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Sacred Queer Stories: Personal reflections from community-activist researchers
Get PDFThis roundtable was first convened as part of the 6th Es’kia Colloquium hosted by the Department of African Literature at Wits University, South Africa on the 15th and 16th September 2022. The discussion engages questions regarding knowledge production, method and (inter)textualities in relation to the book, Sacred Queer Stories: Ugandan LGBTQ+ Refugee Lives and the Bible (2021), co-authored by Adriaan van Klinken and Johanna Stiebert with Brian Sebyala aand Fredrick Hudson
Editorial: Expanding Methodological, Literary and Cultural Frontiers within Feminist studies of Religion
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Preparing African youths for the future of work: The case of Rwanda
Get PDFThis study explores the far-reaching changes in the world of work due to the emergence of the digital economy against a background of rising income inequality, concerns about job losses and high levels of unemployment, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, More specifically, it explores the issue of how African governments and other stakeholders are preparing young people for the future of work. It comprises a case study of Rwanda. Data was collected from documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews, and analysed with MaxQDA. Rwanda has sought to become a knowledge economy, and has therefore developed a comprehensive policy framework and several programmes for equipping young people with digital skills. There are also more than 20 incubators and hubs fostering digital start-ups in Kigali. Several international organisations have started training programmes to support of the Rwandan government’s vision.The study finds that digitalisation could help to resolve sub-Saharan Africa’s employment problems through freelancing, labour outsourcing, and start-ups. However, there is a need for deliberate policies and programmes to prepare young people for the future of work. Rwanda is doing well in this regard, and other SSA countries should evaluate its model
Using Blockchain Technology to Curb Voter Fraud in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges
Get PDFBlockchain is gradually changing the way in which data is stored, accessed and processed. Could this help Nigeria to achieve free, fair and credible elections? This study discusses how blockchain technology could be used in that country’s electoral processes – specifically, how it could prevent electoral fraud by providing a secure and transparent way of storing and accessing voting data. It reviews existing literature on the subject, and analyses current and potential applications of blockchain technology in ensuring electoral integrity. The study does not focus on the computational aspects of blockchain, but on its potential to curb electoral fraud in Nigeria. It also discusses the potential benefits and challenges of implementing blockchain technology in electoral systems in Nigeria, examines the various policy considerations and potential solutions, provides actionable recommendations, and suggests areas where blockchain could be effectively integrated into Nigeria’s current electoral system
Reflections on the current state and future of strategic communication as paradigm and practice
Get PDFThis paper reflects upon disciplinary developments since the publication of the seminal article by Overton-de Klerk and Verwey in 2013 on emerging paradigm shifts in strategic communication. It also reflects upon the implications of several disruptive global events for these paradigm shifts since the untimely passing of Verwey in 2019. It is argued that the paradigm shifts, as they are currently framed, can lead to a continuing linearity dilemma and binary trap of either-or thinking. A prognosis for the future of strategic communication in paradigm and practice in five statements is provided. The author suggests that the time has come to move beyond postmodern thinking towards both-and thinking and embrace a more comprehensive approach of critical complexity, acknowledging the reciprocal relationship between the parts and the whole. Within a complexity framework, it is proposed that a reflective regeneration of strategic communication includes a scrutiny of new logics and lenses relevant in an African context, including Radical Reason and metamodernism, coupled with lateral, collaborative transdisciplinary responses to digital and other complexities facing humanity, also in the workplace
The UK, US, and Mauritius: A clash of interests
Get PDFI attended a conference on the Chagosian question in Pretoria in October 2022 while serving as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPACT) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and I have described some of the discussions that were facilitated by participants in this essay. Representatives of the Chagosian diaspora, the ambassador of Mauritius to South Africa, scientific interpretations in papers presented, and comments by other Chagosians on the realisation of their rights, constitute the foundation of this report. Diaspora Chagosians are torn between Mauritius’s fight for sovereignty rights and the interests of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) on the island. They yearn to return to their ancestral land, and regain their identity and attain self-determination. Second, Mauritius fights for justice is understood to mean regaining control of Chagos. The activities and standpoints of the UK and the US, which have allied military interests, were critically examined by academicians and Chagosians. The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) order requesting that the UK return Chagos Island to Mauritius has caused a conflict of interest between Mauritius, the UK, and the US. For the Chagosians, who view self-identity and self-determination as issues of rights under international law that should not be denied, the disregard of the ICJ’s judgment by the global powers would continue to signify statelessness to the majority of the Chagosians
Evangelical Christianity and Criminal Rehabilitation: A Clinical Sociological Approach to Stigma and Identity Management
Get PDFCrime and religion are social constructs that indicate what society considers acceptable and deviant behavior. The connection is further complicated when considering how the formerly incarcerated integrate back into society after incarceration. This article is an engaged scholarship that utilizes clinical sociology to understand the role of religious redemption and criminal rehabilitation. The article specifically utilizes elements of symbolic interactionism to explore how identity, religious conversion, and community impact ex-felons. The author argues that religious redemption is essential for the formerly incarcerated because it allows them to replace their criminal identity with a new one and reinterpret previous mistakes into their life narrative. The article ends with action steps that can be put into practice by religious organizations, nonprofits, and governmental agencies
Introducing Black Academic Voices: South Africa and Beyond
Get PDFThis special issue is part of efforts by the Department of Leadership and Transformation, at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria, to make a contribution towards the building of the scholarship of transformation in an effort to continue the work to making our universities our own. Again, this special issue builds on the work started in the 2019 award winning edited volume Black Academic Voices: The South African Experience to share the multiple stories of experiences of the higher education sector. The only exception in this issue is that the experiences shared include those from other parts of the world. From the multiple launch seminars hosted for Black Academic Voices (2019) it became clearer that there are multiple Black academic voices in the university that require our ear, thus this special issue provides the much-needed reflective space for the unpacking of the politics of being black in the academy. In South Africa such reflective undertakings are recent and timely (Mabokela and Magubane, 2004; Khunou, Canham, Khoza-Shangase, Phaswana, 2019; Magoqwana, Maqabuka, and Tshoaedi, 2019)
Wrestling to Exist: Womanist Struggles of Junior Scholars in South African Higher Education Institutions
Get PDFThe waves of 2015/2016 #FeesMustFall protests saw South African students questioning every inch of the higher education structure and its exclusionary patriarchal racist roots. Few alliances between students and staff were created because of the “us vs. them” divide, despite junior scholars in particular, having a great deal in common with students and the oppression and trauma they endure. “Post-FMF” saw many institutions scramble to create “transformative policies” for students and minority staff like women, people of colour, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community and so on. Now, years later, everyone has policy fatigue. Minority staff have been pushed back to the margins and students battle the same challenges the fallists questioned. This paper with be a narrative study tracking the experiences of three junior scholars, black women at historically white universities; with the pseudonyms *Thoko, *Andile and *Thandazile. The research took a narrative approach rooted in qualitative research. It studies their insiderness/outsiderness to show just how little work institutions have done to ensure equality and inclusivity. This piece unpacks issues of belonging, and their experience as they try to navigate being postgraduate (PG) students and being staff, and being insiders and outsiders in both. This discussion is in relation to Alice Walker’s womanism theorising, focused on the experiences of black women. The authors also bring their own life experiences because the strong similarities between their own experiences and those of their participants are impossible to ignore. The authors’ diverse scholarly background is used in the analysis, leaning towards Critical Race Theorists like Cornel West’s discussion on black nihilism to better understand the aggression of black men towards black women in the academy. This is juxtaposed with a crisis of masculinity discussion. These experiences will also be viewed from a victimological perspective
‘Emerging forms of spatialised and socialised authority’ among ‘tenure-insecure peri-urbanites’ in African peri-urban spaces: A review study
Get PDFThis paper explores the ‘emerging forms of spatialised and socialised authority’ adopted by tenure-insecure peri-urbanites to secure coveted land in African peri-urban spaces. The paper demonstrates that tenure-insecure peri-urbanites are increasingly utilising various formal and informal institutions – ‘emerging forms of spatialised and socialised authority’, in the form of state functionaries, political party allegiance, traditional leaders, cooperatives, lobbying groups, legal courts, and religion and the occult to access and secure land in African peri-urban spaces. The review demonstrates how land remains of economic, social and emotional importance among tenure-insecure peri-urbanites. It further indicates that tenure-insecure peri-urbanites are not passive but ‘nimble-footed and responsive’, as they find ways to secure land by drawing on various normative orders like the courts and sometimes through evasion, patronage, performance and other means of conviviality. The paper also highlights the complex power dynamics characterising peri-urban areas and underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of the multiple actors involved in land governance. The paper recommends the need for effective and inclusive mechanisms of access and security over land to balance the interests of diverse actors and promote the rights of tenure-insecure peri-urbanites in peri-urban spaces. Overall, the paper helps to broaden the scope of actors that need to be engaged in the planning and governance of peri-urban spaces in the age of complex peri-urbanisation processes