"Growing together": the politics of knowing and creating an urban commons in Cape Town, South Africa

This dissertation is based on research conducted at a small state-managed conservancy called the Edith Stephens Nature Reserve (ESNR) situated in the low-lying flatlands of the Cape Town metropolis. By tracing some of the complex and varied ways in which different ways of knowing and valuing urban “natures” and practices of conservation co-constitute each other, this dissertation critically engages with the social power relations at work in the continual making and unmaking of Cape Town’s “natural” heritages. In doing so, I argue for recognizing the ways in which Cape Town’s urban “natures” remain entangled with the epistemological, ecological and spatial legacies of colonialism and apartheid. Moreover, by focusing on the ESNR, I explore the current material and discursive practices by the state in relation to urban “nature” conservation. In recent years, the discursive framework of biodiversity conservation was mapped onto ESNR through the state apparatus. At the same time, ESNR was identified as pilot site for an experimental partnership project that was called Cape Flats Nature (CFN), a project that ran from 2002 till 2010 which explored what biodiversity conservation would mean within marginalized, poverty-stricken and highly unequal urban landscapes. By engaging with ESNR’s historically constituted material-discursivity, this dissertation argues that, during this time, a particular relational knowledge emerged which, in turn, co-crafted and configured the emerging poetics, politics and practices at ESNR. In doing so, I foreground my main argument – that urban “nature” conservation, far from only being about conserving and caring for nonhuman lifeworlds, is rather simultaneously about conserving a particular relation to the world, to others and to oneself

Music and (post)colonialism : the dialectics of choral culture on a South African frontier

This thesis explores the genesis of black choralism in late-nineteenth-century colonial South Africa, attending specifically to its dialectic with metropolitan Victorian choralism. In two introductory historiographic chapters I outline the political-narrative strategies by which both Victorian and black South African choralism have been elided from music histories. Part 1 gives an account of the "structures" within and through which choralism functioned as a practice of colonisation, as "internal colonialism" in Britain and evangelical colonialism in the eastern Cape Colony. In chapter 1 I suggest that the religious contexts within which choralism operated, including the music theoretical construction of the tonic sol-fa notation and method as "natural", and the "scientific" musicalisation of race, constituted conditions for the foreign mission's embrace of choralism. The second chapter explores further such affinities, tracing sol-fa choralism's institutional affiliations with nineteenth-century "reform" movements, and suggesting that sol-fa's practices worked in fulfilment of core reformist concerns such as "industry" and literacy. Throughout, the thesis explores how the categories of class and race functioned interchangeably in the colonial imagination. Chapter 3 charts this relationship in the terrain of music education; notations, for instance, which were classed in Britain, became racialised in colonial South Africa. In particular I show that black music education operated within colonial racial discourses. Chapter 4 is a reading of Victorian choralism as a "discipline", interpreting choral performance practice and choral music itself as disciplinary acts which complemented the political contexts in which choralism operated. Part 1, in short, explores how popular choralism operated within and as dominant politicking. In part 2 I turn to the black reception of Victorian choralism in composition and performance. The fifth chapter examines the compositional discourse of early black choral music, focussing on the work of John Knox Bokwe (1855-1922). Through a detailed account of several of Bokwe's works and their metropolitan sources, particularly late-nineteenth century gospel hymnody, I show that Bokwe's compositional practice enacted a politics that became anticolonial, and that early black choral music became "black" in its reception. I conclude that ethno/musicological claims that early black choral music contains "African" musical content conflate "race" and culture under a double imperative: in the names of a decolonising politics and a postcolonial epistemology in which hybridity as resistance is racialised. The final chapter explores how "the voice" was crucial to identity politics in the Victorian world, an object that was classed and racialised. Proceeding from the black reception of choral voice training, I attempt to outline the beginnings of a social history of the black choral voice, as well as analyse the sonic content of that voice through an approach I call a "phonetics of timbre"

<I>Limnandi Evangeli</I> and <I>Hlangani Bafundi</I>: An exploration of the interrelationships between Christian choruses and South African songs of the struggle

This article explores the interrelationships between Christian choruses and South African songs of the struggle, which sometimes used the same tunes. The development of each genre is explained and the interrelationship between them analysed. One example is studied in more detail. Songs deeply influence people, be it in their faith or in their political action. A critical awareness of how these songs functioned and continue to function can deepen our understanding of the South African struggle for freedom as well as enriching our praxis today

Music and (post)colonialism : the dialectics of choral culture on a South African frontier

This thesis explores the genesis of black choralism in late-nineteenth-century colonial South Africa, attending specifically to its dialectic with metropolitan Victorian choralism. In two introductory historiographic chapters I outline the political-narrative strategies by which both Victorian and black South African choralism have been elided from music histories. Part 1 gives an account of the "structures" within and through which choralism functioned as a practice of colonisation, as "internal colonialism" in Britain and evangelical colonialism in the eastern Cape Colony. In chapter 1 I suggest that the religious contexts within which choralism operated, including the music theoretical construction of the tonic sol-fa notation and method as "natural", and the "scientific" musicalisation of race, constituted conditions for the foreign mission's embrace of choralism. The second chapter explores further such affinities, tracing sol-fa choralism's institutional affiliations with nineteenth-century "reform" movements, and suggesting that sol-fa's practices worked in fulfilment of core reformist concerns such as "industry" and literacy. Throughout, the thesis explores how the categories of class and race functioned interchangeably in the colonial imagination. Chapter 3 charts this relationship in the terrain of music education; notations, for instance, which were classed in Britain, became racialised in colonial South Africa. In particular I show that black music education operated within colonial racial discourses. Chapter 4 is a reading of Victorian choralism as a "discipline", interpreting choral performance practice and choral music itself as disciplinary acts which complemented the political contexts in which choralism operated. Part 1, in short, explores how popular choralism operated within and as dominant politicking. In part 2 I turn to the black reception of Victorian choralism in composition and performance. The fifth chapter examines the compositional discourse of early black choral music, focussing on the work of John Knox Bokwe (1855-1922). Through a detailed account of several of Bokwe's works and their metropolitan sources, particularly late-nineteenth century gospel hymnody, I show that Bokwe's compositional practice enacted a politics that became anticolonial, and that early black choral music became "black" in its reception. I conclude that ethno/musicological claims that early black choral music contains "African" musical content conflate "race" and culture under a double imperative: in the names of a decolonising politics and a postcolonial epistemology in which hybridity as resistance is racialised. The final chapter explores how "the voice" was crucial to identity politics in the Victorian world, an object that was classed and racialised. Proceeding from the black reception of choral voice training, I attempt to outline the beginnings of a social history of the black choral voice, as well as analyse the sonic content of that voice through an approach I call a "phonetics of timbre"

Predictors of burnout and engagement of university students

Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.Student burnout and engagement have become more evident as a problem among students in higher education institutions. It is therefore very important to determine the various predictors that could cause students to experience burnout and engagement. The aim of this study is to establish whether core self–evaluation traits, career decision–making difficulty and social support have an impact on burnout and engagement of students. A limited number of research has been done on student burnout and engagement in the higher education institutions and the causal predictors of these occurrences. Therefore this study contributes toward the need for obtaining more information about student burnout and engagement and its predictors. The results could assist universities to obtain more knowledge and a greater understanding of possible predictors of burnout and engagement among students in South Africa. The objectives of the study were to: (1) conceptualise student burnout and engagement according to the literature; (2) determine whether core self–evaluation traits (self–esteem and self–efficacy) are significant predictors of student burnout and engagement; (3) determine whether career decision–making difficulties are significant predictors of student burnout and engagement; (4) determine whether social support is a significant predictor of student burnout and engagement; and (5) to make recommendations for future research. A non–probability quota sample (N = 782) was used to investigate the predictors of burnout and engagement in a sample of university students. Student burnout and engagement were measured by a self–report questionnaire. The results of this study indicated that self–efficacy, inconsistent information due to internal conflict and parental support were significant predictors for all four dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism, vigour and dedication). Self–esteem was also a significant predictor for the two engagement dimensions. In addition, lack of information about the self, lack of information about the occupations and inconsistent information due to external conflict predicted cynicism. Based on these results, this study can be an indication for students, parents and the higher education institutions on what the specific predictors are of student burnout and engagement. Recommendations are made for practice as well as for future research.Master

A bibliography: The urban question in Namibia

Dr Elsemi Olwage Institute for Land, Livelihoods and Housing• Research on urbanisation, urban development and urban socio-spatial dynamics remains limited and underfunded. • A strong need to foster an urban research agenda • First step: A bibliography of existing literature on urban development in Namibi

Under the Leadwood Tree: Disputing land, mobility and belonging in post-colonial southern Kaoko.

This thesis is based on a grazing and land dispute which took place in the semi-arid Kaoko, north-western Namibia, between 2014 to 2016. I draw on a situational analysis approach and engage with the dispute both as a diagnostic and emergent event. The dispute involved the in-migration of several Himba households and their livestock from northern into southern Kaoko where many in turn enact their belonging to a larger pan-Herero society. These in-migrations were coupled with an increase in drought-related mobilities since 2012. In focusing on the dispute this thesis asks how culturally-informed and historically-constituted colonial and post-colonial institutions of land governance were being locally refashioned and struggled over. Secondly, this thesis explores how persons navigated this legally pluralistic context and how this was shaping and being shaped by social practices of pastoral mobility. And lastly, this thesis critically explores the politics of belonging generated by the dispute. In doing so, I show how the post-independent legal power vested in ‘customary’ authorities and law in the governing of ‘communal’ lands was based on an assumed ethnographic fact of exclusive territories. Given the existence of plural authorities and overlapping territories in Kaoko, this generated a renewed competition for territorial reach, further fueled by the embeddedness of these struggles in long-standing factional and national party politics. These struggles opened up new avenues for mobility as competing authorities tried to amass followers and strengthen their claims. However, many of these pastoral mobilities were politically and socially contested. This thesis then details how residents, land-use communities and particular networked political groups navigated between ‘customary’ and ‘state’ law and authority in co-producing and contesting ‘communal’ tenure from the ground-up, and in a context where overlapping colonial and post-colonial rule and tenure had generated an institutional vacuum. Moreover, I illustrate the often-strong disjuncture which exists between official discourses of belonging and the everyday micro-politics of belonging and critically examine how group boundaries were becoming more rigidly defined, including between ‘Herero’ residents and ‘Himba’ newcomers