamed the victim”, constructing affected “black” groups as potential threats to healthy “white” communities. Conversely, post–1994 coverage was criticised the government’s handling of the epidemic and the state of the public healthcare system. Government-employed medical professionals or spokespeople were not accepted as incontestable authorities and a range of sources were included. The coverage also shifted blame for the outbreaks to the government and its failure to address public health service delivery and rural development problems. The thesis shows the historical threat to the health of communities posed by uncaring governments.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Prohibition & resistance: a socio-political exploration of the changing dynamics of the southern African cannabis trade, c. 1850 - the present
- Authors: Paterson, Craig
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Cannabis -- Government policy -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 19th century Cannabis -- Government policy -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 20th century Cannabis -- Law and legislation -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 20th century Drugs -- Government policy -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 19th century Drugs -- Government policy -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 20th century Drugs -- Law and legislation -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 19th century Drugs -- Law and legislation -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 20th century Drug traffic -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 19th century Drug traffic -- Africa, Southern -- History -- 20th century Substance abuse -- Social aspects -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2551 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002403
- Description: Looking primarily at the social and political trends in South Africa over the course of the last century and a half, this thesis explores how these trends have contributed to the establishment of the southern Africa cannabis complex. Through an examination of the influence which the colonial paradigm based on Social Darwinian thinking had on the understanding of the cannabis plant in southern Africa, it is argued that cannabis prohibition and apartheid laws rested on the same ideological foundation. This thesis goes on to argue that the dynamics of cannabis production and trade can be understood in terms of the interplay between the two themes of ‘prohibition’ and ‘resistance’. Prohibition is not only understood to refer to cannabis laws, but also to the proscription of inter-racial contact and segregation dictated by the apartheid regime. Resistance, then, refers to both resistance to apartheid and resistance to cannabis laws in this thesis. Including discussions on the hippie movement and development of the world trade, the anti-apartheid movement, the successful implementation of import substitution strategies in Europe and North America from the 1980’s, and South Africa’s incorporation into the global trade, this thesis illustrates how the apartheid system (and its collapse) influenced the region’s cannabis trade.
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- Date Issued: 2010
A social and cultural history of Grahamstown, 1812 to c1845
- Authors: Marshall, Richard Graham
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Cities and towns -- Growth -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Community development, Urban -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- History -- 19th Century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History -- 19th Century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History -- Social aspects -- 19th Century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 19th Century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions -- 19th Century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2549 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002401
- Description: This thesis examines the development of Grahamstown from its inception in 1812 to the mid-1840s, paying particular attention to the social and cultural life of the town. It traces the economic development of the town from a military outpost to a thriving commercial settlement, noting the essential factor of the town's proximity to the Cape frontier in this process. The economic interaction between diverse groups in the town mirrors the social and cultural interaction which occurred between British settlers, Khoekhoe and Africans. The result of these interactions was the creation of a new, distinctively South African urban society and culture, despite the desire of the white settlers to reproduce a “typical” English environment in their new home. The conflict between attempts to anglicise the urban environment and the realities of Grahamstown's situation on a colonial frontier was reflected in the architecture and layout of the town. Attempts to recreate an English social environment also failed. New classes arose in the town in response to the economic opportunities available on the frontier. Although some settlers prospered, many did not, and the presence of an impoverished white working class undermines settler historians' picture of settler success and affluence. The poorest people in the town, though, were the increasing numbers of Khoekhoe and Africans who migrated from the surrounding countryside, and who were unequally incorporated into the urban community as a colonial labouring class. In response to these unique circumstances, white settlers in Grahamstown developed a powerful political and propaganda machine, which helped lay the foundations of a distinct settler identity in the eastern Cape.
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- Date Issued: 2009
The rule of Brigadier Oupa Gqozo in Ciskei: 4 March 1990 to 22 March 1994
- Authors: White, Colin Stewart
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Gqozo, Oupa , Sebe, L L W (Lennox L W) , Massacres -- Bisho (South Africa) , Ciskei (South Africa) -- History -- 20th century , Ciskei (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2616 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013360
- Description: Although the history of the Eastern Cape has been recorded from the eighteenth century, virtually nothing has been written about the political entity known as the independent Republic of Ciskei (1981 – 1994). This hiatus in our history, coupled with the fact that many of the official records of that period have been destroyed, make it imperative that the role-players of the period be contacted and their evidence be recorded before it is lost to prosperity. This need has motivated the writing of the thesis. The thesis commences with a brief description of the early history and constitutional development of Ciskei. It then has a substantial chapter on Lennox Sebe, the ruler of Ciskei from 1973 to 1990, who is described as the catalyst of Gqozo’s coup d’état. This is followed by a short personal biography of Oupa Gqozo, and his rise to the position of Brigadier in the Ciskei army. On 4 March 1990 Gqozo led the coup by the Ciskei Defence Force that dethroned Sebe. At the outset he ruled in an exemplary manner, but after being misled by South African agents he turned against the African National Congress and his own people. When he established his own party, the African Democratic Movement, and re-instated the hated headman system, civil war followed in Ciskei. Separate chapters in the thesis relate the various traumatic events that occurred during Gqozo’s reign: the killing of Anton Guzana and Charles Sebe; the dismissal of the senior officers of the CDF; the strife during 1991/2; the Bhisho Massacre; its aftermath; the mutiny by the security forces and Gqozo’s resignation on 22 March 1994. The thesis concludes that although Brigadier Gqozo respected the rule of law, and was free of corruption, he was devoid of the necessary academic qualifications, experience and ability, including the necessary insight and foresight, to rule a country. He became paranoid about his own safety and the possible overthrow of his government, and he was too easily swayed by others. In short, Gqozo was inept, rather than evil.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Rhodes University during the segregation and apartheid eras, 1933 to 1990
- Authors: Greyling, Sean Andrew
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- History Post-apartheid era -- South Africa -- History College students -- South Africa -- Political activity South Africa -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002397
- Description: In 2004 Rhodes University celebrated its centenary. At a Critical Tradition Colloquium opportunity was given to explore the university’s past. In particular, its liberal image was questioned and its role during apartheid brought under scrutiny. This thesis investigates the questions raised at the Colloquium. It aims to cover the whole apartheid era in one coherent narrative by addressing the history of Rhodes during that era and how it handled issues of race and politics. It begins in 1933, when the first black student applied to Rhodes, and ends in 1990, when apartheid was drawing to a close.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Bones of contention : contestations over human remains in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Mkhize, Nomalanga
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Dead -- Political aspects -- South Africa Human body -- Symbolic aspects Human remains (Archaeology) -- Repatriation Human remains (Archaeology) -- Repatriation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Xhosa (African people) -- Social life and customs Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Social life and customs Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2597 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007665
- Description: This thesis examines three contestations involving human remains which have arisen in the Eastern Cape over the past fifteen years. It shows that the value or meaning attached to human remains is constructed through the socio-historical dynamics out of which these contestations arise. The meaning and value of human remains is neither inherent nor neutral. In Ndancama's case, the need for housing in Fingo Village led hundreds of poor residents to settle on the township's Old Cemetery in 1972. Basic material needs trumped concerns for those buried in the cemetery. When the post-apartheid municipality sought to provide sewerage and housing infrastructure for Ndancama in 2003, its development plans were constrained by new heritage legislation which protects historic cemeteries. Residents insisted that their infrastructural needs were of primary importance. In 1993, the unearthing of human remains at the Old Military Cemetery in King William's Town created a thirteen year long saga which was only resolved with the reburial of the remains in 2006. The presence of the remains proved problematic for a number of reasons. Local authorities failed to rebury the remains speedily. The burden to store them fell on the Kaffrarian Museum which came under fire because this was considered unethical in the postapartheid era. The identity of the remains became a bone of contention in 2006 when the new Amathole District Municipality concluded that the remains were those of victims who died in the 1856-57 Great Cattle Killing. The remains and their reburial became symbols of past injustice and present restoration of African heritage. The 1996 quest by 'Nicholas Gcaleka', a 'self-styled' chief and traditional healer, to search for King Hintsa's skull in the United Kingdom provoked unprecedented public engagement with the incomplete narrative on the fate of Hintsa's body. The power to represent history, and the methods through which historical truth is discovered were at the heart of the contestation. Elites such as the Xhosa Royal and the white scientific establishment were considered neither credible nor authoritative on this historical matter. Public support for Gcaleka revealed that many South Africans sought just recompense for colonial injustices.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Causes of persistent rural poverty in Thika district of Kenya, c.1953-2000
- Authors: Kinyanjui, Felistus Kinuna
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Poverty -- Kenya -- History Rural poor -- Kenya -- History Agriculture -- Kenya -- History Kenya -- History Kenya -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2547 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002399
- Description: This study investigates the causes of poverty among the residents of Thika District in Kenya over the period 1953-2000. Using the articulation of modes of production perspective, the study traces the dynamics of poverty to the geography, history and politics of Thika District. The thrust of the argument is that livelihoods in the district changed during the period under investigation, but not necessarily for the better. Landlessness, collapse of the coffee industry, intergenerational poverty, and the ravages of diseases (particularly of HIV/AIDS) are analysed. This leads to the conclusion that causes of poverty in Thika District during the period under examination were complex as one form of deprivation led to another. The study established that poverty in Thika District during the period under review was a product of a process of exclusion from the centre of political power and appropriation. While race was the basis for allocation of public resources in colonial Kenya, ethnicity has dominated the independence period. Consequently, one would have expected the residents of Thika District, the home of Kenya’s first president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, to have benefited inordinately from public resources during his rule. Kenyatta’s administration, however, mainly benefited the Kikuyu elite. The study therefore demonstrates that during the period under examination, the Kikuyu, like any other Kenyan community, were a heterogeneous group whose differences were accentuated by class relations. Subaltern groups in Thika District therefore benefited minimally from state patronage, just like similar groups elsewhere in rural Kenya. By the late 1970s, the level of deprivation in rural Kenya had been contained as a result of favourable prices for the country’s agricultural exports. But in the subsequent period, poverty increased under the pressures of world economic recession and slowdowns in trade. The situation was worse for Kikuyu peasants as the Second Republic of President Daniel Moi deliberately attempted undermine the Kikuyu economically. For the majority of Thika residents, this translated into further marginalisation as the Moi regime lumped them together with the Kikuyu elite who had benefitted inordinately from public resources during the Kenyatta era. This study demonstrates that no single factor can explain the prevalence of poverty in Thika District during the period under consideration. However, the poor in the district devised survival mechanisms that could be replicated elsewhere. Indeed, the dynamics of poverty in Thika District represent a microcosm not just for the broader Kenyan situation but also of rural livelihoods elsewhere in the world. The study recommends land reform and horticulture as possible ways of reducing poverty among rural communities. Further, for a successful global war on poverty there is an urgent need to have the West go beyond rhetoric and deliver on its promises to make poverty history.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Grandmothers, mothers and daughters : transformations and coping strategies in Xhosa households in Grahamstown
- Authors: Schwartz, Linda Mary
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Women, Xhosa -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Poor women -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions Women -- South Africa -- Economic conditions Women -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2585 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006190
- Description: The aim of this oral history study is to explore the ways in which constructions of gender have brought women to the point where they now bear most of the burden of responsibility in their relationships with men and for the wellbeing of children. This study speaks into the gap of the undocumented history of women's lived experience as told by women themselves. It is a generational study which charts the transformations and coping strategies of women in Xhosa households since the 1940s. The study found that the familial burdens related to women's sexuality and fertility, raising of children and financial responsibilities in a time of HIV / AIDS have increased. Teenage pregnancies, the discipline of children, HIV / AIDS and the ever present aspects of poverty are major issues these women face. The stress of day to day demands on their lives precluded them the opportunity to reflect on the underlying causes and historical roots of their circumstances. Little understanding of the gendered order of their lives was expressed by the respondents. The use of feminist methodology authenticated the women's stories as they produced knowledge of their lived experience. The interview questions raised awareness of the gender bias underlying much of their struggles at home. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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- Date Issued: 2007
Segregated housing and contested identities: the case of the King William's Town coloured community, 1895 - 1946
- Authors: Victor, Stephanie Emilia
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Colored people (South Africa) -- Race identity Colored people (South Africa) -- Political activity South Africa -- Race relations Colored people (South Africa) -- Housing Housing -- South Africa -- King William's Town Colored people (South Africa) -- Relocation Colored people (South Africa) -- South Africa -- King William's Town
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2568 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002421
- Description: This thesis is a case study of the dynamics of coloured housing in King William's Town between 1895 and 1946. The impact of spatial segregation on pre-apartheid coloured settlements in the Eastern Cape has largely been ignored up to the present. This needs to be rectified as the lack of in-depth enquiry can lead to misinterpretations that may influence contemporary politics and identity formation. Through research based on primary sources, it has become apparent that segregation in King William's Town was safeguarded and rationalized through the discourses of sanitation and civilization, and the practices of relocation and removal. The existing slum cond itions were used as a convenient excuse to implement municipal control. Segregation compounded the problem of poverty, inequitable access to housing and the provision of basic services. As a result, local coloured housing was increasingly characterised by a shortage of decent accommodation and basic services, decreasing home ownership and increasing municipal tenancy. In addition, through the implementation of the 1923 Natives (Urban Areas) Act and the 1934 Slums Act, high sanitation standards were set, but the Council itself provided inferior services. Ironically, conditions in the relocated municipal settlements were also not on par with the provisions stipulated in the Slums Act that were used to effect removal in the first place. The implementation of racially exclusive housing was, therefore, not driven by a single role player. It was pioneered by the local authorities, legalised by national government and supported by the coloured elite, when needed, in an attempt to access decent housing. This occurred mainly through the political manoeuvring of the coloured elite, and specifically the African Political (later People's) Organisation (APO), the Afrikaanse Nasionale Bond (AN B) and the locally constituted Coloured Welfare Association (CWA) in King William 's Town. These organisations attempted to procure access to housing within the narrow boundaries of a prescribed identity. Segregated housing therefore fostered and sustained coloured identity. It consolidated feelings of separateness and division and provided impetus for the construction of race and even racial tension. Coloured identity attempted to serve as a rallying point to overcome differences in religion, family and social networks and place of residence in order to procure access to housing. It was not, however, able to overcome the occasional division between settlements, caused by well-developed placeidentities, which still inform the contemporary housing milieu. The coloured elite initially did not question the legitimacy of coloured identity. Only in 1939, under threats of increased residential segregation, combined with the resulting opposition in coloured protest politics, was the legitimacy of coloured identity publicly contested . By 1943, with the creation of the Coloured Advisory Council (CAC), local coloured unity proved to be insufficient. A division within the ranks of the local coloured elite was evident. As a result, the expression of coloured identity still remains contested in contemporary King William's Town.
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- Date Issued: 2007
South Africa's chemical and biological warfare programme 1981-1995
- Authors: Gould, Chandré
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Basson, Wouter, 1950- Basson, Wouter, 1950 -- Trials, litigation, etc Biological warfare -- South Africa Chemical warfare -- South Africa Trials (Political crimes and offenses) -- South Africa South Africa -- Politics and government -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2544 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002396
- Description: In 1981 the apartheid military initiated a chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme (code-named Project Coast). The programme, terminated in 1993, was aimed at developing novel irritating and incapacitating agents for internal and external use, covert assassination weapons for use against apartheid opponents, and defensive equipment for use by South African Defence Force (SADF) troops in Angola. The CBW programme was driven by a single individual, Dr Wouter Basson, who reported to a military management committee (the Co-ordinating Management Committee) which comprised a select group of high ranking officers. Practical and financial oversight of the programme was weak which allowed both for the abuse of programme funds and for senior military officers to deny knowledge of aspects of the programme. The biological component of Project Coast was conducted in violation of the commitments of the South African government to the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC). While the state’s commitment to the BTWC was one of the factors considered when initiating the programme, it was not a sufficient constraint to prevent the development of the biological weapons programme, but rather influenced its structure such that the programme could avoid national and international detection. Despite efforts to conceal the military front companies where the chemical and biological warfare (CBW) research and development was undertaken, evidence presented in this thesis shows that the United States had sufficient information about the programme to have been aware of its existence. Yet, it was only in 1993, on the eve of the democratic election in South Africa, that any attempt was made by the US administration to pressure the government to terminate the programme. This thesis considers the factors which influenced the decision to develop Project Coast; the structure and nature of the programme; the motivations of scientists to become involved in the programme and remain involved; the use of chemical and biological agents against opponents of the state, and the factors which influenced the termination of the programme on the eve of the first democratic elections in 1994. It also considers the nature and exent of international support, both tacit and overt, for the programme and argues that the failure of Western nations to call for the termination of the programme before the early 1990s was a function of political expediency and indicates a significant weakness in the ability of international agreements to constrain the development of such programmes.
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- Date Issued: 2006
A history of the direct taxation of the African people of Kenya, 1895-1973
- Authors: Tarus, Isaac Kipsang
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: Mau Mau -- History Taxation -- Kenya Tax collection -- Kenya Fiscal policy -- Kenya Kenya -- Economic policy Kenya -- History -- 1895-1963
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2561 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002414
- Description: This study examines the origin, the manifestation and impact of the direct taxation of Africans in Kenya. While the state had several reasons for imposing taxation on Africans, the basic factor weighed on the need for a definitive source of revenue. For most of the colonial period, this aggregated to about 37½ percent of the total revenues. The thesis shows how taxes were collected from Africans, how this led to participation in the cash economy and how they continually resisted and evaded such taxation. Tax collection was synonymous with colonialism and this was manifested through the central role of chiefs, who used taxes and force to coerce Africans into migrant wage labour. Through taxation policies, legislation and African resourcefulness, migrant wage labour served the needs of a colonial capitalist settler economy. In this way, the colonial state revealed its capacity for dominance, power and exploitation. Evidence has been adduced to show that African taxation was an important factor in Kenya’s administrative, political and economic development. The policy of African taxation, land loss and poor working conditions are remembered as having interfered with African mechanisms for accumulating wealth. One of the main objections of the payment of taxes was the manner of its collection. Those unable to pay were imprisoned or detained while many took to instant flight at the sight of the tax collector. The thesis shows that in spite of all these harsh tax collection methods, peasants remained largely resilient and industrious. The Mau Mau movement was the culmination of various peasant grievances in which the colonial state used steep taxation as a counter-insurgency measure. Kenya’s independence in 1963, however, never altered the predatory nature of the state. Subtle, opportunistic and overt ways continued to be used to extract taxes from the peasants and the working class. It was not until 1973 that the much-hated colonial poll tax that had been renamed as graduated poll tax was abolished and replaced by indirect taxation. Finally, taxation like other colonial legacies has endured and has become one of the most important sources of revenue for the government to manage its fiscal policies.
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- Date Issued: 2005
The historiographical development of the concept "mfecane" and the writing of early Southern African history, from the 1820s to 1920s
- Authors: Richner, Jürg Emile
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Historiography , Bantu-speaking peoples -- Migrations , Africa, Southern -- History -- Mfecane period, 1816-ca. 1840
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2554 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002406 , South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Historiography , Bantu-speaking peoples -- Migrations , Africa, Southern -- History -- Mfecane period, 1816-ca. 1840
- Description: The mfecane was for most of the twentieth century regarded as a historical certainty for the South African public and the Apartheid government, as well as for historians here and world-wide. The mfecane had achieved the permanence of a paradigm and a dominant discourse, as it was accepted equally by settler, liberal, Afrikaner, Africanist and Neo-Marxist historians. This certainty was shaken when Cobbing’s mfecane critique appeared in 1988, with which I concur. This study examines how mfecane history was written from the first published articles in mid-1823 until Walker coined the concept mfecane in 1928. This thesis undertakes a journey through a host of published works, books, pamphlets and articles in journals, magazines and newspapers, from which a number of conclusions emerge. The mfecane narrative was developed over a period of a hundred years in the English language by almost exclusively white, English-speaking male amateur historians and ethnographers. Their occupations, age, ideology and level of education differed markedly, but they shared one European ideological value, the discourse of the European “Image of Africa”, which regarded Africans as the negative Other of their own positively perceived society. This was a culturallyshared view of Africans, which formed the baggage in the mind of all writers examined, and accounts for the mfecane narrative’s negative attitude towards Africans. Furthermore, mfecane history was influenced by racism and the use of literary devices such as the gothic novel and the romance. Authors writing in the 1823 to 1846 period on events which had taken place in the “blank space” beyond the Cape Colony, which most of them had never visited, laid the basis for the mfecane narrative. It constituted a set of geographical or ethnically focused, separate accounts. These separate accounts focused on the themes of Shaka’s creation of the Zulu state, including his expulsion of several chiefdoms; his depopulation of Natal and the flight of the Fingo to the Transkei; the path of destruction of the Hlubi and Ngwane during their flight from Natal via the greater Caledon Valley area to the Transkei; the incorporation of the Kololo and other Sotho chiefdoms into the Mantatees - due to pressure from the invaders from Natal - who subsequently laid waste the Free State and Transvaal as far as Dithakong, where they were defeated; the further depopulation of the Transvaal by the Ndebele during their escape from Shaka; the flight of Moshoeshoe and his people to Thaba Bosiu where he built up the Sotho state, with Moshoeshoe being the only positive figure in this history. This multi-narrative was thereafter repeated without any critical thought by all authors examined until in 1885 Theal created a Zulu-centric, geographically integrated mfecane narrative whereby he integrated the previously separate accounts into one coherent whole - a whole which was so much more than the sum of its parts, but so far without a defining name. That was provided by Walker in 1928 when he coined the Xhosa neologism, mfecane. The Theal, Cory and Walker racist mfecane was thus bequeathed as the mfecane to the rest of the twentieth century.
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- Date Issued: 2005
The history of marine fish systematics in South Africa
- Authors: Gon, O (Ofer), 1949-
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology Fishes -- Research -- South Africa -- History Fishes -- Catalogs and collections -- South Africa -- History Museums -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2599 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007800
- Description: South African marine fish collections and systematic research are relatively young, essentially a product of the 20th century. Their history in South Africa comprises three distinct periods: the emergence of fish collections (before 1895), the beginning of research (1895-1945) and modern research (1945-1999). From the outset of their arrival in South Africa in the mid-17th century, the European settlers of the Cape Colony supplemented their diet with fishes. Therefore it is not surprising that when natural history museums appeared in the 19th century fishes were among the first specimens they procured or received from the public. In these early days, fishes were acquired for display purposes and were curated together with other natural history specimens. There were no fish collections as such and, in many ways, the early history of South African fish collections closely followed the history of the institutions in which they were housed. Major political events in South Africa between 1850-1910 had little effect on the slow growth offish collections as the low influx of specimens from the public did not change. None of the museums did any active fish collecting and no fish research as such took place during these years. The second period in the growth of fish collections in South Africa was characterised by a general shift to collecting for research rather than display. It was also a period during which the need for aquatic research was recognized by and began to attract funding from the South African government, starting with the establishment of the Marine Biological Survey in Cape Town. However, with the exception of the Albany Museum's self-trained J.L.B. Smith, no trained marine fish systematists were working in museums either as curators or as researchers. In the first half of the 20"' century South Africa experienced the fast growth of the fishing industry, the development of academic and applied research in marine biology, and the thriving of sport fishing. These developments created a demand for well-trained professional ichthyologists. J.L.B. Smith was the first to fill this professional gap. The growth rate offish collections increased significantly through the interaction between museum scientists, such as Smith in Grahamstown and K.H. Barnard in Cape Town, with the fishing industry, government biologists and fisheries officers, and anglers. Barnard's review of the South African marine fish fauna was published in mid-I920s. The discovery of the first living coelacanth placed South African ichthyology and Smith on the international stage. The identification of this fish, made by a relatively inexperienced Smith, changed the way ichthyology has been viewed in South Africa. At the beginning of the third period, largely due to the establishment of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1945, science in South Africa underwent a process of reorganisation. As funding became more available museums were able to enlarge their research staff. Natural history museums hired qualified experts to conduct research and manage collections of specific groups of organisms. For the first time, trained ichthyologists started working in museums and initiated research projects that were the main contributors to the growth of fish collections around the country. Furthermore it was a period of consolidation offish collections resulting in two large marine fish collections, one at the South African Museum, Cape Town, and another at the J .L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Grahamstown. This period also witnessed the establishment of the latter as a research institute dedicated to the study of fishes and its rise to international prominence. The last 55 years at J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology can be divided into two distinct periods, 1945-1967 and 1968-1999, each consisting of similar elements of research work and objectives. These included the research and production of major reviews of the fish faunas of South Africa, the western Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean, as well as research on the coelacanth. While in the former period the work was done by one scientist, J.L.B. Smith, the latter period has been characterised by collaborative projects including scientists from South Africa and abroad. As this history shows, the establishment of a viable, long-lasting collection is a lengthy process. For about 60 years the durability of fish collections depended on the enthusiasm and persistence of individual curators and scientists who were not ichthyologists. More often than not, enthusiasm disappeared when such individuals left their museums. This dependence existed until Rhodes University College established the Department of Ichthyology (1947) and the South African Museum created a post specifically for the curation of the fish collection (1957) and thus ensured continuity. The continuity of biosystematic research in South Africa has been a minor concern for the nation's systematists for decades. The threats to marine fish systematics have been of a financial, political and professional nature. The latter has been the most serious one because of the dearth of South Africans trained in marine fish systematics. After J.L.B. Smith's death in 1968 M.M. Smith had to work hard to convince the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Rhodes University that she could step into her late husband's shoes. Realizing that there was nobody to take over from her she initiated the first and only postgraduate programme in ichthyology in South Africa. The teaching started in the academic year of 1970171 at the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, but to date only one student has completed a thesis in marine fish systematics. Due to the government's transformation policy all the practising marine fish systematists in South Africa will be retiring in the course of the present decade. Consequently, if no aspiring, motivated students appear on the scene in the next couple of years marine fish systematics in this country will be in a deep crisis by the year 2010, possibly even earlier.
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- Date Issued: 2003
A historical study of John Graham Lake and South African/United States pentecostalism
- Authors: Burpeau, Kemp Pendleton
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Lake, John G , Pentecostalism -- South Africa , Pentecostalism -- United States , Pentecostals , Christianity and politics -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2587 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006484 , Lake, John G , Pentecostalism -- South Africa , Pentecostalism -- United States , Pentecostals , Christianity and politics -- South Africa
- Description: American minister John Graham Lake (1870-1935) was a pivotal participant in an era of profound religious and political transition. Surprisingly, Lake's often provocative life had previously been largely neglected as a field of academic inquiry. In the U.S. Lake associated with key Holiness, Wesleyan and Apostolic Faith charismatics like John Alexander Dowie of the Zion City, Illinois Utopia, Charles Parham of the Topeka Revival and William Seymour of the Azusa Street Revival. Lake served as an important intermediary between Parham's often reactionary, white orientation that was unreceptive to an enthusiastic black liturgy and Seymour's expansive African-American egalitarianism expressed through exuberant spirit manifestations. Lake's South African ministry was shaped by his middle class white business background, Azusa Street message and American perspectives. He brought together the faith healing movement inspired by Dutch Reformed minister Andrew Murray, P. Ie Roux's black and white Zion charismatic adherents affiliated with Dowie and the new U.S. Pentecostalism of Parham and Seymour. Lake's African-American influenced Pentecostalism was compatible with indigenous African worship. His emphasis on the spiritual needs of the disempowered found a receptive audience in talented black evangelists Elias Letwaba and Edward Lion. Even though acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi, Lake did not undertake a South African social gospel-type civil protest against societal injustice. In fact, Lake's participation with Afrikaner politicians like Louis Botha in fashioning a segregationist land use law was most troubling. Lake was ambivalent about racial integration. His belief in an egalitarian status for all Christians, his Populist/Progressive ethics and his enthusiastic promotion of women's rights were complicated by his advocacy, or at least tolerance, of some disparate racial treatment in his Apostolic Faith Mission and South African society at large. Lake's paternalism and notion of Westem cultural superiority conflicted with his love of all persons. Lake's otherworldly prioritization of individual spiritualism over a socioeconomic agenda usually stymied activism. His uncharacteristic use of nonviolent protest to protect faith healing formed a remarkable contrast with his reluctance to actively campaign against unequal racial treatment in Africa and America. Historiographical perspectives on Lake range from the saintly pioneer charismatic missionary to the Elmer Gantry type charlatan acting only for personal benefit. Lake was a unique personality with his flamboyant rhetoric, strong convictions and feelings of personal worth. His distinctive Jesus as healing and suffering God theology evidenced both consistency with precedent as well as creative anticipation. Shortcomings resulting from his preference to address social concerns on an individual spiritual rather than societal level, his liberties with truth and his bad business judgments resulting in litigation. Nevertheless, Lake's life demonstrated that a gifted but imperfect instrument could accomplish a meaningful ministry. , Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.5.4 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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- Date Issued: 2002
The political ecology of wildlife conservation in Kenya, 1895-1975
- Authors: Matheka, Reuben M
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Wildlife conservation -- Kenya Environmental policy -- Kenya Wildlife conservation -- Political aspects -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2595 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007530
- Description: The study examines the development of wildlife conservation policy and practice in Kenya from 1895 to 1975. Started by the colonial state as part of its resource control programme, wildlife conservation in Kenya gradually became an important aspect of the country's economy chiefly because of its significance as the basis of a vibrant tourist industry. The conservation programme was also important to conservationists who viewed Kenya's wildlife as a heritage to humanity. Similarly, local communities, which were affected in various ways by wildlife conservation policies, had their own perceptions of the programme. All this led to the proliferation of groups whose interests were potentially conflicting. Wildlife conservation in Kenya during the period under examination was thus characterised by various struggles between interest groups such as conservationists, the state, and local communities. The struggles centred around such issues as the costs and benefits of conservation and were manifested through anti-conservation activities like the poaching of wild animals by dissatisfied groups. These struggles changed over time in line with social, economic, political, and ecological developments. International events/processes (such as the two world wars, economic booms/depressions, and decolonisation) triggered local processes which influenced conservationism either positively or negatively. Wildlife conservation in Kenya during the period under study was dynamic. The thesis challenges the myth of a monolithic 'colonial' wildlife policy often implied in many studies on the subject. The thesis also lays emphasis on the ecological basis of wildlife conservation while recognising the impact of social, political, and economic developments on the evolution of wildlife conservation policy and practice in Kenya. The country's 'geography' not only provided the foundation for conservation but also influenced the programme over time. Droughts, floods, army worm infestations, and other 'natural' occurrences interacted with social and economic changes, such as population growth and the development of capitalism, to shape conservation policy. The conservation programme was thus influenced by a complex interaction of a variety of factors.
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- Date Issued: 2002
Continuity and change in Xhosa historiography during the nineteenth century : an exploration through textual analysis
- Authors: Tisani, Nomathamsanqa Cynthia
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2563 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002416
- Description: This study is an exploration of the making of Xhosa historiography from the end of the eighteenth century to the close of the nineteenth century. Continuity and change are key features that are identifiable in the writing of Xhosa history over the period. Selected documents provide evidence on how different writers built on the works of their predecessors. At the same time, over a period of hundred years, due to changing socio-political contexts, new ideas and perceptions crept into Xhosa history. European writers, who dominated the writing of Xhosa history, were made up of colonial officials, missionaries, and travellers. Sharing a common European Christian background these writers brought along their particular understanding of history, and held assumptions about the indigenous people and their past. However such assumptions were always in a state of flux. South-east Africans were also major contributors to the making of Xhosa history. Their oral traditions were important sources from which Xhosa history was produced. The African and European encounter in the making of Xhosa history meanHhat historioracy and historiography came together in the production of Xhosa history. At the end of the eighteenth century there were a handful of European travellers who explored the interior of southern Africa and recorded their observations of indigenous communities. These observations of south-east Africans, whom they divided into three racial groups, formed the basis of later writings about the indigenous communiti~s. The beginning of the nineteenth century brought the establishment of British rule at the C,ppe. This introduced new players into the African-European drama that was being acted out on the frontier. Colonial officials set out to inform themselves about the indigenous people, and this meant writing up their history. From the 1820s missionaries were a main source of information on amaXhosa. Xhosa history produced under the missionary influence included works by African converts, among whom Noyi was the most noteworthy. As British imperialism gained ground from the middle of the nineteenth century, history was increasingly used by British officials as a tool to justify their colonial expansion. Under Governor Grey there was a deliberate production of a Xhosa history that depicted amaXhosa as having a barbaric past and in need of civilisation. Theal who consulted Dutch and British archives as well as oral tradition made a major contribution to the writing of Xhosa history. But Theal later began to select evidence to show that amaXhosa were recent immigrants into southeast Africa. During the last quarter ofthe nineteenth century a band of literate Africans, using newspapers like Isigidimi and later Imvo Zabantsundu, embarked on writing African history. This study highlights the development of certain themes in Xhosa history, themes which remained central in later years. The royal theme became pivotal and in the process displaced other histories in African communities, like clan histories. This study has also traced the roots of some historical myths. For example claims by early travellers about an empty land fed into the migration theme which sought to explain amaXhosa as recent immigrants into south-east Africa. Xhosa historiography, just like its European counterpart, marginalised ordinary people, especially women, and became primarily an account of the lives and activities of ruling men.
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- Date Issued: 2001
A history of the South African police in Port Elizabeth, 1913-1956
- Authors: Watson, Kelvin Innes
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Police -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape South African Police -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History Police -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2570 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002423
- Description: This thesis investigates the policing activities of the South African Police (SAP) in Port Elizabeth from the formation of the SAP in 1913 to the creation of two separate police districts in the city in 1956. It begins with the recruitment and training of police personnel, outlining the difficulty in obtaining sufficient white recruits for most of the period while at the same time stressing the ease with which the Force was able to obtain black recruits. The preponderance of Afrikaner policemen serving in Port Elizabeth from the 1920s onwards is made clear, as is the para-military nature of the SAP, which was maintained and reinforced as a result of training methods and the process of socialisation. As state servants, police personnel were expected to serve loyally and obediently a state becoming increasingly repressive towards its black citizens. Generally inadequate conditions of service remained the norm throughout the period yet the SAP’s commitment to the state never wavered, bar one isolated, short-lived incidence. The administration and functioning of policing in Port Elizabeth is explored by focussing on specific organisational features pertinent to the city and the changes wrought by the police hierarchy to deal with the city’s demographic and spatial expansion. The SAP tended to employ three different forms of policing in the city as a result of its apartheid-driven agenda which compelled it to differentiate between the various population groups in terms of maintaining law and order. The privileged white community experienced routine, civil policing whereas the black community was policed largely in a socially and politically oppressive manner; this was in line with government policy. On the whole, however, the more brutal and sinister nature of policing was yet to come to the fore although this thesis does point towards the increasingly repressive nature of policing in South Africa during the apartheid era.
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- Date Issued: 2000
In time of plague : the Basotho and the rinderpest, 1896-8
- Authors: Phoofolo, Pule
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Rinderpest -- Lesotho -- History Epidemics -- Africa -- History Livestock -- Diseases -- Africa Sotho (African people) -- Social life and customs Lesotho -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2553 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002405
- Description: Rinderpest, the most dreaded bovine plague, struck the cattle of the BaSotho in British Basutoland early in 1897. By December the murrain had spent itself, having reduced the cattle population by half As it did so, the rinderpest claimed the primary historical significance of an epidemic. By sharpening behaviour and illuminating latent or developing tendencies, the rinderpest helped to reveal the nooks and crannies of contemporary historical processes that would have otherwise eluded historical visibility. This thesis brings out the complexities and ambiguities surrounding the epidemic. It uses the crisis occasioned by the panzootic in its multifaceted manifestations as a prism through which we might view the complex aspects of contemporary historical processes. It goes beyond the narrow limits of the crisis itself to discerning the broader and wider historical patterns that the rinderpest helped to highlight.
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- Date Issued: 2000