Of patriarchy, madness, mythology, and the queer in nation making: a critique on tropes of sexualities in post-colonial African literatures

Masters in African Literature Faculty of Humanities University of WitwatersrandThis research report interrogates how queer sexualities are represented in postcolonial African literatures. It queries representations of queer sexualities and their place in the fiction of the nation. It deploys queer as the coopted marker of pride and liberation that was deployed by gender and sexuality activists in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently, gender and sexuality scholars in contemporary times. It relies on this articulation of queer to locate homosexuality and same-sex desire at the centre of an argument about the development of the idea of the African nation, and how this idea continues to locate same-sex desire and sexuality outside of or hidden in discussions about dominant modes of sexuality expressions. It reads Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958/1962) in conversation with Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1988) and K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) to explore the discursive modalities through which queer sexualities circulate in these seminal works, and to interrogate the extent to which they employ Achebe’s fictional world as integral to what it means to be African. This exploration is located within a set of assumptions about how the African nation is reproduced, and how modes of living and existing, are determined in African literature. Central to its argument, it meditates on the narrative closures employed by Achebe, Dangarembga and Duiker to determine how they facilitate, challenge, affirm or disrupt the sanctity of the heterosexual African nation through the circulation of patriarchal constructions of masculinity and same-sex desires and sexuality. The report explores the extent to which the texts deploy mythology and madness as points of entry into transgressive modes of existence within the nation. It further considers the role of the archive in imagining the queer body in the nation and the power dynamics that instruct the reading of same-sex desiring and homosexual bodies as non-normative. It argues that due to the exclusion of same-sex desiring and homosexual bodies in what constitutes the imaginary of the African nation in negotiating the nation’s anxiety about benefiting from the nations affect schema, the excluded bodies are burdened with the work of excavating from historical archives to legitimate their existence. In using the archive, the report argues that queer bodies enact resistance by un-silencing the archive and excavating the costs of a collective forgetting process that facilitates the postcolonial project of civilized sensibilities. This work is undertaken to perform historical commentary that trespasses the dominant modes of erasure that continue to locate the queer body as outside the experience of Blackness. The report ultimately makes a case for the productive capacity of interrogating and reporting Black abjection in order to construct epistemological frameworks that enable a pedagogy that re-memories and re-members those that the nation opts to erase. It argues for a disavowal of fictions about progress that are predicated on a desire that fits within the scope of liberal conceptions of progress and civility. As a mode of re-memory-ing and re-member-ing, this report proposes an affinity for irresolvability with regards to conceptions of subjecthood in order to negotiate nationmaking projects that are liberatory for those who have been historically placed outside of the complicated and irresolvable matrix of national sentiment that privileges heterosexual sexuality expressions.MT 201

Pluralidade e reconfiguração da identidade cigana em Portugal

In modern societies, the question of identity is central when considering the need of spreading a cultural identity, which is fairly accepted by all. Gypsies, who are culturally distinguished by the dominant culture, have survived by accepting their past and certain symbols passed from generation to generation while adopting aspects of modern society. This article expresses the view that cultural contact results in miscegenation, a mestization which is reflected in social identity, and which contributes to the existence of a new kind of identity plurals or a new social type that strays from the traditional while not being completely identified by the dominant models

A integração dos ciganos em Portugal

A integração social consiste na aprendizagem das normas sociais que se incorporam nas formas de estar, agir e sentir, ou seja, fazem com que o indivíduo se identifique com a realidade social que o rodeia. A aprendizagem decorre com o processo de socialização, nos quadros de vida envolventes e nas experiências sociais a que cada um tem acesso. Trata-se de uma realidade dinâmica com múltiplas combinações de traços sociais, culturais e identitários. Num estudo qualitativo realizado em Portugal sobre ciganos integrados, constatou-se que os motivos ou factores na origem da integração podem ser diversos, sendo que há distinções de percursos e de histórias de vida de integração sobretudo por razões que se prendem com questões de género, com as origens socioeconómicas e culturais, a ascendência familiar, o tipo de uniões conjugais, a escolaridade, a habitação e as relações sociais diversificadas. Os resultados deste estudo revelam a diversidade dessas trajectórias e percursos de vida, a heterogeneidade de origem e de traços culturais e identitários que, aparentemente, não coloca em causa o sentimento de pertença e de ancoragem à identidade cigana.Social integration is the way of to learn the social norms incorporated in ways into being, acting and feeling, or to make the individual identifies with the social reality that surrounds him. The learning takes place through the process of socialization, with the frames of life and the engaging in social experiences that everyone has access. It is a dynamic reality with multiple combinations of traits social, cultural and identity. In a qualitative study carried out in Portugal on integrated Gypsies, it was found that the reasons or factors for integration can be diverse, and there are distinctions in pathways and life histories of integration mainly for reasons related to gender issues, with the socio-economic and cultural origins, the family relationship, the type of marriages, education, social relations diversified and housing. The results of this study reveal the diversity of these paths and walks of life, the diversity of origin and cultural traits and identity that apparently does not question the sense of belonging and also the anchorage about the Gypsy identity

Emancipation life paths of Portuguese Cigano/Roma women

In Portuguese society, some Cigano/Roma women, during their life paths, distance themselves from the Cigano cultural tradition, particularly in regard to marriage, schooling, employment and social life. On the one hand, there is a feeling of attachment to traditional values as family pressure to marry or in relation to gender differentiation; on the other hand, these women express a desire for empowerment autonomy and emancipation in order to draw up their own trajectories and life projects. The results obtained with 21 in-depth interviews, 10 women and 11 men, indicate that Cigano women face greater difficulties with regard to early and inbred marriage and are more prone to be victims of family and domestic violence, but they are also the main drivers of change and social transformation of Cigano/Roma families.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigating teachers’ pedagogic practices of argumentative essay: a qualitative case study of two Grade 11 classrooms in the Oshikoto Region, Namibia

Argumentative writing in Namibian schools has been a challenge over the years as Grade 11-12 English Second Language (ESL) learners perform poorly when compared to other writing that is stipulated in the curriculum. In most instances learners do not satisfy the structural and rhetorical features of this genre. English teachers are, therefore, expected to ensure that argumentative writing is adequately developed in order for the learners’ writing to be up to the required standard. Studies carried out in Namibia by Nghikembua (2013) and Nyathi (2009) indicated that learners perform poorly in writing. The examiners’ reports of 2011-2014 pointed to lack of teachers’ guidance as one of the factors contributing to poor performance. It was for this reason that this study aimed to investigate teachers’ pedagogic approaches when teaching argumentative essay both on Higher and Ordinary Level in Oshikoto region, Namibia. An interpretive qualitative case study was used in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the teachers’ pedagogic approaches and how it affects their learners’ argumentative essay writing. The theoretical framework was informed by the Genre theorist, Gibbons (2002), who focuses on the Curriculum Cycle and Hyland’s (1990) model. Two Grade 11 English teachers were purposefully and conveniently sampled. One of the teachers is from a government school while the other from a private school. Data were collected from interviews, videoed writing lessons (3 per teacher), and learners’ written essays. Data analysis revealed that both teachers have a sound understanding about argumentative writing, but their classroom practices did not sufficiently assist the learners to grasp the argumentative writing conventions. Their classroom practices were not adaptive enough when giving feedback to the learners, and they did not adhere to the four steps of Gibbons’ (2002) Curriculum Cycle. Also, the process to writing (brainstorming, drafting, and revising) was also not incorporated into their teaching. These meant that the Namibian curriculum specifications are not met which deprives the learners of the needed practice scaffolding and explicit teaching into competent independent writers. A recommendation of this study is that there is a need for the teachers to be exposed to a mixed process/genre approach as advocated by the Namibian curriculum

An assessment of tropical dryland forest ecosystem biomass and climate change impacts in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region of Southern Africa

The dryland forests of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region in Southern Africa are highly susceptible to disturbances from an increase in human population, wildlife pressures and the impacts of climate change. In this environment, reliable forest extent and structure estimates are difficult to obtain because of the size and remoteness of KAZA (519,912 km²). Whilst satellite remote sensing is generally well-suited to monitoring forest characteristics, there remain large uncertainties about its application for assessing changes at a regional scale to quantify forest structure and biomass in dry forest environments. This thesis presents research that combines Synthetic Aperture Radar, multispectral satellite imagery and climatological data with an inventory from a ground survey of woodland in Botswana and Namibia in 2019. The research utilised a multi-method approach including parametric and non-parametric algorithms and change detection models to address the following objectives: (1) To assess the feasibility of using openly accessible remote sensing data to estimate the dryland forest above ground biomass (2) to quantify the detail of vegetation dynamics using extensive archives of time series satellite data; (3) to investigate the relationship between fire, soil moisture, and drought on dryland vegetation as a means of characterising spatiotemporal changes in aridity. The results establish that a combination of radar and multispectral imagery produced the best fit to the ground observations for estimating forest above ground biomass. Modelling of the time-series shows that it is possible to identify abrupt changes, longer-term trends and seasonality in forest dynamics. The time series analysis of fire shows that about 75% of the study area burned at least once within the 17-year monitoring period, with the national parks more frequently affected than other protected areas. The results presented show a significant increase in dryness over the past 2 decades, with arid and semi-arid regions encroaching at the expense of dry sub-humid, particularly in the south of the region, notably between 2011-2019

Fruiting and seed production of producer and poor-producer baobab trees and on different land use types in Northern Venda, South Africa

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Environmental Sciences by Coursework and Research Report. Johannesburg 24 March 2016In southern Africa, the baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is an economically important trees because it contributes significantly to the livelihoods of local people, particularly in northern Limpopo in South Africa (the southern-most edge of the baobab distribution). All parts of the baobab are useful and considered important for subsistence and commercial uses. Understanding factors that affect fruit and seed production is important to better characterize the long-term success of tree populations. Some adult baobab trees have high fruit production (50 −299 fruits per tree, per year) and are subsequently called ‘producers’ or ‘female’ trees, while there are other trees that produce fewer fruits (< 5 fruits per tree, per year) that are called ‘poor-producers’ or ‘male’ trees. For this study, baobab fruit dimensions (mass, length, volume and ratio) were, measured and compared between artificially- and naturally-pollinated producer and poor-producer trees. Fruit dimensions were also correlated to the number of seeds per fruit. Using 2D geometric morphometric analysis, baobab fruit shapes were analyzed and compared to determine if fruit shape differs between fruits formed on producer and poor-producer baobab trees. I found no significant difference in fruit shape between producer and poor-producer baobab trees. Although, artificially-pollinated trees produced bigger and more uniform shaped fruits and contained more seeds in comparison to the smaller unevenly shaped fruits produced by naturally-pollinated trees. Furthermore, I compared fruit and seed production between naturally-pollinated producer/poor-producer and between artificially-pollinated producer/poor-producer trees that occur on different land use types (i.e. nature reserves, rocky outcrops, plains, fields (land use for agricultural purposes) and villages) in Northern Venda, South Africa. There was a significant difference in fruit and seed production between naturally and artificially-pollinated producer and poor producer trees that occur on different land use types. On average, producer trees yielded more seeds than poor-producer trees. The highest fruit and seed production was recorded in fields and villages. Seed mass variation also differed significantly between producer and poor-producer trees and between the different land use types. A very weak negative relationship between baobab seed number and mass was found in both producer and poor-producer baobab trees. Baobab seed viability was estimated using a 0.1% tetrazolium solution, 100% viability was found in all tested seeds from both producer and poor-producer baobab trees. Result of this study may aid with the identification of land use types where baobabs have the lowest seed production and therefore require additional conservation effort to ensure that fruits are harvested sustainably. The estimation of seed production may improve the ability to estimate the total seed oil that is available in each land use type.M T 201

Simplifying a classical-quantum algorithm interpolation with quantum singular value transformations

The problem of Phase Estimation (or Amplitude Estimation) admits a quadratic quantum speedup. Wang, Higgott and Brierley [2019, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 140504] have shown that there is a continuous trade-off between quantum speedup and circuit depth (by defining a family of algorithms known as $\alpha$-QPE). In this work, we show that the scaling of $\alpha$-QPE can be naturally and succinctly derived within the framework of Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT). From the QSVT perspective, a greater number of coherent oracle calls translates into a better polynomial approximation to the sign function, which is the key routine for solving Phase Estimation. The better the approximation to the sign function, the fewer samples one needs to determine the sign accurately. With this idea, we simplify the proof of $\alpha$-QPE, while providing a new interpretation of the interpolation parameters, and show that QSVT is a promising framework for reasoning about classical-quantum interpolations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Keywords: alpha-QPE, alpha-VQE, hybrid classical-quantum computing, quantum algorithms, quantum singular value transformation, limited coherence, oracle complexit

New spaces and old stories: the Luminance woman, black womanhood and the illusion of the “new” South Africa

This study examines ideas of black womanhood in post-apartheid South Africa. The opening of the Luminance boutique in 2013, previously owned by South African businesswoman and media mogul Khanyi Dhlomo in Johannesburg’s ultra-exclusive Hyde Park Corner, has been articulated as representing a rupture in the public and private performance of black womanhood. Luminance has positioned itself as a provider of world-class style and beauty and has embraced a narrative of black women’s empowerment in the process. The study is based on narrative semistructured interviews conducted Johannesburg with black women who have shopped at the boutique and women who believe themselves as having a meaningful connection to the store. The literature on black women, both internationally and in South Africa, acknowledges that black women experience multiple and intersecting oppressions of race, class and gender, among others. Located within black feminist theory, the study argues that the Luminance woman does represent some rupture in the historic understanding of black womanhood in South Africa. This woman is an elite player in both the corporate world and the world of luxury consumption, and is certainly entering spaces to which black women have historically been denied access. However, this study argues that there is a danger in reducing this woman to an oversimplified character, allowing responses to her to ignore the complexities of her reality in favour of the simplicity of her story, and ignore the structural socioeconomic challenges that continue to shape the lives of all black women in postapartheid South Africa. In this regard, the Luminance woman, while on the surface appearing to be an empowering new iteration of womanhood that should inspire other black woman, contributes to the erasure of her particular marginal experiences, and the oppression of black women in general. The story of the Luminance women contributes to a narrative of individual hard work and determination that frames her as a respectable example of what the “new” South Africa has delivered for its citizens. This woman is a model example of a South African who has succeeded because she took advantage of the opportunities supposedly afforded to all in the post-1994 era. It is therefore argued that praise of the Luminance woman serves a dual purpose: to reinforce the myth of equal opportunity in South Africa, and to lessen the legitimacy of marginalised groups’ experiences of oppression, especially black women who continue to constitute the poor majority

Antigypsyism in Portugal: expressions of hate and racism in social networks

Portuguese Roma/Ciganos face different forms of negative reactions; they are marginalized, live in precarious socio-economic conditions, and are the poorest in Portugal and in the European Union (EU), as shown by the reports of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Despite national and European strategies, these situations continue, with the proliferation of racist demonstrations and hate crimes, and the growth of extreme right-wing parties. In 2022, the publication of a report by the FRA, regarding the situation of Roma in 10 EU countries (including Portugal), revealed the impact of antigypsyism in the areas of employment, education, health, and housing; these data triggered hate speech on social networks, which happens whenever something about Ciganos is published. A content analysis of the news disseminated by the main Portuguese media (press, TV, Radio) and of the comments on this news was conducted, through qualitative methodology. The results reveal racist hegemonic perspectives towards Ciganos: they depend upon the minimum income, do not contribute economically to the state accounts, and boast luxury goods.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio