Blogs ingedeeld als ‘Regio Afrika’
By Duane Jethro Since the conclusion of the World Cup, questions have been raised about what could be done with the vuvuzelas accumulated during the tournament. In response, the renowned South African cartoonist Zapiro offered a few creative, novel suggestions in one of his weekly sketches for the Sunday Times. These included deafened fans using their vuvuzelas as a hearing aid, following Paris Hilton’s lead and using it as a cannabis pipe, or as the case may be with recently sacked coach Raymond Domenech, using it as a receptacle for collecting change from the public while begging on the street.
Just as the vuvuzela’s uses as a material object were open to a multiplicity of reinterpretations, the horn has also lent itself to myriad symbolic readings that connected it to notions of culture, religion and social identities. In that case, we could perhaps find another, alternate use for the vuvuzela, using it telescopically to look back and scan the uproarious terrain of the World Cup and canvass some of the things that had been overlooked and not really heard. (meer…)
Categorieën: English posts · Globalisering & Ontwikkeling · Identiteit & Religie · Regio Afrika
getagged: Duane Jethro, South Africa, vuvuzela, World Cup, World Cup mania
Photo by Sandra Evers
By Aliene van Dijk I still remember vividly the expectations that I had of visiting one of the libraries supposedly holding anthropological studies in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo. I naively thought that even in a country as poor as Madagascar, at least the library would be decent. But it proved quite a deception. In a small one-room building, with walls covered in old books, I found out that reality was different. Sitting on the floor and looking through a very old-fashioned cabinet of cards to look up relevant material, my research partner and I found none. It would probably be interesting for a historian, since the books were so old, but for present-day anthropological fieldwork it was not very useful. ‘How can they study in these circumstances?’, I thought.
(meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · English posts · Globalisering & Ontwikkeling · Regio Afrika
getagged: Aliene van Dijk, Caroline Seagle, development, ICCO, Madagascar, postcolonial Africa, Stephen Elllis
Hyundai's giant vuvuzela (picture by Duane Jethro)
By Duane Jethro The car company Hyundai has come up with a solution for those whom the expression “Feel It. It Is Here” has no real emotive purchase. In support of their slogan for the World Cup, “We bring the Gees”, the company has erected a 37 metre long vuvuzela on an abandoned flyover in Cape Town’s city centre. To affirm their commitment to pumping up the World Cup spirit, the instrument is not merely a striking piece of visual advertising, but sonically brings the company slogan to life as a fully operational noise making instrument.
Intended to be sounded off every time a goal was scored during the tournament, the giant trumpet’s sonic booms have, however, been curtailed by the city council on the grounds that it would seriously disrupt traffic at the major intersection below. While the project has been a failure in this sense, it has succeeded in promoting the notion of gees and linking it with vuvuzelas. (meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · English posts · Identiteit & Religie · Ondernemerschap & Organisaties · Regio Afrika
getagged: Cape Town, Duane Jethro, FIFA, Gees, Hyuandai, Soccer City, vuvuzela, World Cup, World Cup mania
Steminkt
Lidewyde Berckmoes doet onderzoek met jongeren in Burundi. Eind mei vonden er de gemeenteverkiezingen plaats. Tegen de verwachtingen in, leden oppositiepartijen een grote nederlaag, waarop zij zich terugtrokken uit de presidentiële verkiezingen van twee dagen geleden. Zij wilden niet deelnemen aan oneerlijke, ‘gestolen’, verkiezingen. In het land is het sindsdien onrustig. Gelaten wacht iedereen af wat de toekomst brengt. Oorlog, dictatuur, of is er toch nog kans op vrede en democratie?
Sinds kort heb ik het gevoel dat ik een vreemde ben in dit land. Ik ben mijn feeling kwijt met wat er speelt. Het begon op de dag van de start van de presidentiële verkiezingscampagne, ongeveer 2 weken geleden. Ik zat bij een Ethiopisch restaurantje met wat vrienden toen de eerste smsjes over granaataanvallen in de stad binnenkwamen.
(meer…)
Categorieën: Oorlog & Vrede · Politiek & Burgerschap · Regio Afrika
getagged: Burundese verkiezingen, burundi, Conflict, democratie, jongeren, Lidewyde Berckmoes, oorlog, veiligheid, verkiezingen
Anna-Riikka Kauppinen reports from Ghana regarding her research on beauty centers. This post is part of the fieldwork 2010 series.
Shea butter is warming up in my hands. I rub my palms together in order to dissolve the waxy texture into a soft and glowing substance. Akosua, 3 years old, is sitting still on the bed. I start applying the cream over her tiny body. First come the shoulders, neck and back. She raises her hands so that I can rub the armpits and stands up to let me work on the belly, buttocks, tights, legs, feet and toes. Lastly, I gently rub her cheeks and forehead.
Fieldwork could be compared with what Virginia Woolf calls balancing between “moments of being” and “moments of non-being”. (meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · English posts · Regio Afrika
getagged: Ghana, Accra, Fieldwork 2010, beauty, Virginia Woolf
Duane about to blow the vuvuzela
In our new series on the Football World Cup, Duane Jethro will regularly report from South Africa. Duane is currently doing his PhD research in his home-country, looking at cultural heritage initiatives in the post-apartheid era. The World Cup, with its articulations of a (putative) South African authentic culture, has become an important site of Duane’s investigations. In this first part of the series we’ll reproduce Duane’s report on the festivities in the context of the World Cup’s final draw, in which he discusses an object that has recently become somewhat controversial in the Netherlands: the vuvuzela. What does the vuvuzela stand for and where does it come from? (meer…)
Categorieën: English posts · Globalisering & Ontwikkeling · Regio Afrika
getagged: Duane Jethro, FIFA, South Africa, vuvuzela, World Cup, World Cup mania
Peter Geschiere
Door gastauteur Paul Mepschen
Peter Geschiere houdt ervan ‘westerse’ aannames over Afrika ter discussie te stellen. Hij wil de ‘vanzelfsprekende’ tegenstelling modern – traditioneel, wij en de ander, Europa en Afrika overbruggen. Hij benadrukt dat het ‘daar’ niet zo heel anders is dan ‘hier’. Geschiere: ‘Ik vind het altijd leuk als ik iets dat in Afrika gebeurt kan gebruiken om bepaalde vooronderstellingen die in Europa leven te bekritiseren. Daarnaast vind ik het van belang het stereotype beeld dat mensen van Afrika hebben bij te stellen. In mijn vorige boek, over het moderne karakter van hekserij in Kameroen, (meer…)
Categorieën: De Lage Landen · Globalisering & Ontwikkeling · Identiteit & Religie · Multicultureel & Migratie · Regio Afrika · Regio Midden Oosten & Noord-Afrika
getagged: Afrika, allochtoon, autochtoon, hekserij, Kameroen, Marxisme, moderniteit, Paul Mepschen, Peter Geschiere
Jongen met handelswaar op Mphungwe berg (foto's: Lidewyde Berckmoes)
Door Lidewyde Berckmoes
Onze verkenning van Ruyigi (Burundi) start vanuit het hotel. Bijna vier en een half jaar geleden, toen ik met een convooi terugkerende vluchtelingen meereisde van het kamp net over de grens in Tanzania, verbleef ik ook in dit hotel, in dezelfde kamer zelfs. Dat is toevallig, maar geen wonder als je bedenkt dat Ruyigi, de hoofdstad van de gelijknamige provincie, eigenlijk een heel kleine plaats is. De jonge man die ons de afgelopen dagen op onze onderzoeksmissie in de omliggende ‘collines’ heeft rondgereden, had, na mijn nieuwsgierige vragen over zijn jeugd in Ruyigi tijdens de oorlog, voorgesteld mijn onderzoeksassistente en mij op deze mooie zondagochtend rond te leiden. Het zou niet alleen een rondleiding worden langs wat er nu te zien is, maar vooral langs wat er niet te zien is en wat de mensen doen alsof ze zijn vergeten – dat wat tijdens de oorlog gebeurd is. (meer…)
Categorieën: Oorlog & Vrede · Regio Afrika
getagged: burundi, Conflict, genocide, Lidewyde Berckmoes, massamoord, oorlog, Ruyigi, verleden
By Duane Jethro Since the conclusion of the World Cup, questions have been raised about what could be done with the vuvuzelas accumulated during the tournament. In response, the renowned South African cartoonist Zapiro offered a few creative, novel suggestions in one of his weekly sketches for the Sunday Times. These included deafened fans using their vuvuzelas as a hearing aid, following Paris Hilton’s lead and using it as a cannabis pipe, or as the case may be with recently sacked coach Raymond Domenech, using it as a receptacle for collecting change from the public while begging on the street.
