Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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Browsing Wits School of Arts (ETDs) by SDG "SDG-10: Reduced inequalities"

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    Barriers to protection: gender-related persecution and asylum in South Africa
    (2009-10-12T12:24:42Z) Middleton, Julie
    In 1998, South Africa became the first country to explicitly state within its refugee law that gender related persecution is a binding basis for asylum, further distinguishing South Africa as a state with outstanding legal commitments to gender equality. Creating further visibility within the law, however, is only one step in the process. How the law is implemented determines its real worth and effectiveness. This study assesses the manner in which asylum decisions are made, particularly in cases of gendered harm, questioning readily accepted and essentialised notions of women and gender. It looks at how the South African asylum system defines legitimate refugees, and the interplay of fluid interpretations of gender, culture, violence and the political within these constructions. Through interviews with officials and asylum seekers, the study identifies trends in the refugee system, and interrogates the reliance on narrow understandings of the political and personal, as well as the nature of conflict and culture.
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    Rediscovering forgotten IsiXhosa women writers: the visibility of Letitia Kakaza and Victoria Swaartbooi in the history of IsiXhosa written literature
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Salayi, Tembakazi
    The benefit of the study is that it will give insight into a period in our country that failed to recognize women in isiXhosa written literature. This is also the period Letitia Kakaza and Victoria Swaartbooi made history by being part of the first black women to publish a novel in isiXhosa. We are also able to explore a country where missionaries took control by manipulating black men and women to convert to Christianity. It is during these times that the Lovedale Press was produced and isiXhosa literature was developed. The history of isiXhosa written literature has largely concentrated on men's contributions to its development, with little mention of women's contributions. As a result, women were silenced and erased from public records. This thesis aims to make visible the identities of Kakaza and Swaartbooi by providing their biographical information and background information of the different institutions that they were part of. The study explores how both writers interrogate language, identity, womanism, and education in their writing. As part of the study, a film has been created that explores the themes that are discussed in the paper. This thesis and the accompanying film project, Ndokulandela, reimagine the histories and experiences of black women writers. By speaking back to narratives that erased women’s voices, this re-imagining sought to correct the lens that only maintained one view of the history of isiXhosa literature. The thesis also raises questions on how biographical films depict women's experiences. The film incorporates both the past and present by including letters and manuscripts by both Kakaza and Swaartbooi as well as the current isiXhosa women writer's experiences. The study will also trace the literature written by the women and an analysis will be conducted of their work. Based on the analysis of the three novels, Intyantyambo Yomzi (1913), UTandiwe wakwa Gcaleka (1914) and UMandisa (1975), the thesis examines the themes that Kakaza and Swaartbooi discussed as well as the political context of the early twentieth century. These books irradiate how both women viewed a woman’s life during the time as well as the idea of womanism.
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    Who do i think i am? Autoethnographic and zoomorphic comics and the expression of coloured identity.
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Alexander, Ashleigh Jesse; RANDLE, LUWAROTIMI; REID, KIRSTEN
    This thesis presents my investigation into what I term my "Coloured Experience," my examination of zoomorphic imagery, and my approach to portraying this research through a comic book. This aims to produce an artifact that talks about being Coloured in a creative and personal way, which is a response to a significant gap in the portrayal of Coloured people, highlighting a tendency towards oversimplified, sensationalized, and politicised narratives. I employ autoethnographic reflection as my method of inquiry and use zoomorphism as a technique for representation, the outcome of which is a comic book. Zoomorphism in graphic narratives, works as a visually stimulating tool for representing the concept of race, by drawing on visual metaphor, animal association and allegory, in combination with the comics medium, and an engagement with guided autoethnographic journaling, this research produced a comic book where I was able to host a discussion on my experience as a Coloured person in a safe and creative way. This research does not extensively explore my origins, nor does it delve into the formation of Coloured people as a distinct racial group to establish a definitive common ancestor or construct a narrative to define the essence of being Coloured.