New Contree: 2022 No. 88
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/40073
2024-03-29T15:25:17ZPolitical economy of financial inclusion in Lesotho: Mobile money and the experiences of low-income and rural communities
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/40085
Political economy of financial inclusion in Lesotho: Mobile money and the experiences of low-income and rural communities
Maliehe, Sean
This paper examines the development of mobile money in contemporary
Lesotho, 2012-2020. Using historical and ethnographic sources, it situates
the development of this mobile phone-based financial system within the
broader economic history of the country. It adopts a political economy
approach to analyse the emergence and evolution of mobile money as an
instrument of financial inclusion used by the government of Lesotho and
international organisations. The paper advances that when operating with the
logic of capitalism, free market policies, emergent mobile money networks are
hierarchically structured and privileges enterprises and corporations with bigger
financial muscle. The majority of small agents, the Basotho entrepreneurs, are
marginal and have to operate precariously with limited capital and low cash-flows
to ensure efficient services for the people. As a corollary to this, the rural
poor are further excluded and exploited by the agents. A general assessment
advanced in the article is that the rigidly defined digital eco-system is geared
towards integrating the lower echelons of the economy asymmetrically into
the mainstream financial economy dominated by corporations. However, this
cannot be defined as any meaningful financial inclusion.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZChiefdoms on the margins of the Zulu Kingdom: A case study of Nzama and Ngubane chieftaincies in Kranskop, Umvoti, from the 1820s to 1870s
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/40084
Chiefdoms on the margins of the Zulu Kingdom: A case study of Nzama and Ngubane chieftaincies in Kranskop, Umvoti, from the 1820s to 1870s
Nxumalo, Siyabonga
The chieftaincies in Kranskop in Umvoti seized the opportunity to exercise
independence from the Zulu royal family, an opportunity which the advent
of British imperialism provided. These chieftaincies decided to support the
invading colonial forces during the Anglo-Zulu War of January to September
1879 and participated actively in the colonial armed forces which fought
the Usuthu section of the Zulu royal family during the 1880s. They also
provided active military support to the Natal colonial forces during the Poll
Tax uprisings of 1906. This article retraces the genesis of the dispute over the
chieftainship at MaMbulu in Kranskop between the Ngubane and the Nzama
families. The consolidation of the Zulu Kingdom by King Shaka does not tell
the whole story because some chiefdoms maintained their own autonomy.
Examples are the shift in allegiance by the Ngubane to the British side because
of political conflicts, and the move away from King Shaka by the Nzama
chiefdom. It will be shown that the context which made it possible for the
Nzama people to come under the leadership of the Ngubane can be linked to
the different relations that King Shaka kaSenzangakhona, the founder of the
Zulu Kingdom, shared with the various chieftaincies on its western boundary
during the 1820s.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZFor neither king nor swastika? Malan’s Afrikaner nationalism and De Valera’s Irish nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/40083
For neither king nor swastika? Malan’s Afrikaner nationalism and De Valera’s Irish nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s
Furlong, Patrick; College, Alma
The debate on supposed fascist influences on Afrikaner nationalists,
particularly the mainstream National Party (NP), as opposed to more
extremist groups, has mostly centred around alleged links or parallels with
Nazi Germany, or whether anti-British sentiment was more key. An often overlooked
influence was similarly mainstream, historically anti-British Irish
nationalism. Comparing Daniel Malan and the Purified and later Reunited
NP with Eamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil (FF) in the 1930s and 1940s, this
study addresses similarities in areas such as republicanism, language, religion,
neutrality, and authoritarian tendencies, but argues that constitutionalism
tempered clerical and political authoritarian influence. Malan and the NP
differed in their approach to neutrality from De Valera and FF, who were also
less affected by the era’s antisemitism.
2022-01-01T00:00:00Z“To build a just and fair society”: Fosatu and the vision of a new South Africa, ca.1970s-1980s
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/40082
“To build a just and fair society”: Fosatu and the vision of a new South Africa, ca.1970s-1980s
Gwande, Victor M.
popularised the utopia of building a rainbow nation. The idea was to bring
together all people of South Africa, in all their diversity, to work towards a
new, common, non-racial and equal society. Indeed, the vision of these
two struggle heroes was codified and became a core value of South Africa’s
1996 Constitution. Using the case of the Federation of South African Trade
Unions (Fosatu) active in the period 1979-1985, this article demonstrates
that the notion of the rainbow nation has a long history predating the Tutu
and Mandela moments. Among other objectives, Fosatu sought to create a
just, fair, non-racial and apolitical society, albeit led by workers. This article,
therefore, argues that rather than seeing Fosatu as an orthodox trade union
underpinned by a “workerist” tradition and “economism” as is advanced in
the existing literature, it can also be seen as an antecedent and advocate of a
free society, creating and expanding the “public sphere” and realm of freedom
and democracy in South Africa during apartheid. In emphasising worker
control or giving power to members of a union, Fosatu sowed the seeds of
participatory democracy that came to characterise South Africa, epitomised
by a post-1994 parliamentary democracy. In this way, Fosatu foreshadowed
the aspirations of the new, just and fair South Africa envisioned by Tutu and
Mandela. Broadly speaking, the story of Fosatu’s aspirations and struggles has
a wider and comparative significance in understanding the makings and role
of civil society in the democratic struggle from a global south perspective. This
article relies on narratives, correspondence and debates extracted from Fosatu
papers and archives.
2022-01-01T00:00:00Z