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Labor’s Red century Safundi Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Alex Lichtenstein
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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In memory of Tom Lodge Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Jonathan Hyslop
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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“Gays, it is said, are moving from the swish era into the macho era”: mapping the Butch Shift in the early South African gay press Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Theo Sonnekus
Drawing from a content analysis of early issues of the gay newspapers, Link/Skakel and Exit, I map the force with which the masculinization of gay culture, the Butch Shift, entered the white gay im...
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“Remember me”: Thami Mnyele and the question of sacrifice Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Diana Wylie
This essay looks at the short life of one artist, Thami Mnyele, assassinated in 1985. Mnyele sacrificed his life for a vague vision of equality and sincere love for ordinary people. The essay notes...
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“Asiphelelanga!” (we are not complete!): #FeesMustFall movement and higher education in post-apartheid South Africa Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Tshepo Masango Chéry
This article focuses on the Fees Must Fall Protests in South Africa as a decolonial strategy implemented by university students who seek a fully liberated South Africa. Students’ core demands of th...
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Excellence in art is unutterable: interview with Isidore Diala Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Chibueze Darlington Anuonye
In this interview with Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, Nigerian writer and respected literary scholar Isidore Diala speaks about his recently published play, The Truce, and about the impact of literar...
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African historical fiction and the Novel of Ideas Safundi Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Mphuthumi Ntabeni
This paper tries to interrogates the way in which the demands for the African novel of ideas can be fulfilled on an African historical fiction. It uses thesis of Professor Jean-Marie Jackson’s semi...
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Anti-apartheid transatlantic networks in the age of the civil rights struggle: Bloke Modisane in the United States Safundi Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Siyabonga Njica
In the Spring of 1963, London-based South African exiled artist and intellectual Bloke Modisane traveled to the United States on a co-sponsored visiting lecture tour of ten historically black colle...
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Editor’s note Safundi Pub Date : 2023-12-28 Christopher J. Lee
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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Imagining Africa: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever vs. The Woman King Safundi Pub Date : 2023-12-28 Jacqueline Tafadzwa Nyathi
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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Dust in the eyes: the murder of Rick Turner was not supposed to be solved Safundi Pub Date : 2023-12-18 Billy Keniston
Rick Turner – a Utopian philosopher and anti-apartheid activist – was murdered in his Durban home on January 8th, 1978. While everyone suspects that Turner was assassinated by the apartheid securit...
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Seeing Sudan: visual archives in a time of war Safundi Pub Date : 2023-12-04 Kylie Thomas
This visual essay focuses on archival photographs from Sudan that form part of the Sudan Family Archives, a collection assembled and digitized by photographer Ala Kheir, in association with the Pho...
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A priest, a ghost and a recce walk into a bar… Masculinities in Ivan Vladislavić’s “The Terminal Bar” Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Rilette Swanepoel
Ivan Vladislavić’s short story “The Terminal Bar” has been neglected in criticism. This article reads the story as a critique of South Africa’s Border War (1966–1989), and of the society that forme...
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Reason, cultural plurality and individuality between literature and philosophy Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Lucy Allais
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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The dying of concepts Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Prathama Banerjee
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Editor’s note Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Christopher J. Lee
Published in Safundi (Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2022)
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“Their ideas are imprisoned in action”: reflections on the African Novel of Ideas Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Matthew Taunton
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Staying with the crisis: a review of Eve Fairbanks’s The Inheritors Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Wamuwi Mbao
Published in Safundi (Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2022)
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New mythologies: violence and colonialism in Hollywood blockbusters Safundi Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Priscilla Boshoff
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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African literature of ideas and the prospect of collective individualism Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-06 Darlington Chibueze Anuonye
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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On the “wrong” side of history: fabulating history in The Woman King (2022) Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-06 Obakeng Kgongoane
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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The African novel and the question of communalism in African philosophy Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Zeyad El Nabolsy
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Wakanda’s ‘digital colonialism’: looking to Africa to re-form Hollywood’s gaze Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Jeanne-Marie Viljoen
With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Hollywood’s approach to such films is slowly accommodating a domestic audience’s demand for diversity. Yet, there is a...
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The (woman) kingdoms of Dahomey and Wakanda: a roundtable on The Woman King and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Diana Adesola Mafe
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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Breaking molds, making history: The Woman King and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Safundi Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Diana Adesola Mafe
Published in Safundi (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2023)
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Remembering the Durban Moment after fifty years: a conversation with Peter Cole Safundi Pub Date : 2023-09-12 Peter Cole, Christopher J. Lee
Published in Safundi (Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2022)
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In excess of the nation: a conversation about Pan-Africanism, African literature, and political imaginations of the past and future with Christopher Ouma Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-27 Christopher J. Lee, Christopher E. W. Ouma
Published in Safundi (Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2022)
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Cultural theory in post-apartheid South Africa: ecotones as theory for cultural enquiry in Mad Buddies (Gray Hofmeyr, 2012) Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-17 Addamms Mututa
Abstract This article discusses ecotones as a theory and method for cultural enquiry in post-apartheid South Africa. It applies semiotics to critique cultural configurations in Gray Hofmeyr’s Mad Buddies, arguing that, first, the film’s figuration of ecotone through the imagery of debris enables theorization of the shift toward post-racial cultural thought; and, two, that visual of ruins affords us
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After apartheid: investigating what modern South Africans inherited Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Christopher Williams
Published in Safundi (Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2022)
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The book of lonely idea(l)s Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-10 Doyle Calhoun
Published in Safundi (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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The humanity of whiteness in Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Adam Levin
Abstract In this article, I will use a textual analysis of Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother (1998) as a framework through which to critique and expand upon the concerns reflected in current studies of whiteness. As I will observe, the field of Whiteness Studies offers an insightful lens through which to examine the constructions of whiteness, particularly with regards to how it capitalizes on Black
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People with intellectual disability at the Grahamstown Lunatic Asylum: humanizing photographs, stories and narratives from the casebooks, 1890–1920 Safundi Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Rory du Plessis
Abstract In the medical literature of South Africa in the early twentieth century, Dr Thomas Duncan Greenlees published a dehumanized portrayal of people with intellectual disability (PWID) who were institutionalized at the Grahamstown Lunatic Asylum. To restore the humanity of the institutionalized patients, the asylum’s casebooks provide a valuable resource. To this end, the article investigates
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Revising race and social mobility in adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Safundi Pub Date : 2023-07-18 Ursula Saba Vooght
Abstract F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an American novel that has arguably established a global cultural recognizability, with the Hollywood adaptations of this novel commanding the biggest budgets and stars. However, Fitzgerald’s depiction of race poses problems for the contemporary reader, as it both critiques and replicates racism. Baz Luhrmann’s Hollywood-produced The Great Gatsby (2013)
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In the beginning… was the collective: Fallism, collectives, and “leaderlessness” Safundi Pub Date : 2023-06-14 Khanyisile Mbongwa, Lucy Valerie Graham
In this paper, we trace debates on the origins and morphology of the Fallist student movement in South Africa, a social movement that advocated for decolonized, free university education, and an en...
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Writing against white fragility in Haji Mohamed Dawjee’s Sorry, Not Sorry: Experiences of a Brown Woman in a White South Africa Safundi Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Lena Englund
Haji Mohamed Dawjee’s essay collection Sorry, Not Sorry: Experiences of Brown Woman in a White South Africa draws on personal experiences in its representation of inequality and racism in South Afr...
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Child rape: moving toward visibility, voice, and an ethics of understanding in Tshepang: The Third Testament Safundi Pub Date : 2023-05-29 Joti Bilkhu
Lara Foot Newton’s play, Tshepang: The Third Testament, is based on the 2001 rape of a nine-month-old child in South Africa (the child, who survived, was renamed Baby Tshepang, or “Hope”). Systemic...
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Safundi editorial board Safundi Pub Date : 2023-05-09
Published in Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies (Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 2022)
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Editor’s note Safundi Pub Date : 2023-05-09 Shane Graham
Published in Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies (Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 2022)
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Introduction to Safundi special issue: anti-Apartheid movements on campus Safundi Pub Date : 2023-05-09 Derek Charles Catsam
Abstract This brief essay provides an introduction to this special issue on anti-apartheid movements on college and university campuses.
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Dora Tamana: travel, home and the transnational politics of African motherhood Safundi Pub Date : 2023-04-10 Nicholas Grant
This article explores the intersectional politics of Dora Tamana from the 1940s to the early 1980s. A key figure in the anti-apartheid movement, Tamana’s activism was deeply informed by her own hea...
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The discourses of the anti-apartheid sanctions movement in the United States, 1972–86 Safundi Pub Date : 2023-04-03 Samuel Mallinson, Richard Johnson
The passage of the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act over the veto of President Ronald Reagan was a stunning victory for US campaigners opposed to apartheid in South Africa. Sanctions against t...
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“A credible undertaking”: apathy and anti-apartheid activism at SUNY Brockport Safundi Pub Date : 2023-03-20 Angela Thompsell
Abstract Apathy was the word most often used to describe student responses to apartheid at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport in the 1980s. Yet in 1987, SUNY became the third university in the nation to award Nelson Mandela an honorary degree, and they did so at Brockport, in western New York State. Three years later, a student-led initiative successfully created three scholarships for
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“North Texas stopped being a spectator”: anti-apartheid efforts at the University of North Texas Safundi Pub Date : 2023-03-16 Lacy Noel Molina
Abstract Nestled north of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, the University of North Texas (UNT). UNT, formerly known as North Texas State University (NTSU), contributed to global anti-apartheid efforts. Sparked by NTSU students, protests, rallies, and lectures created a new arena for these young activists to voice concern and take action against the apartheid regime in South Africa during the late 1980s
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“Until the people govern”: the Black students’ movement at Rhodes University in the 1980s Safundi Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Janeke Thumbran, Katherine Gillam
Abstract This paper examines the emergence of the Black Students’ Movement (BSM), a black organization formed at Rhodes University in the 1980s. The BSM aligned its anti-apartheid politics with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and black consciousness philosophy. It emerged due to the conservative disposition of the Student Representative Council (SRC), and sought to address both the issues that black
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The higher morality: Students for a Democratic Society confronts apartheid Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Eric J. Morgan
Abstract Five years after the Sharpeville Massacre propelled South Africa and apartheid into international consciousness, Students for a Democratic Society, founded in 1960 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, organized a significant protest in New York City to both commemorate the anniversary of Sharpeville and, more pressing, to raise awareness of the connections between United States cor
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The anti-apartheid movement at Grand Valley State College in West Michigan Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Eric Covey
Abstract The history of the anti-apartheid movement at Michigan’s public universities tends to focus on MSU in Lansing, UM in Ann Arbor, and WMU in Kalamazoo. The anti-apartheid movement outside of these and a few less-well-known cases remains largely unknown. Drawing on a small selection of archival documents, this essay explores the history of the anti-apartheid movement at Grand Valley State College
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“Their fight was our fight”: a brief exploration of the contribution of Nigerian universities to the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Ini Dele-Adedeji
Abstract Focusing on Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife (OAU) (formerly known as the University of Ife11 The university will be referred to as Ife in this article.) in Nigeria’s Western region in the 1970s and 1980s, this article explores the internationalist politics of both students and academic staff and how they influenced Nigeria’s international relations policies, particularly during the apartheid
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Divestment and lemon meringue pie: anti-apartheid movements at the University of Florida in Gainesville Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Jacob Ivey
Abstract This paper will analyze the 40-day sleep-in and protest at the University of Florida to illustrate the growing popular support for the anti-apartheid movement amongst student and citizen activists in the 1980s. Particular focus will be paid to the issue of divestment, student protests, and public action that called for the university to remove itself from financially supporting the apartheid
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Anti-apartheid activism in Ghana’s universities, 1960s–1980s Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-17 Emmanuel Asiedu-Acquah
Abstract This article is an account of student anti-apartheid activism in Ghana’s universities from the 1960s to the 1980s. Through various organizations, associations, public statements, demonstrations and campus journalism, Ghanaian student activists expressed opposition to apartheid and solidarity with the struggle against it in South Africa. Animated by pan-Africanism, anti-colonialism and a general
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Archiving the US campus anti-apartheid movement Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-16 Christine Root
Abstract The author explains the history, priorities, and contents of the African Activist Archive Project (AAAP), a free website and digital archive of the Southern Africa solidarity movement in the United States from the 1950s to the 1990s. This article focuses on materials from the anti-apartheid movement on US campuses, identifying both strengths and weaknesses in what materials about campus-based
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Campus activism at Yale: fragmentary memories and reflections on the 1980s Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-15 Karin A. Shapiro, Dan Letwin, Eric Arnesen
Abstract American college campuses during the Reagan years were far from quiescent or complacent. Anti-apartheid activism and efforts to get universities to divest from companies doing business in South Africa dominated campus activism in the mid-1980s. To dramatize racial and economic oppression in South Africa, students built shanties to represent the poverty and exploitation of that county’s black
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“It is the principle behind the issue which is important and sacred”: Kenyan rugby and the 1980 University of Nairobi campaign to end British contact with apartheid sport Safundi Pub Date : 2023-02-15 Michelle M. Sikes, Alfred Anangwe
Abstract A London-based rugby team toured Kenya mere days after the recently concluded, extremely controversial 1980 British Lions rugby tour of apartheid South Africa. Failure by Kenyan officials to retract the invitation for yet another British team was an outright denial of clearly stated anti-apartheid principles. After student campaigners advocated a boycott of the tour by the London Metropolitan
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Lovers not fighters: Afropolitan masculinity in two South African romcoms Safundi Pub Date : 2022-12-13 Nicky Falkof
This paper considers two South African romantic comedies, Tell Me Sweet Something (Akin Omotoso, 2015) and Happiness is a Four-Letter Word (Thabang Moleya, 2016). Both are set in a wealthy, sophist...
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GQ Style: coloniality and camp in fashion for men Safundi Pub Date : 2022-11-22 Stella Viljoen
The South African edition of the American men’s lifestyle magazine, Gentlemen’s Quarterly or GQ, launched in December 1999/January 2000. GQ Style, an aspirational supplementary magazine, sold separ...
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Revisiting the ‘Black Peril,’ South Africa, circa 1912: Popular Culture, Group Identity, and New Ways of Knowing. Safundi Pub Date : 2022-08-23 Roger S. Levine
Abstract In 1912, in a grand public spectacle, the majority of the white population of the Witwatersrand mobilized against perceived “outrages” on women and children committed by African men in either a consensual or non-consensual manner: the “Black Peril.” As a case study, this paper focuses on select popular culture sources generated by this particular “scare” as its evidentiary base. It builds
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Reflections on editing a South African literary studies journal Safundi Pub Date : 2022-06-24 Michael Titlestad
Abstract This article reflects on the history of English Studies in Africa, the journal published biannually since 1958 that is affiliated to the Department of English, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. My reflections, based on my 14-year editorship, are anecdotal. They are motivated by three considerations. First, journal editorship is a largely invisible practice in both institutions
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Taking wing: Vulnerability and queer/trans resistance in The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar Safundi Pub Date : 2022-06-09 Cheryl Stobie
Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerabilities of groups including lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, as well as migrants. Zeyn Joukhadar’s novel, The Thirty Names of Night (2020), comprises two alternating narratives of three generations of Syrian Americans questing to establish their identities in societies that quell otherness. Drawing on the insights
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“Alternative solutions for the alternative society”: labor and neoliberalism in Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup Safundi Pub Date : 2022-05-18 Josh Jewell
Abstract In postcolonial criticism of South African fiction there is both a failure to account for the material realities of the present and an overhasty desire to think beyond it to the future. In this article, I look at how Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup (2001) represents the material continuities of apartheid in the form of clientelistic, dependent labor. Whilst the progressive protagonist Julie believes