Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Anthropology/Sociology) / This dissertation investigates colonial and postcolonial practices of cultural representations in Namibia. The state sponsored Annual National Culture Festival in Namibia was studied with a specific focus on the Kavango Region in northeastern Namibia. I was particularly interested in how cultural representations are produced by the nation-state and local people in a post-colonial African context of nation-building and national reconciliation, by bringing visions of cosmopolitanism and modernity into critical dialogue with its colonial past. During the apartheid era, the South African administration encouraged the inhabitants of its Native Homelands to engage in cultural activities aimed at preserving their traditional cultures and fostering a sense of distinct cultural identity among each of Namibia officially recognized ;ethnic groups. This policy was in line with the logic of South African colonial apartheid rule of Namibia, which relied upon the emphasis of ethnic differences, in order to support the idea that the territory was inhabited by a collection of requiring a central white government to oversee their development. The colonial administration resorted to concepts of traditional and cultural heritage in order to construct Africans as members of distinct, bounded communities attached to specific localities or homelands. My central argument is that since Namibian independence in 1990, the postcolonial nation-state has placed emphasis on cultural pride in new ways, and identifying characteristics of Namibian-nessa. This has led to the institution of cultural festivals, which have since 1995 held all over the country with an expressed emphasis on the notion of Unity in Diversity. These cultural festivals are largely performances and cultural competitions that range from lang-arm dance, and traditional dances, displays of traditional foodstuffs and dramatized representations. The ethnographic study shows that while the performers represent diversity through dance and other forms of cultural exhibition, the importance of belonging to the nation and a larger constituency is simultaneously highlighted. However, as the study demonstrates, the festivals are also spaces where local populations engage in negotiations with the nation-state and contest regional forms of belonging. The study shows how a practice which was considered to be a colonial representation of the other has been reinvented with new meanings in postcolonial Namibia. The study demonstrates through an analysis of cultural representations such as song, dances and drama that the festival creates a space in which social interaction takes place between participants, spectators and officials who organize the event as social capital of associational life. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis is a discourse analysis of five testimonies from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The aim of the analysis is to explore the ways in which the testifiers perform their identities, construe their experiences of life under apartheid, and position themselves and their audiences in relation to these experiences. The shaping role of context – both local and historical – is also considered.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This paper argues that post conflict communities need capacity to effectively deal with violent conflicts. This study therefore examines avenues through which sport can be used as a catalyst for mediation programmes in Zimbabwe and South Africa, to address sustainable community healing. This will capacitate communities with the skills to mediate and resolve their own conflicts, thereby contributing to knowledge and changing the paradigm of post-conflict community healing. Grounded in the structural functionalist theory and John Paul Lederach’s Multilevel Leadership pyramid, this study was carried out in Mfuleni, Western Cape and Highfields, Harare, where mediation training for sport participants, community coaches, sports men and women were carried out. It was assessed at all the stages using the qualitative research methodology. This study discovered many benefits derived from the sport and mediation training. However, successful implementation of sport and mediation training in post-conflict communities can face challenges around language, different ways of interpreting terms and related issues by stakeholders; the extreme dominance of religion; superstition and use of magic in sport; lack of acceptance in communities on issues around age and gender, owing to patriarchy. It also noted that the school system is replete with loopholes that threaten the security of learners. Also, the school system is caught in the net of propagating patriarchal values, albeit in subtle ways. As such, the need to take all these into consideration cannot be overemphasised

This study explores how the Mir Centre for Peace community programmes in Castlegar, BC, respond to the calls from critical and feminist perspectives in adult education toward social justice. These perspectives call for conscientization, democratization and active citizenship, personal and social transformation, emancipation and empowerment. They also call for processes that use the arts, creativity and imagination, and pay attention to issues such as gender, race, class and the environment. Lacking from these calls is attention to peace, particularly how it is understood and taught, and in areas where a relative peace seems established. To conduct this study, I used a case study design that consisted of five semi-structured interviews with study participants who were involved at the Mir Centre as educators/facilitators, organisers, advisory board members, or a combination of these roles. I also used content analysis of relevant documents found on their webpages, and my participatory observation from nine of their events held during the 2015-2016 year. Through these I glean how this centre organises, educates, and acts for social justice and for peace. Four areas emerged as significant to the literature in critical and feminist perspectives in adult education. These are their attention to reconciliation as a practice of building peace, their attention to ‘place’ as a teaching tool, how they integrate and pay attention to spirituality, and how they construct ‘peace’ as an orientation that includes ‘conflict.’ Recommendations based on my understanding of the calls from critical and feminist adult education are also made to the Mir Centre. / Graduate

[From Introduction]. "God, ... through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." "Among all churches throughout the world there is a growing conviction that God's great reconciliation in Jesus Christ is still the answer desperately needed by modern man." The United Presbyterian Church U.S.A.'s Confession of 1967 made "reconciliation the all-embracing category for describing God's work and man's response, including especially his response in social and political action".

For decades Africa has tried to rid itself of the, most often, oppressive powers that have dominated the continent. Throughout the 20th century, and in the case of South Africa even further back in history, the church has played a vocal role in engaging the powers that refused Africans the right to be part of their own heritage. The church marched with the rest of Africa to a glorious victory over these powers. In 2004 the first decade of democracy in South Africa was celebrated. However, a number of challenging issues facing the very existence of the African continent, and especially the African church, did not disappear. Instead, over a number of years, these issues have surfaced, if not to a greater extent, at least in the full view of the whole world. It seems that the same vigorous voice of the church that spoke out against, for example, colonialism and apartheid, has now become silent. The goal of this study is to determine if the church, with focus on the church in South Africa, is taking serious cognisance of these challenging issues, and to find out what it is saying about these challenges. In order to assist us in this study, we look at what five of the South African theologians, who stand in different traditions of the church in South Africa, are saying about these challenging issues. The different theologians selected for this study are Archbishops Tutu and Tlhagale, Professor Maluleke, Bishop Mofokeng and Doctor Khathide. They, respectively, stand in the Anglican, Catholic, Reformed, AIC and Pentecostal traditions. Through the voices of these theologians, this study identifies various issues, defines areas of concern, and determines what the church is saying about these challenges. These challenges are identified as challenges in establishing the church in Africa as African church, challenges relating to social, economic and political issues, and challenges facing the church in a multi-religious society. Even though this study only refers to five of the church’s theologians, the finding resulting from this study indicates that the African church is taking serious cognisance of these challenging issues and is still speaking out. / Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Science of Religion and Missiology / MA / unrestricted

This research explores the indigenous conflict resolution processes practiced by the Tharu community living in Nepal’s Bara, Dang and Bardiya districts, the role of Tharu traditions and customs, and the function of the Barghar-Mukhiya. Due to geographic and monetary challenges experienced by the Tharu accessing Nepal’s formal justice system, they continue to serve as a viable and vibrant vehicle for resolving minor and major conflicts at the community level and form the basis of researcher’s Barghar-Mukhiya model. Shaped by Tharu collectivist culture and traditions, it supports the social fabric of the community. Utilizing qualitative case study methodology, this research assesses important aspects of the Barghar-Mukhiya model, processes and impact. Primary data sources include individual and focus group interviews, and researcher observations; and, secondary sources include document collections and archival material. Research findings explore six emergent themes: Rituals/Festivals, Inclusion/Dialogue, Identity/Security, Structure/Barghar-Mukhiya, Process/Reconciliation Processes, and Participation/Acceptance. This model is assessed for strengths and challenges. Where it is practiced, it continues to help maintain community harmony and peace. The model’s core of restorative practices, forgiveness, reconciliation, consensus-based decision-making, and use of dialogue circles is instrumental in transforming conflicts. This research contributes to the field of peace and conflict studies, providing analysis of an indigenous model that strives to reach a balance between traditional beliefs and the modern judicial system.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Sciences: Public Management (Peacebuilding), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / The retributive justice system has been used in most parts of the world aimed at rehabilitating, deterring and incapacitating offenders. High prison rates reveal that the retributive justice system has not been too effective when it comes to reducing recidivism and addressing causes of crime. The system makes offenders to be accountable to the state, while victims of crime are left out of the picture. Family members of offenders, who are the secondary victims, are also closed out of the system, while in essence; they suffer a lot including loss of family members to imprisonment, which affects the family fabric. This research seeks to enhance the restorative justice work with ex-prisoners done by Second Chance Rehabilitation centre. The question that this research seeks to answer is: can restorative justice models have a positive impact on the lives of ex-prisoners and their families? An Action Research paradigm was used during this study. Eleven restorative justice interventions were implemented with a group of twelve ex-prisoners, while four sessions were implemented with ten family members of the ex-prisoners. The findings of this research reveal that, participants attained new knowledge through these interventions, which influenced their attitudes and behaviour about life and relationships. Additionally, the study revealed that human beings are social beings, who can be socialised into doing right, which is a message that should be passed on to policy makers, so they would implement effective rehabilitative processes which will yield transformative results. / D

This thesis examines the current relationship between Aboriginal and EuroCanadian Anglicans in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon as they seek to move beyond past hurts into a more positive future. After three field trips to Canada's North, visiting seven communities and interviewing seventy-nine individuals, complemented by archival research, I realized the dominant narrative based on a colonialism process linking residential schools, Christian Churches and federal government in a concerted effort to deliberately destroy Aboriginal peoples, cultures, and nations was not adequate to explain what happened in the North or the relationship that exists today. Two other narratives finally emerged from my research. The dominant narrative on its own represents a simplistic, one-dimensional caricature of Northern history and relationships. The second narrative reveals a more complex and nuanced history of relationships in Canada's North with missionaries and residential school officials sometimes operating out of their ethnocentric and colonialistic worldview to assimilate Aboriginal peoples to the dominant society and sometimes acting to preserve Aboriginal ways, including Aboriginal languages and cultures, and sometimes protesting and challenging colonialist policies geared to destroying Aboriginal self-sufficiency and seizing Aboriginal lands. The third narrative is more subtle but also reflects the most devastating process. It builds on what has already been acknowledged by so many: loss of culture. Instead of seeing culture as only tangible components and traditional ways of living, however, the third narrative focuses on a more deep-seated understanding of culture as the process informing how one organizes and understands the world in which one lives. Even when physical and sexual abuse did not occur, and even when traditional skills were affirmed, the cultural collisions that occurred in Anglican residential schools in Canada's North shattered children's understanding of reality itself. While the Anglican Church is moving beyond colonialism in many ways - affirming Aboriginal values and empowering Aboriginal people within the Anglican community, it nevertheless has yet to deal with the cultural divide that continues to be found in their congregations and continues to affect their relationship in Northern communities where Aboriginal and EuroCanadian people worship together yet remain separate.

Prompted by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015), there has been widespread response throughout Canadian educational institutions to facilitate reconciliation through education. In the context of Ontario, some Faculties of Education have responded to the calls with requiring Aboriginal education for teacher candidates, to ensure all graduating teachers have knowledge of Aboriginal histories, cultures, and worldviews. Nevertheless, there is a difference between teaching about reconciliation and teaching through reconciliation. This embodiment of reconciliation as a curricular and pedagogical praxis – a praxis of reconciliation – lies at the heart of this research in initial teacher education. This study draws upon case study methodology in an Aboriginal teacher education course in Ontario and a Treaty of Waitangi teacher education workshop in New Zealand, through an investigation of the question: In what ways do Settler teacher education programs facilitate and engage a praxis of reconciliation? The findings of this thesis propose a reconceptualization of reconciliation in teacher education by identifying the ways in which reconciliation is manifested in teacher education (a possibility of reconciliation), and the ways in which reconciliation is hindered (a challenge to reconciliation). In addition to identifying the possibilities and challenges, this research study also deconstructs the safe space metaphor in favour of ethical space and ethical relationality in initial teacher education.