Contesting Masculinities: A Study of Selected Texts of Resistance to Conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s

The theoretical framework for this thesis and analysis of primary texts revolves around the problem of conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s. The ideology of masculinity that underpinned and sustained the practice of conscription is referred to throughout as the hegemonic version. This term is interchangeable with others, namely masculinism and ‗the real man.‘ The aim is to interpret the selected texts for strains of resistance to the practice of conscription and its assumptions as to what to what constitutes the natural or real man. In the Introduction to this thesis I begin by explaining the personal dimension of my role as researcher, after which I motivate my research project and explain its theoretical and methodological orientation, focusing on the concepts that play a significant role in analysis of the primary texts. The Introduction concludes with an outline of the content of Chapters 1–5. Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion, on the general level, of the practice of conscription and resistance to it, and proceeds to a concern with conscription in 1980s South Africa. Attention is paid to prevailing attitudes towards gender and sexuality within both the SADF and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). Discussion of gender and sexuality as constructs of identity proceeds to a focus on the conceptual tools for textual analysis provided by theories of masculinity. The final section of this chapter pays attention to specific post-structuralist notions of identity that serve analysis of the primary texts, that is, the notions of the subject, agency and the author. Having engaged mainly with secondary texts in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents the first sustained critical engagement with primary texts in which resistance was expressed against the institution of conscription and the hegemonic version of masculinity that underpinned it. These expressions of resistance occurred within a rock music counter-culture of the period, known as the Voëlvry movement. Attention is given to overlaps or links between this counter-culture and that of America in the 1960s, as well echoes between the Vietnam and Border Wars. Analysis of these links is applied to a memoir selected for its appropriateness. Threaded through the chapter is a concern with expressions of masculine identity within the Voëlvry counter-culture, the SADF and the ECC. Chapter 3 focuses on three novels and one collection of short stories, each narrated in the first person and written by gay authors who performed their National Service. Attention is paid to the protagonists‘ perceptions of themselves, their troubled relationships with their fathers, and the struggle to come out within a context that prohibited them from doing so. Chapter 4 concerns three wartime memoirs and two written by men who refused to perform their National Service. Underlying concerns in this chapter are the question of fact versus fiction in the genre of the memoir, authors‘ perceptions of and relationships with women, and expressions of vulnerability. Chapter 5 concentrates on the interviews that comprise the Appendix. The chapter establishes its theoretical ground by focusing on principles of narrative structure and the relation of personal to narrative identity. The chapter pays attention to the displays of power and the vulnerabilities of both veteran soldiers and resisters. Theory deployed in analysis of the primary texts serves the principal concerns articulated in the title to the thesis

A corpus-based approach to writing in German as a foreign language in the South African tertiary context

German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement in order to engage meaningfully with the literatures and cultures of German-speaking countries. This thesis investigates the process of teaching and learning to write in a more academic way in German as a foreign language at Rhodes University, using corpus linguistic tools for both analysis and instruction. The past 20 years have shown a shift from traditional teaching methods resting on notions of an underlying prescriptive grammar, to teaching based on insights from real-life language data (Gabrielatos, 2005; Krummes & Ensslin, 2012; Sinclair, 1997) and applications of corpora to teaching and learning have shown to be highly successful in many European contexts (Aijmer, 2010; Johns, 1991; Granger, et al., 2002; Varley, 2009). In the South African context however, this is a relatively new concept with few publications on the application of corpus linguistics to language teaching (Van Rooy, 2008), and one which does not seem to have reached its full potential. A writing course was instituted whose aim was two-fold: 1. to teach learners “every-day academic” German words (TAG words) and phrases (collocations) based on German mother-tongue corpus evidence; 2. to have learners write short assignments in German at regular intervals (Homstad & Thorson, 1996; Estes, et al., 1998); both aims with the overarching objective to improve the students’ academic register in German. After the writing course, 80% of the participants perceived that their writing had improved and specifically attributed this to the corpus-based instruction received during the writing course, and regular writing in German. Quantitative data (from the learner corpus created) shows a marked improvement in the use of the collocations taught. Moreover, participants (weaker students in particular) also found that their writing in English had improved as a result of the various exercises they had to complete as part of our German writing course. Keywords: Academic literacy, everyday academic writing, corpus linguistics, learner corpora, German studies, case study, writing-to-learn, transferrable skills/procedure

Ndiyoyika

This thesis collection is a book of isiXhosa poems in three sections: - Poems derived and influenced by the rhythmic structure and the lyrics of Maskandi music - More introspective and personal poems derived from other influences: International poetry, South African poetry, and certain jazz and soul music - A major poem titled, “Nozala, umqolo wakho uphandle” which delves into the state of South Africa and explores the relationships that entrench poverty and powerlessness in post-apartheid South Africa.Le thisisi yingqokelela yemibongo yesiXhosa eyohlulwe yazizigaba ezintathu: - Imibongo ephenjelelwe ziingoma nezingqi zomculo kaMaskandi - Imibongo ephenjelelwe zizimvo neemvakalelo zam njengombhali, ngakumbi iintshukumo zomzimba nezomphefumlo ezithundezwe ziimbongi zamazwe omhlaba, ezoMzantsi Afrika, kunye nemiculo efana ne-jazz, ne-soul - Umbongo ombaxa osihloko sithi, “Nozala, umqolo wakho uphandle” othetha ngelizwe lethu iMzantsi Afrika, uqwalasela indlela ekuphethwe ngayo ilizwe ziziphathamandla, nendlela abasemagunyeni abaphembelela ngayo intswela-ngqesho nentlupheko eluntwini, kwanokufiphala kobutsha-ntliziyo nobuthanda-zwe kubemi beli lizwe

Facebook, Youth and Political action: A Comparative Study of Zimbabwe and South Africa

This comparative multi-sited study examines how, why and when politically engaged youths in distinctive national and social movement contexts use Facebook to facilitate political activism. As part of the research objectives, this study is concerned with investigating how and why youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa use the popular corporate social network site for political purposes. The study explores the discursive interactions and micro-politics of participation which plays out on selected Facebook groups and pages. It also examines the extent to which the selected Facebook pages and groups can be considered as alternative spaces for political activism. It also documents and analyses the various kinds of political discourses (described here as digital hidden transcripts) which are circulated by Zimbabwean and South African youth activists on Facebook fan pages and groups. Methodologically, this study adopts a predominantly qualitative research design although it also draws on quantitative data in terms of levels of interaction on Facebook groups and pages. Consequently, this study engages in data triangulation which allows me to make sense of how and why politically engaged youths from a range of six social movements in Zimbabwe and South Africa use Facebook for political action. In terms of data collection techniques, the study deploys social media ethnography (online participant observation), qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews. Theoretically, this study jettisons the Habermasian theory of public sphere in favour of Fraser’s (1990) concept of the subaltern counter-publics, Scott’s (1985) metaphor of hidden transcripts and some insightful views on popular culture gleaned from African studies. Melding these ideas into a synthesised theoretical frame, this study argues that Facebook fan pages and groups can be conceptualised as parallel discursive arenas where marginalised groups (including politically active youths) have a political life outside the dominant mediated public sphere often in ways that are generally viewed as “irrational” and “non-political” in mainstream Western literature. This study also proposes ways of enriching Fraser’s concept of subaltern counter-publics by incorporating elements from Scott’s metaphor of hidden transcripts in order to analyse the various kinds of political discourses which are circulated on social media. The findings demonstrate that youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa are using Facebook to engage in traditional and alternative forms of political participation. Findings show that Facebook in both political contexts is deployed for transmitting and accessing civic and political information, as a conduit for online donations and fundraising, for contacting political decision makers, as a venue of political activism, as an advertising platform for social and political events and as a platform for everyday political talk. It demonstrates that the broader political context shapes and constraints the localised appropriations of Facebook for political purposes in ways that deconstructs some of the postulations of the cyber-optimist and pessimist approaches. The study also found that youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa used Facebook in their own unique ways as shaped and dictated by the broader political and mediated opportunity structures. It argues that youth’s engagement with social media platforms for political purposes should be understood in their own terms without necessarily imposing inflexible boundaries on what counts as political participation. Although Facebook like other social media platforms foster avenues for cognitive engagement, discursive participation and political mobilisation, these political practices are not immune to the influences of offline processes. Youth activists in all the six case organisations used Facebook as a complementary and supplementary space for political processes rather than as a standalone platform. The study also argues that compared to South Africa, the political uses of Facebook in Zimbabwe are largely influenced by practices of state surveillance. It also found that whilst youth activists in South Africa are deploying Facebook to supplement traditional methods of political activism, their counterparts in Zimbabwe are using the same technology to circumvent the restricted political and media environment. The findings also indicate that youth activists in both countries are using Facebook as a change agent tool within the broader media ecology which is characterised by the increasing interpenetration of older and newer media platforms. In terms of micro-politics of participation and discursive interactions, this study found that Facebook pages and groups should viewed as a “sites of power” where corporate forces and platform specific code coalesce together fostering “algorithmic” gatekeeping practices and the favouring of paid for content over non-paid for user-generated-content which ultimately affects activists’ visibility and reach within the online media ecology. These gatekeeping practices therefore further complicate claims by cyber-optimists that social media platforms are the sine qua non spaces for symmetrical and democratic participation. This study argues that “subtle forms of control” characterise the much glorified participatory cultures on Facebook in ways that defy optimistic accounts of the role of new media in political change

Mapping Nitrogen Loading in Freshwater Systems: Using Aquatic Biota to Trace Nutrients

The majority of river systems in developing countries like South Africa, are found in catchments areas that are densely human populated, therefore are subjected to intense land-use and developmental pressures. Anthropogenic nutrient pollution or the excessive addition of nutrients is one important type of stressors that river systems often experience through intense land-use, which includes poor waste management and agricultural practices. Such events are referred to as the “urban syndrome”, were human populations and developmental demands outpace ecosystem services. Traditional measurements of water quality (e.g. physicochemical and micro-nutrient assessments) and biological monitoring (e.g. South African Scoring System 5, SASS5) techniques for assessing ecosystem health have being widely used to reflect the ecological health and status of river systems. However these techniques have a number of challenges associated with their application. SASS5 which is used most prevalently in southern Africa for example, can only be applied in lotic systems, it is habitat dependent and finally (but arguably most importantly) it cannot identify the source of pollution inputs. Recent laboratory studies using stable isotopic ratios (δ15N and δ13C) of aquatic macrophytes (duckweed: Spirodela sp.) have shown successful differentiation between different N-sources and the mapping of temporal and spatial nitrogen dynamics in freshwater systems. Furthermore δ15N isotopic values of Spirodela sp. showed the capability to act as an early warning indicator of eutrophication, before the onset of aquatic ecosystem degradation. Therefore, this study aimed to field test the potential of sewage plume mapping using the stable isotopic values of Spirodela sp. and aquatic macroinvertebrates at nine study sites on the Bloukrans-Kowie River and ten study sites on the Bushman-New Year’s River systems in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. And more..

Mesoscale mechanisms of larval transport and settlement in relation to physical factors off the south coast of South Africa: a topographic approach

The majority of benthic marine invertebrate life cycles include a meroplanktonic phase. Most marine biologists recognise that this stage could play an important role in dispersal, especially for sedentary or sessile organisms. Recent studies on larval dispersal have found that dispersal does not occur to the extent that was previously believed. Some larvae instead remain close to their natal populations through larval nearshore retention mechanisms, both active and passive. This study attempted to a) describe nearshore distribution patterns of several intertidal larvae in relation to nearshore hydrodynamics, b) infer whether larvae are active or passive in the water column and whether this differs among taxa and c) compare pelagic mussel larval abundance with settlement rates, at 2 bay and 2 open coast sites on the south coast of South Africa to note any topographical effects. At each of the four sites, pelagic samples were collected along 2 transects. Larvae and current speed data were collected at various depths (surface, mid-depth and bottom) at distances of 200, 400, 900 and 2400m offshore of the coast. Settlement samples were collected at sites that were onshore of the pelagic transects using plastic souring pads following previous studies. Pelagic larval distribution showed no effect of topography. Instead larval abundance was highly variable among sample periods and among different taxa. Slow swimming D-stage mussel larvae were found to be positively correlated with both upwelling and turbulence indices suggesting that they behave as passive particles in the water column. The abundances of larval taxa with faster swimming speeds than the D-larvae were negatively correlated with upwelling and did not correlate with turbulence. This suggests that these larvae are more active within the water column than the D-larvae which would theoretically allow them to maintain their position in the water column. Further analysis revealed that mean larval depth correlated with mean depth of shoreward moving water masses regardless of the state of upwelling. These results suggest that larvae were actively selecting the depth at which they were found presumably in order to associate themselves with shoreward moving currents. This interpretation was supported by ontogenetic patterns in the behaviour of barnacle larvae, the nauplii of which were found further offshore as they aged, and closer onshore again once they reach the faster swimming cyprid stage. Although there was no detectable effect of topography on the abundances of planktonic larvae, the settlement section of this study revealed an effect of topography, with higher settlement and recruitment rates at bay sites than at the open coast sites. Settlement rates were seen to be negatively correlated with turbulence at bay sites but not open coast sites. Recruitment rates for each sample event were positively correlated with upwelling at each site. This study found pelagic larvae to be generally active within the water column which allowed them to remain close to the shore regardless of topography and upwelling/turbulence regimes. Although meaningful correlation analyses between pelagic larval supply and settlement rates could not be conducted due to loss of settlement collectors, settlement rates were affected by local topography with higher settlement and recruitment in bay sites

An investigation into the use of intuitive control interfaces and distributed processing for enhanced three dimensional sound localization

This thesis investigates the feasibility of using gestures as a means of control for localizing three dimensional (3D) sound sources in a distributed immersive audio system. A prototype system was implemented and tested which uses state of the art technology to achieve the stated goals. A Windows Kinect is used for gesture recognition which translates human gestures into control messages by the prototype system, which in turn performs actions based on the recognized gestures. The term distributed in the context of this system refers to the audio processing capacity. The prototype system partitions and allocates the processing load between a number of endpoints. The reallocated processing load consists of the mixing of audio samples according to a specification. The endpoints used in this research are XMOS AVB endpoints. The firmware on these endpoints were modified to include the audio mixing capability which was controlled by a state of the art audio distribution networking standard, Ethernet AVB. The hardware used for the implementation of the prototype system is relatively cost efficient in comparison to professional audio hardware, and is also commercially available for end users. the successful implementation and results from user testing of the prototype system demonstrates how it is a feasible option for recording the localization of a sound source. The ability to partition the processing provides a modular approach to building immersive sound systems. This removes the constraint of a centralized mixing console with a predetermined speaker configuration

An investigation of participative management in a museum in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The purpose of my research was to investigate participative management at the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. My interest was to investigate participative management with regards to five HODs of the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. The research was informed by the interpretive paradigm. The interpretive paradigm does not concern itself with the search for broadly applicable laws and rules but rather seeks to produce descriptive analyses that emphasise deep interpretation and understanding of social phenomena through the meaning that the people assign to them. This study is mostly descriptive and presents the reality of participants from their own experience. Semi-structured interviews and observation capture ‘insider’ knowledge that is part of an interpretive methodology. The study found that participative management was both understood and generally accepted as a good way to manage an organisation, and even members who were critical of it could see its benefits. However, the fractured and diversified structure of the organisation calls for a particularly skillful application of this management approach, one which would also demand leadership and a greater sense of working towards what are called collegial models of management. Whether this is in fact desirable for a museum is debatable

Assessing the value of public investment into biological control research for invasive alien plants : the ARC PPRI Weeds Research Division

This study investigates the economic impact of the ARC PPRI Weeds Research Division. The Division researches appropriate methods of biological control for invasive alien plants (IAPs). These plants pose an increasing threat to environmental integrity and ecosystem service provision impacting on economic potential. Since the work of the Division is considered a public good, a predominantly descriptive approach has been adopted for the valuation process. A combination of quantitative cost analysis and a qualitative study of the impacts of research and invasive alien plants is used to deal with the challenges associated with non-market valuation. The study found that investment into the Weeds Division is a valuable activity that supports the long-term growth potential of the South African economy. The role of a well-functioning environment is highlighted as an essential base for the creation of sustained growth opportunities in any society. It was determined that investment into the Division should be increased into the future to support efficient spending of scarce state funds. Biological control research was found to provide strategic future growth potential, creating opportunities for the development of a competitive advantage in the biotechnology and environmental management sectors. The study adds to the increasing move towards a more holistic view of economic valuation, taking factors other than pure finance and econometrics into consideration. This is an important shift in prevailing economic thought, as a realisation is reached that a single, or even triple, bottom line is an outdated and insufficient decision making basis

Where the Body Ends

My collection of stories explores the intersection of the human body and the body of text via the tropes of disease and animality. Drawing on my experience of living with tuberculosis for many years, I attempt to write disease differently – not merely to be survived, overcome, cured, eradicated, but as something to be embraced via the Deleuzian affirmation of being worthy of what happens to us. Taking my cue from Sontag, I use a creaturely approach to writing, “an infinitely varied register of forms and tonalities for transporting the human voice into prose narrative”, emphasising the shared embodiedness of humans and animals so as to challenge the omnipotence of thought that subjugates and colonises the body as exclusively human