A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Film and Television, August 2017 / Located in the town of Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo desert, the Owl House is a fascinating heritage museum that was once the home to outsider artist, Helen Martins. Much work has been created about the eccentric Helen Martins and her unusual home, and appears in the form of books, films, music and plays. The content of these works follow a similar pattern, and it is the aim of this research and film to explore a less literal interpretation of the Owl House, and its creators, Helen Martins and Koos Malgas. The Owl House is re-imagined through the lens of an experimental essay film, juxtaposing footage of the creative eastern imagery of the Owl House (in South Africa) with actual footage of the east (India, Thailand and Laos). In exploring these binaries, an investigation of theory of the landscape, home, mobility and hermeneutics takes place. Furthermore, these theories and concepts are looked at in relation to the politics of an apartheid, and later, a democratic South Africa. The Owl House is therefore analysed as the collaboration of the white, female Helen Martins, and the coloured, male Koos Malgas. / XL2018

The tribal life and the oral traditions of black South Africans have been marginalized. The consequence of the western civilization and the apartheid regime forced people to do away from their traditional heritage and culture; they adopted the western way of life. They buried their oral tradition and only a little has survived. To save the dying culture of the art of the oral tradition we need to go out and record and document the surviving oral tradition as soon as possible. Since the art of the oral tradition is an art form conducted by an artist, it may be possible to tell the ibali likaNongqawuse by means of visual imagery. Visual images can be read and be understood easily by the public because visual forms, sings, images can make up a language for both the literate as well as the illiterate.

MA (Tshivenda) / Senthara ya M. E. R. Mathivha ya Nyambo dza Vharema , Vhutsila na Mvelele / Musi ḽifhasi ḽoṱhe na lushaka lwoṱhe vho sedza u losha sa u tambudza vhathu vha mbeu ya tshinnani na ya tshifumakadzini, kha mvelele ya Tshivenḓa u losha hu tou vha u ḓiṱongisa ngazwo. Vhavenḓa ndi lushaka lune lwa dzhia u losha tshi tshone tshithu tsha ndeme kha mvelele yavho ya Tshivenḓa zwine zwa bvukulula tshivhumbeo na vhuvha, u ṱhonifha, u hulisa, u ṋea tshirunzi, u tenda mulandu na vhuthu nga u angaredza. Ngauralo, ṱhoḓisiso iyi i khou ṱoḓisisa u losha ha vhanna na vhafumakadzi kha mvelele ya Tshivenḓa. Ṱhoḓisiso iyi i ḓo dovha ya ṱoḓisisa nḓila dzo fhambanaho dza u losha vhukati ha kuloshele kwa kale na kuloshele kwa musalauno hu u itela uri ṱhoḓisiso iyi i dzie kana i angalale zwavhuḓi. Muṱoḓisisi u ḓo shumisa ngona ya khwaḽithethivi hune muhanga wa thyori wo ḓisendeka nga Afrocentrism kana Afrocentricity Framework. Iyi ndi thyiori ine ya khwaṱhisa u ombedzela kana u khwaṱhisedza mvelele ya Vharema na u bveledza mvelaphanḓa kha u alusa mvelele ya Vharema. Ṱhoḓisiso iyi i ḓo dovha ya ṱalutshedza siangane, tshitatamennde tsha thaidzo, ndivho, zwipikwa na ndeme ya ṱhoḓisiso khathihi na ṱhalutshedzo dza mathemo a ndeme. / NRF

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2013. / This study is focused on the role of education to improve awareness of two critically important aspects of the South African situation 19 years after the first democratic elections in 1994. In the first instance, the study aims to augment the grades 10-12 Life Orientation curriculum to promote understanding and appreciation of land rights as human rights for every citizen in South Africa to address the social injustices of the past. In the second instance, the study focuses on grades 10-12 Agricultural Sciences curriculum to ensure that every learner who leaves school is in a position to care for land responsibly, and to use land productively for his or her own benefit and the benefit of others in the future. These foci have been informed by numerous interactions with people in four small communities on the Southern KwaZulu-Natal coast, who have been victims of landless as a result of the Group Areas act of 1960, and are claiming restitution for the land lost, and are required by law to make the restituted land productive. The study records first hand stories told about land ownership, landless, land claims, land restitution, and land (ab)use stories, in the form of narratives, such as autobiographies, auto-ethnographies, accounts of action research and self study. My research participants and I are the authors of our land stories. We tell our stories as a way of making the private public in the interests of a fair and just society. The forms of presentation include narratives, dialogues, playlets, literary references and critical reflections. The perspectives used include the native worldview, rurality as a dynamic, generative and variable milieu, the orality-literacy interface, the effect of oppression, and values and beliefs, customs and mores which (in)form a civil and civilised society. During the course of the study, the role of stories to reveal what is happening in the lives of those people most affected by unjust laws, and to empower them to take action in their own best interests became evident. The major role of education in land reforms cannot be overemphasized, which is why I have used what I have discovered from the many interactions with many people to inform two grades 10-12 school curricula: the grades 10-12 Life Orientation curriculum and the grades 10-12 Agricultural Sciences curriculum . / PDF Full-text unavailable. Please refer to hard copy for Full-text / D

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa consists of a vast, culturally diverse population, entrenched in customary tribal influences which are essentially based on stringent patriarchal directives. These spilt over into other societal spheres, one of which is the media, which is part of an existing male hegemonic society. The rationale for this study is essentially to determine the role played by the media in their representation of women, before and shortly after the liberation of South Africa. This study will establish whether the voices of women were represented, or not, in the media, in the period shortly after the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and affiliated organisations in 1990. By interviewing and recording the oral histories of a few female ANC Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) soldiers, the need is evident to, through this oral tradition process, give a voice to these voiceless women. The theoretical foundations for this study is firstly based on “womanism”. Womanism was born from the shortcomings of feminism (a largely Western concept) that was unable to address the issues unique to the situation of black women. A second theoretical point of departure is the Social Responsibility Theory, a media theory that could, based on research done for this study, play a profound role to the benefit of women. The methodological investigation is based on a mixed method research approach where Content Analysis (CA) and Grounded Theory (GT) are triangulated with the literature review. The GT processes gave a voice to some unknown female MK soldiers by conducting interviews based on in-depth interview questions. The CA process led to the conclusion that the voices of women who contributed to the struggle were largely ignored by the media. The researcher found that given the contributions and sacrifices women have made in democratising South Africa, acknowledgement of these efforts are sorely lacking, especially in the media. This study therefore seeks to contribute to the lost and repressed voices of women, and to redress a history of omission to a history of commission. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika beskik oor 'n kultureel diverse bevolking met tradisionele stam-invloede wat essensieel gebaseer is op streng patriargale riglyne. Dit het oorgespoel na ander sosiale kontekste, waarvan een die media is, en wat deel uitmaak van 'n bestaande manlike hegemoniese gemeenskap. Die rasionaal vir hierdie studie was om vas te stel watter rol die media gespeel het in die representasie van vroue kort ná die eerste stappe tot 'n bevryde Suid-Afrika. Hierdie studie wou vasstel of die stemme van vroue verteenwoordig was, of nie, in die media, in die tydperk kort ná die ontbanning van die African National Congress (ANC) en ander geaffilieerde organisasies in 1990. Die veronderstelling is dat vrouestemme nie in die media waarneembaar was nie, en dat die situasie teengewerk kan word deur die toepassing van mondelinge geskiedenis. In hierdie geval is die verhale van 'n paar vroulike Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)-soldate geboekstaaf om sodoende deur die mondelinge geskiedenistradisie 'n stem te gee aan stemlose vroue. Die teoretiese grondslag vir hierdie studie is eerstens gebaseer op “Womanism”. Dié teorie het ontstaan weens die tekortkominge van Feminisme (grootliks ‟n Westerse konsep), wat nie in staat was om die kwessies wat uniek is aan die situasie van swart vroue aan te spreek nie. 'n Tweede teoretiese vertrekpunt is die Sosiale Verantwoordelikheidsteorie. Gebaseer op die navorsing vir hierdie studie, kan dit 'n groter rol in die media in die belang van vroue speel. Die metodologie is gebaseer op 'n gemengde metode-navorsingsbenadering waar Inhoudsanalise en Grounded Theory (GT) trianguleer met die literatuurstudie. Die GT-proses gee 'n stem aan 'n paar onbekende vroulike MK-soldate deur onderhoudvoering wat op in-diepte onderhoudvrae gebaseer is. Die inhoudsanalise proses het bevind dat vroue wat bygedra het tot die Vryheidstryd grootliks deur die media geïgnoreer is. Gegewe die bydraes en opofferings wat vroue gemaak het in die demokratisering van Suid-Afrika, ontbreek erkenning van hul pogings in ons geskiedskrywing, en beslis so in die media. Hierdie studie was 'n poging om by te dra tot die omkeer van hierdie situasie, naamlik om 'n “geskiedenis van uitsluiting” te herstel na 'n “geskiedenis van insluiting”.

The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape, memory and heritage. It aims to establish that landscape is not only an inseparable part of the intangible process of memory, but also the formation and perpetuation of cultural and individual identity. The composition of heritage, including the sociocultural and biophysical, is therefore a complex result of varying interactions between memory and landscape, as perceived by the living custodians. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, are traced back to the tangible fabric of place. Through means of qualitative and quantitative anthropological fieldwork methods and an extensive literature review, the sociocultural profile of the Mpondo is briefly documented. The subsequent case study explored a site in the Eastern Cape on Ngquza Hill, where the oral traditions and memories connected to the site are mapped. These elements were accessed through employing the theories of mnemotechnics. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape, memory and heritage. It aims to establish that landscape is not only an inseparable part of the intangible process of memory, but also the formation and perpetuation of cultural and individual identity. The composition of heritage, including the sociocultural and biophysical, is therefore a complex result of varying interactions between memory and landscape, as perceived by the living custodians. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, are traced back to the tangible fabric of place. Through means of qualitative and quantitative anthropological fieldwork methods and an extensive literature review, the sociocultural profile of the Mpondo is briefly documented. The subsequent case study explored a site in the Eastern Cape on Ngquza Hill, where the oral traditions and memories connected to the site are mapped. These elements were accessed through employing the theories of mnemotechnics. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)