New Contree: 2019 No 83http://hdl.handle.net/10394/346432024-03-28T09:39:01Z2024-03-28T09:39:01ZGuanopreneurs and the dynamics of policymaking in the Cape Colony, 1843-1845Snyders, Hendrikhttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/346482020-05-16T04:07:50Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZGuanopreneurs and the dynamics of policymaking in the Cape Colony, 1843-1845
Snyders, Hendrik
Having identified an opportunity to extract significant income from selling guano, a popular and profitable natural fertiliser, from individual islands within its territorial waters, the Cape colonial administration established loading infrastructure and promulgated a new policy to prevent an uncontrolled rush during the mid-19th century. Given the uneven power relations between the administration and its citizenry and the lack of genuinely representative institutions, the new measures generated significant conflict between the authorities and business community that turned the policy-making process into an acrimonious affair. Individual businessmen with networks in London, the Cape legislative council, judiciary and the Cape Town municipality
and who desired free access to the source for trading purposes, opposed the attempt of the authorities to monopolise access to the product through Ordinance 4 of 1845 (the so-called Guano Ordinance) in order to generate income for governance purposes. A complicating factor was the fact that the expenditure connected to the new policy regime (infrastructure, customs control, and policing), still had to be sanctioned by the Imperial Government. Similarly, the new ordinance had to be aligned with and sanctioned by the imperial authorities, allowing politically-connected businessmen to use their influence in London and the Colonial Office, to force the Cape government into a process of bargaining, persuasion and compromise. With seabird guano
declared Crown property, Cape Town’s prospective wealthy guanopreneurs had to pay for guano freight while effectively removing their resource-poor counterparts from the race. On an international scale, the Cape Guano
Ordinance provided the basis for similar legal measures in other parts of the world and trade during the next decade.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZShort-lived tolerance. An euphoria of the 1938 Voortrekker Centenary as in the editorials of a local newspaper: the George & Knysna HeraldMaritz, Lorainehttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/346472020-05-16T04:07:48Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZShort-lived tolerance. An euphoria of the 1938 Voortrekker Centenary as in the editorials of a local newspaper: the George & Knysna Herald
Maritz, Loraine
There have been many studies on the Voortrekker Centenary of 1938 and the unforeseen consequences it had, including the subsequent surge of Afrikaner nationalism and political developments. As the wagons moved across South Africa, the processions infused Afrikaners with pride in their heroic past. Afrikaner nationalism, the ideology that focused on protecting Afrikaner culture, the striving to regain an independent republic and, importantly, affirmation that they were God’s chosen people, were rekindled. The event also generated a widespread sense of connection. It was not only Afrikaners who were swept up in the euphoria of the celebrations, but also many non-Afrikaners were emotionally affected by the event. This article narrows the focus down to George, a small town in the Western Cape Province, where Charles Sayers, the editor of the local newspaper, the George & Knysna Herald, a firm supporter of the United Party and a fierce critic of the Reunited National Party, seems to have been swept up for a short period by the fever of the celebrations. A year later, in 1939, when war broke out in Europe, Sayers loyally approved of the United Party’s decision to support the war effort in Europe on the side of the Allies and became harshly critical of Hertzog and those Afrikaners nationalists who refused to join a war on Britain’s side. With the George & Knysna Herald as the primary source, this article attempts to determine what led the editor to undergo such an about-turn in his political views in 1938 and to be temporarily supportive of the celebrations that embodied the spirit of Afrikaner nationalism.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZPrinciple of Utis Possidetis and challenges of sitting at the frontier in Africa: the Yoruba in the Old Ilorin province and the politics of identity and belonging in post-colonial NigeriaSaka, L.Amusan, L.http://hdl.handle.net/10394/346462020-05-20T04:08:26Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZPrinciple of Utis Possidetis and challenges of sitting at the frontier in Africa: the Yoruba in the Old Ilorin province and the politics of identity and belonging in post-colonial Nigeria
Saka, L.; Amusan, L.
For communities that sit at the fringe of ethnic, cultural and linguistic divide, the twin questions of identity and belonging often remain issues of concern. The remoteness of such communities from the mainstream of sociocultural and political processes, the straddling of ethno-cultural boundaries and the dilution of cultural beliefs, values system, practices and language often reinforce the notion that they belong to the peripheries of the nationalities. This in turn can generate crises of marginalization of such communities as is the case of the Yoruba’s of the old Ilorin Province. Through the circumstance of history and the geographical location of Ilorin at the fringe of the Yoruba nation, the people of the Old Ilorin Province have come to be seen as a community that is of less importance to the socio-cultural, political and economic development of the Yoruba nation at large. Thus, the issue of where to place Ilorin has remained an enigma for the people of the community and
the Yoruba nation. This has generated a crisis of identity and belonging for the Yoruba of the old Ilorin Province. To this end, this study examined how frontier communities experience and navigate the complexity of identity politics and belonging using Ilorin as a point of reference. The study made use of archival, historical documents and other qualitative data to weave its narration of the crisis of identity and belonging facing the Yoruba of the old Ilorin Province as a common phenomenon in Africa because of colonial legacy.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZWhite identity development at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) from 1965-1968 through the use of language and religionKlee, J.http://hdl.handle.net/10394/346452020-05-16T04:07:53Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZWhite identity development at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) from 1965-1968 through the use of language and religion
Klee, J.
The primary goal in the establishment of RAU in 1968 was the educational advancement of the white Afrikaans speaker on the Witwatersrand. A secondary goal was the development of white Afrikaans identity in higher
education through the use of the Afrikaans language and Christian religion. This was done by means of academic and scientific programmes. The Afrikaner culture in its entirety had to be nurtured. Although the RAU, for the majority of white Afrikaans speakers, represented a momentous time in terms of its creation history and architectural design it also had its main aim the moulding of a new modern Afrikaans identity. The perceived struggling “Boer” – “proletarian” and working class character of the white Afrikaans speaker had to make way for an emerging middle class: modern and sophisticated. In this article, light is shed on the role of especially language and religion in developing a modern white Afrikaans identity at RAU, later renamed the University of Johannesburg.
2019-01-01T00:00:00Z