Gandhian fictions: rereading Satyagraha in South Africa

From 1923–24, Mahatma Gandhi wrote his recollections of South Africa from a prison cell in India. This text, Satyagraha in South Africa, was intended to be ‘helpful in our present struggle’ to liberate India, as well as ‘a guide to any regular historian who may arise in the future.’ An emphatically transnational text, Satyagraha in South Africa relies upon the mode of allegory to place South Africa and India in relation to each other. As it encourages comparison, however, it discourages common cause. Gandhi places Africans as the anterior sign in a larger system of signification: South African politics prefigures Indian anti-colonial victory to come, but the African native also represents the innocent natives of India writ large.

Without the political didactics of Hind Swaraj, the journalistic interventions of Indian Opinion or even the philosophical aspirations of My Experiments with Truth, this fictionalised history has rarely been the centre of attention. Satyagraha in South Africa, however, reveals Gandhi’s understanding of imperial geography, as he places South Africa and India in a single frame but fails to imagine them as inhabiting the same historical present. This understanding is reflected in his political decisions, as he fails to connect Indian anti-colonial agitation with struggles elsewhere.     

Latitudes: New Indian Transnational Cinema

This article examines films and video art that speak to conditions of exile and displacement, including the work of Mona Hatoum, Sonali Gulati, and Onir. It proposes the term “latitude” to interrogate the aesthetic and formal properties of these artworks, seeking to understand how lesbian and same-sex eroticism and identities are central to their efficacy.     

South African Indian migration in the twenty-first century: towards a theory of ‘triple identity’

This paper is inspired by three issues, namely ongoing research on South Africans of Indian origin, the anecdotal evidence that accumulates through ongoing discussions on a casual level with such people and the increasing interest among researchers about how globalization and transnational movements are impacting upon identity formation among minorities who are seeking employment or a new life in the developed economies of the ‘big five’ English-speaking countries, i.e. the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It is in countries such as these that a third identity emerges and develops to instill a sense of triple identity. The information here suggests that, when people of Indian origin migrate to one of these countries, they continue to cling to South Africa because it is their country of birth, as well as to India, more for sentimental rather than practical reasons. The topic of this paper reflects a contemporary phenomenon not just among the Indians in South Africa, but also among other diasporas such as Chinese in Latin America, whose new and final emigration destination always seems to be the US. In addition, people of Chinese origin in the countries of Indochina, such as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, experienced similar patterns of becoming diasporas in Europe, North America and Oceania in the 1970s. However, migration implores them to renegotiate their identities in order to adapt and settle in accordance with their newly adopted host territories. This gives rise to an identity that straddles three countries, which induces the need to examine new ways of identity building in a global transnational economy.     

The Transformation of Psychology in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Overview

Certain issues that are being debated in psychology in a post-apartheid South Africa are discussed, namely the development of professional organizations, indigenous healing and psychology, the psychometric movement, and forms of methodological inquiry. It is argued that South African psychology is striving to become more appropriate to the majority of its peoples, whether it be on the professional or research fronts. There is a desire to develop indigenous epistemologies and not to become excessively reliant on Euro-American epistemological traditions. Psychology is struggling to make mental health resources available to all South Africans.     

Commodification,water infrastructure,and methodologies for counting water losses in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article takes up the story of a numerical indicator of system water losses called Non-Revenue Water (NRW), which is becoming an important measure for benchmarking South African Water Service Authorities (WSAs). The aim of this paper is, in the first place, to document the adoption of NRW as a Performance Indicator (PI), showing how it reflects a shift in the domestic regulatory framework in South Africa and the assumed priorities of water managers in line with the dominant governmental rationality in the sector. However, in drawing this discussion towards the theme of commodification I also show that the NRW audit enables a new way of seeing and speaking about “public water,” while the story of its uptake tells us a something about the development of contemporary governmental norms, and the forms of the resistance that shape it. On the one hand then, the article links the enthusiasm for NRW auditing in South Africa to a wider movement in the development and usage of audits and indicators as technologies of government at a distance. On the other hand, and stepping to a higher level of abstraction, I argue that the uptake of NRW must be read in relation to a contested set of processes marked by struggles over the commodification of water, and which sometimes turns up in the numbers.     

Politics of innovation and development: The role of industry associations in integrating political,bureaucratic, industrial and health systems in India and South Africa

Integrating political, bureaucratic, industrial and healthcare systems has been a major challenge for politics of innovation and development policy in low‐ and middle‐income countries. This challenge has so far been understood in terms of separate industrial and health‐related innovation policies without paying adequate attention to the institutional roles of biopharmaceutical and other umbrella associations. This article seeks to examine such roles in the developmental contexts of South Africa and India. The argument put forward is that, in both countries, biopharmaceutical and umbrella associations have evolved from lobbying organizations to institutional partners who influence the politics of innovation and development—and therefore the degree of integration and fragmentation—of political, bureaucratic, industrial innovation and health systems.     

Authoritarian neoliberalism and capitalist transformation in Africa: all pain,no gain

ABSTRACT

As a region of the world capitalist political economy, Africa has been the epitome of neoliberalism as a universal project to remake societies in its image. In Africa, the neoliberal project encountered a region already ensconced in state-forms that were authoritarian, albeit very often weaker than their analogues in Latin America or Southern Europe. In these circumstances, neoliberalism both reconstructed and relied upon authoritarian state practices: reassertions of law and order, rising technocracy, re-built bureaucracies, and ‘choiceless democracy’. Liberal advocates of neoliberalism indulged authoritarian governance in the belief that economic liberalization would generate economic growth and transformation. Reviewing these authoritarian neoliberal constructions, one is struck by how poorly they performed as vehicles for market-based capitalist transformation. In a phrase, the pain of neoliberal adjustment was accompanied by no palliative of sustained economic ‘gain’. Liberalization, executed by top-down and undemocratic governance, has generated fragile growth, instability, some enrichment and no economic transformation. This conjuncture is pivotal to an understanding of moves by some governing elites to explore and at times implement non-neoliberal development strategies. The article concludes by suggesting that neoliberalism is currently a somewhat besieged orthodoxy. However, the exploration of unorthodox development strategies has taken place within an authoritarian political shell.     

The non-monetary quality of city life in South Africa

In contrast to most research on the non-monetary quality of life, which relies on subjective indicators, we construct objective measures of the non-monetary quality of life using regression methods, for South Africa's cities. We also analyse the extent to which the various cities have been able to turn improvements in per capita incomes (monetary quality of life) into non-monetary quality of life – as reflected for instance in a better environment, higher literacy and longer lives. When monetary quality of life measures are used for South Africa's cities, the ranking in 2004 was led by Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. However when residuals from a regression of per capita income on (HDI) are used as a measure of non-monetary quality of life (i.e. the proportion of HDI not explained by variation in incomes), coastal cities tend to obtain generally higher rankings, with Cape Town ranked first, followed by Ekurhuleni, Durban, Port Elizabeth and then Johannesburg and Tshwane.     

South Africa: Anti-Apartheid NGOs in Transition

Under apartheid, there were an ever-increasing number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerned about challenging the South African state and furthering a nonracial democratic society. In the 1990s, with the transition to an African National Congress-led democratic government, these organizations underwent profound changes. This article describes the key dynamics of this process, outlines the challenges currently confronting the new NGO sector, and concludes that the prospects for progressive NGO work in dealing with the poor and marginalized are constrained by the prevailing neoliberal economic climate.     

Modelling the economics of gaming in South Africa

This paper considers the application of two models for determining the optimal location and characteristics of a casino in a post-apartheid South Africa. The intention in developing the models was to allow provinces a facility for considering how to maximize the return to the stakeholders in the license award process, namely society at large, as represented by the provincial government, and the casino operator. The Allocation Model works on an estimate of total potential gambling spend and how that may be best distributed amongst a number of casinos. The Profitability model takes the estimated gaming spend from the allocation model and assesses the appropriate size and characteristics of the casino best suited to this level of gaming spend. It can then simulate levels of profitability for different proposed sizes and characteristics of proposed casinos. Together these models represent a powerful assessment mechanism for a country considering the introduction or radical changing of gaming legislation.     

Singing Diaspora: Okinawan Songs of Home,Departure, and Return

This article examines songs of departure and return that trace the Okinawan diasporic experience as these narratives have been composed inside the Okinawa ethnic homeland. Placing these Okinawan songs of migration within historical and political contexts, I argue that they act as sites of homeland cultural memory and that, as such, they participate in the reflexive internalization of a “diaspora consciousness” in cultural identity construction in the Okinawan homeland, which may thereby also be seen as a “diaspora space.”     

Financing low-income housing in South Africa: Borrower experiences and perceptions of banks

South Africa is facing a low-income housing crisis, with the current backlog estimated at over three million units. An obstacle in the provision of low-income housing is the difficulty encountered by commercial banks to extend loans in this market despite supporting initiatives by Government. A lack of knowledge on the borrowing behaviour, preferences and experiences of low-income households in accessing housing finance from the commercial banking sector in South Africa hampers an understanding of the reasons for these problems. This paper's contribution is to provide information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income borrowers in the housing market of South Africa, specifically in their dealings with commercial banks. Results from a survey of 653 households across five provinces of the country are provided. In the survey, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income households about their access to credit and housing finance, their experience of banks, the successes in credit approval, their judgements on the suitability of banks’ home-loan products, as well as preferences with regard to prices and interest rates.     

Diaspora and cultural heritage: the case of Indians in Canada

The present paper examines the historical and contemporary context of Indian communities in Canada from a cultural heritage perspective and analyses the processes of migration, settlement and cultural identity. It also examines the challenges of developing museum exhibits which depict the Indian diaspora in Canada. Despite its colourful history and its growing size and prominence in Canadian society, the Indian diaspora has not been the subject of much interest by Canadian museums. While recognising the necessity of working with local communities and thereby reflecting local concerns, it is submitted that any museum exhibit attempting to portray the complex set of experiences of the Indian diaspora in Canada should include some portrayal of the highly marginalised position which the Indian community faced when it first established themselves in the early 1900s. In addition to this historical focus, any attempt to portray the contemporary Indian diaspora needs to portray its growing diversity and its efforts to maintain, and in many cases modify and ‘hybridise’, cultural practices. Such a display would also have to reflect the influence of transnational forces on the contemporary Indian diaspora. Ultimately, efforts by museums to develop exhibits reflecting the Indian presence in Canada will only further the aims of its widely praised state policy of multiculturalism.     

Child abuse in South Africa: rights and wrongs

In a country in which human rights feature prominently in our discourse about who we are, as well as in the South African constitutional and legal framework, so many wrongs continue to be done to children. One category of wrongs is abuse, but it is not the only one. Poverty, patriarchy and gender violence, as well as the socialised obedience, dependency and silence of women and children, create conditions in which abuse can occur, often with few consequences. South Africa has extremely high rates of both physical and sexual abuse of children. Progressive, rights‐based legislation exists to protect children, but it is not adequately supported or resourced by services to fulfil their provisions. Child abuse and neglect will not be significantly reduced in South Africa, without simultaneous improvements in the social and economic conditions in which very large numbers of children live. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diaspora as socio-material assemblage: Political agency in the Kurdish freedom movement's representations of homeland

The proliferation of diasporas has expanded the intricate web of political relations on a global scale. Transnationality has increasingly replaced methodological nationalism, and relationality blurred diaspora's boundaries. This article argues for framing diasporas as socio-material assemblages to capture the political agency of diasporas in action in a transnational space. This highlights diasporas’ ability to forge their transnational political actorness and to expand their power of attractiveness. By tracing ideas and things behind the essential task of representing the homeland, this research explores the connections of the Kurdish freedom movement in Europe, making three main arguments. First, it outlines the existence of transnational infrastructures of solidarity, which highlight a multi-ethnic plurality at work. Second, it illuminates the diasporas’ role in the south–north flow of knowledge and political influence. Third, the article examines the desire which stabilizes the assemblage and makes the circulation of ideas possible and smooth.     

Disabling Africa: the power of depiction and the benefits of discomfort

Despite the fact that the vast majority of disabled people live in low and middle-income countries, the field of disability studies is dominated by research on disability in wealthy contexts. Although there are encouraging signs of this pattern changing, there are challenges to researchers about how to represent and think about disability in African contexts, and it is difficult not to reproduce unhelpful stereotypes. We use the example of an encounter we had with an expatriate Deaf South African to reflect on the complexities of representation facing people working on disability issues in Africa and what has been termed the Global South. We suggest that an appreciation of the productive value of discomfort about issues of representation may help move the field forward.     

On the ethics of being photographed in research in rural South Africa: views of people with disabilities

Disabled people have long been misrepresented through photography and freak shows. A key challenge in the representation of disabled people is not only how to avoid histories of exclusion and hiding, but also to present the lives of people with disabilities in an empathic rather than an othering manner. We asked disabled people from a rural village in South Africa about the potential negative effects and the benefits of having their photographs taken as part of data collection for a large project. All said that they would like to be photographed, but under conditions in which their dignity was not impugned.     

The employment relationship in the domestic workspace in South Africa: beyond the apartheid legacy

Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Africa so that the power asymmetry and exploitation that so characterise these relationships have been labelled an artefact of the racist apartheid regime and its legislation. By reviewing literature on domestic workers globally and drawing on a study into the impact of the Sectoral Determination for the Domestic Worker Sector, which was promulgated in 2002, we argue for a broader understanding of this relationship: one that takes into consideration its global similarities.     

The NEET concept in comparative youth research: the Nordic countries and South Africa

The NEET concept has become widely used internationally since its emergence in the UK almost two decades ago. This article reviews the adoption of the concept in two extreme contexts in terms of NEET rates, youth opportunities and youth welfare: the Nordic countries and South Africa. The article discusses the situations of NEET young people in the two contexts, and how the concept is used in the wealthy and relatively homogenous Nordic welfare states and in relatively poorer and racially divided South Africa. While the concept has been problematised in different ways in Nordic youth research, it has been more readily accepted by South African researchers. We argue that, in both contexts, the NEET concept can be taken as an invitation to look beyond individual life situations and biographies, and to focus on how structural forces such as the political economy shape young people’s lives. The NEET concept provides a way of discussing changing opportunity structures and how global social forces such as globalisation and neoliberalisation shape young people’s lives in different contexts. The NEET concept is useful in comparative youth research.     

Analysis of HIV Caregivers in South Africa: A South African Depression and Anxiety Group

ABSTRACT

The severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is well documented. However, little is known regarding the well-being of caregivers of persons with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. This study sought to evaluate characteristics, similarities and differences between groups of HIV caregivers in rural, semi-rural, and urban areas of South Africa. Interesting trends were noticed in the areas of suicidality, alcohol abuse, and intimate trauma. Findings indicate a substantial need for further study in the area of suicidality, denial of or lack of desire to know HIV status and the accompanying diagnostic stigma, and the need for a support network within lay caregivers.