Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2184107
F. E. Mulenga
{"title":"‘Kale twale ikala bwino’ – life was better in the old days","authors":"F. E. Mulenga","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2184107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2184107","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"171 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46300388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2192589
Fernandes Wanda, Carlos Oya, Borja Monreal
Following the end of the civil war in 2002, Angola entered a period of political stability and economic growth that was sustained until the oil-price crisis hit the economy in 2015. During this period a vast reconstruction plan of economic infrastructure was implemented. This process induced a series of changes that shaped the construction industry in the country, especially the rise of Angolan contractors as a by-product of the primarily externally funded reconstruction effort. This article aims to understand the political economy of infrastructure building in Angola’s post-war reconstruction boom and the post-2015 crisis. We focus on the nature and dynamics of the emerging infrastructure market segmentation that led to the coexistence of Angolan, Chinese and other foreign contractors, when a part of oil rents was reinvested in infrastructure development, thereby generating a rapid development of the construction sector and its ancillary economic activities. The article explains the origins of segmentation among infrastructure contractors and the central role of oil-backed finance, particularly from China, during the boom and the crisis. It demonstrates the political imperatives of fast delivery of infrastructure assets for the maintenance of the dominant political settlement and the distribution of organisational power in Angola, which led to the rise of a well-organised element of state-linked Angolan capital in this lucrative sector. These experiences reflect the centrality of market segmentation and state–business relations in the evolution of the infrastructure sector in Angola, and the implications for the rise and consolidation of domestic capitalist interests.
{"title":"Building Angola: A Political Economy of Infrastructure Contractors in Post-War Angola","authors":"Fernandes Wanda, Carlos Oya, Borja Monreal","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2192589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2192589","url":null,"abstract":"Following the end of the civil war in 2002, Angola entered a period of political stability and economic growth that was sustained until the oil-price crisis hit the economy in 2015. During this period a vast reconstruction plan of economic infrastructure was implemented. This process induced a series of changes that shaped the construction industry in the country, especially the rise of Angolan contractors as a by-product of the primarily externally funded reconstruction effort. This article aims to understand the political economy of infrastructure building in Angola’s post-war reconstruction boom and the post-2015 crisis. We focus on the nature and dynamics of the emerging infrastructure market segmentation that led to the coexistence of Angolan, Chinese and other foreign contractors, when a part of oil rents was reinvested in infrastructure development, thereby generating a rapid development of the construction sector and its ancillary economic activities. The article explains the origins of segmentation among infrastructure contractors and the central role of oil-backed finance, particularly from China, during the boom and the crisis. It demonstrates the political imperatives of fast delivery of infrastructure assets for the maintenance of the dominant political settlement and the distribution of organisational power in Angola, which led to the rise of a well-organised element of state-linked Angolan capital in this lucrative sector. These experiences reflect the centrality of market segmentation and state–business relations in the evolution of the infrastructure sector in Angola, and the implications for the rise and consolidation of domestic capitalist interests.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"25 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44529120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2182982
M. Nkomo, Lotti Nkomo
In post-2000s Zimbabwe, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has become one of the major economic activities that provides income and livelihood opportunities to millions of people. The article attempts to make sense of how such mining activities intertwined with the country’s political economy and became implicated in shaping the dynamics of local and national politics. Taking the case of Kwekwe district, situated at the heart of the country, the article argues that ASGM as a socio-economic and political activity and a general way of life became the core of contemporary local Zimbabwean political relations, interactions and participation, and indeed a potent motor in party–state expansion and power consolidation. The new arrangements of politics, while facilitating the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union(Patriotic Front) (ZANU[PF])’s strong hold on power and territory in the face of powerful opposition politics represented by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also encouraged local actors to expand their own statuses and influence away from political marginality towards the traditional political and elite centres such as the capital, Harare. The article shies away from literature that has emphasised state domination and subordination; this is in order to demonstrate that the relationship between the new political actors (buoyed by gold extraction) and the state is a flexible network of bargains and negotiated fusions, exchanges and appropriations. Largely ethnographical, it engages with an aspect of artisanal mining and politics in Zimbabwe that has yet to receive systematic scholarly attention.
{"title":"Politics from the Pits: Artisanal Gold Mining, Politics and the Limits of Hegemonic State Domination in Zimbabwe","authors":"M. Nkomo, Lotti Nkomo","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2182982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2182982","url":null,"abstract":"In post-2000s Zimbabwe, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has become one of the major economic activities that provides income and livelihood opportunities to millions of people. The article attempts to make sense of how such mining activities intertwined with the country’s political economy and became implicated in shaping the dynamics of local and national politics. Taking the case of Kwekwe district, situated at the heart of the country, the article argues that ASGM as a socio-economic and political activity and a general way of life became the core of contemporary local Zimbabwean political relations, interactions and participation, and indeed a potent motor in party–state expansion and power consolidation. The new arrangements of politics, while facilitating the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union(Patriotic Front) (ZANU[PF])’s strong hold on power and territory in the face of powerful opposition politics represented by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also encouraged local actors to expand their own statuses and influence away from political marginality towards the traditional political and elite centres such as the capital, Harare. The article shies away from literature that has emphasised state domination and subordination; this is in order to demonstrate that the relationship between the new political actors (buoyed by gold extraction) and the state is a flexible network of bargains and negotiated fusions, exchanges and appropriations. Largely ethnographical, it engages with an aspect of artisanal mining and politics in Zimbabwe that has yet to receive systematic scholarly attention.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"137 - 153"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45748890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2187969
Farai Mtero, Nkanyiso Gumede, Katlego Ramantsima
Land reforms are an important mechanism for addressing inequalities in society. While addressing South Africa’s racialised land inequalities remains crucial, new forms of class inequality are produced through land reform, with the well-off becoming predominant as beneficiaries. This article focuses on elite capture in land redistribution and analyses land-reform outcomes in South Africa’s state land lease and disposal policy (SLLDP). The article presents empirical evidence from 62 land-reform farms in five provinces of South Africa and shows how policy biases in favour of well-off beneficiaries converge with corruption and rent-seeking practices to produce uneven agrarian outcomes. Beneficiary selection and targeting inherently favour well-off beneficiaries, who are considered competent to engage in large-scale commercial farming. Land reform is a new frontier of accumulation for different agribusinesses, urban-based businesspeople and state officials, who increasingly benefit from cheap state land and various forms of production support meant to recapitalise land-reform farms.
{"title":"Elite Capture in South Africa’s Land Redistribution: The Convergence of Policy Bias, Corrupt Practices and Class Dynamics","authors":"Farai Mtero, Nkanyiso Gumede, Katlego Ramantsima","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2187969","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2187969","url":null,"abstract":"Land reforms are an important mechanism for addressing inequalities in society. While addressing South Africa’s racialised land inequalities remains crucial, new forms of class inequality are produced through land reform, with the well-off becoming predominant as beneficiaries. This article focuses on elite capture in land redistribution and analyses land-reform outcomes in South Africa’s state land lease and disposal policy (SLLDP). The article presents empirical evidence from 62 land-reform farms in five provinces of South Africa and shows how policy biases in favour of well-off beneficiaries converge with corruption and rent-seeking practices to produce uneven agrarian outcomes. Beneficiary selection and targeting inherently favour well-off beneficiaries, who are considered competent to engage in large-scale commercial farming. Land reform is a new frontier of accumulation for different agribusinesses, urban-based businesspeople and state officials, who increasingly benefit from cheap state land and various forms of production support meant to recapitalise land-reform farms.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"5 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45668322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2170126
Bastien Dratwa
With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, a shift has taken place in the organisation of xenophobia as xenophobic activism has adapted to the pandemic and increasingly moved ‘online’. While a large scholarship on the various aspects of ‘offline’ xenophobia in contemporary South Africa has been produced, the recent intensification of online xenophobic activism during the pandemic remains an under-researched topic. The present study sets out to challenge this lack of attention given to online xenophobia in South Africa by conducting a 15-month digital ethnography of an emerging South African xenophobic (online) community, the so-called ‘Put South Africans First’ movement. Aiming to understand the narrative construction of social reality in this group, data gained from the Put South Africans First Facebook page were triangulated with interviews conducted with the leadership of the Put South Africans First movement. Two narratives that are constitutive for this group will be analysed: the story of the ‘harmfulness of Pan-Africanism’ and the conspiracy of a ‘modern-day slavery’. Drawing on a perspective that emphasises the entanglement between the emotional, the narrative and the digital in contemporary forms of xenophobia, the article exposes the working of these two key narratives. The narrative of the ‘harmfulness of Pan-Africanism’ draws on the recycling of colonial stereotypes, the affect of disgust, and on the technique of reappropriating and weaponising history. In contrast, the narrative of ‘modern-day slavery’ is fuelled by a belief in replacement conspiracies and a dystopic longing into the future, where future generations of South African children have become enslaved by ‘foreigners’. The article concludes by pointing out some of the specifics of the South African case in relation to xenophobic mobilisations in other parts of the world.
{"title":"‘Put South Africans First’: Making Sense of an Emerging South African Xenophobic (Online) Community","authors":"Bastien Dratwa","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2170126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2170126","url":null,"abstract":"With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, a shift has taken place in the organisation of xenophobia as xenophobic activism has adapted to the pandemic and increasingly moved ‘online’. While a large scholarship on the various aspects of ‘offline’ xenophobia in contemporary South Africa has been produced, the recent intensification of online xenophobic activism during the pandemic remains an under-researched topic. The present study sets out to challenge this lack of attention given to online xenophobia in South Africa by conducting a 15-month digital ethnography of an emerging South African xenophobic (online) community, the so-called ‘Put South Africans First’ movement. Aiming to understand the narrative construction of social reality in this group, data gained from the Put South Africans First Facebook page were triangulated with interviews conducted with the leadership of the Put South Africans First movement. Two narratives that are constitutive for this group will be analysed: the story of the ‘harmfulness of Pan-Africanism’ and the conspiracy of a ‘modern-day slavery’. Drawing on a perspective that emphasises the entanglement between the emotional, the narrative and the digital in contemporary forms of xenophobia, the article exposes the working of these two key narratives. The narrative of the ‘harmfulness of Pan-Africanism’ draws on the recycling of colonial stereotypes, the affect of disgust, and on the technique of reappropriating and weaponising history. In contrast, the narrative of ‘modern-day slavery’ is fuelled by a belief in replacement conspiracies and a dystopic longing into the future, where future generations of South African children have become enslaved by ‘foreigners’. The article concludes by pointing out some of the specifics of the South African case in relation to xenophobic mobilisations in other parts of the world.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"85 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45166753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2176044
P. Banda
This article traces the post-presidency experiences of Malawi’s first head of state, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, from 1994 to 1997. Most of what has been written about him has concentrated on his time as an active politician, starting from the late 1950s, when he led the struggle against British colonial rule, and when he was the country’s head of state, from 1964 to 1994, focusing on both domestic and foreign policies. The study follows in the footsteps of seminal works in the field, including that by Roger Southall and Henning Melber, focusing on the experiences of African ex-presidents. However, there is no published scholarly work on Malawi’s Kamuzu Banda. Relying primarily on archival sources, court records, parliamentary proceedings and media reports, this study analyses the former leader’s life after his presidency. It concentrates on his political life, the perceived political prosecution and persecution, the struggle to retain his private property, funding for his private school, ill health and his worries about Malawi’s ethnic and regional polarisation in the aftermath of the 1994 general elections. This article argues that, although Kamuzu Banda faced elements of political persecution and harassment when he left office, some of the blame must also be placed on his authoritarian style of leadership as the country’s president and the fact that he did not immediately retire from active politics after leaving office. On the other hand, we cannot rule out the fears that his successor, Bakili Muluzi, had about Banda’s lingering influence, which the new president wanted to minimise or eliminate.
{"title":"Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi: Post-Presidency Experiences, 1994–1997","authors":"P. Banda","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2176044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2176044","url":null,"abstract":"This article traces the post-presidency experiences of Malawi’s first head of state, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, from 1994 to 1997. Most of what has been written about him has concentrated on his time as an active politician, starting from the late 1950s, when he led the struggle against British colonial rule, and when he was the country’s head of state, from 1964 to 1994, focusing on both domestic and foreign policies. The study follows in the footsteps of seminal works in the field, including that by Roger Southall and Henning Melber, focusing on the experiences of African ex-presidents. However, there is no published scholarly work on Malawi’s Kamuzu Banda. Relying primarily on archival sources, court records, parliamentary proceedings and media reports, this study analyses the former leader’s life after his presidency. It concentrates on his political life, the perceived political prosecution and persecution, the struggle to retain his private property, funding for his private school, ill health and his worries about Malawi’s ethnic and regional polarisation in the aftermath of the 1994 general elections. This article argues that, although Kamuzu Banda faced elements of political persecution and harassment when he left office, some of the blame must also be placed on his authoritarian style of leadership as the country’s president and the fact that he did not immediately retire from active politics after leaving office. On the other hand, we cannot rule out the fears that his successor, Bakili Muluzi, had about Banda’s lingering influence, which the new president wanted to minimise or eliminate.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"67 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46273843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2184112
Mandisi Majavu
people’s wedding songs are observantly introduced to us by Petrus Angula Mbenzi. Queer performative writing (the term is almost explained), ecocriticism, women’s writing in several manifestations, playwriting – the topics covered in this collection, when coupled with its predecessor volume, seem to leave nothing out. Yet Volume 3 is already on its way. Clearly, Namibian literature is a very deep well and, though these editors have quaffed amply of its waters, they have by no means drunk it dry.
{"title":"Post-apartheid whiteness and unlearning racism","authors":"Mandisi Majavu","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2184112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2184112","url":null,"abstract":"people’s wedding songs are observantly introduced to us by Petrus Angula Mbenzi. Queer performative writing (the term is almost explained), ecocriticism, women’s writing in several manifestations, playwriting – the topics covered in this collection, when coupled with its predecessor volume, seem to leave nothing out. Yet Volume 3 is already on its way. Clearly, Namibian literature is a very deep well and, though these editors have quaffed amply of its waters, they have by no means drunk it dry.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"177 - 178"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42209237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2023.2183024
Enock Ndawana, Mediel Hove
The Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU[PF]) regime’s survival strategies have been misleadingly presented as relying mainly upon political violence. This neglects analysis focusing on the ZANU(PF) regime’s non-violent survival strategies, which have also been key to its longevity. While a growing body of literature discusses ZANU(PF) non-violent strategies, including patriotic history, cultural nationalism and provision of land for housing, it has missed much of what has kept ZANU(PF) in power. The existing studies failed to go beyond the idea that ZANU(PF) actors are deeply cynical and only interested in ‘power’, not ‘believers’ in their own ideology or responsive to people’s needs. Using the cases of ZANU(PF)’s creation and co-optation of civil society organisations that challenge ‘genuine’ ones for advocacy space, especially labour unions and students’ unions between 2000 and 2018, this study makes a twofold contribution to the literature on ZANU(PF)’s political survival. It demonstrates the importance of civil society engagement as a non-violent strategy in ensuring ZANU(PF)’s political survival and that ZANU(PF)’s political project is ideological in addition to being about staying in power. The article concludes that ZANU(PF)’s strategies in relation to civil society were equally critical for the regime’s survival in that they necessarily complemented the violent strategies and worked in its favour by disorienting citizen objections and mobilising popular support.
{"title":"ZANU(PF)’s Survival Strategies and the Co-option of Civil Society, 2000–2018","authors":"Enock Ndawana, Mediel Hove","doi":"10.1080/03057070.2023.2183024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2183024","url":null,"abstract":"The Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU[PF]) regime’s survival strategies have been misleadingly presented as relying mainly upon political violence. This neglects analysis focusing on the ZANU(PF) regime’s non-violent survival strategies, which have also been key to its longevity. While a growing body of literature discusses ZANU(PF) non-violent strategies, including patriotic history, cultural nationalism and provision of land for housing, it has missed much of what has kept ZANU(PF) in power. The existing studies failed to go beyond the idea that ZANU(PF) actors are deeply cynical and only interested in ‘power’, not ‘believers’ in their own ideology or responsive to people’s needs. Using the cases of ZANU(PF)’s creation and co-optation of civil society organisations that challenge ‘genuine’ ones for advocacy space, especially labour unions and students’ unions between 2000 and 2018, this study makes a twofold contribution to the literature on ZANU(PF)’s political survival. It demonstrates the importance of civil society engagement as a non-violent strategy in ensuring ZANU(PF)’s political survival and that ZANU(PF)’s political project is ideological in addition to being about staying in power. The article concludes that ZANU(PF)’s strategies in relation to civil society were equally critical for the regime’s survival in that they necessarily complemented the violent strategies and worked in its favour by disorienting citizen objections and mobilising popular support.","PeriodicalId":47703,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern African Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"49 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42172723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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