This book is based on Pedzisai Maedza's Master's thesis 'Theatre of testimony: An investigation in devising asylum', winner of the African Studies Centre, Leiden's 2014 African Thesis Award. This... Show moreThis book is based on Pedzisai Maedza's Master's thesis 'Theatre of testimony: An investigation in devising asylum', winner of the African Studies Centre, Leiden's 2014 African Thesis Award. This annual award for Master's students encourages student research and writing on Africa and promotes the study of African cultures and societies. The use of testimonies in performance is enjoying increased artistic and critical popularity and has a long and rich tradition on South African stages. Both internationally and locally, emerging and established playwrights working on migration and refugee issues are seeking to incorporate the testimony of asylum seekers into their work. This necessitates a critical reflection of the influences that shape and structure the staging of these testimonies. This study argues that increased migration and the growing number of asylum seekers arriving on South African shores, has motivated at times violent interaction between host communities and the newcomers. These incidents have inspired a distinct trend of testimonial performances around the concept of asylum. This study uses narrative analysis to read examples of contemporary theatre of testimony plays that examine this phenomenon. It examines how playwright positioning informs the structuring of asylum testimonies on stage, in addition to contextualizing the ethical and moral complexities the playwright’s positionality places on their practice. Through three case studies, the study interrogates how playwright positioning informs notions of authorship, authenticity, truth, theatricality and ethics. Furthermore, it investigates the challenges that speaking for ‘self’ and speaking for the ‘other’ place on testimonial playwrights. Show less
This article deals with the moral panic that emerged in the Netherlands when it became publicly known that under-age Nigerian girls were being smuggled into the country to be put to 'work' in the... Show moreThis article deals with the moral panic that emerged in the Netherlands when it became publicly known that under-age Nigerian girls were being smuggled into the country to be put to 'work' in the sex industry. A police investigation not only found hundreds of cases but also uncovered the fact that certain unknown and occult rituals played a part in how traffickers, 'madams' and other sex bosses appeared to keep the girls locked in this exploitative system. Soon an unspecified notion of 'voodoo' came to dominate the police operation, the public image of what was happening to these girls, and the way in which the girls were treated within the Dutch judicial system. The article deconstructs the moral panic and the images of Africa and the occult which became so crucial to the way the Dutch state tried to deal with the situation. It sets this analysis in the context of an anthropology of globalization and a cultural exploration of how issues of morality and identity are affected by "the occult economies of late capitalist relations". It concludes that to a great extent the scale of the moral panic can be understood by pointing at the rigidity of the identity politics of the Dutch nation State in previous years. Research was carried out in 1996-1998. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French Show less
Zambia is among the few African countries where chiefs occupy an honorable position at the national level, and where a House of Chiefs is established, complementary to Parliament. This paper... Show moreZambia is among the few African countries where chiefs occupy an honorable position at the national level, and where a House of Chiefs is established, complementary to Parliament. This paper examines the relationship between chiefs and the central government on the basis of an analysis of newspaper articles from the 'Zambia Daily Mail' and the 'Times of Zambia' over the period 1 February 1972 to 1 February 1973. Attention is paid to the various images of the chiefs, both positive and negative, as expressed in the newspapers; the career of Princess Nakatindi of Sesheke (d. 1972); the continuity in the relations between chiefs and the central government; the chiefs' search for protection by the State; the subjugation of the chiefs by State bureaucracies; and the selective use of chiefly symbolism. The analysis shows that modern politics and traditional leadership do not constitute two separate worlds, but that State and chieftaincy are closely interlocking aspects of modern Zambian life. App., bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
