This thesis seeks to answer the question: How can we best understand the Intentions of Members of British Government for the Independence of Ghana? After discussing the existing decolonisation...Show moreThis thesis seeks to answer the question: How can we best understand the Intentions of Members of British Government for the Independence of Ghana? After discussing the existing decolonisation literature, this thesis will bridge the gap between the outdated empirical historical literature and modern international relations theory. This is done by a Critical Discourse Analysis of archival sources related to decolonisation. The conclusion reached is that the decolonial theories of coloniality/modernity offer the most complete insights in understanding the Intentions of Members of British Government for the Independence of Ghana.Show less
At the beginning of the 20th century, the “Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap” organized several expeditions to map the country of Suriname, which was a colony of the Netherlands...Show moreAt the beginning of the 20th century, the “Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap” organized several expeditions to map the country of Suriname, which was a colony of the Netherlands from 1667 to 1922. The main reason for organizing these expeditions was the mapping of Suriname, intending to find areas that could be exploited. During the Gonini-expedition in 1903 and Tapanahoni-expedition in 1904, there was a second goal: collecting objects of the Maroon (formerly enslaved people that escaped the plantations) and Indigenous communities living in these areas. A goal that can be explained by the growing interest in the ethnography of Indigenous people at that time. Archives and journals show that the objects collected during these expeditions were acquired by trading Indigenous and Maroon objects for Western objects. Although this can be argued to be a fair way of collecting, it is, however, important to realize the circumstances in which the objects were collected. By realizing that the expedition was started to explore more exploitable areas and also acknowledging the fact that the Dutch expedition would have not been able to collect information and objects without the help of indigenous and Maroon people as guides. This colonial context is furthermore evident in the environment they were eventually and still are placed in: The National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands. With this in mind, this thesis discusses how the provenance of these objects can be understood in the colonial context they were collected in.Show less
The Black Panther Party grew out of the civil rights era in the 1960s to form a movement aimed at protecting African-Americans from police brutality and the social injustices that stemmed from...Show moreThe Black Panther Party grew out of the civil rights era in the 1960s to form a movement aimed at protecting African-Americans from police brutality and the social injustices that stemmed from living in a racist society hellbent on ensuring the underdevelopment of Black communities. In seeking to explore and understand the growth of the International section of the Black Panther Party (BPP) from its base in Oakland, California to the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, this project will come across a variety of primary and academic sources that address the various influences and actions partaken in this journey. Whilst relatively short lived in its mission, the internationalisation of the BPP involved numerous actors, among whom, many have released autobiographies and memoirs detailing the unfolding of events that occurred between the years 1969-1972, alongside video speeches and declarations pertaining to such events. Yet, in order to truly appreciate this often forgotten part of the Black Panthers’ history, the years of revolutionary struggle dedicated to fighting for the rights of Black people across the world, and in the case of this project notably in the United States, albeit not solely, must also be taken into account. This is particularly important as tracing the influences of Black philosophical thinkers of the 20th Century such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X on more contemporary movements, such as the Black Panther Party, is often not done so to the extent that such major influences deserve. The usefulness of highlighting the actions partaken by the BPP prove timely in assessing the current political climate faced by members of the African diaspora all over the globe, notably in the United States with the continued growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.Show less
The United Nations did not deploy a peacekeeping mission in Africa for a quarter of a century following its contentious intervention in the Congo in the early 1960s. Due to this lack of military...Show moreThe United Nations did not deploy a peacekeeping mission in Africa for a quarter of a century following its contentious intervention in the Congo in the early 1960s. Due to this lack of military intervention, much of the existing scholarship has overlooked the organisation’s influence in the process of African decolonisation during the Cold War. In contrast, this thesis re-examines the relationship between United Nations intervention and African decolonisation through the case studies of the Congo and Southern Rhodesia between 1960 and 1980. During this period, the United Nations explored alternative means of diplomatic and economic intervention in Africa, examined in this thesis through the organisation’s relationship with the white minority government of Southern Rhodesia. This was not a period of non-intervention, but rather a time of complex reconfiguration for the organisation concerning its future role within the process of African decolonisation.Show less
This thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and...Show moreThis thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and the emergence of the newly created Republic of Zimbabwe. As such, it seeks to understand missionaries as more than just a happenstance of history but rather as active and integral to developments within the Rhodesian region and its vastly different processes of decolonisation. Furthermore, this thesis presents the history of decolonisation from the bottom up, attributing agency and importance to the ordinary people whose lives were affected by the global dynamics of the Cold War. What follows, therefore, details the discovery of missionaries as actors within Rhodesia and their far-reaching impact on the decolonisation processes at play.Show less
Navigating the early Cold War during the 1950s was no easy task for states and international organisations, given the changing dynamics and intrigues of Cold War geopolitics and the onset of...Show moreNavigating the early Cold War during the 1950s was no easy task for states and international organisations, given the changing dynamics and intrigues of Cold War geopolitics and the onset of decolonisation across Asia and Africa. In this period, a number of national, regional and international political organisations emerged across the “Third World” which sought to establish their own movements and support based on their own ideology. The Asian Socialist Conference, 1953-1960, was one such organisation which came into existence in this period and attempted to navigate the early Cold War. Significant limitations faced organisations like the ASC as they addressed the “great problems”, relating to European colonialism and the Cold War, facing the world. In a broader context, the limitations the ASC faced explain the difficulties “Third World” Afro-Asian networks in navigating the Cold War. Through a more Asian-centric approach, the purpose of this analysis will therefore be to analyse and explain the limitations the ASC faced in its endeavour to resolve the great world problems of the 1950s and how those limitations show the difficulties “Third World” Afro-Asian networks had in navigating early Cold War.Show less
A study of the construction of national identity in colonial Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) through an in depth examination of advertising in the popular print magazine 'Illustrated Life Rhodesia'. The paper...Show moreA study of the construction of national identity in colonial Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) through an in depth examination of advertising in the popular print magazine 'Illustrated Life Rhodesia'. The paper conducts a brief survey of the early colonisation of the region, and attempts to connect observations made about the development of Rhodesian identity up to the UDI period with a semiotic analysis of media from during the UDI period. It hopes to contribute to our understanding of the construction of the identity among Rhodesia's white minority.Show less
The critical challenges that humanity is confronted with can only be addressed through global collaboration and partnerships. In the education sector, this requires that different epistemologies...Show moreThe critical challenges that humanity is confronted with can only be addressed through global collaboration and partnerships. In the education sector, this requires that different epistemologies are acknowledged and appropriate indigenous or traditional knowledge employed in local contexts. Didactical approaches to incorporate less authoritative knowledge systems in the internationally dominant Western scientific higher education curricula, remain contentious. In the highly politicised context of globalisation this leads to intense theoretical debates. In Africa the mounting tension between proponents of internationalisation and Africanisation, and in South Africa specifically, the rising demand for transformation and a decolonised curricula, impedes the fusion of local and-global knowledge paradigms. Using a Dutch funded food and nutrition security collaboration project between selected Dutch and South African higher education agricultural institutes as research field, this study set out to determine to what extent South African academics support the inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge in their curricula, and to what degree this is realised in practice. In conclusion, the challenges and opportunities as perceived by research participants are clustered and summarised.Show less
On the 25th of November 1945, shortly after the capitulation of Japan, the Dutch General W. Schilling wrote a memorandum to van Mook (the Luitenant Governor General of Indonesia) advising against...Show moreOn the 25th of November 1945, shortly after the capitulation of Japan, the Dutch General W. Schilling wrote a memorandum to van Mook (the Luitenant Governor General of Indonesia) advising against military operations in Indonesia. He had a far more pessimistic view of the situation in the (former) colony then his colleagues. This thesis explores the background of Schilling's advice and the reasons why his opinion was different from that of other officers.Show less
Decolonising Britain. To what extent did the activities of right-wing groups between 1960-1973 indicate a wider British inability to come to terms with the new post-colonial order?
