Dr. Robert Vinson (History, College of William and Mary) on the spread of Garveyism in South Africa and its political and cultural impact. Vinson explains how black men and women in the 1920s and 30s appropriated Garvey’s ideas of racial pride, pan-Africanism, and modernity to sustain themselves and to propel South Africa’s struggle for freedom.
2009 elections in South Africa: Dr. Sean Jacobs and Dr. Hlonipha Mokoena analyze the significance of the ANC victory; Jacob Zuma and Zulu nationalism; the opposition’s weak showing outside the Western Cape; and local and international media coverage.
Narissa Ramdhani (Ifa Lethu CEO) — South African historian, archivist, and cultural heritage specialist — discusses her studies in exile in the USA and how she coordinated the return of 7 million documents from African National Congress offices in 33 countries to Johannesburg. The collection is now housed at the University of Fort Hare. Ramdhani then describes Ifa Lethu’s repatriation of South African apartheid-era art and its wider social impact.
New Media and Southern African Studies in the 21st century: What are the politics and ethics of digital knowledge production? How can podcasts enhance teaching, research, and international networking? Listen to this stimulating discussion held at the recent NEWSA meeting — featuring yours truly, Elizabeth Green Musselman (Southwestern University), and questions from the audience (Download: “The Possibilities of Podcasting”).
Mac Maharaj (South African activist and intellectual) explains why the model of South Africa’s transition to democracy cannot be replicated in powersharing agreements in Kenya and Zimbabwe. In the second part of this episode, recorded at the NEWSA meeting in Burlington, VT, Alex Beresford (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh) tells us about his research on union workers’ views of Tripartite Alliance politics in contemporary South Africa.
Kiki Edozie (James Madison College at MSU) compares recent corruption scandals in Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. She argues that democratic crises are closely tied to economic crises. At the end, the implications of these processes for African politics are considered.
Peter Alegi discusses his book manuscript in process African Soccerscapes: Sport, Race, Nation, and Capitalism (Ohio University Press, forthcoming in 2009). Guest host Solomon Getahun and Peter Limb talk with Alegi about football and anti-colonial nationalism in Nigeria, Algeria, and South Africa; the history of migration of African players to Europe; and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup.
Historian Robert Edgar (Howard University) discusses his project on African Americans and South Africa, showing how black communities in different parts of the world engage, interact and influence each other. Edgar talks about the history of representations of the Zulu in America, and reflects on how he rescued the Prophetess Nonthetha Nkwenkwe and the African Communist Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana from the ash heap of history. No wonder The New York Times dubbed him “the Indiana Jones of South Africa.”
Patrick Bond (Director of the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal) talks to us about his new book Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society: Negative Returns on South African Investments (co-edited with Rehana Dada and Graham Erion, 2007). Bond discusses carbon trading’s effects on global warming, critiques free market approaches to climate change, and charts the rise of African grassroots movements for environmental justice.
In this episode’s first segment, Peter Alegi reports on the exciting conclusion of the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana. In the second segment, South African media scholar Sean Jacobs (University of Michigan) discusses his blog Leo Africanus, and shares his insights on the relationship between media, popular culture, and democracy in Africa.
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