This thesis explores North Korea’s influential role in the liberation of Southern Africa. Specifically, it examines the question of how political elites in Southern Africa benefitted from North... Show moreThis thesis explores North Korea’s influential role in the liberation of Southern Africa. Specifically, it examines the question of how political elites in Southern Africa benefitted from North Korean support, from 1960 until 2020. The main argument of this book is that liberation (and not the Cold War) is the leitmotif for African–North Korean relations, as the transition from anticolonial struggles to postcolonial politics is characterised by continuity not change. This approach is based on three assumptions. First, political culture in Southern Africa transcends national boundaries, which is a legacy of the exile dimension of the struggle for liberation. Second, scholarship must shift its lens from states to regimes. Third, the standard periodisation of African history and the Cold War distorts a proper understanding of African–North Korean interactions. Show less
The United Nations (UN) sanctions against North Korea are weakened by structural evasion techniques and weak enforcement. The African continent is a crucial node in the global illicit networks of... Show moreThe United Nations (UN) sanctions against North Korea are weakened by structural evasion techniques and weak enforcement. The African continent is a crucial node in the global illicit networks of North Korea. This paper examines three motives for African states to cooperate with North Korea, with a particular focus on the context of southern Africa: historical affinity (reciprocity), the practical issue of maintenance dependency (necessity), and the presence of weak enforcement regimes (opportunity). Based on a deep reading of UN Panel of Experts reports, academic literature and policy papers, novel archival material, and an interview with a defected North Korean diplomat, this paper argues that solutions to strengthen the sanctions regime can be successful only if they are grounded in African initiatives. Show less
During the decolonisation of southern Africa (1960s-1990s), several national liberation movements benefited from support from the Nordic countries, where they established foreign missions and... Show moreDuring the decolonisation of southern Africa (1960s-1990s), several national liberation movements benefited from support from the Nordic countries, where they established foreign missions and mobilized international aid. As a result, a considerable amount of African primary source material has been amassed over the years. This material is now accessible through the Pamphlet Collection of the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). The Pamphlet Collection contains over 700 boxes with (primary) source material from the entire African continent, including unique material from national liberation movements that is difficult to find elsewhere. Scholars of the Cold War can use this fascinating collection to study African agency during an era that – often wrongly - seemed to be dominated by Great Power competition. This Research Note explores contents of the Pamphlet Collection, with a particular focus on material from southern Africa. Show less
North Korea is an overlooked actor in studies of Afro-Asian solidarity or the Cold War, even though it developed an independent foreign policy and managed to forge connections to African ... Show moreNorth Korea is an overlooked actor in studies of Afro-Asian solidarity or the Cold War, even though it developed an independent foreign policy and managed to forge connections to African liberation movements. This chapter explores North Korea’s cultural diplomacy during the liberation of southern Africa through the establishment of Juche Study Centers. Juche, the official ideology of North Korea, was marketed in Africa through public meetings at Juche Study Centers, the distribution of translated literature, film viewings, and travel opportunities to Pyongyang. Juche was a vague philosophy that resonated with African views of post-colonial nation-building. Today, few people take Juche seriously but the fraternal ties between North Korea and African political regimes have withstood the test of time. Show less
This thesis is a cattle-centred history of colonialism in southern Africa, principally from 1652 until the 1980s. It opts out of the conventional human-centred approach to historical scholarship.... Show moreThis thesis is a cattle-centred history of colonialism in southern Africa, principally from 1652 until the 1980s. It opts out of the conventional human-centred approach to historical scholarship. This thesis is located within the broader animal history genre but innovates in that cattle are presented as experiential, sentient subjects in a sustained way. It views colonialism from within an animal-centred paradigm. The thesis explores impacts of colonialism in southern Africa in terms of how colonialism impacted cattle as groups and as individuals. Its primary question is: what are some of the major impacts of colonialism on cattle’s experiences in southern Africa? It is a sustained investigation of how cattle were subjectively impacted by colonialism. Four major impacts of colonialism are isolated and investigated. These are oxen’s wagon labour, disease epidemics and veterinary and state responses to the epidemics, the development of industrial slaughterhouses, and the development of modern colonial cattle breeding regimes. The geographical scope is regional, including present-day Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The core finding is that colonialism had transformative impacts on cattle history and cattle’s experiences in the region. Show less
Why has Africa not been doing so well and what is the way forward? This book starts with the analysis of Vansina and Prah: the old cultural traditions in Africa have been destroyed in colonial... Show moreWhy has Africa not been doing so well and what is the way forward? This book starts with the analysis of Vansina and Prah: the old cultural traditions in Africa have been destroyed in colonial times; new ones are currently taking shape, based in part in African languages. The book uses cross-cultural psychology to show that such new cultural traditions are indeed forming in Africa. However, almost all African countries currently use a former colonial language in secondary and higher education. The book demonstrates that if more and more people get educated, this system will no longer scale. Over the next decade, more and more African countries will have to make a transition towards increased use of African languages. The book proposes a distinction between discerned and designed languages. All over the world, designed languages are made to serve speakers of several discerned languages. This could and should happen in Africa as well. The book contains a number of brief case studies, showing how in fact such a transition is practically possible. In future, African countries will be able to achieve success in their educational systems by using a small number of languages as medium of instruction. Such a transition will also help to form the new cultural traditions that are already taking shape on the continent. Show less
This article is a contribution to and reassessment of the debate about the concept of ‘white labourism’ hosted in this journal in 2010. White labourism is a concept formulated by Jonathan Hyslop to... Show moreThis article is a contribution to and reassessment of the debate about the concept of ‘white labourism’ hosted in this journal in 2010. White labourism is a concept formulated by Jonathan Hyslop to describe an ideology combining an anti-capitalist critique with racial segregation that he argued was dominant in a transnational white working class in the British Empire in the early twentieth century. The debate about this concept has focused on the appeal and extent of this ideology in South Africa during the early twentieth century. In light of recent scholarship on Southern Africa, we take a longer-term perspective to critically examine the concept and the debate. Specifically, we make three interventions into this debate: we consider the role of white workers outside British imperial networks; we examine how radical and revolutionary ideas disappeared from white-working class politics in the mid-twentieth century; and we reassess the connection between transnational flows of people and ideas. Racial divisions in the working class and labour movement in Southern Africa were persistent and enduring. We argue that racial segregation had an enduring appeal to white workers in Southern Africa, and the sources of this appeal were more varied and locally rooted than simply transnational migration to the region. Show less
This article is a contribution to and reassessment of the debate about the concept of ‘white labourism’ hosted in this journal in 2010. White labourism is a concept formulated by Jonathan Hyslop to... Show moreThis article is a contribution to and reassessment of the debate about the concept of ‘white labourism’ hosted in this journal in 2010. White labourism is a concept formulated by Jonathan Hyslop to describe an ideology combining an anti-capitalist critique with racial segregation that he argued was dominant in a transnational white working class in the British Empire in the early twentieth century. The debate about this concept has focused on the appeal and extent of this ideology in South Africa during the early twentieth century. In light of recent scholarship on Southern Africa, we take a longer-term perspective to critically examine the concept and the debate. Specifically, we make three interventions into this debate: we consider the role of white workers outside British imperial networks; we examine how radical and revolutionary ideas disappeared from white-working class politics in the mid-twentieth century; and we reassess the connection between transnational flows of people and ideas. Racial divisions in the working class and labour movement in Southern Africa were persistent and enduring. We argue that racial segregation had an enduring appeal to white workers in Southern Africa, and the sources of this appeal were more varied and locally rooted than simply transnational migration to the region. Show less
This book showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa. Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa challenges the... Show moreThis book showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa. Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa challenges the geographical and chronological limitations of existing scholarship by presenting case studies from Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that track the fortunes of nonhegemonic whites during the era of white minority rule. Arguing against prevalent understandings of white society as uniformly wealthy or culturally homogeneous during this period, it demonstrates that social class remained a salient element throughout the twentieth century, how Southern Africa’s white societies were often divided and riven with tension and how the resulting social, political and economic complexities animated white minority regimes in the region. Addressing themes such as the class-based disruption of racial norms and practices, state surveillance and interventions – and their failures – towards nonhegemonic whites, and the opportunities and limitations of physical and social mobility, the book mounts a forceful argument for the regional consideration of white societies in this historical context. Centrally, it extends the path-breaking insights emanating from scholarship on racialized class identities from North America to the African context to argue that race and class cannot be considered independently in Southern Africa. Show less
Understandings of class have often been highly racialized and gendered. This article examines the efforts of white workers’ organizations in Southern Africa during the 1940s to forge such a class... Show moreUnderstandings of class have often been highly racialized and gendered. This article examines the efforts of white workers’ organizations in Southern Africa during the 1940s to forge such a class identity across the region and disseminate it among the international labor movement. For these organizations, the “real” working class was composed of white men who worked in mines, factories, and on the railways, something pertinent to contemporary understandings of class.The focus of these efforts was the Southern African Labour Congress, which brought together white trade unions and labor parties and sought to secure a place for them in the postwar world. These organizations embodied the politics of “white laborism,” an ideology which fused political radicalism and white domination, and they enjoyed some success in gaining acceptance in the international labor movement. Although most labor histories of the region have adopted a national framework, this article offers an integrated regional labor history. Show less
Marriage used to be widespread and common throughout Southern Africa. However, over the past decades marriage rates have substantially declined in the whole region. Marriage has changed from a... Show moreMarriage used to be widespread and common throughout Southern Africa. However, over the past decades marriage rates have substantially declined in the whole region. Marriage has changed from a universal rite of passage into a conspicuous celebration of middle class lifestyles. Bridewealth or lobola remains important and is supplemented by a plethora of new rituals and expenditures. Yet, despite marriage's recent turn towards exclusivity, the institution nevertheless continues to be an important frame of reference for most people. The contributions in this special issue explore reconfigurations of marriages and weddings in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia through the last decades. While there are numerous anthropological studies on marriage in Southern Africa for the period up to the 1980s, a remarkable paucity of studies has to be noted for the time since then. The ethnographic and comparative findings on Southern African weddings and marriages compiled in this special issue pick up an important anthropological legacy and stimulate future research and theorising. Show less
This chapter examines what democratic transition in the 1990s has meant for women in southern Africa. It focuses in particular on the impact of democratization processes on political participation... Show moreThis chapter examines what democratic transition in the 1990s has meant for women in southern Africa. It focuses in particular on the impact of democratization processes on political participation by women, notably women's representation in parliament in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This is compared with developments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, where the introduction of multiparty elections has generally resulted in women's marginalization in parliament. Comparison of the representation of women in parliament in the SADC region under the one-party State and after the democratic transition reveals that the tendency is towards better representation of women. Factors impacting on the representation of women in politics include a country's state of development, the quota system, women's pressure groups, and electoral systems. Linking the UNDP's gender-related development index (1998) to the representation in parliament-index, the author concludes that there is no visible relationship between women's representation in parliament and the quality of life for women in southern Africa. Notes, ref Show less
Until recently, observers were generally unaware of the Islamic presence in southern Africa. It was assumed that Islam, in its southern spread, stopped somewhere around Lake Malawi. Little was... Show moreUntil recently, observers were generally unaware of the Islamic presence in southern Africa. It was assumed that Islam, in its southern spread, stopped somewhere around Lake Malawi. Little was known about the arrival of Muslims in the slave hulls of colonialism and during nineteenth-century international trade in sugar, gold and British manufactured goods. This obscurity changed dramatically when groups of Muslims joined anti-apartheid demonstrations in the 1980s, which the international media beamed across the world. Since then, Islam has taken its small but influential place in the media mosaic of southern Africa. In some cases Muslims are important social and political leaders in the region, emerging as champions of dramatic campaigns. Show less
