Professor Lesibana (JRL) Rafapa, PhD, is former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Educational Studies and Southern African Journal of Folklore Studies. He is Exco member of the English Academy of Southern Africa ; editor of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Editorial Board member of Literator and Alternation; as well as Board Member of the Puku Children's Literature Foundation, among others. His research interest includes post-apartheid South African Literature; representations of African spirituality; intertextual orality; cultural studies; documentary film; Afrocentrism; tropes of feminism; and Es'kia Mphahlele's idea of Afrikan Humanism. After teaching and managing in high school, college, University of Venda and Unisa, he is now Faculty Research Professor at the University of Limpopo.
This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zio... more This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). While such poetry belong to the African Initiated Church's oral tradition, my method of analyzing this mode of oral tradition is one that assumes that as a source of oral history, oral data are situated within specific cultures. It is as a result of this vantage point that historians like Prins (1991:119) could observe that historians should not presume serial time in dealing with oral traditions of different peoples. He cautions that 'serial time is not the only sort of time that men use' (1991:119). The other Western hegemonic approach of history writing that Prins (1991:119) would like to see changing is one in which change is seen as the main index of historical content, because 'there are other thing than change to explain'. I test these theoretical perspectives in my close analysis of the poetry aspect of the ZCC oral tradition, using the oral historical method.
The article dwells, in the main, in rationalizing the popularity of ZCC (Zion Christian Church) w... more The article dwells, in the main, in rationalizing the popularity of ZCC (Zion Christian Church) worship songs. Lest the point of this paper is misconstrued as a homogenization of the ZCC and the collective of South African black cultural groups only segments of which belong to the ZCC, reasons for qualifying this brand of music as popular are outlined. This discussion isolates features of the music that render it a refracted image of South African black folk music. The purpose is to trace the remoulding of such popular black music in the ZCC in order to pin down its identifiable functions. Aspects by which this kind of music belongs at least to sections of the black nation reflected overwhelmingly in the membership of the AIC (African Initiated Church) are also explored. Apart from probing the uniquely ZCC features of this kind of culturally inflected music, the peculiar way in which the music is put to use in this church is discussed, including how such uses differ from those evide...
In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among Africans across the conti... more In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among Africans across the continent in a manner that asserts its nuances as an intelligible coalescence comprehensively strengthening the clarity of its notion. I focus on one initiation center among many like it continuing the institution of male circumcision among the Northern Ndebele people of the Kekana (Ghegana) tribe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
112 Instances of Bessie Head’s distinctive feminism, womanism and Africanness in her novels Bessi... more 112 Instances of Bessie Head’s distinctive feminism, womanism and Africanness in her novels Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indicated it was only after her death in 1986 that she was included in discussions on the Drum generation. The result of her prior exclusion has been the double marginalization of Head’s literary contribution, as one of the overlooked black South African writers of the 1950s and the lack of critical acclaim of her as an individual author. For this reason, she is one of the black South African writers who should consciously be given prominence today. This article utilizes an analysis of Head’s novels not attempted so far. It is difficult to interrogate Head’s work fruitfully, unless questions are addressed to whether she approaches her imaginative writing as an Africanist, a feminist or just as a woman. It will be argued that her fiction highlights the plight of the socially marginalized in eccentric and...
The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion of ... more The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion of which is tampered with Africanism. Such an Africanism encapsulates the valuing of oral history and other aspects of orature such as praise poetry. One way this AIC has preserved IKS through a form of domesticated Christian religion has been by means of aural preservation techniques and the reduction of oral history to writing. The paper aims to probe practices of oral history in the ZCC with the goal of determining how forcefully the history from below can pass comment on African church history of which the ZCC is a part, in a way managing to challenge a rehearsed historical narrative. Primarily, authoritative articles published in the build-up to the AIC’s celebration of its 100th anniversary containing testimonies of church members will be studied. Secondarily, case studies of the ZCC and other research publications on the AIC will be consulted critically in order for a more reliable historical comment on the ZCC to be formulated, drawing from the advantages of both oral and written histories after successfully divesting themselves of methodological weaknesses from both paradigms of history preservation.
Funding from Unisa research office enabled me to complete and present this paper at an internatio... more Funding from Unisa research office enabled me to complete and present this paper at an international scientific conference prior to publication.
In Zimbabwe, the marauding effects of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficie... more In Zimbabwe, the marauding effects of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) are felt in almost all families, among different age groups, class lines, races and creed. The effects are debated and discussed, and different intervention measures are suggested using various forms of media. The communication-science-based interventions and advocacy promoted through film are an integral part of biomedically based scientific research into understanding the nature and manifestations of HIV/AIDS. However, it is worrisome that in most of the research, debates and discussions that focus on HIV /AIDS, adults take the centre-stage. This practice of speaking for youths, and not to and with them, denies the reality that youths are agents of social change whose ‘‘voice’’ and action can have the capacity to transform society for the better in the face of HIV /AIDS. In Zimbabwe, one methodological approach that youths can use to debate and spread th...
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2017
treated as inferiors by their Ashkenazi Jewish bosses. Shimon’s suffering is palpable, and Rosen’... more treated as inferiors by their Ashkenazi Jewish bosses. Shimon’s suffering is palpable, and Rosen’s visit with him in “the land of redemption” is the saddest episode in the book. Still deeply Moroccan in their customs and values, sharing an ingrained sense of reciprocity and interdependence that characterizes Moroccan social relations – the you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours mentality still intact – the Benizri family was truly lost in the maelstrom of the new state of Israel. The departure of the Jews was an incalculable loss for Morocco – for both its Muslims and its Jews. While market raconteurs, Islamist teachers, and Berber farmers go on and on, the Jews are gone, and unlikely ever to return. Rosen speaks of a concert held in Los Angeles in 2007, arranged by UCLA anthropologist Susan Slyomovics, finale of a conference celebrating Clifford Geertz’s life and work in Morocco, where both this writer and Larry Rosen were present. Muslim and Jewish musicians filled the auditorium with the strains of Moroccan music, holding the audience captive. This experience was repeated for me in Casablanca in March 2016, in a vast hall filled with tables laden with food and drink; onstage performers entertained a mixed audience of Moroccan Jews and Muslims for hours. It was impossible to tell who was who, everyone was caught in the spell of the music. After all the words are gone, the sound of music is all that remains.
The continuation of the discourses of apartheid era African language literature characterised by ... more The continuation of the discourses of apartheid era African language literature characterised by the makgoweng motif in post-apartheid English literature written by black people has not been studied adequately. In this study I explored ways in which characters of Northern Sotho linguistic and cultural groups represented the same consciousness in both categories of novels across time. I used the qualitative method and analysed some Northern Sotho primary texts, written before democracy in South Africa, as well as selected post-apartheid English novels written by black people. I focused on the mokgoweng motif to examine the nature of continuity in theme and outlook. I found that the novels considered pointed to a sustainable consciousness, transcending linguistic boundaries and time. The social function of such characterisation representing the formerly oppressed black people, is a revelation of their quest towards selfdefinition in a modern world. The portrayed characters significant...
Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indica... more Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indicated it was only after her death in 1986 that she was included in discussions on the Drum generation. The result of her prior exclusion has been the double marginalization of Head’s literary contribution, as one of the overlooked black South African writers of the 1950s and the lack of critical acclaim of her as an individual author. For this reason, she is one of the black South African writers who should consciously be given prominence today. This article utilizes an analysis of Head’s novels not attempted so far. It is difficult to interrogate Head’s work fruitfully, unless questions are addressed to whether she approaches her imaginative writing as an Africanist, a feminist or just as a woman. It will be argued that her fiction highlights the plight of the socially marginalized in eccentric and seminal ways and that it bears the potential to enrich debates on Africanism, feminism and ...
The quest of this paper is to probe whether globalising post-nationalism impacts on post- aparthe... more The quest of this paper is to probe whether globalising post-nationalism impacts on post- apartheid black South African English literature in a manner that suggests a blurring of distinctive African identities. This is done against the background that black South African literature right from its written beginnings in the early 19th century has coalesced into a taxonomically distinct entity forming a non-negligible component of South African literature written in English. I first analyse two post-apartheid novels written by the black writers Niq Mhlongo (Dog Eat Dog, 2004) and Sindiwe Magona (Beauty’s Gift, 2008). Secondly, I consider three post-apartheid novels by the black writers Phaswane Mpe (Welcome to Our Hillbrow, 2001), Kgebetli Moele (Room 207, 2009) and Kopano Matlwa (Coconut, 2007). I approach an examination of the five post-apartheid novels by separating them into two categories, as a way of indicating that black South African literature of this era remains as stylistica...
This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zio... more This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). While such poetry belong to the African Initiated Church's oral tradition, my method of analyzing this mode of oral tradition is one that assumes that as a source of oral history, oral data are situated within specific cultures. It is as a result of this vantage point that historians like Prins (1991:119) could observe that historians should not presume serial time in dealing with oral traditions of different peoples. He cautions that 'serial time is not the only sort of time that men use' (1991:119). The other Western hegemonic approach of history writing that Prins (1991:119) would like to see changing is one in which change is seen as the main index of historical content, because 'there are other thing than change to explain'. I test these theoretical perspectives in my close analysis of the poetry aspect of the ZCC oral tradition, using the oral historical method.
The article dwells, in the main, in rationalizing the popularity of ZCC (Zion Christian Church) w... more The article dwells, in the main, in rationalizing the popularity of ZCC (Zion Christian Church) worship songs. Lest the point of this paper is misconstrued as a homogenization of the ZCC and the collective of South African black cultural groups only segments of which belong to the ZCC, reasons for qualifying this brand of music as popular are outlined. This discussion isolates features of the music that render it a refracted image of South African black folk music. The purpose is to trace the remoulding of such popular black music in the ZCC in order to pin down its identifiable functions. Aspects by which this kind of music belongs at least to sections of the black nation reflected overwhelmingly in the membership of the AIC (African Initiated Church) are also explored. Apart from probing the uniquely ZCC features of this kind of culturally inflected music, the peculiar way in which the music is put to use in this church is discussed, including how such uses differ from those evide...
In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among Africans across the conti... more In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among Africans across the continent in a manner that asserts its nuances as an intelligible coalescence comprehensively strengthening the clarity of its notion. I focus on one initiation center among many like it continuing the institution of male circumcision among the Northern Ndebele people of the Kekana (Ghegana) tribe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
112 Instances of Bessie Head’s distinctive feminism, womanism and Africanness in her novels Bessi... more 112 Instances of Bessie Head’s distinctive feminism, womanism and Africanness in her novels Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indicated it was only after her death in 1986 that she was included in discussions on the Drum generation. The result of her prior exclusion has been the double marginalization of Head’s literary contribution, as one of the overlooked black South African writers of the 1950s and the lack of critical acclaim of her as an individual author. For this reason, she is one of the black South African writers who should consciously be given prominence today. This article utilizes an analysis of Head’s novels not attempted so far. It is difficult to interrogate Head’s work fruitfully, unless questions are addressed to whether she approaches her imaginative writing as an Africanist, a feminist or just as a woman. It will be argued that her fiction highlights the plight of the socially marginalized in eccentric and...
The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion of ... more The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion of which is tampered with Africanism. Such an Africanism encapsulates the valuing of oral history and other aspects of orature such as praise poetry. One way this AIC has preserved IKS through a form of domesticated Christian religion has been by means of aural preservation techniques and the reduction of oral history to writing. The paper aims to probe practices of oral history in the ZCC with the goal of determining how forcefully the history from below can pass comment on African church history of which the ZCC is a part, in a way managing to challenge a rehearsed historical narrative. Primarily, authoritative articles published in the build-up to the AIC’s celebration of its 100th anniversary containing testimonies of church members will be studied. Secondarily, case studies of the ZCC and other research publications on the AIC will be consulted critically in order for a more reliable historical comment on the ZCC to be formulated, drawing from the advantages of both oral and written histories after successfully divesting themselves of methodological weaknesses from both paradigms of history preservation.
Funding from Unisa research office enabled me to complete and present this paper at an internatio... more Funding from Unisa research office enabled me to complete and present this paper at an international scientific conference prior to publication.
In Zimbabwe, the marauding effects of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficie... more In Zimbabwe, the marauding effects of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) are felt in almost all families, among different age groups, class lines, races and creed. The effects are debated and discussed, and different intervention measures are suggested using various forms of media. The communication-science-based interventions and advocacy promoted through film are an integral part of biomedically based scientific research into understanding the nature and manifestations of HIV/AIDS. However, it is worrisome that in most of the research, debates and discussions that focus on HIV /AIDS, adults take the centre-stage. This practice of speaking for youths, and not to and with them, denies the reality that youths are agents of social change whose ‘‘voice’’ and action can have the capacity to transform society for the better in the face of HIV /AIDS. In Zimbabwe, one methodological approach that youths can use to debate and spread th...
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2017
treated as inferiors by their Ashkenazi Jewish bosses. Shimon’s suffering is palpable, and Rosen’... more treated as inferiors by their Ashkenazi Jewish bosses. Shimon’s suffering is palpable, and Rosen’s visit with him in “the land of redemption” is the saddest episode in the book. Still deeply Moroccan in their customs and values, sharing an ingrained sense of reciprocity and interdependence that characterizes Moroccan social relations – the you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours mentality still intact – the Benizri family was truly lost in the maelstrom of the new state of Israel. The departure of the Jews was an incalculable loss for Morocco – for both its Muslims and its Jews. While market raconteurs, Islamist teachers, and Berber farmers go on and on, the Jews are gone, and unlikely ever to return. Rosen speaks of a concert held in Los Angeles in 2007, arranged by UCLA anthropologist Susan Slyomovics, finale of a conference celebrating Clifford Geertz’s life and work in Morocco, where both this writer and Larry Rosen were present. Muslim and Jewish musicians filled the auditorium with the strains of Moroccan music, holding the audience captive. This experience was repeated for me in Casablanca in March 2016, in a vast hall filled with tables laden with food and drink; onstage performers entertained a mixed audience of Moroccan Jews and Muslims for hours. It was impossible to tell who was who, everyone was caught in the spell of the music. After all the words are gone, the sound of music is all that remains.
The continuation of the discourses of apartheid era African language literature characterised by ... more The continuation of the discourses of apartheid era African language literature characterised by the makgoweng motif in post-apartheid English literature written by black people has not been studied adequately. In this study I explored ways in which characters of Northern Sotho linguistic and cultural groups represented the same consciousness in both categories of novels across time. I used the qualitative method and analysed some Northern Sotho primary texts, written before democracy in South Africa, as well as selected post-apartheid English novels written by black people. I focused on the mokgoweng motif to examine the nature of continuity in theme and outlook. I found that the novels considered pointed to a sustainable consciousness, transcending linguistic boundaries and time. The social function of such characterisation representing the formerly oppressed black people, is a revelation of their quest towards selfdefinition in a modern world. The portrayed characters significant...
Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indica... more Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indicated it was only after her death in 1986 that she was included in discussions on the Drum generation. The result of her prior exclusion has been the double marginalization of Head’s literary contribution, as one of the overlooked black South African writers of the 1950s and the lack of critical acclaim of her as an individual author. For this reason, she is one of the black South African writers who should consciously be given prominence today. This article utilizes an analysis of Head’s novels not attempted so far. It is difficult to interrogate Head’s work fruitfully, unless questions are addressed to whether she approaches her imaginative writing as an Africanist, a feminist or just as a woman. It will be argued that her fiction highlights the plight of the socially marginalized in eccentric and seminal ways and that it bears the potential to enrich debates on Africanism, feminism and ...
The quest of this paper is to probe whether globalising post-nationalism impacts on post- aparthe... more The quest of this paper is to probe whether globalising post-nationalism impacts on post- apartheid black South African English literature in a manner that suggests a blurring of distinctive African identities. This is done against the background that black South African literature right from its written beginnings in the early 19th century has coalesced into a taxonomically distinct entity forming a non-negligible component of South African literature written in English. I first analyse two post-apartheid novels written by the black writers Niq Mhlongo (Dog Eat Dog, 2004) and Sindiwe Magona (Beauty’s Gift, 2008). Secondly, I consider three post-apartheid novels by the black writers Phaswane Mpe (Welcome to Our Hillbrow, 2001), Kgebetli Moele (Room 207, 2009) and Kopano Matlwa (Coconut, 2007). I approach an examination of the five post-apartheid novels by separating them into two categories, as a way of indicating that black South African literature of this era remains as stylistica...
The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore, 2021
In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among
Africans across the conti... more In this chapter I describe circumcision-based cultural initiation among Africans across the continent in a manner that asserts its nuances as an intelligible coalescence comprehensively strengthening the clarity of its notion. I focus on one initiation center among many like it continuing the institution of male circumcision among the Northern Ndebele people of the Kekana (Ghegana) tribe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zio... more This chapter looks at the cultural significance of poetry that is presented orally within the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). While such poetry belong to the African Initiated Church's oral tradition, my method of analyzing this mode of oral tradition is one that assumes that as a source of oral history, oral data are situated within specific cultures. It is as a result of this vantage point that historians like Prins (1991:119) could observe that historians should not presume serial time in dealing with oral traditions of different peoples. He cautions that 'serial time is not the only sort of time that men use' (1991:119). The other Western hegemonic approach of history writing that Prins (1991:119) would like to see changing is one in which change is seen as the main index of historical content, because 'there are other thing than change to explain'. I test these theoretical perspectives in my close analysis of the poetry aspect of the ZCC oral tradition, using the oral historical method.
Proceeding of Researchfora International Conference, London, United Kingdom 07 - 08 February, 2023, 2023
The paper seeks to track the moulting of Kopano Matlwa's socio-political commentary on South Afri... more The paper seeks to track the moulting of Kopano Matlwa's socio-political commentary on South Africa's postindependence life, as represented in her fiction.Matlwa is a black South African writer writing in English. Due to the patriarchy of the apartheid system that oppressed black people in South Africa before independence that was attained in 1994, Matlwa is one of the South African writers who were doubly oppressed as both black and female. For these reasons, her voice that started to emerge in 2007 with her debut novel is important to focus on, especially as her literary project engages with socio-political dimensions brought about by the new democratic government. The writer intends to glean evidence of the novelist's stylistic and thematic evolution. This will be done through a critique of literary analyses of Matlwa's work from the days of her acclaimed debut novel whenmany critics lauded her contribution, including Spencer (2009). The paper's approach is that of looking longitudinally at Matlwa's literary development from Coconut (2007) through to the thematic and textual aspects of her second and penultimate novels Spilt Milk (2010) and Period Pain (2016) respectively. Among commentary on Matlwa's latter works I will discuss my analytical observations on her ouvre in the context of the views of critics such asMcCabe (2020) and Montle (2022). The central theory I intend to apply to my consideration of Matlwa's artistry is ecocriticism. I will adopt the perspective of the writersRoorda (2001), Hoving (2017), as well as Ogbazi and Udeh (2020) who, together with other theorists, have helped characterise and refine the theory of ecocriticism since its inception and coagulation of the 1990s.
Proceedings of Researchfora International Conference, London, United Kingdom 07 - 08 February, 2023, 2023
The paper seeks to track the moulting of Kopano Matlwa's socio-political commentary on South Afri... more The paper seeks to track the moulting of Kopano Matlwa's socio-political commentary on South Africa's postindependence life, as represented in her fiction.Matlwa is a black South African writer writing in English. Due to the patriarchy of the apartheid system that oppressed black people in South Africa before independence that was attained in 1994, Matlwa is one of the South African writers who were doubly oppressed as both black and female. For these reasons, her voice that started to emerge in 2007 with her debut novel is important to focus on, especially as her literary project engages with socio-political dimensions brought about by the new democratic government. The writer intends to glean evidence of the novelist's stylistic and thematic evolution. This will be done through a critique of literary analyses of Matlwa's work from the days of her acclaimed debut novel whenmany critics lauded her contribution, including Spencer (2009). The paper's approach is that of looking longitudinally at Matlwa's literary development from Coconut (2007) through to the thematic and textual aspects of her second and penultimate novels Spilt Milk (2010) and Period Pain (2016) respectively. Among commentary on Matlwa's latter works I will discuss my analytical observations on her ouvre in the context of the views of critics such asMcCabe (2020) and Montle (2022). The central theory I intend to apply to my consideration of Matlwa's artistry is ecocriticism. I will adopt the perspective of the writersRoorda (2001), Hoving (2017), as well as Ogbazi and Udeh (2020) who, together with other theorists, have helped characterise and refine the theory of ecocriticism since its inception and coagulation of the 1990s.
The paper explores distinctive ways in which Kopano Matlwa’s novel Evening Primrose (2018) employ... more The paper explores distinctive ways in which Kopano Matlwa’s novel Evening Primrose (2018) employs continuities and discontinuities between surface-level literary expression and underlying identity and cultural literacy. It is a desktop study centred on Kopano Matlwa’s novel Evening Primrose (2018) as a primary text, as well as of secondary expository texts for theoretical and earlier literary commentary that constitute the article’s conceptual matrix. I demonstrate how the author’s thematic manoeuvring challenges notions of determinist culture and official mapping as fixed, as well as espouse conceptions of globalism that accommodate identity and cultural heterogeneity. As I discuss stylistic dimensions of the narrative from the vantage point of the theory of ecocriticism, I include the tenets of Es’kia Mphahlele’s concept of African humanism as well as the concepts of ‘borderland’, ‘code-switching’ and ‘integration literacy’. My findings have led to the conclusion that the novelist’s discourses are encoded in the texture of the novel in ways that portray the South African post-apartheid milieu as informed by an intricate intersection of distinctive identity and cultural literacies that the various characters display. My scrutiny of the environment-adoptive cognitive processes in the mind of Matlwa’s characters has led to a novel analogy between integration identity and cultural literacy and unitary grammar, reached psycholinguistically through code-switching. Keywords: African humanism; borderland; code switching; cultural literacy; ecocriticism; Kopano Matlwa; post-apartheid South African literature; surface-level literacy.
The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion
of ... more The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) has been documented as an AIC the trope of Christian religion of which is tampered with Africanism. Such an Africanism encapsulates the valuing of oral history and other aspects of orature such as praise poetry. One way this AIC has preserved IKS through a form of domesticated Christian religion has been by means of aural preservation techniques and the reduction of oral history to writing. The paper aims to probe practices of oral history in the ZCC with the goal of determining how forcefully the history from below can pass comment on African church history of which the ZCC is a part, in a way managing to challenge a rehearsed historical narrative. Primarily, authoritative articles published in the build-up to the AIC’s celebration of its 100th anniversary containing testimonies of church members will be studied. Secondarily, case studies of the ZCC and other research publications on the AIC will be consulted critically in order for a more reliable historical comment on the ZCC to be formulated, drawing from the advantages of both oral and written histories after successfully divesting themselves of methodological weaknesses from both paradigms of history preservation.
In this paper I discuss the intersection of global feminism and Magona's refracted womanism in he... more In this paper I discuss the intersection of global feminism and Magona's refracted womanism in her major autobiographies To My Children's Children and Mother to Mother, utilizing the concept of home. I argue that Magona's notion of feminism has developed as she was interacting with shifting orientations of various subgroups of feminism across the ages. This is why I analyse her two works in order to trace influences of second and third wave feminisms, in exploring the continuum of her own brand of feminism. I probe Magona's valuing of identity as a tool for liberation. I proceed to exhibit that the feminist discourse of Magona's two major works consistently identifies with a layer of 1970s third wave or new generation feminists who sought to move subjugated voices from the periphery to the centre. I use the perspectives outlined above to scrutinise Magona's two major works in a manner showing her to craft her nuanced idea of home dialectically within the development of global feminist theory even as I show how she appropriated the theory.
Politikon South African Journal of Political Studies, 2024
The numbing accounts of HIV/AIDS ravages in Chapter 7 of the book succeed the other public health... more The numbing accounts of HIV/AIDS ravages in Chapter 7 of the book succeed the other public health-related fiasco involving mental patients who were made heartlessly to perish during the much-publicised Life Esidimeni government move, that came to public light under the Zuma- Ramaphosa administration. The author’s technique not to submerge the reader in unmitigated gloom is realised through the light-hearted content of Chapter 8 on Mandela’s era. Only then does Makgoba devote the next chapter to infamies of lingering economic and social devastation visited the then young South African democracy by the Zuma oligarchic corruption, including his state capture legacy.
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Papers by Lesibana Rafapa
Africans across the continent in a manner that asserts its nuances as an intelligible coalescence comprehensively strengthening the clarity of its notion. I focus on one initiation center among many like it continuing the institution of male circumcision among the Northern Ndebele people of the Kekana (Ghegana) tribe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
of which is tampered with Africanism. Such an Africanism encapsulates the valuing of oral
history and other aspects of orature such as praise poetry. One way this AIC has preserved IKS
through a form of domesticated Christian religion has been by means of aural preservation
techniques and the reduction of oral history to writing. The paper aims to probe practices of oral
history in the ZCC with the goal of determining how forcefully the history from below can pass
comment on African church history of which the ZCC is a part, in a way managing to challenge a
rehearsed historical narrative. Primarily, authoritative articles published in the build-up to the
AIC’s celebration of its 100th anniversary containing testimonies of church members will be
studied. Secondarily, case studies of the ZCC and other research publications on the AIC will be
consulted critically in order for a more reliable historical comment on the ZCC to be formulated,
drawing from the advantages of both oral and written histories after successfully divesting
themselves of methodological weaknesses from both paradigms of history preservation.