New Contree: 2016 No 77
Contents
No. 77, December 2016
Articles
- “Class D coloureds”: The establishment of Noordgesig, / Moore, W
- Evaton and a quest for economic independence: A new dimension to entrepreneurship, 1940-1949 / Khumalo, V
- Economic remittances from employment in the Second World War and family conflicts, Swaziland, 1941-1950 / Simelane, H.S
- British dilemma and hypocrisy in the NPT regime vis-à-vis South Africa / Asuelime, L.E & Van Wyk, A-M
- "Valuing historical context of three individuals exhumed from desecrated historic graves in Zeerust, North West Province / Van Vollenhoven, A.C
- “Let’s do things on our own …”: Gender and class dynamics during the quest to restore Inanda Seminary’s financial integrity, 1999-2001 / Couper, S.E
Book reviews
- Legassick, M. 2016. Hidden histories of GORDONIA land dispossession and resistance in the Northern Cape, 1800-1990. [Book review] / Van Eeden, E.S
- Brook, J.L. 2014. Climate change and the course of Global History. [Book review] / Chetty, S
- Madikizela-Mandela, W. 2013. 491 Days: Prison number 1323/69. [Book review] / Moore, N
- Verwoerd, W.J. 2016. Verwoerd: só onthou ons hom (hersiene uitgawe) [Book review] / Blom, M
- Dlamini, J. 2014. Askari: a story of collaboration and betrayal in the anti-apartheid struggle. [Book review] / Moore, W
- Chisembele, S. 2016. Zambia, the freedom struggle and the aftermath: The personal story of freedom fighter and leader Sylvester Mwamba Chisembele. [Book review] / Kanduza, A.M
- Barry, A. 2016. Ons Japie. Die boereoorlogdagboek van Anna Barry. [Book review] / Oelofse, M
- Mudge, D. 2016. All the way to an Independent Namibia. [Book review] / Dedering, T
Editorial
The December 2016 issue covers an interesting variety of research in which spaces and the impact of economy, race, gender, education, war, power and leadership prominently features. Wendell Moore departs with a discussion on the pioneering days of Orlando Township as Noordgesig during and shortly after the Second World War. Indeed Moore’s contribution cover an underresearched history of coloured townships in the Johannesburg area. She explores the heterogeneous categories of class and race that influenced government policies and propelled some urban township dwellers into a vaguely defined group termed “Class D coloureds”. She argues that the Coloureds, having to put up with this unique identity in many ways problematizes the grand narrative of coloured identity based largely on experiences from the Cape region.
Further south west, and still in the Gauteng Province, Vusumusi Khumalo explores Evaton’s quest for economic independence, and also, like Moore, in the Second World War years up to 1948. By means of Evaton as example, Khumalo critically argues whether the white government at the time presented a favourable political environment for Africans to be, and become, economically independent. The manipulation of socio-economic institutions by the former National Party government to develop and maintain an unequal society through policies are exposed, as well as how local traders have responded to it. With the research discussed by Hamilton Simelane the reader remains mainly in the Second World War years but are introduced to how Swazi civilians were economically affected by the war and how they responded to it. At the heart of it Simelane outlines family conflicts over remittances during the war years, and how the remittances were utilized. The positive side of remittances are deliberately overlooked to just focus on the negative and divided-becoming impact of economic remittances on family relations.
From remittances the shift is to hypocrisy in nuclear technology. Lucky E Asuelime and Anna-Mart van Wyk refresh minds on a currently contentious topic: Nuclear technology and South Africa’s positioning, especially after the Second World War years up the eighties and the role of Britain in this saga. The authors accuse Britain of a kind of insincerity in the international nonproliferation regime which has focused on developing strategies to halt the development of nuclear technology, particularly in developing regions. It is argued that the activities of the five (nuclear) superpowers (the US, Britain, Soviet Union, France and China) in the process, with their actions of assistance of other countries, undermined the efficacy of this strategy. Though the current role and actions between Russia and South Africa in this regard are critically scrutinized by media and the public in general, the research by Asuelime and Van Wyk accentuates the hypocrisy-perceived participation of the British in the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as far as South Africa was concerned.
As an experienced cultural archaeologist and historian Anton van Vollenhoven takes the reader through the past of three individuals exhumed from desecrated historic graves in Zeerust. Heritage legislation after 1999 allowed for stricter rules and regulations than before to determine the management of cultural heritage in South Africa, that includes the processes related to the exhumation and re-interment of human skeletal remains. Van Vollenhoven emphasises the value of historical research and legislation as context in the applying of archaeological methods on the graves and the three individuals buried. Scott Couper has the last say with his close review on historical economic disparities as well as gender and class dynamics at the revived Inanda Seminary for African girls, between 1999-2001: This after decades of disinvestment for which Bantu Education is accused for having prohibited Inanda Seminary from competing equally with other previously advantaged schools. The period of recovery, in which gender and class strongly features, is major points of discussion.
Eight book reviews are included, of which five are discussions about biographies on famous and controversial personalities in Southern Africa, and the spread are equally diverse: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela; Hendrik French Verwoerd (a revised issue); Jacob Dlamini Askari; Sylvester Mwamba Chisembele and Dirk Mudge. The rest of the book reviews promise for interesting research contributions that include: Martin Legassick’s Hidden histories of GORDONIA…, the study of Anna Barry’s Boer War diary (in Afrikaans), John Brooke’s Climate change and the course of Global History.
This issue of the New Contree truly reflects the historical richness and diversity that the Journal is, and wants to be, associated with.
Editor
Elize S van Eeden
Recent Submissions
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Chisembele, S. 2016. Zambia, the freedom struggle and the aftermath: the personal story of freedom fighter and leader Sylvester Mwamba Chisembele [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Mudge, D. 2016. All the way to an Independent Namibia. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Barry, A. 2016. Ons Japie. Die boereoorlogdagboek van Anna Barry. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Dlamini, J. 2014. Askari: a story of collaboration and betrayal in the anti-apartheid struggle. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Verwoerd, W.J. 2016. Verwoerd: só onthou ons hom (hersiene uitgawe) [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Madikizela-Mandela, W. 2013. 491 Days: Prison number 1323/69. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Brook, J.L. 2014. Climate change and the course of Global History. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
Legassick, M. 2016. Hidden histories of GORDONIA land dispossession and resistance in the Northern Cape, 1800-1990. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
“Let’s do things on our own …”: Gender and class dynamics during the quest to restore Inanda Seminary’s financial integrity, 1999-2001
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)During the 1990s, decades of disinvestment caused by Bantu Education prohibited Inanda Seminary from competing equally with other previously advantaged Whites-only private and former public ‘Model C’ schools within South ... -
Valuing historical context of three individuals exhumed from desecrated historic graves in Zeerust, North West Province
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)Since the promulgation of heritage legislation in 1999, under the new government after the end of Apartheid, stricter rules and regulations determine the management of cultural heritage in South Africa. This includes the ... -
Chisembele, S. 2016. Zambia, the freedom struggle and the aftermath: The personal story of freedom fighter and leader Sylvester Mwamba Chisembele. [Book review]
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016) -
British dilemma and hypocrisy in the NPT regime vis-à-vis South Africa
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)The international non-proliferation regime has focused on developing strategies to halt the development of nuclear technology, particularly in developing regions. This however did not stop South Africa from developing six ... -
Economic remittances from employment in the Second World War and family conflicts, Swaziland, 1941-1950
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)Swaziland was connected to the Allied conduct of the Second World War through colonial ties and about four thousand Swazi men were recruited to serve in the war. Historians are beginning to analyse the different ways in ... -
“Class D coloureds”: The establishment of Noordgesig, 1939-1948
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)Noordgesig Township is situated on the edge of Soweto, bordering the better known Orlando Township. This article pieces together the history of the township and its residents from the late 1930s to the beginning of the ... -
Evaton and a quest for economic independence: A new dimension to entrepreneurship, 1940-1949
(School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University, 2016)In South Africa, commercial activity such as entrepreneurship was one of the socio-economic institutions manipulated by the white government to develop and maintain an unequal society. The aim of this article is to locate ...