Essences of presence in the construction of identity (original) (raw)
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African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase
2016
This work is not the fruit of one person but many. I give thanks to the Creator Force for the privilege of existence and the opportunity to work on this research. In the community of human beings, I thank my supervisor Prof Benda Hofmeyr. I cannot imagine the possibility of finishing this work without your intellectual guidance and moral support. Each time I felt as if it was impossible, Prof, you held me by the hand and walked with me. I could not have asked for a better supervisor. To the community of African philosophers living and the living dead, I thank you. Many thanks to my siblings, Gift, Emma, Priscilla, and Gideon Tembo for your undying Love and support. To the Passionist Brothers, thank you for igniting the spark of philosophical reason in me, and the support and love you have shown me. The department of philosophy at the University of Pretoria, Prof. Emma Ruttkamp, Amanda Oelefse, Mpho Tshivhase, and my friends and colleagues, I salute you. Alvara and Nico, I am grateful for your willingness to edit my work and for your critique. Prof. Ulrike Kistner, thank you for the literature you gave me and the time you spared for our discussions. Janine, thanks for your help with editing.
Material culture in Southern Ndebele identity making in post-apartheid South Africa
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2020
This paper examines the degree to which belonging to "Southern Ndebele"' identity is expressed through material culture, such as beadwork, wall paintings, architecture and distinctive ways of dressing. Seeing material culture as a signifier and proclamation of Ndebele identity has attracted media attention and generated valuable insight about the expression of belonging to Ndebele identity in South Africa. However, drawing inferences about identity from material culture can obscure details and nuances about identity and belonging and the complex manner in which they relate to material culture. This article argues that the inherently complex and unstable nature of ethnic identities has to be considered when analysing and detecting shifts in material culture and its use as an identity marker in Ndebele communities. Drawing on the long history of association between Ndebele identity and material culture, this paper exposes the dynamics, complexities and nuances about identity and belonging to push beyond narrow interpretations of material culture as markers and expression of Ndebeleness. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the KwaMhlanga region, the paper explores the material production of Ndebeleness within the context of crafting a South African nation in order to illuminate the complexities of formulations of meaning and belonging. Este artigo examina o grau em que o pertencimento à identidade "ndebele do sul" é expresso por meio da cultura material, como o trabalho feito com miçangas, a pintura de paredes, a arquitetura e as distintas maneiras de se vestir. Ver a cultura material como um significante e uma proclamação da identidade ndebele tem atraído a atenção da mídia e gerado um insight valioso sobre a expressão do pertencimento à identidade ndebele na África do Sul. No entanto, fazer inferências sobre identidade a partir da cultura material pode obscurecer detalhes e nuances sobre identidade e pertencimento e o modo complexo como se relacionam com a cultura material. Este artigo argumenta que a natureza inerentemente complexa e instável das identidades étnicas deve ser considerada ao analisar e detectar mudanças na cultura material e seu uso como um marcador de identidade nas comunidades ndebele. Partindo da longa história de associação entre a identidade ndebele e a cultura material, este artigo expõe as dinâmicas, as complexidades e as nuances sobre identidade e pertencimento para ir além das interpretações estreitas da cultura material como marcador e expressão da ndebelidade. Com base em uma pesquisa etnográfica conduzida na região de KwaMhlanga, o artigo explora a produção material da ndebelidade no contexto da criação de uma nação sul-africana, a fim de iluminar as complexidades das formulações de significado e pertença.
Globalization entails a process, in any case irreversible, of intensification of transnational, transsocietal and trans-cultural spaces, events, problems, economic transactions, conflicts and biographies, a process not necessarily unfolding in a centripetal, homogeneous and single way towards the formation of a single world society and culture but rather in a polycentric, multidimensional, "messy" way, dialectically contingent on the local. As far as the cultural dimension of globalization is concerned, the new concept of the "global" comes into being as an identity of synthesis whereby such different groups as black communities across the Atlantic reaffirm their feelings of belonging, reconstructing them before the invasion of the global into their lives. This synthesis between the global and the local takes place by means of a dichotomy: the global takes possession of the infrastructural, structural and ethic axiological levels, leading societies towards a certain uniformization; the local remains at the aesthetic level of symbols and icons, shaping self-referred differential identities. The paper aims at exploring one of this new, postmodern, aesthetic, disembodied from a concrete set of cultural practices: one that we have labeled as the trans-African or black trans-national identity: that of all the communities that claim an African descent around the world.
This essay analyses the rhetoric of racialised South African discourse. It inquires into apartheid's imagined identity of the 'Afrikaner' and the use of the Bible in the construction of Israel's identity (real or imagined). The imaginary character of Israel's identity enables one to explain South African identity discourse in terms of an unequal dialogue where identity can be overridden as was the case during the colonial period where equality and inequality were created simultaneously. For the postapartheid state, it means that racism can enter through the back door when culture is made to fulfil the role biology once played. What has become crucial in a discourse that replicates old racist polarities, is to refuse the founding concepts of the problematic, i.e. an essentialist identity in favour of a constructedness of identity.
Identity in Africa: A Philosophical Perspective
IBSU Scientific Journal, 2011
Tradition and modernity has been almost always treated as two diametrically-opposed components of African identity. This study illustrates that contrary to this widely disseminated belief, tradition and modernity are two cronies that are simultaneously counterproductive and coercive for African communities. For when closely examined, tradition and modernity cannot foster any viable notion of self and identity, particularly in the current transitory circumstances. Through our discussion of the role of tradition and the interplay of negative tradition with deplete cultures, it becomes fairly evident that the poor performance of African communities in matters related to development can be answerable when shedding light on the interconnection between European modernity and African archaic traditions. The colonial legacy, the transitional context within which European modernity and African traditions met, according to this study, should not be overlooked for any forward-looking perspective. African tradition; European Modernity; Traditionality; colonialism; historicity; positive cultural transformation. I29 w JEL Classification Codes: Fouad Mami is a maitre de conference/senior lecturer
Rethinking identity theory in light of the in-Christ identity in the African context
HTS Theological Studies, 2024
In social identity theory, the in-Christ identity is understood as primarily a socially directed process in which people categorise themselves relative to other groups. Intergroup behaviour would cause them to discriminate against the so-called ‘outgroup’, favouring the so-called ‘ingroup’. Although social identity complexity theory has moved beyond single ingroupoutgroup categorisation, it is a question if social identity theories can fully account for the in-Christ identity, especially within an African context. In African religious identity, identity is linked to both the community and the ruling deities, which are perceived to be real entities that intervene in human affairs and identity, presupposing a supernaturalistic epistemology.
To Be African or Not to Be: The Question of Identity or Authenticity-Some Preliminary Thoughts by
2012
The ideas offered here are simply thoughts designed to suggest that our “theoretical” understanding of what it means to be African (Black) in a nonAfrican (White supremacist) society requires “deep thought” about the psychology of African people. It is in the tradition of “thinking deeply” about what it means to be African that I propose that the real understanding of Black identity and our resolute response to living in an anti-African society will be attainable. It is only when we first think deeply about what it means to be a human being and subsequently, therein, how that meaning shapes our responses and reactions to living, will we learn or know anything of value. Hence, I think the notion of “human authenticity” and its expression as the “person” are the constructs that could offer a new research agenda in which to explore the frontiers of “African theory development.” “Where theory is founded on analogy between puzzling observations and familiar phenomena, it is generally onl...