Not quite fair play, old chap: The complexion of cricket and sport in South Africa

This review essay explores the racial and social divides that have permeated cricket in South Africa

A flying Springbok of wartime British skies: A.G. "Sailor" Malan

This article, an expanded version of a 2008 public lecture, explores the life and times of Adolph Gysbert ʻSailorʼ Malan, a South African who rose to prominence as a combatant in the 1940 Battle of Britain and who, after his post-war return to the Union, became a notable personality in liberal reform politics. A classic Anglo-Afrikaner empire loyalist or ʻKingʼs Afrikanerʼ, Malan became ʻSailorʼ through his interwar merchant marine service, joining the Royal Air Force in the later 1930s. An exceptional fighter pilot, his wartime role as an RAF ace in defending Britain turned him into a national hero, a migrating loyal Springbok who had sprung selflessly to the defence of Great Britain. Subsequently, as an ex-serviceman, Malan drew on his wartime sensibilities and beliefs to return to political battle in his home country, in opposition to post-1948 Afrikaner nationalism and its apartheid policies. The mini-biography of Sailor Malan analyses several key life-story elements, including his seafaring apprenticeship, British wartime identity and combat experience, and troubled relationship with post- 1945 South Africa as a gradualist liberal

Fording the Amazon

The original publication is available at http://www.sajs.co.za/In 1928, with the Wall Street Crash and the start of the Great Depression only a year away, prospects for the Ford Motor Company still looked rosy. Henry Ford’s celebrated Model T had been a major success. His firm’s new Model A was just around the corner and had already received 700 000 orders. But there were flies in the ointment. Market competition from newer car manufacturers with lower production costs was denting sales and squeezing profits. The wages of Ford’s mass assembly line workers could not be slashed because they were the essential purchasers of the vehicles they produced. Suppliers of key motor components, particularly the big rubber companies of Firestone, Goodyear and General, would not discount their prices. Thus, although Ford’s factories continued to expand, allowing him to maintain his status as the world’s richest man at the pinnacle of his wealth and power, lowering the vehicle production costs was becoming a preoccupation. Yet, the rising demand for rubber after the First World War continually frustrated Ford’s plans.Publishers' versio

Springboks at the Somme: The making of Delville Wood, 1916

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 21 October 1996In late-June 1916, Private James Ross of the 1st South African Infantry Brigade's 4th Regiment, South African Scottish, added a postscript to a letter despatched home to Cape Town from Sailly le Sec in the Picardy countryside. His mind and spirit instinctively forfeit to the green and tawny fields of northern France, ‘surely the neatest part of the globe’, he wrote to his parents, ‘what impresses me most here is the colour ... the red of the poppies is breathtaking, and truly indescribable.’ At this distance, Ross's observation seems almost a moment of providential suspension; until present and future merged, he seemed blithely unaware that the grassy realm around him was a poisoned pastoral. Near Corbie, further along the British Fourth Army's line, a resting fellow soldier, John Kilgour Parker, enjoyed a brisk sluicing in the Somme before idling away the 25th June, admiring the pipe bands of the 9th Division Black Watch or taking himself off to the sinewy challenge of tossing the caber against men of the 3rd Transvaal and Rhodesia Regiment. Aware of the incongruity of his tranquil reserve situation as the war closed in upon the recently-arrived South African contingent, Kilgour Parker was made edgy by the interminable din of the massive British artillery bombardment of German defences, reflecting, 'so much for this comic fireworks war. I suppose that if we took things seriously, our nerves would probably go in a month'. Yet things were very soon to be taken seriously, and men like Ross and Kilgour Parker would then find themselves advancing to the very border of their human sanity. For not far ahead lay the terrifying resolution of the Somme offensive, and in particular the perforating shock of Delville Wood for South African forces

Alla base di ogni espansione, il desiderio sessuale. Negotiating exoticism and colonial conquest in ennio flaiano’s tempo di uccidere

La pubblicazione di Tempo di uccidere (1947) di Ennio Flaiano, un romanzo ambientato in Abissinia durante la cosiddetta guerra dei sette mesi (1935- 1936), aprì lo spazio a un dibattito sia letterario sia storico sul tema che per l’autore è centrale: il colonialismo. Tuttavia gran parte della critica ha dedicato maggior attenzione alle implicazioni esistenziali del romanzo, in particolare al viaggio metafisico del protagonista, dal peccato verso la mai raggiunta assoluzione. Eppure non si può sottovalutare l’importanza del contesto bellico, sia per il protagonista del romanzo, sia per lo scrittore, il quale visse in prima persona gli orrori della conquista. L’articolo prende in esame il primo capitolo del romanzo, “La scorciatoia”, nel quale confluiscono le opposizioni tematiche Esotismo/Europeismo, Uomo/Donna, Civiltà/Primitivismo, che rivelano la visione profondamente anticoloniale dell’autore.Article is in Englis

Après l’apartheid, enseigner l’histoire

Cet article explore les changements affectant l’histoire, ainsi que son développement et son statut, dans les établissements scolaires d’Afrique du Sud à l’ère de l’apartheid et de l’après-apartheid. Sous le régime du Parti national, l’histoire du pays était un élément clé du système éducatif, proposant une version du passé de la nation qui légitimait la domination de la minorité blanche. Lors des luttes populaires contre l’apartheid dans les années 1970 et 1980, l’histoire à l’école s’est transformée de manière informelle en outil de résistance intellectuelle. Cependant, sous le gouvernement de la majorité, le curriculum d’histoire a d’abord été marginalisé, puis rétabli dans son importance, avant d’être à nouveau délaissé. Les responsables politiques actuellement au pouvoir et certains spécialistes de l’éducation souhaitent rendre obligatoire l’enseignement de l’histoire de l’Afrique du Sud, afin de répondre à des objectifs nationalistes et patriotiques clairement affichés.This paper explores the changing nature, development and status of history in contemporary South African schools in the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. Under National Party apartheid rule, South African history was a crucial element of the educational system, as it provided a version of the national past which sought to legitimise the domination of a white racial minority. During the popular anti-apartheid struggles of the 1970s and 1980s, history at school level was transformed informally into a tool of intellectual resistance. However, under majority rule, the fortunes of the history curriculum have been cyclical – first marginalised, then restored to importance, then again neglected. Currently, there is a new call from ruling politicians and some educationists for South African history to be made compulsory in order to serve an explicitly majoritarian nationalist and patriotic agenda.Este artículo explora los cambios que afectan a la historia, su desarrollo y su estado en los centros escolares de Sudáfrica durante y después del apartheid. Durante el régimen del Partido Nacional, la historia del país fue un elemento clave del sistema educativo : proponía una versión del pasado de la nación que legitimaba la dominación de la minoría blanca. Con las luchas populares contra el apartheid en los años 70 y 80, la historia en la escuela se convirtió de manera informal en un arma de resistencia intelectual. Sin embargo, con el gobierno de la mayoría, primero se marginalizó el currículo de historia, luego se recuperó, para después volver a ser relegado a un segundo plano. Los responsables políticos actualmente en el poder y algunos especialistas de la educación desean hacer obligatoria la enseñanza de la historia de Sudáfrica para responder a unos objetivos nacionales y patrióticos claramente expresados

Heterogeneity in Plasmodium falciparum whole sporozoite vaccine induced humoral immune responses and protection in African volunteers: The role of age, human pegivirus and human immunodeficiency virus co-infections.

Malaria, a vector borne disease caused by Plasmodium species remains a major public health problem especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018 alone, there were an estimated 228 million clinical cases and 405,000 deaths attributed to malaria. New tools such as efficacious vaccines, better drugs and diagnostics are needed to supplement the current malaria control tools that rest mainly on vector control measures. Clinical trials in malaria naïve volunteers have demonstrated high level of sterile vaccine induced protection in healthy individuals immunized with live, metabolically active, irradiation attenuated purified sporozoites (PfSPZ Vaccine) or live non-attenuated purified sporozoites given under chloroquine chemoprophylaxis (PfSPZ-CVac). Immunogenicity and protective efficacy against malaria induced by these whole sporozoite based vaccines varies widely between European/US versus African volunteers. Interestingly, variations in protection and immunogenicity of these malaria vaccines have been observed among African volunteers residing in different malaria endemic regions of East and West Africa. These different outcomes could be linked to levels of malaria pre-exposure and co-infections at the time of vaccination. Until recently safety, tolerability, immunogenicity and protective efficacy of PfSPZ Vaccine in immunocompromised populations including individuals infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was unknown. Given the high geographical overlap of HIV and malaria, an effective malaria vaccine deployed in this population could possibly support the long-term objective of regional elimination of malaria by using mass vaccination. Furthermore, the role of asymptomatic, under researched, highly prevalent viruses like Human Pegivirus (HPgV-1) circulating in Sub-Saharan Africa on malaria pathogenesis and vaccination outcomes remains elusive. The aims of this PhD thesis include: 1) Evaluate the safety, tolerability, efficacy, and immunogenicity of the PfSPZ Vaccine in different populations and age groups residing in malaria endemic countries. 2) Compare the safety, tolerability, efficacy, and immunogenicity of two different whole sporozoite based vaccination approaches, PfSPZ Vaccine and PfSPZ-CVac in Equatorial Guinean adults. 3) The unbiased assessment of PfSPZ Vaccine induced humoral immunity using protein microarrays probed with serum samples of HIV positive and HIV negative volunteers to understand immune status before vaccination, immuno-dominance of vaccine induced antibody targets, and distinct antibody profiles that might be associated with vaccine-induced protection. 4) Investigate the interaction of chronic HPgV-1 co-infection on PfSPZ Vaccine induced humoral immunity and protection against homologous CHMI. These aims are structured around 6 manuscripts presented in this PhD thesis. Manuscript 1-3: Safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of radiation attenuated whole sporozoite vaccine (PfSPZ Vaccine) in African populations of different ages In this chapter, we include the outcomes of clinical trials conducted in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. These trials for the first time i) evaluated the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy against homologous CHMI of irradiation attenuated purified Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ Vaccine) in adult volunteers; ii) tested increasing dosages of PfSPZ Vaccine in different age groups including adults, adolescents, children and infants. We found PfSPZ vaccine to be safe and well tolerated and that vaccine inoculation by intravenous inoculation is well accepted even in younger age groups. Protective efficacy varied in the different trials leading to the identification of a vaccine regimen of 9x105PfSPZ per dose as suitable for further development. PfSPZ Vaccine induce immune responses, both cellular and humoral, were age dependent with infants mounting no measurable malaria specific cellular immunity in peripheral blood. Surprisingly, compared to other age groups, older children and adolescents mounted higher cellular and humoral immune responses. These findings are relevant for further optimization of PfSPZ vaccine regimen that might need to be adapted to different age groups to optimize vaccine induced protection. As an extension of these trials, we have compared PfSPZ Vaccine safety, immunogenicity and efficacy in HIV positive versus HIV negative volunteers. We observed marked differences in PfSPZ Vaccine induced efficacy between HIV positive (0%) and HIV negative individuals (80%) undergoing homologous CHMI(Manuscript in preparation). Manuscript 4: Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of radiation-attenuated and chemo-attenuated PfSPZ vaccines in Equatoguinean adults This work describes the outcome of a first time side-by-side comparison of two whole sporozoite based vaccine approaches (PfSPZ Vaccine and PfSPZCVac) in malaria pre-exposed individuals of Equatorial Guinea. We evaluated PfSPZ Vaccine dosages (2.7 X106) given three times at 8-week interval and PfSPZ CVac dose (1X105) given three times at 4 weeks interval. Homologous CHMI was employed for assessment of vaccine efficacy. Both approaches were safe and well tolerated in malaria pre-exposed individuals but the immunogenicity and protective efficacy differed. Vaccine efficacy was lower in the PfSPZ Vaccine group (27%) compared to the PfSPZ CVac group (55%), despite induction of about 2.9 times higher antibody titres against the circumsporozoite protein in the PfSPZ Vaccine group prior to CHMI. These results highlight the potential involvement of different protective immune mechanisms induced by each of the two whole sporozoite vaccines approaches and the effect of malaria pre-exposure on pfSPZ CVac vaccine induced efficacy in comparison to malaria naïve volunteers. We show that induction of high antibody titres against the circumsporozoite protein does not correlate with protection since no difference was observed between CHMI protected and non-protected volunteers. Manuscript 5: HIV-1 positive and HIV-1 negative Tanzanian adults undergoing whole irradiation attenuated Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite vaccination mount antibody responses targeting the circumsporozoite protein and merozoite surface protein 5 In this manuscript, we investigated antibody profiles binding to 262 pre-selected antigens of Pf before and after vaccination as well as after homologus CHMI. We aimed to identify antibody profiles that might explain the observed poor vaccine induced protection in HIV positive individuals. We found a lower - albeit not statistically significant - antigen breadth in HIV positive volunteers at baseline before first vaccine inoculation. Immunization with PfSPZ Vaccine induced IgG and IgM isotypes specific for the Merozoite surface protein 5 (PfMSP 5) and the circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP) regardless of HIV infection status. Interestingly, volunteers displayed a highly personalized IgG and IgM immune profiles targeting Pf antigens before vaccination and these remained unchanged after PfSPZ vaccination confirming our previous results of antigenic imprinting in malaria. Manuscript 6: Role of Pegivirus infections in whole Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite vaccine induced humoral immunity and controlled human malaria infections in African volunteers In this study, we wanted to understand the role of human pegivirus infections in East and Western African adult volunteers and its impact on PfSPZ Vaccine induced humoral immune responses and homologous CHMI. We found HPgV-1 to be highly prevalent in our volunteers (29.2%) with circulating genotypes 1, 2 and 5 as described in other African settings. HPgV-1 infection did not alter PfSPZ vaccine induced antibody responses and parasite multiplication rates during CHMI. However, a higher proportion of individuals were protected against homologous CHMI that had ongoing, active human pegivirus infections. Significantly higher serum concentrations of IL-2 and IL-17A were measured in HPgV-1 positive volunteers likely indicating chronic activation of the immune system. CHMI was safe and well tolerated in HPgV-1 positive individuals since the viremia did not change upon acute asexual blood stage parasitemia. These results highlight the potential impact of chronic, asymptomatic viral infections on PfSPZ vaccine efficacy that needs confirmation in larger cohorts and in field studies of naturally occurring malaria infections

FACTORS AFFECTING COLD CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN VIRIKA HOSPITAL, KABAROLE DISTRICT. A CROSS–SECTIONAL OBSERVATION STUDY.

BackgroundThe cold chain is a supply of temperature-sensitive products that include vaccines, insulin, chemotherapy drugs, and other treatments such as Oxytocin, therefore, millions of these products are produced, transported, stored, and distributed worldwide yet the cost of these products and controlled of temperature is essential in the healthcare industry. The research will help health workers to improve the storage practices of cold-chain pharmaceutical products. The general objective was to assess the cold chain storage practices of pharmaceutical products in Virika Hospital Kabarole district.Methodology:The study design employed was cross-sectional with a study sample of 36 respondents using structured and semi-structured questionnaires as a data collection tool, finally, the data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel.ResultsFrom the study findings, most respondents were nurses (77.7%), followed by clinicians (11.1%) and pharmacy technicians and pharmacists (5.6%).within the hospital there was an automated generator, and most of the respondents(94.4%) had connections to the automated generator and a few (5.6%) had no connections yet and the following factors were found out to be affecting cold chain medicines; unstable power supply to the hospital, time for the refrigerators being operative is limited and insufficient knowledge of some health workers (8.3%), about the accurate temperature under which the cold chain can be maintained.ConclusionIn conclusion, the overall factors that affect cold chain medicines were not such pleasing though the health workers’ knowledge about cold chain practices was not alerting.RecommendationThe hospital administration in touch with the Ministry of Health should conduct training in hospitals and health facilities that store or issue cold chain medicines to empower health workers with knowledge for the storage of cold chain medicines

"She preferred living in a cave with Harry the snake-catcher": towards an oral history of popular leisure and class expression in District Six, Cape Town, c. 192Os-195Os'

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: The Making of Class, 9-14 February, 198