Academic literature on the topic 'Ndebele (African people) – Civilization'

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) established nine African language radio stations ostensibly to cater for the diverse linguistic and cultural needs of the African communities in the country. In reality, however, these stations acted as a government mouthpiece and means through which a monopoly over the airwaves was asserted. Through these stations the government promoted ethnic compartmentalisation and popularised the ethnic ‘homelands’ created from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. One of these stations was Radio Ndebele, established in 1983, with a clear mandate to reinforce Ndebele ethnic nationalism. This article seeks to explore the history of this radio station, using both oral sources and documentary material, though privileging the former. The article makes a two-pronged argument: Firstly, Radio Ndebele came into existence not only because of the government’s mission but because of pressure from Ndebele-speaking people who needed radio programming in their own language. Secondly, this radio station helped turn a spoken language that was on the throes of extinction into a vibrant written language that found its way into the schooling system, particularly in areas with a large concentration of Ndebele-speaking people.

Lewis Nkosi’s novel, Mating birds (1986) offers a significant intervention in a history as dispersed and fragmented as South Africa’s, by focusing on those specific and critical episodes of South Africa’s past. This much-colonised country has had an extended history of perennial violence under colonialism and apartheid Some fiction by Black writers on this phenomenon may be seen to be reactive, what Njabulo Ndebele (South African writer) terms ‘Protest Literature’-and seeks to show black people as victims (Ndebele 1994). Nkosi’s novels, Mating birds (1986) in particular reverse this order through the narratives of different characters, illustrating that black people were not the passive victims of apartheid but played an active role towards its opposition and eradication. This is achieved through complex portrayal of the first-person narrative technique and interstices of memory and recall. This article explores how identity as a porous and fluid, and fragmented and fractured concept that could be used to describe the individual or communa traits of some characters, and space (prison) are portrayed in Lewis Nkosi’s Mating birds (1986).

The discipline of onomastics is still at its infancy yet it constitutes a very important aspect of the day to day survival of a people in the society. Naming is part of oral tradition in African societies, people were never used to write and record things but rather their names. This means that names are a historical record that would carry some aspects of a people's way of life which include their history, beliefs and customs among others. On the same note, Midlands Province constitute of people from different backgrounds mainly Shona and Ndebele. Of interest to this research is the presence of the Kalanga people through some toponyms that are found in the area. In light of this view, this study therefore seeks to identify and unlock the culture and history embedded in these names by looking at the significance of Kalanga place names in Midlands Province. The study argues that place names or toponyms of any people carry with them a history, meaning and significance to particular people that name the places, thus studying the place names in this community can be a valuable tool of unpacking the history surrounding the Kalanga people in Midlands Province in Zimbabwe. Guided by the Afrocentric paradigm, specifically nommoic creativity tenant, the study seeks to explore the cultural and historical significance of Kalanga toponyms in Midlands Province.

The pursuit of literacy is a central theme in the history of African Americans in the United States. In the Western tradition, as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and others have observed, people of African descent have been written out of “culture” because they have been identified with oral traditions. In that setting, literacy signifies both reason and civilization. Performance in print earned the laurel of humanity. Consequently, for well over 200 years, the African-American literary tradition has been defined as one in which books talked and a few slave authors achieved, at once, voice and significance by making a book talk back by writing.

AbstractDuring the 1930s and 1940s, the Great Depression and the rise of communism and fascism in Europe convinced a broad spectrum of Americans that they were living through a prolonged “crisis of civilization” with real potential to destroy all they held dear. Meanwhile, they saw evidence that these global problems put young people especially at risk for immorality, loss of hope, and political subversion. Because the “youth problem” and the “world crisis” seemed to be inextricably linked, even the everyday behaviors of young people took on a heightened political significance in the eyes of many adults. Christian leaders from across the spectrum of churches—Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and African American—did not just capitalize on this obsession with youth and the fate of civilization; they did all they could to fan those flames. They did so not cynically, but sincerely, believing that they could and should save the world by saving American youth. Yet these leaders were also making a bid for influence in American society and for control of the future of their churches. The resulting politicized views of youth and youth work would not only influence the outcomes of internal church battles, but they would also shape how various Christian groups responded to the Cold War.

Marriage is a highly celebrated phenomenon among the African people. It is one of the important institutions among the Shona and Ndebele people in Zimbabwe as expressed in the saying ‘musha mukadzi’ and ‘umuzingumama’ (home is made by a woman) respectively. However with the coming of colonialism in Zimbabwe, marriage was not given the appropriate respect it deserves. This has given impetus to this paper where the researchers in the study through drama want to bring out the depiction of marriage institution in a post -independence television drama, Wenera Diamonds (2017). This paper therefore, aims to show the impact of neo-colonialism on Shona marriage institution. The neo colonial period is characterised with the perpetuation of Western imperial interests through protocols of diplomatic relations, treaties and existing bilateral agreements which marked a new phase of relationships with former colonisers. The aim of this article therefore is to depict marriage institution in neo colonial Zimbabwe in Wenera Diamonds (2017), a Zimbabwean television drama. Using qualitative research methodology, the research employs content analysis to elucidate the depiction in the said performance. Guided by the Africana womanist perspective, the article argues that the indigenous knowledge needed for African social development is rendered irrelevant by a dysfunctional set of values of the western hegemony. Against that, the paper establishes that the depiction of marriage institution in Wenera diamonds is a reflection of imperialist colonial forces on the black person hence the need to go back to basics and resuscitate their culture.

This article deals with two texts written during the process of transition in South Africa, using them to explore the cultural and ethical complexity of that process. Both Njabulo Ndebele’s “The cry of Winnie Mandela” and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s “A human being died that night” deal with controversial public figures, Winnie Mandela and Eugene de Kock respectively, whose role in South African history has made them part of the national iconography. Ndebele and Gobodo-Madikizela employ narrative techniques that expose and exploit faultlines in the popular representations of these figures. The two texts offer radical ways of understanding the communal and individual suffering caused by apartheid, challenging readers to respond to the past in ways that will promote healing rather than perpetuate a spirit of revenge. The part played by official histories is implicitly questioned and the role of individual stories is shown to be crucial. Forgiveness and reconciliation are seen as dependent on an awareness of the complex circumstances and the humanity of those who are labelled as offenders. This requirement applies especially to the case of “A human being died that night”, a text that insists that the overt acknowledgement of the humanity of people like Eugene de Kock is an important way of healing South African society.

IntroductionHuman development, from the Islamic point of view, can be achieved onlyby following the footsteps of the Prophet (SAAS). The nearer one comes toimbibing the Message of the Quran, Sunnah, and Shari’ah in one’s life, themore humanly developed one becomes, because personal development in Islamis measured by one’s refinement in living this Message. The more refinedand developed are the persons in a community, the better will be their cultureand civilization.As long as Muslims continued moulding their life according to the Shari‘ah,their civilization in Medina, Baghdad, Andullis, Constantinople, and Delhiflourished. The decline and fall of Islamic civilization came when Muslimsstarted paying mere lip service to the formula of faith and departing fromthe spirit and purposes of the Shari‘ah. This was the unfortunate phenomenonthroughout the Muslim world. Fortunately, the rightly inspired people roseto bring back the erring Muslims to the path of the Shari’ah. This paper seeksto present an assessment of the dynamics used by a Mujaddid (a promoterof Tajdid or revival) of West Africa to re-Islamize a society that had sunkinto the abyss of confusion.Islam in West AfricaWest Africa, situated south of the Sahara desert, and which the Arabhistorians called Bilad al Sudan, has witnessed in the past, many Islamicempires, e.g., Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Bornu, the last of which was theSokoto Caliphate. It emerged from the process of Tajdid (renewal or revival inaccordance with the Quran and Sunnah)’ which was started by Shehu(Shaikh) ‘Uthman Danfodio (1754-1817) in 1774, and which culminated in ...

AbstractThis article compares Anthony Benezet's influential 1771 antislavery tract, Some Historical Account of Guinea, with the sources from which he gleaned his information about Africa and the slave trade, the narratives published by European travelers to West Africa. Benezet, a Philadelphia Quaker and humanitarian reformer, cited the travel literature in order to portray Africa as an abundant land of decent people. He thereby refuted the apology that cast the slave trade as a beneficial transfer of people from a land of barbarism and death to regions of civilization and Christianity. However, Benezet employed the travel narratives selectively, suppressing contradictory evidence as well as controversial material that could have been used to construct an alternative depiction of African humanity. Nonetheless, Benezet's research shaped the subsequent debate over the slave trade and slavery, as antislavery writers incorporated his depiction into their rhetorical arsenal and proslavery defenders searched for a rebuttal.

AbstractThe Ottoman encounter with European colonialism over their African territories during the nineteenth century contributed to a renewed interest in Africa and its inhabitants. This resulted in several official and non-official travels to this continent at the end of which the travelers published their memoirs. This article intends to analyze Ottoman perceptions of Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by drawing upon Ottoman travelogues. It concludes that the travelers established paradoxical accounts regarding the implications of European colonialism for Africa and the ethnic taxonomy of the African people. They perceived European colonialism as a civilizing mechanism on the one hand, and treated it as the most significant reason of African “backwardness” on the other. Similarly, while they criticized the European colonial discourse based on the superiority of the white race over others, they established similar ethnic taxonomies establishing hierarchies among African tribes.

In 1969 het Leonard Thompson met reg beweer dat Suid-Afrikaanse historici hulle tot op hede hoofsaaklik besig gehou het met die doen en late van 'n Blanke gemeenskap wat die land sedert 1652 oorheers het. Die Swartman was die "forgotten factor" in die geskiedenis van Suider-Afrika. Waar die Swartman die onderwerp van wetenskaplike studie was, is dit aan argeoloë, linguiste, etnoloë en fisiese en sosiale antropoloë oorgelaat. Tereg het Thompson kort hierna opgemerk: "We need to know much more about the complex process by which African chiefdoms became incorporated in white controlled politics in the late nineteenth century. Only when monographs have been written on several individual cases, shall we be in a position to reach definite conclusions about the process as a whole ". Sedert hierdie uitspraak van Thompson het verskeie historici hulle op die terrein van die "forgotten factor" begewe. Omvangryke publikasies oor onder andere die Zulu, Pedi, Sotho asook die Swazi's het sedertdien die lig gesien, terwyl 'n werk oor die Tswana van Wes-Transvaal pas verskyn het. Hierteenoor het heelwat van die kleiner en minder invloedryke swart groeperinge tot op hede steeds agterweë gebly. Wat Noordoos Transvaal betref - meer spesifiek die gebied tussen die Elandsrivier, die Lebomboberg en die Krokodilrivier wat die Ohrigstadse Volksraad in 1846 van Mswati gekoop het, was daar behalwe die Pedi verskeie ander groepe aanwesig wat almal gedurende die loop van die negentiende eeu onder Blanke gesag gekom het. Hieronder het getel die Ndzundza, die Kopa, Tau, Kwena, Ntwane, Koni, Rôka, Kutswe , Pai en Pulana, waarvan die Ndzundza en Kopa die belangrikste was. Ten spyte van die feit dat daar heelwat argivale bronne oor hierdie groepe bestaan, het geen navorser dit tot op hede nog ontgin nie. Oor die onderwerping van hierdie stamme aan Blanke gesag gedurende die negentiende eeu, is daar weinig bekend. Wat die Ndzundza-geskiedenis betref, geld Thompson se opmerking nog steeds dat historici wetenskaplike studie oor die Swartes tradisioneel aan navorsers uit ander dissiplines oorgelaat het. Dit blyk duidelik uit 'n ontleding van sekondêre materiaal wat oor die Ndzundza bestaan. Verskeie studies van volkekundige aard is oor die verskillende kulturele fasette en pre-koloniale geskiedenis van die Transvaalse Ndebele, waarvan die Ndzundza deel uitmaak, gedoen. In die meeste van hierdie studies word die pre-Blanke geskiedenis van die Ndzundza as inleiding aangebied, terwyl daar in sommige gevalle ook na die historiese tydperk verwys word. Op hierdie wyse is die herkomsgeskiedenis van die Ndzundza met behulp van mondelinge tradisies redelik volledig opgeteken. As gevolg van die feit dat geen argivale bronne geraadpleeg is nie, is die volkekundige werke wat die historiese tydperk betref, deurspek met spekulasies, onjuisthede en valse aannames. Met enkele uitsonderings berus verwysings deur die enkele historici wat die Ndzundza-geskiedenis behandel, veral met betrekking tot die tydperk voor 1882, grootliks op die uitsprake van volkekundiges. Dit het meegebring dat die huidige beeld en feitelikhede omtrent die negentiende eeuse Ndzundza-geskiedenis onjuis is, veral soos dit in algemene geskiedenisse opgeteken staan. Hierteenoor het verskeie historici die Mapoch-oorlog van 1882- 1883, waartydens die Ndzundza hul onafhanklikheid verloor het, behandel. In sy biografie oor genl P. J. Joubert het J. A. Mouton die oorlog tot 'n enkele hoofstuk beperk. Vir Mouton gaan dit egter om Joubert se persoonlike aandeel en gee hy gevolglik nie veel aandag aan die belangrikste aspek van die oorlog, naamlik die oorsake, nie. H. P. van Coller het in 1941 'n MA-verhandeling die lig laat sien waarin die oorsake en verloop van die Mapoch-oorlog beskryf word. Van Coller se uiteensetting omtrent die oorsake van die oorlog is egter ontoereikend aangesien dit heelwat onjuisthede bevat, geweldig subjektief is en nie ontkom aan naïewe aannames en uitsprake nie. Die belangrikste oorsaak van die oorlog, naamlik gronddispute, word deur Van Coller geignoreer. Voorts behandel hy die oorlog as 'n gevolg van die moord op Sekhukhune, sodat die Ndzundza "toevallig" betrek word. Ander historici se verwysings na die oorlog is ook ontoereikend omdat dit in die meeste gevalle beperk bly tot enkele bladsye en paragrawe. Tot op hede is die negentiende eeuse Ndzundza-geskiedenis dus nog of onvolledig, of onjuis opgeteken. Met hierdie studie word gepoog om 'n bydrae in hierdie verband te maak. Omdat die historisiese feite omtrent die verloop van die 1882-1883 oorlog grootliks bekend is, val die klem op die tydperk daarvóór. Voorts moet dit gemeld word dat dit in hierdie studie hoofsaaklik gaan om die faktore wat die verhoudinge tussen die Ndzundza en die Blankes bepaal het, te elimineer. Ander aspekte wat ter sprake kom is onder andere die uitwerking wat die Blanke besetting van Noordoos-Transvaal op die Ndzundza gehad het, gronddispute, arbeidsaangeleenthede, Swazi- en die Pedi-deelname in die Blankes se pogings om die Ndzundza te onderwerp van die asook die uiteindelike vernietiging en verlies onafhanklikheid van die Ndzundza. Die spelwyse van sekere name en benaminge wat in hierdie verhandeling voorkom, het in sommige gevalle probleme opgelewer. Die meerderheid Ndebele name is gespel volgens die voorskrifte van die Suid-Ndebele taalraad. Waar die korrekte moderne spelling van Swartes se name nie vasgestel kon word nie, is dit in aanhalingstekens weergegee soos dit in die dokument voorkom. AIle amptelike benamings soos staatspresident of koloniale sekretaris is in die teks met 'n kleinlettertjie gespel maar in die voetnotas met 'n hoofletter. Die motivering hiervoor is die Afrikaanse gebruik om amptelike benamings binne Westerse staatsverband met 'n hoofletter te spel maar benamings in tradisionele verband soos kaptein, opperhoof of hoofman met 'n kleinlettertjie, wat myns insiens op diskriminasie neerkom. Wat die spel van die woord swart betref: Waar dit as byvoeglike naamwoord gebruik word (bv. swart kindertjies), is deurgaans van kleinletters gebruik gemaak. Hoofletters is gebruik wanneer dit as selfstandige naamwoord gebruik word, bv. Die Swartes. Die terme kaffer en meid is waar moontlik, vermy. Die aangehaalde stukke waarin dit weI voorkom, moet nie as beledigend beskou word nie maar as verteenwoordigend van die terminolgoie van 'n bepaalde tyd in die geskiedenis. Die bedoeling was geensins om enigiemand te na te kom nie. wat ter sprake kom.

Aspects of customary land tenure may survive even where formal rules in a society supersede custom. This thesis is about persisting custom for Maori Freehold land (MFL) in New Zealand, and the Communal Areas (CAs) of Zimbabwe. Three questions are addressed: what unwritten land tenure custom still persists for Ngai Tahu, Shona and Ndebele, what key historical processes and events in New Zealand and Zimbabwe shaped the relationship between people and land into the form it displays today, and how do we explain differences between surviving customary tenure practices in the two countries? The research was based on in-depth interviews. A key difference between the two countries was found to lie in the type and degree of security available over the years to Maori and Shona/Ndebele. Roots of security were found in the substance of the founding treaties and concessions, and thereafter in a variety of other factors including the help (or lack of it) offered by the law in redressing grievances, the level of intermarriage between settler and autochthon, the differing security of land rights offered in urban centres in the respective countries, demographic factors and the availability of state benefits. This research finds that greater security was offered to Maori than to Shona and Ndebele, and that this has reduced the centrality of customary practices with regard to land. The research found that, in Zimbabwe, tenure security in the CAs is still underwritten by communities and that significant investment is still made in both living and dead members of those communities. Another finding is that land custom has adapted dynamically to meet new challenges, such as urban land and CA land sales. In New Zealand, investment in groups that jointly hold rights in MFL has, to some extent been eclipsed by the payment of rates and the availability of services (e.g. state-maintained boundary records and law enforcement mechanisms) and of benefits (e.g. superannuation, disability and unemployment). Land and community are not as closely linked to survival as they were in the past and, for many, they have come to hold largely symbolic value and less practical significance. Overall, it is the pursuit of security and �belonging� that have been the greatest influences on customary land tenure practices in the long term.

The amaNdzundza are a South African abaNtu people. This thesis sets forth to determine the role of their world (in the Heideggerian sense) as it impacts on their Architecture. First the evolutionary process of the amaNdzundza architecture is established. An infinite series of memes (much like genes) that function both on an intra- and inter-cultural level govern this process. Next, the cultural interaction of the amaNdzundza over a period of half a millenium are mapped (and a space-time matrix drawn up: ch.3), as to find the sources of introduction on an intercultural level. Finally, the architecture of the amaNdzundza milieu, both of their settlements and of the cultures with which they shared their environment, is analyzed and a sample of memes identified, which best illustrate the meme-exchange and evolution. This is done in a structure comprising the analysis of selected religious spatial incentives, and some aspects and elements of the settlement, the dwelling and the mural. A summary is given of the memes involved in the amaNdzundza architecture, and their evolutionary dynamics and origins. The researcher thus concludes that, rather than a singular factor such as the patronage of apartheid, the cultural 'memes' in the amaNdebele ya amaNdzundza milieu played the predominant role in the shaping of their existential, spatial and structural dwelling, through a process of 'loci meme' evolution.

In Zimbabwe, translation studies is yet to be recognized as a discipline worthy of study in its own right, hence, not much research has been carried out into the theory and practice of translation. Furthermore, there is no tertiary institution that offers professional translation courses. In light of this information most translations are carried out by untrained/partially trained translators with only a few translators who have gained experience over time. The aim of this study was to investigate strategies used by Ndebele translators in the translation of specialized terms and cultural taboos in selected HIV/AIDS texts, as well as factors that can be used to improve the translation situation of Zimbabwe. Three main theoretical approaches were used in a complementary fashion, namely Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Cultural Studies and Corpus-based Translation Studies (CTS). DTS provided the researcher with a theory to understand the Ndebele translations in their wider environment; Cultural Studies provided the researcher with the means by which to understand Ndebele culture and taboos; Corpus-based Translation Studies (CTS) provided the researcher with the methodological tools and analytical techniques to analyse the corpus of texts. An English-Ndebele Parallel Corpus (ENPC) was created using fourteen English source texts and their corresponding Ndebele translations. The ENPC was interrogated by means of ParaConc, a parallel concordancing program. The study found that when translating specialised terms, Ndebele translators used strategies such as a general or neutral word, cultural substitution, paraphrasing and omission. The strategy of omission was misused in most cases because Ndebele translators omitted valuable information which did not reach the target readers. With regards to translation strategies that contributed to term creation, it was found that Ndebele translators relied on external as well as internal resources. The translators used strategies such as pure loan words; pure loan words preceeded by an explanation and indigenised loan words. From the Ndebele language itself, the translators resorted to semantic shift, compounding, coinage and paraphrasing, among others. From the ENPC it is clear that Ndebele translators did manage to transfer the message from English to Ndebele to an extent. However, the ENPC has to be used with caution by other researchers since the translations included in the corpus are full of errors such as misinterpretations of the source texts, mistranslations, incorrect terms and incorrect orthography. This factor points to a dire need to establish translation as an academic discipline and profession in Zimbabwe so as to elevate the quality of translations and offer better translation services to all users.

The thesis presents ethnographic data and musical analysis (in the form of transcriptions) of Haul music which is the music style performed by Bedouin societies in Trab el Bidan region (Mauritania, Western Sahara, northern Mali, southern Algeria and northern Morocco). It is based on field research undertaken in Algeria in 2004-05 in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, where Saharaui people (a Bedouin society)live in exile. This research is unique and original as Haul has not, until now, been explored in depth by any scholar. My research on Haul reveals that the changes in Saharaui music in the refugee camps of Tindouf reflect changes in the musical traditions of Bedouin societies as whole; changes that can be traced to the revolution which occurred in Western Sahara in 1975, and changes that are a result of the migrations and life in exile that followed. I argue that these changes occurred due to the transnational experiences undergone by Saharaui people in their forced exile (caused by the Moroccan state) from their homeland in Western Sahara to Algeria. Further, I assert that the invocation of memory in Bedouin musical styles is evidence of past musical practices being retained in contemporary Haul performance, although other musical changes are similarly in progress.

This study investigates the role of initiation schools in the identity formation of Southern Ndebele adolescent boys. The subsequent influence of initiation schools on scholastic achievement was also researched. A qualitative research method was used to give a scientific support to the findings made in literature. Interviewing and interview schedules were employed as data-collecting techniques. Interviews were conducted with 10 initiates from the Ndzundza and the Manala initiation schools. The positive outcomes of this research can, however, not be generalised, but rather indicate possible tendencies that initiation schools play a significant role in the identity formation of Southern Ndebele adolescent boys.<br>Psychology of Education<br>M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Isizulu naMagugu at the University of Zululand, 2006.<br>This study is an attempt at making a classiflcatory scrutiny of the art performed by the Ndebele people of South Africa. It sets out to identify and define Ndebele beadwork by looking very closely to its origin, how it survived the dark days of waging wars and made its way into the modern times. In its classification a clear distinction is drawn between the various periods of development and the characteristics of each period are described well. Several attempts have already been made by a number of scholars on the classification and analyses of Ndebele beadwork. In most analyses we find that very brought and general descriptions have been given. One hardly finds any definite patterns and methods used by a Ndebele bead worker. This study has attempted to describe Ndebele beadwork from the moment of planning to the next step when the first grain of bead is worked through the needle and cotton up to where a real shape is formed. It attempts to explain how the intricate Ndebele shapes are formed and coordinated. The use of the various colours is explained in detail. The wrong impression conceived by a big bulk of people that the Ndebele people use colours indiscriminately is corrected. An explanation is given on how some of the popular colours are linked to speech and how these colours are generally interpreted when used on a piece of beadwork article. It further rounds up the typical shapes popular with the Ndebele bead worker. It describes how each shape is formed and used. It also discusses the cultural beliefs and stereotypes attached to the usage of beads and the restrictions accompanying them. The future of Ndebele beadwork is looked into. Recommendations on how the beadwork trade can be turned into a giant industry are made. Postulatxons are made on what route can be followed that can lead small beadwork handlers into some of the world's greatest.

D.Litt. et Phil.<br>Approaches to folklore/oral forms have evolved from an interest in things (texts are included here) to an interest in process, of which performance studies is a prime example. A performance orientation seeks to restore an activity (or a text as part of an activity) to its proper place - not as an extracted, reified entity, but as discourse created by performers in particular circumstances. These circumstances, or context, are detail-rich and have influences on a text, and, in turn, a text is a detail that influences other aspects of the total performance. These theoretical issues are dealt with in chapter I. Ndebele praise poetry manifests itself in many situations as it forms part of a larger oral culture, as can be seen in many regular and ad hoc Ndebele ceremonies. The extent of the oral culture is illustrated in chapter 2. Gunner and Gwala (1991: 7) have remarked that praise poetry 'has been and still is extremely open to appropriation by those who had or wished to have access to political power and influence'. This was particularly evident in the way praise poetry was performed during 1988 at political campaigns. This year was part of the period of political unrest in Ndebele history which started in 1985 when central government announced that Moutse would be incorporated into the former Kw'aNdebele and that KwaNdebele would become independent on 11 December 1986. At the 6 political meetings, during which the anti-independent royalists campaigned against independence, praise poetry was utilised extensively. This background is dealt with in chapter 3. At these meetings praise poetry functioned not only to amuse the crowd, but to introduce speakers, underscore their legitimacy and to lend authority to what speakers were saying. Needless to say, while some iimbongo were 'context ready', others were recontextualised to have something to say about the issues prevailing at the time. The praises that grew from contemporary circumstances were those of the `ama-radicals', as they were called, namely, the princes, sons of Mabhoko, the Ndzundza-Ndebele chief (Ingwenyama) at that time. The praises of Mabhoko himself were largely those of Mabhoko I, who lived between 1800 and 1865. But although these iimbongo originated at that time, they were highly relevant to the circumstances prevailing at the time so that the process of recontextualisation was quite natural. Contextual issues such as these are described in chapter 4. The value of the performance approach is that, while a text is seen as part of a process, it is also recognised as language on display, language presented for enjoyment and as a display of communicative competence. Bauman and Briggs (1990) refer to this process as entextualisation. Language as display, or artistic language use, is characterised by numerous devices. In the Ndebele praise poems the metaphor can be seen to be the privileged trope, occurring more frequently than any other device. Contemporary Ndebele praise poets operate at a time when orality is being replaced by literacy. Very often praise poets document their own poetry, thus allowing for others to learn these praises through the medium of the written word. How does this affect creativity? These issues are addressed in chapter 5. Jimbongo as instances of 'master creative discourse' are meant to influence listeners and achieve practical ends in a time when there are so many other contending types of discourse and means of communication. The study concludes by briefly considering the role of this oral art form in contemporary Ndebele society.

This chapter focuses on the building up of Zion’s infrastructure and people, who were also under constructions, in Utah during Brigham Young’s tenure as leader of the church (1844–77). This people building included flesh and bone bodies of Utah’s Native populations, Utah’s small African American community, and the European converts gathering to Utah. The Mormons set out to build a Lamanite people by employing the tools of civilization, including farms, clothes, grains, schoolhouses, and the (plural) marriage bed. They sought to free the Indians from their savage natures, freedom that would allow them to covenant with their white brethren. For those Indian women and children enslaved by Indian slavers like Wakara and Arapeen, the Mormons would buy them in order to save them. As the white Mormons’ pupils, servants, adopted children, and plural wives, these freed slaves would learn to choose the right and to become their Lamanite selves.

South Africa is a multi-lingual country with a population of about 40.5 million people. South Africa has more official languages at a national level than any other country in the world. Over and above English and Afrikaans, the eleven official languages include the indigenous languages: Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Tsonga, and Venda (Pretorius &amp; Bosch, 2003). Figure 1 depicts the breakdown of the South African official languages as mother tongues for South African citizens. Although English ranks fifth (9%) as a mother tongue, there is a tendency among national leaders, politicians, business people, and officials to use English more frequently than any of the other languages. In a national survey on language use and language interaction conducted by the Pan South African Language Board (Language Use and Board Interaction in South Africa, 2000), only 22% of the respondents indicated that they fully understand speeches and statements made in English, while 19% indicated that they seldom understand information conveyed in English. The rate of electrification in South African is 66.1%. The total number of people with access to electricity is 28.3 million, and the total number of people without access to electricity is 14.5 million (International Energy Agency, 2002). Although the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is narrowing, a significant portion of the South African population is still without the basic amenities of life. This unique environment sets the tone for a creative research agenda for HCI researchers and practitioners in South Africa.

This chapter examines some of the reasons why Indigenous Knowledge Intelligence (IKI) has been marginalised, especially from an Afro-centric point of view and how Africa has lagged behind economically although it is considered to be the cradle of civilization. This chapter provides a broader definition of IKI and development. The chapter also incorporates a case study of the Jewish people and the Talmud as their IKI. The chapter provides insights on how IKI leads to development. The chapter notes that a people which assimilate foreign cultures can no longer hope to continue an independent existence. It argues that African countries are unique and have unique IKI that has been marginalized and rendered useless due to colonialism and cultural imperialism. It is these intelligences that the author thinks need further scientific development to realize economic value. IKI must be the focal point of development.

The colonization of the subcontinent, now called Latin America, was at first a severe form of exploitation of land and people. Over the massive immigration of European migrants and the recruitment of slaves from Africa, the colonies in the subcontinent have gradually changed to settler colonies. The conquest of the Southern subcontinent went hand in hand with an extensive biological intermarriage between the colonists on the one hand and the indigenous and African descendent populations, predominantly their women, on the other. This mixing continued after the formation of independent Latin American republics starting in the beginning of the 19th century, but without alteration of the supremacy the descendants of the white conquerors have had. This chapter presents different practices, which can be traced back to similar causes. First, the racist violence against so-called illegitimate children, secondly, the treatment of children of indigenous and African descendent populations in order to ‘civilize’ them. These practices are based in part on the racist convictions of the colonial potentates and continue to take place today in Latin American societies.

Apartheid was established in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 as a force of exclusion and incorporation, excluding people from citizenship and exploiting people as labor. This chapter suggests that the term apartheid, meaning “separation,” was formative for certain ways of thinking about religion. One of the architects of apartheid, the anthropologist W. M. Eiselen, was a leading expert on indigenous religions in South Africa. Eiselen’s writings on African religion illustrate three overlapping types of comparative religion—a frontier comparative religion based on denial and containment; an imperial comparative religion assuming evolutionary progress from savagery to civilization; and an apartheid comparative religion creating and reinforcing boundaries to keep people apart. Although apartheid was formally established as a racist policy of separation in South Africa, the making and maintaining of boundaries has been a recurring feature of religious formations.

This chapter discusses the popular methods of African American scriptural interpretation that formed the early religious context that Duke Ellington represented through his jazz artistry. In these biblical interpretations, African American Protestants in the twentieth century’s early decades read the Hebrew and Christian scriptures in concert with constructing their own history as descendants of the African continent. Ellington brought into his musical profession a relationship to the Bible as a sacred African document that portrayed African and black people as the great founders of ancient civilizations and as contributors to the foundation of modern civilization. By publishing and promoting books on history and biblical interpretation, writing editorials, answering reader questions in regular black press columns, staging pageants, and even through long- and short-form jazz compositions, middle-class black Protestants, along with black academics who studied ancient North Africa, the Near East, and East Africa, invested their intellectual and artistic energy into racializing sacred Hebrew figures and sacralizing non-Hebrew peoples as venerable contributors to the development of religion. These Afro-Protestant racializations of sacred texts and ancient religions, alongside their sacralizations of African identity, involved their embrace of both monotheisms and polytheisms.

“Display” discusses gold’s appearance in British ethnographies of a wide variety of people who broadcast foreignness with gold earrings, nose rings, chains, bracelets, bangles, and bells. This genre of writing was most evocative in descriptions of Greek and Middle Eastern women who brandished coins around their necks instead of concealing them in their pockets; but it was also present in depictions of African kings, Southern European peasants, and—most effusively—South Asians of nearly all castes and ethnicities. In the course of describing foreign adornment, travel writers developed a series of models that explained the brandishing of gold as rational for the stage of civilization under review but not, implicitly, for contemporary British society; and British visitors to almost every foreign clime viewed golden ornaments as picturesque signs of a society frozen in age-old customs.

One of the earliest historians of the Civil War saw it as a fundamental clash between the peoples of different latitudes. Climate had made the antebellum North and South distinct societies and natural enemies, John W. Draper argued, the one democratic and individualist, the other aristocratic and oligarchical. If such were the case, the future of the reunited states was hardly a bright one. But Draper saw no natural barriers to national unity that wise policy could not surmount. The restlessness and transience of American life that many deplored instead merited, in his view, every assistance possible. In particular, he wrote, Americans needed to be encouraged to move as freely across climatic zones as they already did within them. The tendency of North and South to congeal into hostile types of civilization could be frustrated, but only by an incessant mingling of people. Sectional discord was inevitable only if the natural law that "emigrants move on parallels of latitude" were left free to take its course. These patterns of emigration were left free, for the most part, but without the renewed strife that Draper feared. After the war as before it, few settlers relocating to new homes moved far to the north or south of their points of origin. As late as 1895, Henry Gannett, chief geographer to the U.S. Census, could still describe internal migration as "mainly conducted westward along parallels of latitude." More often as time went on, it was supposed that race and not merely habit underlay the pattern, that climatic preferences were innate, different stocks of people staying in the latitudes of their forbears by the compulsion of biology. Thus, it was supposed, Anglo-Saxons preferred cooler lands than Americans of Mediterranean ancestry, while those of African descent preferred warmer climates than either. Over time, though, latitude loosened its grip and exceptions to the rule multiplied. As the share of the population in farming declined, so did the strongest reason for migrants to stay within familiar climates. Even by the time Gannett wrote, the tendency that he described, though still apparent, was weaker than it had been at mid-century. It weakened because a preference for familiar climates was not a fixed human trait but one shaped by experience and wants, and capable of changing as these variables changed.