Ukwowa mumwela nabangeli: transcendence, flight and inculturation in Zambian devotional artwork
- Authors: Mulenga, Aaron Samuel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Idols and images in art -- Zambia , Transcendence (Philosophy) in art , Christianity and culture -- Zambia , Flight in art , Christian art and symbolism -- Zambia , Representation (Philosophy) , Black people in art , Ethnicity in art , Group identity in art , Art and society -- Zambia , Yombwe, Laurence
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146278 , vital:38511
- Description: With a focus on my artistic practice, this paper seeks to interrogate the tensions and overlaps in various representations of transcendence that have shaped my spirituality by interrogating how these have featured in Eurocentric Christian iconography and Zambian cultural practices, particularly cultural artefacts used for spiritual flight, housed in Zambian museums. Transcendence is understood by some as a change in a person’s physiological or psychological state that allows them to go beyond their experience of time, place or being. I understand transcendence to be the moment that one’s spirit is elevated beyond the limitations of their physical body. The use of Biblical text relating to flight will also be discussed as a comparative study to explore how transcendence through flight operates within Christianity and a Zambian cultural context. Furthermore, I shall interrogate how black artists (particularly Zambian), such as Laurence Yombwe, address the omission of black people from Christian iconography (which is predominantly depicted as white people). I aim to highlight the important role that representation plays in allowing for an individual to experience transcendence. I believe inculturation is a fitting solution to address some of the pitfalls in Christian iconography brought about due to the lack of representation of black people. Inculturation can be understood as an adaptation in the way the gospel of Jesus is preached to non-Christian cultures, and in turn, how these cultures influence the teachings of the gospel. Finally, I will explore how transcendence as a concept applies in my artworks and how the materials I use highlight this concept. Through my art, I grapple to combine what seem like disparate spiritual paradigms, arising from my culture and my faith. My artwork seeks to contribute to the work that particular artists (a majority of them black) are grappling with to correct the lack of representation of black people in Christian iconography. I will use the notion of inculturation as an avenue through which to interrogate the tensions I experience while exploring the concept of transcendence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mulenga, Aaron Samuel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Idols and images in art -- Zambia , Transcendence (Philosophy) in art , Christianity and culture -- Zambia , Flight in art , Christian art and symbolism -- Zambia , Representation (Philosophy) , Black people in art , Ethnicity in art , Group identity in art , Art and society -- Zambia , Yombwe, Laurence
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146278 , vital:38511
- Description: With a focus on my artistic practice, this paper seeks to interrogate the tensions and overlaps in various representations of transcendence that have shaped my spirituality by interrogating how these have featured in Eurocentric Christian iconography and Zambian cultural practices, particularly cultural artefacts used for spiritual flight, housed in Zambian museums. Transcendence is understood by some as a change in a person’s physiological or psychological state that allows them to go beyond their experience of time, place or being. I understand transcendence to be the moment that one’s spirit is elevated beyond the limitations of their physical body. The use of Biblical text relating to flight will also be discussed as a comparative study to explore how transcendence through flight operates within Christianity and a Zambian cultural context. Furthermore, I shall interrogate how black artists (particularly Zambian), such as Laurence Yombwe, address the omission of black people from Christian iconography (which is predominantly depicted as white people). I aim to highlight the important role that representation plays in allowing for an individual to experience transcendence. I believe inculturation is a fitting solution to address some of the pitfalls in Christian iconography brought about due to the lack of representation of black people. Inculturation can be understood as an adaptation in the way the gospel of Jesus is preached to non-Christian cultures, and in turn, how these cultures influence the teachings of the gospel. Finally, I will explore how transcendence as a concept applies in my artworks and how the materials I use highlight this concept. Through my art, I grapple to combine what seem like disparate spiritual paradigms, arising from my culture and my faith. My artwork seeks to contribute to the work that particular artists (a majority of them black) are grappling with to correct the lack of representation of black people in Christian iconography. I will use the notion of inculturation as an avenue through which to interrogate the tensions I experience while exploring the concept of transcendence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Petits récits: creative perspectives of Chinese encounters in Zambia
- Authors: Mwaba, Stary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Personal narratives , Lyotard, Jean-François, 1924-1998 , Art and society -- Zambia , Social practice (Art) -- Zambia , Art and globalization -- Zambia , China -- Relations -- Zambia , Storytelling in art , Colonization in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146355 , vital:38518
- Description: This mini-thesis, which supports my MFA exhibition Black Mountain, articulates on-the- ground creative perspectives of the Zambia-China discourse, through the representation of little narratives - les petits récits - connected to personal experiences. Through my creative production as an artist, I respond to perceptions of the Chinese presence in Africa. I utilize historical and contemporary personal narratives to complicate existing perceptions of Chinese presence in my home context of Zambia. “Petit récits”, or “little narratives”, in Francois Lyotard’s term, refers to personal stories of individuals that subvert dominant master-narratives and their legitimization in social-cultural structure. In the case of China’s presence in Zambia, I refer to the dichotomized narratives in the media as metanarratives which pay little attention to the people on the ground and propose the approach of “little narratives” to foreground the lived experiences of Zambians who have individual encounters with Chinese in various social spaces. By employing the narratives of my family members through installations, paintings, and drawings, I intervene in a broader China-Africa discourse that is often driven by economics and politics, and I attach importance to the little narratives. In my thesis I divide my material into three chapters; each chapter grows out of an encounter with the presence of China (and Chinese people) in Zambia in relation to the very personal narratives of family members - Zoë my daughter, my grandma, and Ngolo my cousin. The first chapter focuses on my work Chinese Cabbage as my entry point to this topic, which is based on a school experiment I did with my daughter Zoë. In this chapter I also discuss the current discourses around China’s presence. Chapter two revisits the Zambian-Chinese historical encounters in memory of my grandma’s insaka stories about the construction of TAZARA Railway, and thus my works discussed in this chapter attach importance to the individual engagements from a historical perspective. Chapter three discusses in particular the controversial issues around Black Mountain and the works inspired by my cousin Ngolo’s stories of mining in Black Mountain and dealing with the Chinese traders.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mwaba, Stary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Personal narratives , Lyotard, Jean-François, 1924-1998 , Art and society -- Zambia , Social practice (Art) -- Zambia , Art and globalization -- Zambia , China -- Relations -- Zambia , Storytelling in art , Colonization in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146355 , vital:38518
- Description: This mini-thesis, which supports my MFA exhibition Black Mountain, articulates on-the- ground creative perspectives of the Zambia-China discourse, through the representation of little narratives - les petits récits - connected to personal experiences. Through my creative production as an artist, I respond to perceptions of the Chinese presence in Africa. I utilize historical and contemporary personal narratives to complicate existing perceptions of Chinese presence in my home context of Zambia. “Petit récits”, or “little narratives”, in Francois Lyotard’s term, refers to personal stories of individuals that subvert dominant master-narratives and their legitimization in social-cultural structure. In the case of China’s presence in Zambia, I refer to the dichotomized narratives in the media as metanarratives which pay little attention to the people on the ground and propose the approach of “little narratives” to foreground the lived experiences of Zambians who have individual encounters with Chinese in various social spaces. By employing the narratives of my family members through installations, paintings, and drawings, I intervene in a broader China-Africa discourse that is often driven by economics and politics, and I attach importance to the little narratives. In my thesis I divide my material into three chapters; each chapter grows out of an encounter with the presence of China (and Chinese people) in Zambia in relation to the very personal narratives of family members - Zoë my daughter, my grandma, and Ngolo my cousin. The first chapter focuses on my work Chinese Cabbage as my entry point to this topic, which is based on a school experiment I did with my daughter Zoë. In this chapter I also discuss the current discourses around China’s presence. Chapter two revisits the Zambian-Chinese historical encounters in memory of my grandma’s insaka stories about the construction of TAZARA Railway, and thus my works discussed in this chapter attach importance to the individual engagements from a historical perspective. Chapter three discusses in particular the controversial issues around Black Mountain and the works inspired by my cousin Ngolo’s stories of mining in Black Mountain and dealing with the Chinese traders.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Observations of diffuse radio emission in the Perseus Galaxy Cluster
- Authors: Mungwariri, Clemence
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Galaxies -- Clusters , Radio sources (Astronomy) , Radio interferometers , Perseus Galaxy Cluster , Diffuse radio emission
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143325 , vital:38233
- Description: In this thesis we analysed Westerbork observations of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster at 1380 MHz. Observations consist of two different pointings, covering a total of ∼ 0.5 square degrees, one including the known mini halo and the source 3C 84, the other centred on the source 3C 83.1 B. We obtained images with 83 μJy beam⁻¹ and 240 μJy beam⁻¹ noise rms for the two pointings respectively. We achieved a 60000 : 1 dynamic range in the image containing the bright 3C 84 source. We imaged the mini halo surrounding 3C 84 at high sensitivity, measuring its diameter to be ∼140 kpc and its power 4 x 10²⁴ W Hz⁻¹. Its morphology agrees quite well with that observed at 240 MHz (e.g. Gendron-Marsolais et al., 2017). We measured the flux density of 3C 84 to be 20.5 ± 0.4 Jy at the 2007 epoch, consistent with a factor of ∼2 increase since the 1960s.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mungwariri, Clemence
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Galaxies -- Clusters , Radio sources (Astronomy) , Radio interferometers , Perseus Galaxy Cluster , Diffuse radio emission
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143325 , vital:38233
- Description: In this thesis we analysed Westerbork observations of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster at 1380 MHz. Observations consist of two different pointings, covering a total of ∼ 0.5 square degrees, one including the known mini halo and the source 3C 84, the other centred on the source 3C 83.1 B. We obtained images with 83 μJy beam⁻¹ and 240 μJy beam⁻¹ noise rms for the two pointings respectively. We achieved a 60000 : 1 dynamic range in the image containing the bright 3C 84 source. We imaged the mini halo surrounding 3C 84 at high sensitivity, measuring its diameter to be ∼140 kpc and its power 4 x 10²⁴ W Hz⁻¹. Its morphology agrees quite well with that observed at 240 MHz (e.g. Gendron-Marsolais et al., 2017). We measured the flux density of 3C 84 to be 20.5 ± 0.4 Jy at the 2007 epoch, consistent with a factor of ∼2 increase since the 1960s.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Does the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies constitute an instance of hermeneutical injustice?
- Authors: Weiffenbach, Michaela
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Zuma, Jacob -- Trials, litigation, etc. , Rape -- Philosophy , Women's rights -- Africa , Women, Black -- Social conditions -- Africa , Masculinity -- Africa , Men, Black -- Africa -- Psychology , Justice (Philosophy)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145708 , vital:38460
- Description: This thesis argues that within the conventional imagination of the West, identity functions in a way that particular forms of embodiment are characterised by the experience of endured sexual vulnerability, which I argue is best understood as the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies (Cahill 2001, 120). By this, I mean that the threat of rape is contingent upon the social and political construction of one’s identity as vulnerable. In virtue of this particular way of constructing the embodiment of certain subjectivities, there is an instance of hermeneutical injustice conferred (Fricker 2007, 114). I inquire into the function and meaning of stereotypic generalisations, prejudice and rape myths embedded within the dominant framework of the West and show how language and representation constructs these identities as ‘rapeable’. Furthermore, I consider how collective hermeneutical discourses construct Blackness, specifically Black masculinities and the construction of the ‘un-rapeable’ Black femxle body. To see how these ideas are congruous the prominent example that occurred in South Africa in 2005, namely, the Jacob Zuma rape trial comes to mind. One relevant feature of the case is that it shows how identities of race are constructed in the aftermath of apartheid and points to a Western collective imagination resistant to change. In addition, it demonstrates the triad of interrelatedness holding between the self-world-other, a relationship constituted mutually by the self and the socially constructed interpretations of identity and embodiment (du Toit 2009, 58). Lastly, the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies is an example of how discursive narratives construct particular identities as vulnerable through rendering particular embodied subjects as sexually irrelevant and hermeneutically obscured.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Weiffenbach, Michaela
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Zuma, Jacob -- Trials, litigation, etc. , Rape -- Philosophy , Women's rights -- Africa , Women, Black -- Social conditions -- Africa , Masculinity -- Africa , Men, Black -- Africa -- Psychology , Justice (Philosophy)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145708 , vital:38460
- Description: This thesis argues that within the conventional imagination of the West, identity functions in a way that particular forms of embodiment are characterised by the experience of endured sexual vulnerability, which I argue is best understood as the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies (Cahill 2001, 120). By this, I mean that the threat of rape is contingent upon the social and political construction of one’s identity as vulnerable. In virtue of this particular way of constructing the embodiment of certain subjectivities, there is an instance of hermeneutical injustice conferred (Fricker 2007, 114). I inquire into the function and meaning of stereotypic generalisations, prejudice and rape myths embedded within the dominant framework of the West and show how language and representation constructs these identities as ‘rapeable’. Furthermore, I consider how collective hermeneutical discourses construct Blackness, specifically Black masculinities and the construction of the ‘un-rapeable’ Black femxle body. To see how these ideas are congruous the prominent example that occurred in South Africa in 2005, namely, the Jacob Zuma rape trial comes to mind. One relevant feature of the case is that it shows how identities of race are constructed in the aftermath of apartheid and points to a Western collective imagination resistant to change. In addition, it demonstrates the triad of interrelatedness holding between the self-world-other, a relationship constituted mutually by the self and the socially constructed interpretations of identity and embodiment (du Toit 2009, 58). Lastly, the construction of ‘rapeable’ bodies is an example of how discursive narratives construct particular identities as vulnerable through rendering particular embodied subjects as sexually irrelevant and hermeneutically obscured.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
A comparative analysis of social media brand image of insurance companies in South Africa: a longitudinal study
- Authors: Gudu, Daniel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Social media -- South Africa , Internet marketing -- South Africa , Chernoff faces , Ínsurance companies -- South Africa -- Marketing , Insurance companies -- South Africa -- Case studies , Multivariate analysis -- Graphic methods
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144277 , vital:38327
- Description: Social media is changing the way business is conducted. Almost five billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day. Social media has an extensive worldwide presence. Out of the total global population of over 7,5 billion people, over 4 billion are internet users. Of these, over 3 billion are active on social media. Social media is very influential in today's decision-making processes. Businesses must integrate social media into their strategies. The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of a novel method, Chernoff Faces, to assess and compare the social media brand images of six insurance companies in South Africa based on social conversation measurement. The intention of research was towards observing existing situations at hand and pointing out the game changers that can provide the industry with a new leap. Social media are multidimensional and understanding them requires tracking different measures simultaneously. Integrating social media into a communication strategy leads to a problem in finding the best way to portray and communicate multivariate data. It is essential to find the best way to represent and transmit the data so that marketing executives can quickly and easily monitor changes in brand images. Previous studies have successfully proved the possibility of using this method to gauge a "snapshot in time." This study took the concept further by closely monitoring the results for a set of brands over a period to account for the dynamic nature of social media. Accordingly, the study was a longitudinal study of 30 days. Data on the insurance companies was collected from Social Mention, a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user-generated content into a single stream of information. A tool in the statistical software Stata, Chernoff's faces, was used to analyse the results by generating facial expressions to the metrics associated with the social mentions of each of the insurance companies. The resulting facial expressions were then analysed to recognise the more favourable and stable brands and those that need appropriate risk management. Managing Social Media is challenging as managers must always keep it as positive as possible. Brand managers, therefore, need a better tool to gauge the mood in social media conversations due to the fast-changing nature of social media and the importance of social media to business especially insurance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Gudu, Daniel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Social media -- South Africa , Internet marketing -- South Africa , Chernoff faces , Ínsurance companies -- South Africa -- Marketing , Insurance companies -- South Africa -- Case studies , Multivariate analysis -- Graphic methods
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144277 , vital:38327
- Description: Social media is changing the way business is conducted. Almost five billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day. Social media has an extensive worldwide presence. Out of the total global population of over 7,5 billion people, over 4 billion are internet users. Of these, over 3 billion are active on social media. Social media is very influential in today's decision-making processes. Businesses must integrate social media into their strategies. The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of a novel method, Chernoff Faces, to assess and compare the social media brand images of six insurance companies in South Africa based on social conversation measurement. The intention of research was towards observing existing situations at hand and pointing out the game changers that can provide the industry with a new leap. Social media are multidimensional and understanding them requires tracking different measures simultaneously. Integrating social media into a communication strategy leads to a problem in finding the best way to portray and communicate multivariate data. It is essential to find the best way to represent and transmit the data so that marketing executives can quickly and easily monitor changes in brand images. Previous studies have successfully proved the possibility of using this method to gauge a "snapshot in time." This study took the concept further by closely monitoring the results for a set of brands over a period to account for the dynamic nature of social media. Accordingly, the study was a longitudinal study of 30 days. Data on the insurance companies was collected from Social Mention, a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user-generated content into a single stream of information. A tool in the statistical software Stata, Chernoff's faces, was used to analyse the results by generating facial expressions to the metrics associated with the social mentions of each of the insurance companies. The resulting facial expressions were then analysed to recognise the more favourable and stable brands and those that need appropriate risk management. Managing Social Media is challenging as managers must always keep it as positive as possible. Brand managers, therefore, need a better tool to gauge the mood in social media conversations due to the fast-changing nature of social media and the importance of social media to business especially insurance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
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