Six Weeks from Suburbia @libertyfrank - Tumblr Blog

Global Shadows, Chapter 6

Speculate on what the death of the two boys detailed by Ferguson says about globalization and Africa.

The deaths of Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara are emblematic of the liminality of Africa’s globalization. As the boys noted in their letter, Africa is a part of the global society– this is clear through their appeal to the “members and officials of Europe.” Though they do not view themselves as being equals as far as modernization goes, their appeal to a sense of obligation and global humanity shows that they view themselves as equally deserving of the benefits of modernity. But at the same time as recognizing their right to things such as good education, solid governance, and football fields, they are also being excluded from what is widely considered as the globalized world. To paraphrase Britney Spears, not quite an isolated country, not yet a global player.

How does mimicry play into colonization, modernity and anthropological analysis?

Answer.

What is Ferguson’s take on mimesis and the anthropologists Jean Rouch and Michael Taussig?

Ferguson does not look unkindly upon Rouch and Taussig, but does disagree with their analysis of the Hauka movement. According to Rouch’s Les maîtres fous, when the Hauka performed their rituals of possession by the white officials, they were not performing an aspirational act; instead, they were conducting a parody of their oppressors. This film, widely celebrated by Western academics, was decried across Africa. In addition, Ferguson feels as though the model put forth by Rouch cannot be applied to the majority of mimesis performed by Africans. Instead, he reminds the readers of the structural inequalities between the actors and colonizers– “within the cultural politics of the colonial order, imitation was less about sympathetic magic... than about claims to membership within modern society” (p. 164).

What is the Fanonist remedy?

Answer.

Global Shadows, Chapter 1

Why has there been a deficiency of attention to Africa in discourses on globalization?

According to Ferguson, Africa as a whole has largely been ignored in discussions of globalization because it does not fit neatly into either the “pro-global” or “anti-global” discourses. Despite having instituted the Western-backed economic reforms, much of Africa still lacks access to the trappings of a modern, globally connected world. Similarly, it escapes the detriments of global outsourcing, even as African countries attempt to entice foreign investment. Much of the continent remains out of the loop, and when countries do receive foreign investment (often through resource extraction) those locales, what Ferguson refers to as “hubs,” are cut off from the rest of the country due to concerns of safety and security,

What have anthropologists failed to do?

In the recognition of multiple modernities in Africa, anthropologists, Ferguson argues, do their subjects a disservice through their failure of recognizing the ways in which systematic and economic inequalities impact the lives of modern day Africans. Without recognizing the impact that economic inequality has on the continent, it is impossible to treat Africans as cultural equals– to do so would be to recognize the ways in which they feel their own countries are lacking.

How does Ferguson use the constructs of ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ in his analysis?

Ferguson introduces the concept of “thick” and “thin” on page 36 to describe how certain industrial investment can be more beneficial than others. For instance, he gives the example of copper mining in the Zamibian Copperbelt, which resulted in the creation of large company towns, employment for tens of thousands of workers, as well as schools, housing, and medical care. Ferguson describes this type of built community as a “long-term social project” and this is what he refers to as being a “socially thick” investment. On the other end of the spectrum, modern mining requires little investment in the local community; highly skilled workers are employed for shorter periods of time, and do not bring with them the families that require the same housing, education, and medical care that previous generations of miners did. These modern mining ventures are, Ferguson says, socially “thin” because of that lack of corporate-community investment.

What is the orientation toward globalization that Ferguson advocates?

To Ferguson it is problematic to refer to globalization (at least with regards to Africa) as a process of cultural “flows”, when global connectivity is not distributed uniformly across the continent but instead is exhibited through “point-to-point connectivity” (such as the “hubs” referred to above). To look at globalization from the perspective of Africa is to see a globalization that reinforces existing hierarchies, segments and segregates populations, and alienates Africans from the rest of the world. But nor is the “view from Africa” more genuine. Instead, Ferguson argues, the fact that Africa does not fit neatly into the existing model of globalization requires the creation of new understandings of global patterns.

Seven Revolutions in Kenya

Revolution 1: Population The last official census of Kenya took place in 2009 and at the time there were roughly 38.5 million people living in the country. That number has risen by almost ten million, and 2015 has an estimated 47.8 million people, making it the 30th most populated country in the world. This rapid growth can be partially attributed to the country’s young population. Roughly 3/4ths of the population are under the age of 30 years old. (Source: World Population Review, Google for graphic below.)

Revolution 2: Resource Management From 2010 to 2014, the Kenyan government partnered with Denmark on the Natural Resource Management Project. The purpose of this project was to safeguard the environmental integrity of the country, while at the same time boosting people out of poverty. The overwhelming majority of Kenya’s population is employed in the agricultural sector, including subsistence farmers, and land degradation and water shortages have a disproportionate effect on their livelihoods. Part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 development plan includes conservation efforts, pollution and waste management, planning and governance for the environment, and preparation for adapt to the changing climate. In 2014, USAID also announced a project with Kenya to run through 2018, with three main development objectives. The first two relate to devolution (see governance) and health and human capacity (partially through education), but the third ties together economics and resource management through the objective of creating “inclusive, market-driven, environmentally sustainable economic growth” that includes increased food security, particularly for the rural poor and adaptation for climate change in a “green growth economy.” (Sources: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, USAID.)

Revolution 3: Technology Kenya’s largest city, Nairobi, is known as Africa’s Silicon Valley. This can be linked to the country’s burgeoning economy (not touched upon here, but discussed elsewhere). Kenya is a world leader as far as mobile payment technology is concerned; one source claims that paying taxi fare by cell phone is more simple in Nairobi than it is in New York. This can be understood when you recognize that the country does not have the same amount of landline infrastructure as many Western countries, and it makes more sense to install mobile networks. (Source: Mail & Guardian Africa.)

Revolution 4: Information and Knowledge Since 2003, Kenya has provided free primary education for all, and in 2008 extended support through secondary education. However, in 2010 an estimated one million Kenyan school children were still without school, making Kenya the ninth highest in the world. At the same time, the number of universities in Kenya has grown tremendously within the past ten years. In 2005 there were just five public universities, but today there are 22 with plans for up to 20 new universities to be established– however, recent budget cuts have diminished the ability of the government to open these new institutions, mostly planned for underserved regions. When it comes to the transfer of information, Kenya leads African countries in the percentage of people (52.3%) within the country who have access to the internet. In fact, the country’s primary Internet service provider is called “Access Kenya.” Not only does Kenya have the highest rate of Internet users on the continent, but it also has the highest bandwidth per person, the fastest speeds, and some of the lowest prices for service, which creates an environment in which individuals regardless of their access to formal education can access information through the internet. (Sources: World Education News & Reviews, CNBC Africa, Liquid Telecom.)

Revolution 5: Economics Covered in further detail elsewhere.

Revolution 6: Security The British government reports that there is a “high threat from terrorism, including kidnapping.” This threat comes mainly from Al Shabaab militants, an extremist Muslim group affiliated with al Qaeda, who are responding to Kenya’s military intervention in neighboring Somalia. As of October 29th 2015, Britain advises its citizens against visiting territories that border with Somalia (see below in orange). Within Nairobi, individuals are faced with the threat of violence through burglaries and retaliatory police brutality. Private security companies are thriving, especially compared to corrupt police forces. (Sources: www.Gov.uk, the Economist.)

Revolution 7: Governance Following post election violence in 2007, the country passed a new constitution in August 2010. In March 2013, the current president Uhuru Kenyatta was elected. According to USAID, the national government is currently int he process of transferring some powers from the central government to 47 new county governments to create a two-tier system, through a process known as devolution. The goal of this devolution is to make the governance of Kenya more transparent, democratic, and accountable. Kenya’s government receives support from foreign governments such as Denmark and the United States, as well as through international NGOs. (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, USAID.)

Love in the Time of AIDS, Post #3

Chapter Six:

1) What are the reasons for the ANC’s rejection of a more radical economic strategy post 1994? The fall of the Soviet Union meant that the ANC no longer received support from the former Communist state. There was also a divide between the activists within the party, who advocated for a redistributive economic policy, and public figures such as Thabo Mbeki who wanted South Africa to establish strong relationships with businesses.

2) How is apartheid possibly sustained through RDP houses and how is informal housing still so prevalent? Because of economic factors, RDP houses were mostly built on the outskirts of town. They were only provided to those in dire need, who were most likely to be black. As such, these black South Africans were again relegated to the fringes, despite the purposes of RDP houses to be in their benefit. Informal housing served for many as a viable alternative, especially men, who did not have as much access to RDP housing.

3) What are the four principal changes to the area’s social geography negotiated by Mandeni’s residents in the democratic era? Look at table 6.1 on page 116

The combination of the formerly white Mandini and the black and Indian Mandeni to become one Mandeni

Movement of middle class blacks into former white (and Indian) towns

Growth of imijondolo in the township and informal settlements surrounding

4) Are there dilemmas faced by Hunter in the field? p. 127-129; father of host family shooting at intruders; white, male, foreigner– but student, deferential; Dingane

Chapter Seven

1) How is Hunter using the notion of women’s rights loosely and provocatively? How do women use ‘rights’ creatively? The term “rights” in South Africa has the conflated meaning of both what is right (versus what is wrong) and also the idea of human rights. These ideas are sometimes at odd with each other.

2) Describe and illustrate the 5 ‘rights’ asserted by Hunter?

Safe Sex and Sexual Pleasure

Consumption

To Live Without a Man

To have children

To have multiple lovers

3) From question 2, discuss the links between sex, love and consumption in more detail.

4) Describe the love story and negotiations between Nhlanhla and Nomusa. Hunter describes this story using the terms “good man” and “good woman.” Nhlanhla and Nomusa could be viewed as the archetypes for how young people ought to behave in love– men paying ilobolo, and women paying hlonipha. Nhlanhla’s rejection of some of the more ostentatious displays of masculinity, such as drinking or providing for multiple girlfriends, allowed him to devote his funds to paying ilobolo. His payment of ilobolo was, to Nomusa, a sign of his respect for her and for tradition, but was also a sign to others outside the relationship that he was a respectable, “true” man.

Chapter Eight

1) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption, violence and constructed masculinity? For some men, alcohol is a refuge from their unemployment (and its perceived effect on their masculinity). But it can also enables violence, which can in turn bolster images of masculinity, as men exert power over women.

2) What are the new male hierarchies created by labor market changes? Older men have power over younger men, because they have had more time to accumulate capital; similarly, men who have been in the area have more power than newer arrivals, because they arrived at a time when they were more likely to get good jobs, both because the jobs during SAPPI’s heyday were better paying, but also because there was less competition. Hunter identified three groups: on top, the industrial and professional men; second came men who conducted low-skilled work, but had some form of security, perhaps ownership of a house; and lastly came the casually employed and unemployed, who either rented or lived with family.

3) What are the consequences of the perpetuation of a dichotomy between an isoka and isifebe? The way I understood this in the context of the reading was that women were more saddled with responsibility when it comes to spreading of disease, despite being the ones most at-risk for contracting HIV. Hunter puts it quite clearly when he says that celebrating promiscuity among amasoka (while simultaneously denigrating it among their female counterparts) means that they are “literally kill[ing] him (and his sexual partners)”.

4) How does Hunter explain the problematic notion of women being ‘straightened’? Women being ‘straightened’ are being put in their place for stepping outside the previously established confines of gender roles, especially through their “taking” the place of men in an already squeezed workforce. Several of Hunter’s interviewees related this practice of ‘straightening’ a woman through physical violence as being related to the adoption of “rights”– since the adoption of a ban on corporal punishment in schools, the men Hunter spoke with viewed women as having become wayward and needing correction.

Chapter Nine

1) How have money and love come together in new ways?

Provider love

Romantic Love

2) What is the importance of text messaging related to love in the time of AIDS? Text messaging is a way, affordable and immediate, for lovers to connect emotionally while at the same time negotiating their terms of support. But text messages can also seem fleeting and impersonal, making older forms of communications (like the old fashioned love letter) seem more genuine and significant.

3) Connect Themba’s story and death to the materiality of everyday sex. Pages 187-188

4) How does condom use connect to material resources? Women are more likely to use condoms with secondary or tertiary partners than with their primary partner, despite receiving benefits from all of them. Some of the reasons, like trust and love, relate to their belief that they are safe from HIV infection from their primary partner because they know what he is doing. But it also relates to the knowledge that, should a child be produced from the union, there will be an intensified connection between the couple that can be seen through the material support of the child and also through the emotional connection.

Chapter Ten

1) What is the difference between loveLife and the TAC? loveLife is focused on impacting urban youth and their sexual practices in a “fun” way, and was primarily funded through a top-down approach of government and international donor support. The TAC had a wider goal of achieving health equality, although treatment for HIV+ individuals was a major point of theirs and for which they were able to garner significant support. TAC’s more groundroots approach had an impact on its funding, but also on its effectiveness.

2) What does Pierre Bourdieu have to say about loveLife? One of the criticisms of loveLife was about appealing to the “right” audience. Hunter used Bourdieu’s analysis of “cultural dispositions” as being rooted in power differentials to illustrate this point. loveLife’s modern facility, easily accessible by roads that lead to Sundumbili but not as accessible to the informal communities that surround, affect an aura of the middle class that can alienate the individuals who need their resources the most.

3) How does the emergence of TAC point to important gender and class realignments?

4) How does the large growth of shacks throughout South Africa speak to the government’s failure to engage a changing political economy and geography of intimacy?

Love in the Time of AIDS, Post #2

Chapter Four:

1) What is the abanumzana and how does one account for the increasing number in urban areas? Umnumzana is the word for the head of a rural homestead; it signified status as well as material worth. However, as the ability to subsist and profit through agriculture was reduced, more men like Hunter’s Mr. Nkosi found themselves

2) Desribe urban planning during the apartheid era and how this fed the construction of Mandeni and Sundumbili.

growing and contradictory racial geography

link of manhood to housing

notion of matchbox houses promoting a western style notion of family planning

3) What is the importance of umanyano? Umanyano, or women’s church groups, are significant in their ability to spread a modern Christian version of domestic femininity, through group activities such as baking, sewing, and caring for the ill. These organizations would also connect with groups for white women, and through this connection, women across racial barriers worked toward creating a family planning program at SAPPI.

4) What were some of the changes from the historical era in the 1970s and 1980s during the apartheid era?

5) What were reasons for sexual violence between 1990 and 1994?

women caught in battle lines of men

sexual violence connected to political labor violence but also in rising male unemployment and shifting household structures

Men are demasculinized by high unemployment; in attempt to assert their male power they exploit women sexually in order to feel more masculine.

Chapter Five:

1) What accounts for the rise in women-headed households? Declining marriage rates and the increasing mobility of both men and women contributes to the number of female-headed households. Women were also increasingly afforded the opportunity to work in industrial sites, and to work in general, although high general unemployment meant that more men were employed than women.

2) What is industrial decentralization and how was it employed in South Africa? Industrial decentralization is the movement of industry to the rural areas.

3) Explain the use of the term ‘changing political economy and geography of intimacy’ by Hunter in this chapter.

4) How does Fikile’s story illustrate many of the dilemmas of women?

jazminsthoughts

dynastylnoire

Pittsburgh is over it

Love in the Time of AIDS, Post #1

Introduction:

1) Why is it problematic to utilize the term race in a South African context comparatively to the United States? There are multiple reasons why interpreting race in South Africa from an American perspective is both unsatisfactory and problematic. Looking beyond the fact that race is a social construct, the way the terms used “black” and “colored” are used in incredibly different ways in the United States versus South Africa. In addition, while Americans may understand the institutionalized racism built upon slavery, that understanding does not directly translate to the institution of apartheid.

Chapter One:

1) How did the Zuma rape incident in 2006 demonstrate some of the differences in perception among South African residents…particularly in the press? Interestingly, Hunter found that although the press almost uniformly took an anti-Zuma stance, with one national paper calling Zuma a Neanderthal, the people on the ground took a more nuanced view. This is also seen in the difference between the English speaking and isiZulu speaking press: the English speakers looked at Zuma’s offering to pay ilobolo to the purported victim as being bribery, whereas the isiZulu saw ilobolo in very different terms, as a matter of respectability, and did not cover the issue as much.

2) What is structural violence as identified by Hunter and what is the shortcomings of its application? “Structural violence” is the way in which economic, political, and cultural institutions prioritize certain groups above others in ways that can negatively impact those involved– see the discussion of ilobolo below as an example. Structural violence as a concept lacks the ability to move easily from the political-economic sphere into everyday lives in ways that illustrate how the role of victim and victimizer can overlap, and how local understandings of structural power inequalities can differ.

3) What is the materiality of everyday sex? The materiality of everyday sex is a term that Hunter uses to illustrate the ways in which intimacy and sex are a “key juncture between production and social reproduction” in modern day South Africa, with high levels of unemployment and low rates of marriage.

4) What is the danger of a right-based campaign on AIDS? A focus on rights, as something granted to individuals by a modern democracy, devalues local and historical understandings of issues. An example that Hunter gives is that a rights based approach “runs the risk of downplaying the political-economic roots of AIDS”– another is that while rights may be enshrined in law, that does not guarantee those laws are upheld or adopted into the general practice.

5) How is gender used by Hunter? When Hunter uses the term gender, he uses it to refer to the lives of both men and women, representing multiple masculinities and femininities. To Hunter, “gender” encompasses the social hierarchy that individuals inhabit based on culturally, historically, and geographically created understandings of biological differences between sexes.

6) How is the term ‘intimacy’ used by Hunter? Hunter uses intimacy to go beyond the physicality of sex, into deeper understandings of love and marriage, fertility and kinship, as well as physical pleasure.

7) Explain the difference between romantic love and provider love. Romantic love is the idea of a monogamous couple relationship based on respect, trust, and companionship. Provider love may also exhibit companionship, respect, and trust, but it is based on the mutual fulfillment of roles. It is through the fulfillment of these roles that respect is gained and love forms.

Chapter Two:

1) What is a jondolo settlement? Hunter uses “jondolo” to refer to the informal settlements in Isithebe Industrial Park, versus “informal settlement” for other unplanned communities in South Africa. He attributes this distinction to the need to show how these communities across South Africa are similar, while also showing that jondolo “is a vernacular term for temporary accommodation whose connotations go well beyond the word ‘informal’”.

2) Describe Hunter’s conception of space as ‘produced’ and ‘relational’. Most places are not islands; the conceptualization of place and space are created in comparison to other areas. To understand the social geography, one must understand the geographic, political, and economic context in which it is situated.

3) Analyze Table 2.1 in terms of causal agents for HIV infection. Today, as opposed to the 1940s and 1950s, there is far more mobilization among both men and women; even lower rates of employment drive this mobilization as well as encourage individuals to participate in provider based relationships (see the materialization of everyday sex). In addition, there are fewer committed monogamous relationships, which along with mobilization, may impact rates of infection.

Chapter Three:

1) Describe Hunter’s methodology to understand ‘sex’. Hunter uses a historical-ethnographic approach to understand the history and evolution of intimacy and sexual practices in South Africa from the colonial era up to post-apartheid. This is because he does not believe that one can accurately understand the AIDS crisis in South Africa without understanding the historical and structural occurrences that impact its rise.

2) Describe ilobolo and how it relates to hlonipha. How has ilobolo been cast historically in terms of gift exchange and domination? Ilobolo was traditionally the gift of a number of cattle from a man’s father to the family of his son’s intended bride. In modern times, as the ability to keep large numbers of cattle decreased, this shifted from a father’s payment of cattle to a young man’s own payment of cash. Hunter recognizes the connection between ilobolo and hlonipha (respect) when he defines hlonipha as a “set of acts of deference that maintained social hierarchies”– a young man showed respect for a woman and her family by providing her family with cattle, and the new bride responded to that respect appropriately by maintaining the marital household. However, as Hunter’s informant Tholakale described, men would occasionally use their power position as the provider of ilobolo to pressure their partners into engaging in sexual acts they did not want. Hunter says that in this way, “the transfer of ilobolo then both justified, and to a lesser degree imposed limits on, a husband’s violence.”

3) Describe the Isoka masculinity. The isoka personality is fairly easily understood in the same vein as the Western playboy image. An isoka has multiple girlfriends at the same time without being shunned, a luxury not afforded their female peers. However, an isoka was expected to have a job, or else the girls would not be interested; and an isoka could go too far and be labeled an isoka lamanyala, which most people would not want. While there was nothing disrespectable about merely having multiple girlfriends, the truly respectable young man was expected to pick a girl and start his own homestead.

4) How are differences between amakholwa and amaqaba cast in terms of sexual practice? Amakholwa (Christians) and amaqaba (heathens) were thought of as practicing very different sexual acts. Christians were expected to practice restraint, rather than engaging in “lewd” sexual acts. In addition, Christians were expected to be in “intimate,” monogamous partnerships, a limit that was not placed on the “heathens.” Interestingly, the missionaries’ emphasis on penetrative intercourse being sinful actually increased its practice, as men came to view having this type of sex as a symbol of their masculinity.

7 Revolutions: Kenya

Economic Freedom

In a ranking of 178 countries, Kenya is ranked 122 in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, making it "mostly unfree" according to the criteria of the index. Regionally, Kenya is ranked 23rd out of 46th countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya’s less-than-stellar rating can be attrihbuted to the fact that “Property rights are poorly protected, much of the population lacks land titles, and corruption throughout all levels of government undermines basic procurement of government services.”

Read more about Kenya Economy. See more from the 2015 Index.

Economic Fluctuation & Industry

Since Kenya became an independent nation in 1963, the economy has fluxuated significantly. Within the past decade, in 2008 Kenya's economy suffered the results of both the global economic downturn as well as post-election violence. However, by 2010-2011, an upward trend had established that, if continued into the future, will poise Kenya to become the first East African nation to move into the middle-income status.

Despite being the most industrialized country in East or Central Africa, Kenya's economy is built largely upon agriculture. The country's main export partners are fellow East African nations as well the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. In addition to agriculture, the tourism industry is a growing economic sector, although it faces some trouble with recent terrorist attacks. (Denmark in Kenya - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark)

Political stability & the economy

Although the economy has been turbulent over the past half century, post-independence Kenya has remained relatively politically stable in comparison to other East African nations. This contributes to the country's ability to build their economic sector. In 2014, Kenya's GDP represented 40% of the region's GDP, most closely followed by Tanzania at 28%. (Africa’s Powerhouse - the Brookings Institute)

Theory from the South Ch. 1 & 4

What is the author’s critique of Western enlightenment broadly?

Comaroff and Comaroff take issue with Western enlightenment serving as the universal model for modernity, “immature forms of the European real thing” p. 15 non-western societies as prehistorical non-western as failures; productive, capitalist non-failures

How do the authors want to reposition ‘modernity’, particularly in Africa, to distinguish an ‘African modernity?

Alternative modernities already in place but regarded as traditional? Western modernity is at play in the global south

So, how is Europe ‘evolving’ toward Africa? Explain the authors subtitle.

Pages 12 and 13. What have countries in Africa already done that the West has yet to catch up with? (watch out for teleological) Why can’t these achievements be the pinnacle of what other countries aspire to? We’re experiencing the same conditions that are supposedly only in “third world” countries

Why do the authors consider nation-states in Africa to be ‘quite advanced and sophisticated mutations’ of globalization, rather than ‘immature forms’ of it?

Text goes here.

What are Stiglitz’s critiques of neoliberalism?

Inefficiency of laissez-faire processes; privatization of public assets; preclude certain government interventions; imperfect free market left to own devices results in bailouts; the flaws of neoliberalism have found their way to the west (2008 banking crash); we don’t need the IMF and the world bank because we bail ourselves out

Review the primary concepts summarized for each of the following chapters: ‘autonomous person’ (Chapter 2), ‘policulturalism’ (Chapter 3), ‘borders and belonging’ and ‘xenophobia’(Chapter 4), ‘democracy’ (Chapter 5), ‘politics/law/identity’ (Chapter 6), ‘zombies and necropolitics’ (Chapter 7), ‘AIDS’ (Chapter 8). These will be the guiding premises for each group but all students need to have a working knowledge of the concepts and thesis associated with each.

Autonomous person–

Policulturalism–

Borders and belonging–

Xenophobia–

Democracy–

Politics/law/identity–

Zombies and necropolitics–

AIDS–

Please take the author’s critique of Western enlightenment, modernity, globalization and identity that informs their theoretical orientation of ‘theory from the south’ and explain how your chapter (and the conclusion of your assigned chapter) exemplifies these ideas while presenting a summary of your chapter. Also provide at least one connection from your chapter to your seven revolutions topic.

Text goes here.

How do the authors use the notion of fire and nature to situate ‘belonging’ the South African nation state?

Text goes here.

What do they posit as the three transformation of the South African state?

The first is the reconfiguration of the modernist subject-citizen; the Comaroffs say that while the concept of the nation-state becomes more abstract, as more aspects of an individual’s identity are taken into consideration, the one constant that remains is the binary between “autochthon” and “alien.” The second, the regulation of borders and the limits of sovereignty, is about the contradiction between nations’ desires to “protect” their borders and resources but also the need to open those borders for international trade and migrants. The Comaroffs call the third transformation the “decentering of politics” into a number of “special topics”– instead of being looked at holistically, public life is broken into “struggles”. What I didn’t understand was how the Comaroffs felt this impacted life in South Africa.

What is wrong with aliens? (How do they use plant species as metaphors for xenophobia and belonging)

Text goes here.

Dahl reading questions

Explain the concept of a ‘moral semiotics’ in relation to children’s bodies as discussed by the author.

Answer here.

How are ‘fatness’ and ‘skinniness’ loaded metaphors in Africa in relation to analysis and ‘aid’?

According to Dahl, “fat” children are preferred because it is a sign that they are well fed and, therefore, well taken care of and from a secure family. The presumption is that this should not hold true for orphans because, lacking a family to provide for them, they are not expected to be well fed.

How do bodily aesthetics operate in the context of Botswana?

Bodily aesthetics (the preference for chubby children) is

How does the author explain ‘failed kinship’ and ‘threatened kinship’?

Answer here.

How does ‘Bathusi’ become a bad influence?

Answer here.

Horbst and Wolf reading questions

Explain the theoretical concepts of ‘global assemblages’, ‘therapeutic citizenship’ and ‘biological citizenship’ respectively. How do the authors utilize them and what are their limitations?

Global assemblages–

Therapeutic citizenship–

Biological citizenship–

What is a ‘medicoscape’ and why do the authors propose this theoretical construct? Explain it through the various entities and things that make up the ‘medicosape’ and ‘bundle of practices’ in sub-saharan Africa.

In the article, the authors define medicoscapes as “globally dispersed landscapes of individuals; national, transnational, and international organizations and institutions as well as heterogeneous practices, artifacts, and things, which are connected to different policies, power relations and regimes of medical knowledge, treatments, and healing.”

Some of the actors whom comprise the medicoscape are international NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders; national and local governments; doctors and their patients; and other organizations which impact health care practices around the world.

What is the status of HIV/AIDS and infertility on the African continent as of the publication of this article? What are the social consequences for those who suffer from these maladies?

According to Horbst and Wolf, 68% of HIV+ individuals worldwide are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in 2009 72% of all AIDs related deaths occurred in the region. Rates of infection vary by country, from 1% in Mali up to a quarter of the population in Swaziland.

Similarly, people in developing countries are disproportionally affected by infertility, with up to one out of every four women experiencing some type of infertility, as opposed to between 3.5%-16.7% in more developed areas of the world.

In addition to the physical manifestations of HIV infection, sufferers are also face social stigma for their perceived breach of sexual taboos, indicated by their illness. Infertility is also heavily stigmatized, though the burden falls more on women than on men. Childless women are excluded from much of social life that revolves around family and childrearing.

What is ‘treatment for prevention’? Provide an example. Why would this be an important strategy in sub-saharan Africa and what are the impediments for its utilization?

Treatment for prevention is a concept that says that treating individuals infected with HIV/AIDS will serve as a method of prevention for further spread of the disease. That is to say, investing in treating an individual who has already contracted the disease will serve to prevent that individual from passing the infection on to another person.

This strategy could be particularly effective in environments like the one described in the article, where HIV+ individuals are stigmatized for having broken cultural taboos– to prevent stigmatization, HIV+ individuals may not disclose their status to sexual partners. As ARV technology has progressed, transmission rates for individuals who stick to their treatment plan are low enough that keeping one’s HIV status private would not necessarily put others at risk of transmission. I am unclear from the article whether Horbst and Wolf identified any issues toward implementing such practices.

What are the three major factors central to the divergence in the treatment and financial handling of HIV/AIDS and infertility? Please provide an example of each.

Horbst and Wolf identify three factors that they consider to be primary determinates in the differences between international support for treatment of HIV/AIDS versus that of infertility in sub-Saharan Africa: peace and security; the subordination of the social to the biological; and what they call “global public quality.”

Peace and security– When it comes to issues of national and global security, HIV/AIDS is considered (or was considered, at the time of publication of this article) a significant risk not only to those countries highly affected by the illness but also those who regularly interact with “infected” countries. In a world of increasing globalization but prior to effective and affordable ARV treatment, HIV/AIDS posed a threat to global security. In contrast, infertility is considered a personal or individual problem but one that might benefit the wider world, when considering high birthrates and the spectre of overpopulation; at the very least, it was not considered a threat to security.

Subordination of the social to the biological– Looking at Horbst and Wolf’s second factor, that of the subordination of social issues to biological needs, we again see infertility dismissed as a “personal” issue from the perspective of international health organizations– this is despite the on-the-ground perception of infertility as being a serious public health crisis. Nonetheless, while childlessness may result in severe stigmatization of an individual or couple, it is not considered life threatening in the sense that the individual/couple is unlikely to physically die from their childlessness. This point of view, in my opinion, fails to take into consideration the quality of life an individual who experiences infertility may face in such a stigmatized setting.

Global public quality– The last factor that Horbst and Wolf identified was the idea of an issue needing to take on a certain amount of global public attention. In their article, the researchers attribute the difference in attitudes toward HIV/AIDS and infertility to the idea that in the West “living without children is widely accepted and has no severe social consequences” as well as the idea that fear of overpopulation overshadows any concern for infertility. While these explanations make sense, I also have to wonder how racism and classism factor into these beliefs: while we, as Westerners, may not want poor black Africans to die violently to a preventable and treatable illness, that does not necessarily mean that we want for them to be able to reproduce.

Schintzler reading questions

1) Why are prepaid electrical meters at the center of protests in urban South Africa?

Prepaid electrical meters allow energy companies to control the energy consumption of primarily black and poor South Africans. In her piece, Schintzler explores how these meters serve as technopolitical devices to control poor black communities, and how community members respond to the shut off of their electricity through bypassing the meters, in some cases, and destroying them, in others.

2) How does the author position technology as a ‘political terrain’ and expand these notions into a ‘techno political terrain’ in ethnographic research?

By rebelling against the usage of prepaid meters, the poor black South Africans who are disproportionally effected by them are able to spark a discussion about ethics (of nonpayment for services, but also about the morality of withholding electricity for people who genuinely cannot afford it)– a discussion they would not be able to initiate through the traditional political realm, which is inaccessible to them.

3) How does an item like a prepaid electricity meter become a metaphor for protest and a device for counterinsurgency in the late-apartheid era?

Introduced at a time when rent non-payment was a common act of civil disobedience, the meters were seen as a way to force individuals to pay their bills and also as a way to make it so that utility officials did not need to physically enter the communities to stop services. (How is this counterinsurgency? Add later)

Hoffman reading questions

1) Please conduct contextual research on Charles Taylor and the conflict in Liberia that precedes the journal article. Provide details on this conflict.

A quick Google search for "Charles Taylor Liberia" pulled up, first, our friends at Wikipedia, but secondly an article from the BBC released earlier this year. The BBC article featured a handy "Taylor timeline" that outlined his rise to, and fall from, power. But an earlier New York Times article from just after Taylor’s arrest in 2006 gives a better illustration of what happened than just names and dates.

According to the NYT, Taylor started out as a western educated government official with ties to an army sergeant who was responsible for murdering Liberia’s corrupt President Tolbert. But Taylor and the sergeant had a falling out, that required he leave the country for a while. When he eventually returned, he had amassed a large amount of financial support as well as weaponry that allowed him to send the country into civil war. He oversaw a period of great bloodshed in the country, before finally being arrested in 2006.

2) What does the author mean by positioning African cities as ‘zones of excessive production’? Explain.

Text goes here. State of exception, war machines

3) How does Hoffman utilize ‘barracks’ as a metaphor and organizing principle throughout the journal article? Provide examples.

To Hoffman, the West African city serves as a barrack in the sense that the urban space is used to house dispossessed young men, motivated by the lack of stimuli in their lives, to work toward “[circulating] ... violence within an exchange economy”: by keeping them on hand to serve as laborers either for capitalist ventures, or as soldiers in one of the regional turmoils.

As an example, Hoffman references Agamben (1998) and the Nazi concentration camps. Agamben posits the camps as “the logical extension of the spatialization of biopolitics and represents the modern form of sovereignty”– which can easily be connected to Mbembe’s notion of necropolitics. But Hoffman’s “barracks” differs from Agamben’s view of camps in that the barracks are not merely serving as holding grounds for prisoners, but as all encompassing social and economic spheres.

4) How does Hoffman position ‘violence’ in various ways as an aspect of West African urban life?

In the article, Hoffman describes the barracks as

5) How does the hotel site that Hoffman is studying represent a ‘double status’?

As Hoffman put it, “Brookfields simultaneously constructed and threatened the state.”

6) How is life in the city positioned as an ‘impossibility’ for male youth?

For young men and boys, urban life is “impossible” because they are unable fully remain in the city, but are instead repeatedly shifted from the city to the bush, either in order to work or to fight. Caught in this cycle, they are neither “students” (though they might be) or “laborers” (though they must be). Neither of these statuses can guarantee them stability, and so they must constantly switch roles in order to achieve some semblance of a livelihood.

Sensing Sparrow’s Point

In a sense, my efforts to conduct a participant observation create a five sense ethnography failed. The task was to find a public park or other community space and spend some time observing the people, the space, and how these things interacted.

Because I was interested in looking at Sparrows Point, a former site of industry on the Chesapeake, I thought observing Labor Day celebrations in a public place would give some insight into how people in the community view their industrial past.

The problem, however, was that by the time I got to North Point State Park, it was full to capacity. I tried to sneak in with my journal, camera, and dog, Freckles, but guards turned me away. Despite this, I feel as though I was able to make some valuable observations from driving around. I hope to return again sometime in the near future, and see what else I can find out.

-------------

When I left to conduct my participant observation, it was a balmy 90¬ degrees outside, hotter than it had been all week. It was also Labor Day, the last throes of summer, and all four windows of my 2005 Toyota Corolla were rolled down, the air conditioner having broken months before. The heat wasn’t too bad as long as the car kept moving.

Driving south from Baltimore City to Sparrows Point felt like leaving the Maryland that I was used to. Separated from the hustle of the city, you would need a car to get anywhere near the place—though at one point in time, it was easily accessible by train, though that was more for the sake of commerce than for the humans that lived and worked at the Point. The wind rushing past my window was lighter and fresh, and as I neared the Bay the familiar, the thick scent of bay muck filled my nostrils– “natural,” but yet I knew it was tainted by industrial and agricultural waste.

As I exited the highway and entered what at last looked like land occupied by people, I was struck by the sight of three tagged trailers and a camper that appeared to have been abandoned. What did it mean? I didn’t know, and I still don’t, but it felt meaningful. It felt like neglect, like the town and people had been forgotten after the steel mill closed its doors for good in year here.

This sense of Sparrows Point being a “forgotten town” was only amplified by the lack of noise– I could see people, and cars, and businesses, but the silence made it feel like a model train garden. This feeling only intensified as I moved further south, out of the downtown area and closer to the former site of the company town.

Seeing the site of the now partially demolished mill was an experience that I won’t soon forget. Before this trip, I had never been to the area. Although I knew that deconstruction had begun, I had it in my mind that I would still be able to “see” the place where my family had become middle class– not just the mill itself, but the company town with streets named A, B and C. But as I drove up, I was greeted with a whole lot of nothingness: many, many train tracks, lots of dusty ground, and buildings that only stood in the distance.

I chose Sparrows Point both because of my personal connection to the site, but also because of the parallels I saw between the Point and Curtis Bay. I was curious to see how these two urban industrial communities had been affected in both different and similar ways. I’ll need more experience with Curtis Bay to really say, but immediately I was struck by memories of scenes from Exit Zero by Christine Walley*, which I read for my American Culture course last semester.

Walley, who grew up in southeast Chicago, experienced both the loss of her father to cancer presumably caused by his work in the Wisconsin Steel mill, as well as the loss of her own reproductive capabilities in her 20s that Walley believed to be similarly caused by the environmental pollutants of the area. This resonates with my own family’s history– my great-grandfather, a former Beth Steel employee, died of a painful lung cancer that metastasized to his brain– but also draws our attention to the importance of environmental justice when considering modern industry, like in the case of Curtis Bay.

This ultimately relates to my own research group, which focuses on health, air, and the environment. Although my first choice was the community gardens, being in this group will give me the opportunity to further explore a topic that I have been interested in for quite some time. I am looking forward to the experience!

*For the past couple of years I have become increasingly convinced of the smallness of this world that we live in. Toward the end of her book, Walley talks about the connection between her health troubles and her family’s decision to adopt their son internationally– this only increased my personal connection to the book, as my professional research interests are the American foster care system and international adoption.

#sparrows point #curtis bay #baltimore md #deindustrialization

libertyfrank

My Motivations

I find it difficult to talk about myself, so before I can tell you about myself and what I’m doing here with my blog, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of people.

Charles Edward Towson, my great-grandfather, was a steel man from a steel family living in the steel town of Sparrows Point. He was born in 1907, and though he spent his early years in Pennsylvania, by his early teens the Towsons had returned to Sparrows Point as his father, Tom, was once again working at Bethlehem Steel. Tom, too, had a family history of working in the steel industry. His eldest brother Charles worked as a security guard at Beth Steel’s mill in Steelton, Pennsylvania; Tom and Charles’s father, yet another Charles Towson, had originally moved the family to Sparrows Point in 1903 when he gained employment at the old Maryland Steel Company.

Charles and Tom Towson are just a few among my many Maryland ancestors with rich histories, most of which center around the city of Baltimore. Growing up in a suburb of Baltimore, I always felt connected to but strangely not a part of the city. Part of my desire to participate in this particular research project stemmed from a personal goal to better understand the city that has meant so much to my family, and to become more in-tune with my metropolitan neighbors.

Throughout the next six weeks, I will utilize this blog to upload my research, share interesting things that my fellow participants and I find, and as a place to reflect on how I feel as I take a crash course in becoming an anthropologist.

libertyfrank

I can't believe I wrote this two years ago.

Signal and noise. Text goes here.

Media and technology. Text goes here.

Preservation versus progress. Text goes here.

The colonial sublime. According to Larkin, the "colonial sublime" is how colonial powers used (and continue to use, in terms of post-colonial influence) technology to illustrate the power and intellectual superiority.

Technopolitics. Text goes here.

Wale Lawal and Social Networks in Africa

For our first assignment, Dr. Durington introduced us to the website OkayAfrica.com and asked us all to find an article that interested us and review it. For my article I picked How A 22-Year-Old Nigerian Sparked #WhenAliensMeetNigerians & #NigeriansAtHogwarts by Alyssa Klein (every article I was interested in, in fact, was written by Klein).

I picked this particular article because I was interested in how social media, in particular Twitter, is being used across the world to both widely and quickly spread information: from jokes and memes; emergency support during the Nepal earthquakes; to revolutionary ideas like we saw in the Arab Spring.

The article describes the recent popularity of the hashtags #WhenAliensMeetNigerians and #NigeriansAtHogwarts, and their creation by 22-year-old Wale Lawal, a Nigerian from Lagos currently studying at the London School of Economics. Lawal connects the two hashtags (in particular, #WhenAliensMeetNigerians) to his own fascination with the place of Nigeria in the world and the universe, and even to what the experience of colonization, “wondering how it must have felt, being African, to see a European for the first time.”

Lawal was not the only person for whom the idea was appealing– Nigerian Twitter was soon abuzz, as everyone shared what they imagined the aliens’ first encounters.

What made this article interesting to me was simultaneously the familiarity– the platform and the format of the jokes are common enough in American popular culture– and an off-putting sense of not quite getting the joke. Although I could read the language, the sentence structure was different, and the culture described very unlike what I’m used to. In a sense, I was able to look in and be the alien from the safe, comfortable difference of my home.

But my discomfort with not understanding also begged the question of why I needed to understand. Obviously, I’m an anthropologist– I want to know and understand and experience. But as a white American, I was not the targeted audience of the hashtags. I can analyze and speculate and put my own perspective on things, but that was not Lawal’s aim or intent. It may be called thw rold wide web, but Lawal sought to engage with his fellow Nigerians about their shared culture and spark a discussion about their place in the world.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Six Weeks from Suburbia