UP Journals (Univ. of Pretoria)
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For Africa: The visual identity for the Johannesburg Olympic bid. Interview with Iaan Bekker
No full textIn August 1993, the Johannesburg City Council, through the National Olympic Committee, put out a brief to selected design agencies requesting an identity to support their bid against Cape Town and Durban to host the 2004 Olympic Games. The proposal they chose to use came from Lindsay Smithers-PCB. Although Cape Town finally won the bid, the editors of Image &) Text found the Johannesburg identity interesting from a design point of view. They approached its designer Iaan Bekker, with an invitation to discuss pertinent aspects in the development of the identity
Phoenixes and ashes: A close reading of selected work from Stairways and Ruins: Stairways and Ruins
No full textIn his curatorial statement for the exhibition Stairways and Ruins (2023), Andrew Lamprecht (2023:4) observes how the artworks in this exhibition emerged from a particular set of dire global circumstances, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing threat of global conflict. Lamprecht (2023:4) suggests that the artworks in this exhibition, made in response to prompts that evoke themes of hope and disillusionment, ‘provided a moment of pause, of reflection and of introspection’. The idea that art reflects a particular historical moment is similarly suggested by the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1996:23), who argues that art embodies the style of a cultural era and reveals the historical being-in-the-world of human beings. He points to art’s ability to manifest, articulate or illuminate cultural and temporal concerns from within the world and time of that culture (Heidegger 1996; Dreyfus 2005). Heidegger also suggests that art reconfigures the traces of the past (Dreyfus 2005:416), a theme observed in several works in the Stairways and Ruins exhibition. Through a close reading of work by Kiveshan Thumbiran, Nicola Grobler, Corné Venter, Louisemarié Combrink, Lesego Motsiri and Pieter Odendaal, Danelle Heenop and Juan Steyn, and Héniel Fourie (in collaboration with Armand Aucamp and Paula Kruger), I consider how these artists reconfigure history as part of a contemporary moment that can be read through the cyclic, allegorical narrative of the myth of the phoenix. While the works thus reflect a particular moment in history, I consider how these artists grapple with what is ultimately part of a life cycle: catchinga phoenix on a burning day
Sivivane sogogo!: An artistic reimagining beyond shadow and stone: Stairways and Ruins
No full textIn 2021, the Centre for Visual Arts (CVA) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) initiated an artistic experiment with the KwaZulu-Natal Museum (KZNM). An artists’ collective formed under the motif of isivivane (the Isivivane Collective) – the isiZulu word for a pile of stones, or cairn – as a physical phenomenon as well as a metaphor for collective achievement through individual gestures over time. The project culminated in 2023 with Sivivane sogogo!, a six-month-long installation. Working with stones from the KZNM’s collections, including hand-axes, bored stones, grindstones, rock engravings, and morabaraba game boards spanning millennia of human/hominin history, the Collective produced an installation that deviated from the museum’s conventional mode of display. Two seminal strategies emerged: a playful approach that prioritised curiosity and problem-solving, and the underpinning principles of receptiveness and collaboration. In a challenge to the hierarchical monopolisation of vision and the museum as purveyor of information, authority shifted to the audience, giving way to an open-ended, individualised interpretation. The co-creation extended to non-human actors as well. From our reflections on this project, we propose an alternative paradigm for sustainable change to modes of museum display that integrates diverse narratives within the constitution of new knowledge through interdisciplinarity and audience participation
A voice for the voiceless: Diane Victor\u27s representation of migrant women in Suie et cendre (Soot and ashes) (2024-2025): Arts activisms and gender-based violence through transnational perspectives
No full textDiane Victor is a white female South African artist who, through her work, has stood up for victims of abuse, such as domestic violence and atrocities, which arguably, most consistently affect the lives of women. Victor’s exhibition Suie et cendre (Soot and ashes) (2024-2025, LAAC Gallery, Dunkirk, France) responds to the plight of displaced francophone women from Africa and Iran residing in Dunkirk. The ongoing global news coverage of the ‘migrant problem’ has resulted in many extreme views about migrants, but Victor engaged with these women directly through a photovoice project aligning with the current decolonial feminist ethos to grant agency and voice to migrants themselves. This article analyses selected examples from the LAAC exhibition to show how close engagement with the migrants has influenced Victor’s working method and iconography. I argue that Victor’s photovoice project provides a platform for marginalised and suppressed voices to be heard, suggesting that their further exploitation is avoided by employing metaphorical imagery, created with ash and smoke, that responds to their stories with compassion and sensitivity. Furthermore, I suggest that the mythical aspects of Victor’s drawings, where meaning resides as much in material and method as in her iconography, encourage an empathic response in viewers
Exploring the value of a fieldwork practicum project at flood relief shelters in KwaZulu-Natal: Reflections of child and youth care students
No full textThis article captures data related to a community-based outreach program that was initiated to assist displaced families affected by the floods in the eThekwini district of KwaZulu-Natal. Guided by qualitative research methodology, eleven child and youth care students, from a university of technology were placed at two shelters to offer psychosocial support to those who had lost their homes and loved ones. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that these community members benefitted immensely from the services offered by students placed at the shelters and that exposure to the physical and emotional hardships of these families created opportunities for the students to utilise their disciplinary knowledge to offer psychosocial support. The study concluded that the university could play a significant role in empowering and supporting disadvantaged community members
Resilience, motivation, and persistence in engineering at a South African university of technology
No full textWhat helps engineering students persist through their demanding academic journey? This qualitative study explores that question through the lens of Ungar’s socio-ecological model of resilience,focusing on senior undergraduates at a South African university of technology. We interviewed seven students and used deductive thematic analysis to trace how resilience operates across multiple layers of their lived experiences. Resilience emerged from dynamic interactions across ecological levels. At the microsystem level, motivation was supported by faculty encouragement, peer relationships, and structured curricula. Family, community support, and mentorship formed strong mesosystem influences. At the exosystem level, institutional infrastructure and policies – particularly challenges related to financial aid and load shedding – both hindered and, at times, strengthened resilience. Macrosystem influences included societal perceptions of engineering as prestigious but difficult, shaping students’ motivations and stress. Rather than viewing resilience as an individual trait, this study reveals it as a socially embedded process shaped by context. We offer practical recommendations for multi-level support: simplify funding systems, invest in empathetic teaching, align curricula with local realities, and strengthen partnerships with families and communities
Reframing student success: Well‑Being as an ecological imperative for student affairs in Africa
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Centring African Vocabularies & Terminologies in Representing the Past: Insights from South African School History Textbooks
No full textHistorical representation, especially in school history textbooks within the African diaspora and other settler-colonial societies, has been shaped by settler grammar. In detail, settler grammar in history refers to how historical narratives are constructed, often relying heavily on colonial languages. These languages influence narratives that uphold colonial perspectives of history. As a result, African ways of knowing and representing their past become marginalised or erased. Along with these colonial languages come colonial vocabularies and terminologies, which play a central role in defining and categorising the world through Eurocentric viewpoints. In the South African context, the writing of history textbooks has been influenced by English vocabularies and terminologies. Through a critical discourse analysis of three selected history textbooks, this paper explores how the development of post-apartheid history textbooks continues to be shaped by settler grammar. Using decolonial theory, the paper argues that it is essential to prioritise African vocabularies and terminologies when constructing African historical narratives. It further contends that historical narratives engaging with colonial discourses should avoid the use of passive language, as it tends to obscure, sanitise, and romanticise the violence inherent in colonialism. The findings show that, because the English language has been universalised and depends on Eurocentric worldviews, it cannot fully capture the nuances, core meanings and deep cultural aspects embedded in African vocabularies and terms when representing their history
Conceptualisation of Decolonisation by Secondary School Teachers of History in Lusaka District of Zambia
No full textDecolonisation of the curriculum has been an important topic in Africa since the 1960s, however, most literature focuses on the content of the curriculum, rather than the role-players who enact it. Teachers play a significant role in the development and implementation of the curriculum, therefore, their conceptualisations of decolonisation will have an important impact on how the decolonisation process eventually unfolds. This study sets out to explore the conception of decolonisation of selected history teachers in relation to the teaching and learning of history in Zambia. The study is anchored in a decolonial perspective by Wa Thiongo (1986) Ndlovu Gatsheni (2019), Mignolo (2007), and Maldonado-Torres (2017) which proceeds from the position of regarding continued decolonisation in the curriculum, and thinking about potential ideas of decolonisation linked to it. The study used a qualitative approach and a case study design. Ten teachers from the Lusaka district were purposively selected and interviewed to determine how they conceptualised decolonisation in the Zambian history curriculum. The data collected from the interviews was analysed thematically. The study found that teacher’s conceptualisation of decolonisation regarding teaching and learning of history included inclusions of neglected histories and knowledge, emphasis on local heroes, aligning to the curriculum to local needs and realities and promoting national identity and values. Thus, the current study concluded that the teachers of history had different understandings of decolonisation and ideas of its application to the history curriculum. This study could inform the teacher education programmes in higher education and decolonising of the school history