Given the success of African women’s literature in disseminating the African Womanist cause, this study examines popular Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines to ascertain whether and in what ways...Show moreGiven the success of African women’s literature in disseminating the African Womanist cause, this study examines popular Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines to ascertain whether and in what ways they are able to reflect, reinforce or contradict the African feminist agenda.Taking an interdisciplinary approach applying qualitative content analysis from literary studies to the content and feature articles of two Nigerian women’s magazines, this study thematically analyzes discourses and practices of femininity in the Nigerian media. Viewed from the African Womanist perspective, this research illustrates that, contrary to the generalization that representations of women in the media are stereotypical and destructive to women, Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines construct positive images of femininity. Women are portrayed as actively carving out spaces for more freedom of choice and achievement for themselves in work, marriage and motherhood as well as issues that pertain to gender equality and empowerment. Magazine discourse thus mirrors the African feminist agenda, affirming that women’s sectional media can act as vehicles for the positive identity formation of women. Through the application of methods and paradigms from African women’s literary studies to the media, this research contributes to the current shifts in methodological approaches to feminist media studies and provides an understanding of how the mass media can play a role in women’s empowerment.Show less
This study examines what the social position of persons with albinism is in Mchinji District, Malawi and how this relates to the situation described by Braathen who conducted research on attitudes...Show moreThis study examines what the social position of persons with albinism is in Mchinji District, Malawi and how this relates to the situation described by Braathen who conducted research on attitudes and beliefs related to people with albinism in Malawi in 2005. At present research that engages with the social and cultural impact of albinism in Africa in general and Malawi in specific appears to be limited and this study contributes to a very limited body of knowledge in the field of albinism in Africa. The aims of this research are threefold: to learn about the views and knowledge of people with albinism and other actors in their social environment (family members, medical personnel, teachers, students and randomly chosen citizens); to explore the relationships persons affected by the condition have with other people; and to create a better understanding of how albinism is perceived in a Malawian context. Based on semi-structured interviews, observations, a newspaper analysis and a survey, this study found out that the social position of persons with albinism in Malawi can be characterised as challenging. Besides physical implications, such as high skin sensitivity and low vision, the condition also has social implications since persons with albinism often face stigma and discrimination from others in society. In addition to these implications that have already been identified in previous studies about albinism in Africa, including Braathen (2005), this research reveals that persons with albinism in Malawi are currently subjected to violence because of the belief that their body parts bring luck and prosperity when used in witchcraft practices. The current study concludes that the social position of persons with albinism has changed significantly during the last decade and that the quality of life of people with the condition is nowadays worse than that of the average Malawian.Show less
Academic research on the controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s has continuously overlooked or generalised the experiences of farm workers, bar a...Show moreAcademic research on the controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s has continuously overlooked or generalised the experiences of farm workers, bar a few key pieces of literature. A similar trend can be found in official discourse, despite the fact farm workers were one of the main groups affected. This oversight can be attributed to their role in Zimbabwean society and the space they occupied within it; from their position under ‘domestic governance’ on Large Scale Commercial Farms (LSCF) as Blair Rutherford has outlined, to their ambiguity in terms of rights to citizenship and perceived ‘foreignness’. This study chooses to enter this discussion through analysis of two of the main print publications at the time: the state-funded The Herald and the independent The Daily News. On a superficial level, these two newspapers have been posited as being at two opposite ends of the political spectrum, with The Herald parroting state rhetoric and The Daily News advocating the views of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). However, this study finds that these two publications were not so divergent, but instead deployed the same discourse in describing the experiences of farm workers during the height of FTLRP between 2001 and 2002. Farm worker experiences were co-opted for the benefit of those with discursive authority, for different reasons, but to the same effect. This discourse did and continues to shadow farm worker realities on-the-ground. Thus, farm workers were routinely denied space within Zimbabwe because they were not easily definable in the binary construction of the actors involved in FTLRP.Show less
This study focuses on sacred forests in the North Pare Mountains, Tanzania, and questions the reasons behind their current conservation. In spite of not being gazetted by the State, studies show...Show moreThis study focuses on sacred forests in the North Pare Mountains, Tanzania, and questions the reasons behind their current conservation. In spite of not being gazetted by the State, studies show that sacred forests in North Pare have a wider variety of endemic flora and fauna and are better preserved than national forests reserves. Although they are small in size, sacred forests are thus important globally. Some scholars suggest that the reason of such high biodiversity is the local culture and religion, or traditional conservation methods, which are decelerating the process of diminishing of these small forest patches. However, these aspects are not studied in depth. This thesis seeks to investigate these ‘traditions’. Sacred forests are in fact being considered a new type of (modern) conservation model. They are considered ideal also because of local caretakers, who enable to organize conservation with low economic expenditures. I argue, however, that the environmental ethics of people in North Pare emerge from a fusion of local Pare worldviews and modern discourses of Christianity, Islam and formal education. Therefore the assumed traditional/modern dichotomy that the new conservation agenda wants to reconcile does not reflect the reality on the ground and, by misunderstanding these dynamics, policies are likely to fail. The findings of this research also clarify that sacred forests and people constitute each other. The forests, in other words, symbolize a group of people. So, new ways of linking the community and the forests can complement recent conservation efforts, which typically neglect environmental values and moral meanings that are at stake in environmental practices and are fundamental for long-term positive results.Show less
The presence of indigenous heritage elements in all the various domains is a hardly avoidable fact in the Canary Islands. The ideological discourses from moderated nationalism to pro-independence...Show moreThe presence of indigenous heritage elements in all the various domains is a hardly avoidable fact in the Canary Islands. The ideological discourses from moderated nationalism to pro-independence perspectives, justify the attention towards “the noble indigenous past”. These political discourses help preserve traditional customs and celebrations in a process referred to as “folklorization”. This is mainly accomplished by turning the indigenous past into museums and ethnographic parks. Similarly,the Canarian moderate nationalism has become the main political force in the archipelago in the recent history of the Spanish democracy. While being for over 20 years in power, the nationalistic party Coalición Canaria has been able to build an identity discourse based on what Estévez called the indigenous patrimonization. The government has been offering funds to support the scientific research, the patrimony management and the encyclopaedic volumes on “Canarian themes” with didactic purposes, all of which have elicited an emotional legitimacy of the above-mentioned concepts. The patrimony management could also be considered as an important political and economical tool used to the re-creation, regulation and conservation of certain patrimonial elements of a culture that often occurs to the detriment of others. The experts’ view serves mostly as a filter through which material items of cultural patrimony are interpreted and regarded as valuable, while others are not. From the perspective of globalization, the protection of the historical patrimony can be interpreted as a resistance against the homogenization of social behaviors and consumption. However, tourists rather than the locals are the biggest consumers of this historical cultural patrimony. Thus, one could argue that it could have been created with the intention to satisfy the tourists’ demands (Estévez, 2004:16). On the one hand, a large part of the scientific community takes a stance against the indigenous heritage commercialization and its consumption by tourists and locals, based on the idea that such processes could undermine the intrinsic value of the indigenous heritage. On the other hand, the artists and their audiences continue to appreciate the value that is to be found in the indigenous imagination, as expressed in social situations when the audiences enjoy music and pottery inspired by the primal cultures of the first inhabitants of the Canaries. The concept of “folklorization” is tightly related to the general social interest of giving to the past a decisive role in the population’s destiny. This tendency provides the Canarian citizens a sense of feeling members of the same community/family and helps sculpt personality. In regard to the past generations, one can only use their remains to draw assumptions about the way they lived, but it is impossible to know exactly how they were and felt. In that sense, the museums assist in re-constructing the history according to scientific, political and ideological assumptions depending on the given historical period (Estévez, 2004:13). A consensual concern seems to exist in regard to preserving the traditions and conserving the cultural patrimony of the Canaries. However, the patrimony is selected through today’s lens. Hence, its preservation is linked to the current demands and uses of such cultural patrimony. In many cases, Estévez argues, the measures applied to classify what could be defined as patrimony, correspond to cost related and opportunistic criteria rather than scientific ones. Indeed there are many instances in the Canary Islands where the archaeology and patrimony management were interrelated with political purposes. In the present, a museum is meant to play a social function based on grounds of cultural democratization. Therefore, while visiting a museum, one expects a reflective and interactive exchange of contrasted scientific information provided to the public to draw their personal conclusions. However, when the explanations provided are too simple, obsolete or ideologically manipulated, the visitors are left with a feeling of confusion. This leads us to the argumentation that the proliferation of archaeological and ethnographical sites across the archipelago has not always been based on historical and archaeological motives, aiming to acquire a better understanding of the indigenous heritage of the Canaries. On the contrary, in most cases such proliferation has been based on economic profits, with tourists and also locals consuming their own patrimony at the cost of falsifying the history.Show less
The thesis examines the relationship between cultural performance and society in the context of breakdance in Uganda. It reflects on the particular appeal of breakdance as a tool for social change...Show moreThe thesis examines the relationship between cultural performance and society in the context of breakdance in Uganda. It reflects on the particular appeal of breakdance as a tool for social change and analyses the challenging agendas that shape and influence the country’s breakdance communities. The central research question is: does breakdance succeed to facilitate individual and social transformation? And if yes, how is this change experienced by the youth in Uganda, and which consequences do these actions have for the social fabric of the country? This actor-centred approach, on the one hand, requires a comprehension of the meaning and nature of social change as understood and experienced by various performers; and on the other hand calls for a contextualisation of its socio-cultural environment and interacting agendas. It thereby offers a detailed description of the self-organising practises and social experiences of youth in Uganda – as well as the structures they are set in.Show less
