Using films in teaching about Africa

This paper begins with a brief critique of didactic approaches to teaching about Africa: Such methods do not benefit students pedagogically; they cast Western academy/academics as guardians of truth about Africa; and they cast students as possible receptacles of objective knowledge of Africa. It suggests that an approach based on 'border pedagogy' offers a helpful alternative, and outlines the advantages of using films from/about Africa to achieve this. A Level 3 undergraduate module which incorporates films is outlined, and eight films used in the module are briefly described. Finally, attention is given to students' reactions to the use of films

‘Of course we must be equal, but …’: imagining gendered futures in two rural Southern African secondary schools

Based on focus group discussions held with students at rural secondary schools in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, this paper argues that secondary schools provide important spaces for the (re)construction of gendered identities among rural girls in southern Africa. Central to processes of identity formation in rural secondary schools are normative discourses centring on notions of ‘culture’ and ‘equal rights’. These discourses are (re)produced in secondary schools and are appropriated by students in making sense of their lives. Both are ambiguously related to dominant gender ideologies and are mobilised by students in ways which do not simply conform to an accommodation/resistance dichotomy. Also highlighted is the complex articulation of identity production and materiality. Identities are constructed in the context of the school in relation to expected material performance in contexts removed in time and space. The ‘culture’ and ‘equal rights’ discourses are understood and negotiated in relation to expectations of future lives beyond the spatial and temporal boundaries of the school: lives imagined in relation to particular (generally urban) geographical contexts

Producing knowledge about ‘Third World women’: The politics of fieldwork in a Zimbabwean secondary school

Fieldwork is a project in which ‘researcher, researched and research make each other’ (Rose, 1997, p. 316), yet far more attention has been given to the making of the research and researcher than to the researched. Focusing on three aspects of the research process (the researcher’s presence in the field, research topic and choice of methods), this paper uses examples from the author’s own fieldwork to debate whether it is possible to shape fieldwork such that the knowledges created and consumed in the field by the researched serve to destabilise dominant discourses of race, gender and age

Dimensions of global food systems: addressing food security on a world stage

In 2007/8 I conducted interviews with government officials and representatives of international donor agencies in Malawi and Lesotho, two countries in which ‘food insecurity’ has dominated policy discourse. The approaches of the two governments and the stance of the donors differed strikingly. Briefly, Lesotho’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security was promoting the idea of ‘block farming’ in which more innovative, commercially-oriented farmers would rent land directly from their neighbours or engage in business partnerships to create larger holdings, and attract outside investment. This plan reflected the government’s belief in the efficiency of large scale production and populist attachment to the symbolism of increasing domestic production to reduce reliance on imported food. The donor community, notably DFID, opposed the approach, prioritising the ‘food security’ side of the ‘agriculture and food security’ policy. They insisted that investment in grain production in Lesotho could not be economically viable, particularly given the country’s membership of a customs union with neighbouring South Africa where food was produced vastly more efficiently. Instead, drawing on Sen’s (1981) entitlements approach, they argued that the problem of food insecurity in Lesotho related to the inability of the poor to purchase food, and pushed for a broader focus on enhancing livelihoods

Substituting for families? Schools and social reproduction in AIDS-affected Lesotho

This is the post-print version of the final published article that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 Editorial Board of Antipode.Families, the state and employers all have a broad if differentiated interest in securing the daily and generational reproduction of society. Whereas in Western countries, the past two decades have witnessed a progressive displacement of responsibility for social reproduction from the state to families, in southern Africa, day-to-day social reproduction has always remained overwhelmingly the preserve of families. Today, however, the AIDS pandemic is radically transforming family life for many children, and prompting concerns (arguably a moral panic) about the potential breakdown of social reproduction. Even in Africa, schools have long supplemented families in delivering generational reproduction, albeit geared around the transfer of “factual” knowledge and with a narrow focus on preparing new generations of workers. In light of the AIDS pandemic, a number of commentators have suggested ways in which schools could further substitute for the diminishing capacities of families. Based on interviews with decision-makers and analysis of policy documents, I explore a number of interventions being enacted in Lesotho's schools. I argue that such initiatives remain small in scale and often justified in relation to retaining children in school. In practice both government and employers remain more interested in the generational reproduction of workers than in daily reproduction. If the welfare needs of AIDS-affected children are to be met through schooling, there is a need for the education sector's role to be understood in relation to an ethics of care, rather than the functionalist production of a future workforce.RGS-IBG Small Research Gran

‘Once upon a time …’ Orphanhood, childhood studies and the depoliticisation of childhood poverty in southern Africa

Policy, interventions and research concerning southern African children remain dominated by a focus on AIDS-related orphanhood, although the association between orphanhood and disadvantage is highly questionable. I argue that the trope of the AIDS orphan serves a range of agendas, including for academic research. In particular, orphans represent the quintessential childagent, celebrated in fairytales and fiction. Finally, I examine how this has led to a policy response – education bursaries – that cannot adequately address childhood poverty in the region.Sections A and D of this paper draw on research funded under the joint ESRC-DFID funding scheme, contract RES-167-25-0167

Young AIDS Migrants in Southern Africa

Many young people in southern Africa engage in AIDS-related migration. Research conducted with urban and rural-based children in Malawi and Lesotho revealed that children are commonly sent to live with relatives resident elsewhere. They move in order to receive care, to care others, or to support their own livelihoods. Migration has a variety of impacts on young people, many of which are exacerbated by the effects of the epidemic. It is advocated that policy approaches for AIDS-affected children take into account the interests of children themselves and the needs of households that accommodate them

Spaces and scales of African student activism: Senegalese and Zimbabwean university students at the intersection of campus, nation and globe

African university students have long engaged in political activism, responding to changing political, social and economic circumstances through protest that has at times exerted considerable influence on the national stage. Student activism employs highly spatialised strategies yet has received minimal attention from geographers. Drawing on case studies from Senegal and Zimbabwe, we identify four phases of activism in which students have mobilised distinctive relational spatialities in responding to changes in the spatial expression of dominant political power. In so doing, we highlight the inadequacies of approaches to resistance that give excessive emphasis to a power/resistance dualism or to questions of scale