Thesis (MA(Social Science))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-365). Also available on the Internet.

This thesis examines the political and ideological struggles within Tswana chiefdoms in the Rustenburg district of the Western Transvaal in the period 1920 - 1940. This period was characterized by a spate of struggles against tribal chiefs which took on similar forms in most of the chiefdoms of the district. These challenges to chiefly political authority reflected a variety of underlying material interests which were rooted in the process of class formation resulting from the development of capitalist relations of production within the wider society. Despite the variations in material conditions in the different chiefdoms of the district, the forms of political and ideological resistance were very similar. The thesis examines the extent of the influences of Christian missions and national political organizations in these localized struggles, and also explores the relationship between chiefs, Native Affairs Department officials and the rural African population in the context of developing segregationist ideology during the inter-war period.

Magister Legum - LLM / The subject of this research paper is the analysis of the recent national and provincial legislation on traditional leadership. Within the new constitutional dispensation the legislature had to retain traditional leadership pursuan to Chapter 12 of the Consstitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. It was unclear how to change institutions that are based on customary ;aw at the same time, recognize them as they are. The legislative branch of government provided its answer through the national and provincial Acts. Precisely the answer forms part of the research paper. / South Africa

'What is a chief?' and 'what do chiefs do?' are the two questions which begin this study of political authority in rural Lesotho. These questions are contained within a broader one, 'why do villagers often hold chiefs, individually and generally, in contempt but recoil at the suggestion of dissolution of the chieftainship?' The latter question arose from the author's initial field experiences to become the basis for a study which examines the history of the chieftainship in Lesotho. This history is seen as a dialectical process involving a struggle over, and a struggle for, the chieftainship. The former struggle refers to the interventions of elites in society, namely senior chiefs, colonial government officials and, in more recent times, post-independence governments and foreign aid agencies. The latter struggle refers to the interventions of chiefs and the rural populace. Having outlined different ethnographic descriptions of Lesotho's chieftainship, in order to illustrate the different criteria of authority which were applied in the making of the chieftainship, the study goes on to consider the efforts of different agencies to make the chieftainship in the image they desired. The contradictions within, and between, these interventions are explored as the study moves towards consideration of why rural Basotho still support the chieftainship. This analysis takes the discussion from the colonial context, during which Basutoland and the chieftainship were created, to contemporary regional and local rural contexts, in which the chieftainship exists. The discussion illustrates how chiefs have been personifications of family and society, and how this representation is being challenged amongst the rural populace today. The multiplicity of forces which have shaped the chieftainship are then drawn together in a conclusion which examines the pivotal role of the chieftainship in the creation of a national identity and in the crisis of legitimacy facing the contemporary state in Lesotho. The study is informed by a marxist theoretical perspective, but it is also influenced by the debate on postmodernism in Anthropology. This leads the study to acknowledge the current context of theoretical uncertainty for ethnographic research, and the opportunities this affords for exploration of new perspectives. One result is that the study examines tentatively the role of bio-physical phenomena in the way Basotho have constructed society and nature, and represented this construction in their collective understanding of political authority.

This dissertation aims to examine the nature of colonial-made laws and regulations which affected the powers of chiefs in the Natal and Zululand regions between 1875 and 1910, and the context in which they were made. Since the establishment of colonial rule in Natal in the 1840s, the colonial government had aimed to bring chiefs under control and to weaken their powers. In the 1870s the pace at which chiefly authority was undermined increased. This dissertation begins in the mid-1870s because this was when white settlers in Natal gradually began to get more influence over native affairs because of important shifts in British policies in South Africa. It ends in 1910 when the administration of native affairs in Natal was transferred from Pietermaritzburg to Pretoria upon the formation of the Union of South Africa. It argues that the making oflaws governing Africans in the Natal and Zululand regions from 1875 to 1910 had to do mainly with the desire of colonial officials to tighten up control over Africans, and the desire of white settlers in Natal to ensure security against Africans who greatly outnumbered them and to obtain land and labour from African communities. The dissertation begins with a brief examination of the colonial state and the nature of the powers of chiefs in the period before 1875. From 1875 to 1893 the Natal settlers gradually gained more influence over native affairs, and used it to formalize and define the powers of chiefs and izinduna. These developments are explained in chapter two. In chapter three the laws and regulations affecting the powers of chiefs that were passed under responsible government from 1893 to 1897 are examined in detail. This was when white settlers in Natal gained power to directly control native affairs. The Zululand region, i.e. to the north of the Thukela river, also experienced similar developments as Natal from 1879 to 1897. After the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879, the powers of hereditary chiefs in Zululand were weakened, together with the strength of Zulu royal house. The impact of colonial rule on the powers of chiefs in Zululand is covered in chapter four. When Zululand was incorporated into Natal in 1897, and when the white settler farmers dominated every department in the ministry, the 'web' of chiefly authority was weakened at a faster pace than before. Some ofthe laws that were in the Natal Code of Native Law were extended to Zululand. The way in which chiefly authority was undermined in the enlarged colony between 1897 to 1910 is examined in chapter five. Chapter six summarizes the findings of the dissertation. / Thesis (M.A. ; School of Human and Social Studies) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2007. / Title from title page screen (viewed on June 2, 2008). Thesis advisor: Thomas Bell. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

In Mozambique, rural poverty is visible in the statistics and in real life. According to UNDP (2005), the index of Mozambique’s human development ranked 172 out of 177 countries and was far below the averages of the sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries, despite considerable improvement in the indicator over the previous five years. It had been determined that 54% of the population lived below the poverty level of $1/day surviving on as little as US$0.40 per day in 2003 (UNDP, 2005). The population distribution in Mozambique remained predominantly rural; with 64% of the 21.4 million people living in the countryside. The development prospects of rural areas remained a key concern (UNDP, 2005). Development was also a key problem for me. For this study it was decided to select a specific problem, the role of the traditional leaders in development, and a special case, a traditional chief - João Mapanguelana Mondlane, nominated in 1949. Between 1960 and 1974 Mapanguelana inaugurated a settlement scheme and a cooperative in the Aldeia das Laranjeiras north of Mandlakazi in Gaza province. I selected this case because several approaches assume that the nature of the relationship between key local development actors and communities has an impact on the development conditions observed at any point in time of the rural areas. From this case study, I can conclude that the involvement of the local leaders with legitimacy and credibility in the community and modern social and administrative networks was the key point that made it possible for the Aldeia das Laranjeiras to be different from her neighbouring villages. During the colonial period the government in Mozambique recognized the significance of traditional leadership as a way to reach the people and make their rule effective and legitimate, specifically in the rural areas. After independence, the new Frelimo government banned traditional leadership and accused it of having collaborated with colonialists and of practicing exploitative actions. In 2000, the Mozambican government reversed the earlier approach, particularly in line with policies that aim at carrying out developmental projects in the districts, and established legal procedures for the nomination of community representatives. The review of the literature and the findings suggest that Mozambique followed the new trends of incorporating the traditional leadership in the rural local governance as a way to reach rural economic development. The aim of this study is to assist policy makers in developing countries especially in Africa, and more specifically in Mozambique, in focusing on the problem of involving the local leaders in the struggle to reduce poverty in the rural areas where most of the population is located. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.