This thesis examines the evolution of the constructs of gender and sexuality in precolonial, colonial, and independent Zimbabwe and Botswana, with focus on the Shona, Ndebele, and Tswana during the...Show moreThis thesis examines the evolution of the constructs of gender and sexuality in precolonial, colonial, and independent Zimbabwe and Botswana, with focus on the Shona, Ndebele, and Tswana during the (pre)colonial era, and the BDP (Botswana Democratic Party) and ZANU(PF) (Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front) in the late colonial and postcolonial period, to identify what particularities in Botswana’s and Zimbabwe’s historical trajectories explain the divergence between the stance of BDP and ZANU(PF) leadership on the decriminalization of same-sex relations (SSR). The Shona, Ndebele, and Tswana started with a similar outlook on SSR, and in both countries, the British colonial administration imposed penal codes that criminalize(d) SSR. Yet, while BDP leadership grew gradually more supportive of the eventual decriminalization of SSR in 2019, ZANU(PF) leadership has strongly opposed to repealing the colonial-era penal codes. The different (de)colonization process and degree of colonial domination in each country appear to have the strongest explanatory power for these diverging outcomes. Many scholars have linked homophobia to masculinity and patriarchy. At the same time, colonial rule is widely believed to have undermined African masculinities and destabilized existing gender roles, and scholars have argued that misogyny, hyper-masculinity, and homophobia in African nationalist movements can be seen as a reaction to feelings of emasculation among African men. Colonial rule was significantly less invasive in Botswana, and the transition to independence mostly peaceful. Resultantly, there was no strong feeling of colonial domination among Botswanans, and anti-(neo)colonial rhetoric had little value as a source of political support. Thus, homosexuality never became conflated with (neo)colonialism in BDP nationalism, because it never centered on anti-(neo)colonialism to begin with. In contrast, Zimbabwe’s invasive colonial experience and arduous independence struggle created a strong sense of colonial domination among male independence leaders, who experienced it as ‘emasculation,’ and used misogyny and homophobia in attempt to restore a position of patriarchal power. At the same time, the rejection of homosexuality became a way to challenge colonial narratives about African sexuality and masculinity that were used to justify their abasement. Resultantly, the conflation of emasculation and homosexuality with colonial subjugation featured prominently in ZANU(PF)’s anti-colonial nationalism. The influence of Fanonesque and Marxist-Leninist thought further deepened homophobic sentiments in ZANU(PF) nationalism, while these schools of thought were absent from BDP nationalism. There is also scholarly consensus that European missionaries played an active role in codifying homosexuality as ‘immoral’ in Africa, and scholars argue that as Christianity became heavily politicized in the region, so did homosexuality. In that sense, homophobia, much like Christianity, is a political tool in contemporary Africa. Limited imposition of colonial rule and Tswana-controlled integration of Christianity may have further limited the inculcation of European (missionary) notions of sexuality and immorality in BDP nationalism. Moreover, unlike BDP nationalism, ZANU(PF) nationalism was organized around anti-colonialism, and this social glue lost its power once independence was achieved. This necessitated the creation of a new common enemy, while socioeconomic underperformance and declining public support incentivized the creation of a scapegoat to deflect criticism. Political homophobia became part of the creation of this new common enemy and scapegoat, and gained its legitimacy from Zimbabwe’s (de)colonization experience. With steady economic development and widespread public support after independence, there was less of an incentive for the BDP to use sexual minorities as a scapegoat.Show less
This thesis investigates the ‘colonial situation’ in which the Dutch anthropologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983) conducted his anthropological research on the Sierra Leonean Mende. During Hofstra’s...Show moreThis thesis investigates the ‘colonial situation’ in which the Dutch anthropologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983) conducted his anthropological research on the Sierra Leonean Mende. During Hofstra’s study (1934-1936), which took the form of two prolonged stays in the town of Panguma and its surroundings, he shared a space with numerous actors; notably, British colonial administrators, Methodist missionaries, and above all the Mende political authorities themselves. Characterized by a multitude of power dynamics, this interpersonal context of anthropological fieldwork influenced Hofstra’s process of knowledge production in profound ways. As will be argued, each of these groups of actors shaped ‘preconditions of access to knowledge’ which had to be met for Hofstra’s venture to be successful.Show less
This research aims to explain why specific statues in the Netherlands have become the focal point of discussions regarding societal problems. Although these memories are always present in the...Show moreThis research aims to explain why specific statues in the Netherlands have become the focal point of discussions regarding societal problems. Although these memories are always present in the public space, they only periodically provoke the existing Dutch historical narrative. The Jan Pieterszoon Coen statue and the Nederland-Indië monument are used as devices around which debates about social injustice are held. By analysing this function, this thesis makes an argument for keeping these colonial statues in place. The author contends that, in Dutch cultural remembrance, statues and monuments of colonial history reveal pasts that do not match the main historical narrative by applying and reformulating some fundamental concepts of the book Emerging Memories written by Paul Bijl. These statues and monuments continue to emerge and submerge while retaining their provocative presence. In two-fold these sites of remembrance aggravate communities whilst there is also room for new monuments. There is an ambiguity wherein the symbolism of memorial heritage is pursued by two groups, one for its celebration of colonial and national heroes and the other for the remembrance of colonial victims and their descendants. Without these colonial heritage sites, provocative memories are lost, and communities are not pushed to change the existing narrative.Show less
This thesis is about power relations behind the development of historically themed videogames set in the Global South. The thesis has taken into account games released in the Western World as well...Show moreThis thesis is about power relations behind the development of historically themed videogames set in the Global South. The thesis has taken into account games released in the Western World as well as in the Global South between 2000 and 2020. The main argument is that historically themed videogames set and developed in the Global South do not have the power to add to, differ from or change the representations made about their countries in the Western World.Show less
This study evaluates coverage of the Dutch printed media on the restitution of colonial objects between 1950 and 1995 and compares this to the specific case of the restitution in 2015. Over a 100...Show moreThis study evaluates coverage of the Dutch printed media on the restitution of colonial objects between 1950 and 1995 and compares this to the specific case of the restitution in 2015. Over a 100 articles were extracted from the KB-Delpher database to analyse the changing press coverage by embedding this in wider literature regarding the restitution of colonial objects, (colonial) heritage and decolonization. This study shows that the attribution of value towards 'objects' intensifies the complexities of the decolonization of mindsets and institutionsShow less
The colonial petition is a valuable source to get insight into the condition of colonised humanity. This thesis discusses forty-four petitions written in 1790 by peasant-cultivators in the Matara...Show moreThe colonial petition is a valuable source to get insight into the condition of colonised humanity. This thesis discusses forty-four petitions written in 1790 by peasant-cultivators in the Matara district. The petitioners transmitted these petitions to colonial officials in the first three months of an uprising in the countryside of Sri Lanka. The question this study aims to answer is: “How do petitions written during a protest in 1790 convey the resistance, negotiation, and experience of Dutch colonialism by inhabitants of the Matara dessavony?”Show less
The ongoing debate in Canadian and Australian societies about the meaning of multiculturalism and the associated discussion of belonging, citizenship and national culture cannot be divorced from...Show moreThe ongoing debate in Canadian and Australian societies about the meaning of multiculturalism and the associated discussion of belonging, citizenship and national culture cannot be divorced from the consideration of a major social element in both societies: the original inhabitants of the territories prior to their colonization by the European settlers. This group of people, which over the course of the national histories of these two countries was reduced to the status of minority on its own ancestral land , has since the early 1960s demonstrated increased agency by mounting a campaign of political, cultural, economic and social mobilization to reclaim its rights, most notably through the recognition of sovereignty, and to re-negotiate its relationship with the settler majority societies. The outcome of this mobilization is often portrayed in an interesting account that shows Canada to have gone further than Australia in the accommodation of indigenous rights and the righting of the historical injustices towards them. This thesis will be an attempt to reassess the veracity of this portrayal through a comparative study of the struggle for indigenous rights in both countries.Show less
This thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I...Show moreThis thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I take on the theory of nation and nationalism as a framework to discuss and visually analyse the portraits of Kenya's four president and citizens portrait in the form of identity photography. By first establishing how modern-state Kenya came into being, the discussion set a premise to the motivation behind the study. The first chapter analyses the standardised official presidential state portraits, their materiality, physicality and their symbolism to communicate a change of leadership in Kenya. The second chapter investigates the 'self-fashioned' portraits of the presidents which take on different aesthetics and visual codes creating different meanings and therefore are interpreted using other references. The last chapter is a shift from 'honorific' portraiture of the presidents to the 'repressive' class of the sitters- the citizens. This chapter investigates citizen's portraits used in the colonial times to control movements of labourers and surveillance and how it is now used as a form of document of National Identification. This thesis argues that all the mentioned kinds of portraiture contributed to disseminating the idea of nationhood.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
The societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by...Show moreThe societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by taking on the Museo de América as a case study. The Museo de América was chosen due to the limited international scholarly literature on the relationship museums in Spain, a once powerful and important colonial power, have with contemporary museological discourse. The research question is therefore, to what extent is the Museo de América able to create ‘contact zones’ and capture the changing narrative about indigenous communities in the Americas. This thesis uses Anthony Shelton’s methodology underlying critical museology as a set of tools as well as James Clifford’s concept of ‘museums as contact zones’. This research provides a better understanding of how an ethnographic museum in Spain addresses the colonial and authoritative practices in which museums were built on. The analysis of the Museo shows that some of the Museo’s underlying curatorial practices are consistent with Shelton’s methodological interdictions. However it also identifies a few limitations to the Museo’s capacity to navigate the challenges of bridging historical and cultural gaps across centuries. The most significant being the lack of an indigenous voice regarding the conquest itself. By including indigenous voices and presenting them as active participants, museums can play a critical role in providing visitors with the tools to better understand the evolution of modern society’s values.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis compares the texts of Vietnamese national history written in the colonial period by two competing reformist intellectuals Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải. Exposed to the currents of...Show moreThis thesis compares the texts of Vietnamese national history written in the colonial period by two competing reformist intellectuals Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải. Exposed to the currents of thought such as Social Darwinism and the theory of evolution in early twentieth century Asia, both of them realised the backwardness of Vietnam and stressed the necessity of reform. However, Phan decided to fight against the French while Hoàng chose to collaborate with them. As will be shown in this thesis, both Phan and Hoàng, despite the difference of their political stances, endeavoured to justify their respective propositions by constructing the historic past of Vietnam. As two reformist intellectuals, Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải regarded the introduction of Western civilisation in late nineteenth century Asia as a key moment for the Vietnamese people to get rid of their backward conditions and evolve into a civilised nation. However, they shared different opinions about the nature of this transition of Vietnam. Phan Bội Châu was inclined to view the French invasion as a “Messianic” moment which marked the “rupture” between the past and present in Vietnamese history. In his historiography, Vietnamese society in the past centuries was inherently barbarous, and this barbarousness led to the current backwardness of the country. Meanwhile, Phan Bội Châu, as an anti-French activist, emphasised that the salvation of the Vietnamese nation should never rely upon the assistance of France. He insisted that albeit France was a civilised state, it played an anti-progressive role in the process of Vietnam’s modernisation. Therefore, resisting against the French colonisation naturally became the most important step in the national salvation and rejuvenation. To justify his anti-French proposition, Phan constructed a genealogy of national heroes who, out of their inherent “anti-foreign nature”, participated in the resistance against China’s invasions in the previous millennia. Meanwhile, he included the present anti-French revolution into the glorious anti-foreign tradition of the Vietnamese nation. Hoàng Cao Khải systematically refuted Phan in Việt sử kính and Việt sử yếu. Based on the theory of the transition of models of civilisation, however, Hoàng Cao Khải argued that it was not the inherent barbarousness of the Vietnamese people but the decay of the model of civilisation that Vietnam followed in previous times that resulted in the inferior status of Vietnam in the current international competition. In Hoàng’s narrative, the history of Vietnam is depicted as a gradual and consistent process towards civilisation, in which China, because of its superiority in competition, functioned as the first model for Vietnam to follow and eventually made the later a domain of civilisation. Considering the power of France which had been demonstrated in its recent competitions with Vietnam, Hoàng suggested that France had already replaced China as the new model of civilisation for Vietnam to follow. In the face of Phan Bội Châu’s emphasis on the anti-foreignness of the Vietnamese nation, Hoàng employed the analytical framework of the dichotomy between “universal principle” and “brute force” to analyse those uprisings against the China’s colonisation and argued that most of them were merely contingent responses to inappropriate policies based on the “brute force”. Moreover, by utilising the ideas of Social Darwinism to reinterpret the connotation of “universal principle”, Hoàng justifies the behaviour which employed “brute force” in the process of disseminating so-called “universal principle” and civilisation. Apart from their interpretation of the past, this thesis examines their imagination of the future as well. Based on their discussions about the issue of Champa, it points out the shared “pro-imperial” orientation of Phan and Hoàng in their opinions on the international status of Vietnam after modernisation. That is, neither Phan (despite his anti-colonialist stance) nor Hoàngrealised the underlying nature of the phenomenon of colonialism itself let alone intending to challenge or subvert the current colonial order. The world they envisioned in which a decolonised Vietnam situated is still established upon asymmetrical relations of power.Show less
Jan Jacob Maria de Groot (1854 – 1921) was an important scientist who worked as a sinologist for the Dutch government and taught at the university of Leiden and Berlin. During his life, he studied...Show moreJan Jacob Maria de Groot (1854 – 1921) was an important scientist who worked as a sinologist for the Dutch government and taught at the university of Leiden and Berlin. During his life, he studied the religious customs of Chinese people in Indonesia as well as elsewhere. He was one of the great curators of the Leiden collection and also curated in Berlin, but his work was removed after his death. In this thesis, the progressive development of his works will be sketched; an attempt will be made to understand his relevance and function within the history of sinology in Leiden; and finally, his relationship to the Dutch colonial government will be put in a post-colonial perspective. Ultimately, the goal of the work is find out what Jan Jacob Maria de Groot’s goals and ambitions meant for the Dutch colonial government, and why his relevance in the history of sinology is often understated.Show less
This paper will question to what extent educational policy during British indirect rule shaped the socio-political identity of post-colonial southern Sudan and how it articulates with internal and...Show moreThis paper will question to what extent educational policy during British indirect rule shaped the socio-political identity of post-colonial southern Sudan and how it articulates with internal and external post-colonial dynamics in the context of the 2011 secession. It focuses on educational policies because of its instrumental importance in creating the agencies for the British indirect rule, which is therefore valuable to examine if one wants to understand the impact of indirect rule on post-colonial societies. This paper will argue that it was the colonial legacy of indirect rule -embodied in the ‘Southern Policy’ - that shaped the socio-political landscape of post-colonial southern Sudan, which led to a decades long struggle of resistance and self-determination towards the assimilation politics of the Arab dominated government in Khartoum. And, that it was in the post-9/11 era that the internal and external dynamics coincided and allowed southern Sudan to vote for its independence.Show less
This thesis will argue that the collaboration between local elites in Aceh, the uleebalang, and the Dutch colonials after the establishment of civil governance in 1918 was an uneasy one. In...Show moreThis thesis will argue that the collaboration between local elites in Aceh, the uleebalang, and the Dutch colonials after the establishment of civil governance in 1918 was an uneasy one. In contrast with existing historiography that depicted the position of uleebalang merely as the henchmen of the colonial authorities, this thesis will examine a specific event, that is the involvement of several uleebalang in North Aceh into the mass organization Sarekat Islam (Union of Islam) in the 1920s, to provide new insight into the nature of the collaboration and the making of modern political life in Aceh. In brief, this case presented anxiety and distrust of Dutch officials towards their local collaborator, the uleebalang, due to their activity in Sarekat Islam. By focusing on 1918-1923, this thesis attempts to analyze how Aceh was integrated into the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies by means of collaboration with its local elites, the uleebalang. Rather than looking at the selected events of Sarekat Islam in North Aceh merely as local dynamics as previous research has done, this thesis will discuss the connection between local events with wider networks of anti-colonial resistance in the Dutch East Indies between 1918-1923. In doing so, this thesis aims to fill the gap in the historiography of colonial Aceh in its early years of civil rule while also contributing to the historiography of colonial civil administration of the Dutch East Indies.Show less
Hoe heeft het beeld van de bevolking van koloniale gebieden in Nederlandse politieke teksten en reisdagboeken zich ontwikkeld tussen 1800-1830 en hoe is dit beïnvloed door de Verlichting en contact...Show moreHoe heeft het beeld van de bevolking van koloniale gebieden in Nederlandse politieke teksten en reisdagboeken zich ontwikkeld tussen 1800-1830 en hoe is dit beïnvloed door de Verlichting en contact met de lokale bevolking?Show less
The relationship between Britain and Singapore was tied under colonial history, and it is known that post- colonial relationships are sensitive in nature. In order to determine the nature of the...Show moreThe relationship between Britain and Singapore was tied under colonial history, and it is known that post- colonial relationships are sensitive in nature. In order to determine the nature of the relationship, there is another significant figure that shared parallel political endeavours with Lee Kuan Yew, and that is Britain’s first female prime minister Margaret Thatcher. On top of that, both prime ministers shared the same reputation of being tenacious and often acted dictatorially. Among two other British prime ministers during Lee Kuan Yew’s tenure, Margaret Thatcher had a significant relationship with the Singaporean prime minister. They also both ended their premierships on the same day, 28th November 1990. A country’s prime minister can act as the main representative of the government and often the leader reflects the country’s policy. Therefore, this BA thesis will analyze the questions: How does the relationship of Lee Kuan Yew and Margaret Thatcher illustrate the alliance between the former coloniser and the colonised? And how did they perceive each other as prime ministers?Show less
