This paper explores the history of Namaqualand and specifically the Komaggas community. By taking note of the major developments that occurred in the area, the effects on this community over the last 200 or so years have been established. The focal point follows the history of land; its usage, dispossession and importance to the survival of Namaqualanders. Using the records of travellers to the region, the views of government officials, local inhabitants as well as numerous analyses of contemporary authors, a detailed understanding of this area has emerged. Among other things, the research has attempted to ascertain whether the current Komaggas community has a claim to a greater portion of land than it currently holds. Overwhelming evidence exists that supports the idea that the Khoi grouping known as the Nama did indeed make use of a large portion of Namaqualand practicing transhumance in order to survive. Centuries of beneficial use led to local systems of understanding whereby certain tribes had predominance in particular areas and assumed a right to these lands through continual usage. Following colonisation, the movement of Europeans away from the original settlement at Cape Town, slowly but steadily began to undermine the original inhabitants of the Cape. While Namaqualand was able to withstand this push longer than other areas by virtue of its location, its inhabitants began to be negatively affected by the 1800s. The Nama began to lose their most important commodity, cattle, suffered disease, and were pushed off their ancestral lands and denied access to water sources. A lack of understanding and rationalisation of aboriginal practices relating to land usage and various other customs, as well as a growing racially-charged landscape meant that the Nama, like other Khoi groups, while not explicitly relegated to second class citizens by government, were certainly not supported or given equal treatment. As Europeans were able to secure title and tenure to the best lands in the region, the Nama were sidelined. When Namaqualand became profitable because of copper in the 1850s, the quest for land became even more fervent. The building of an infrastructure over the next decades would facilitate the diamond industry that began in the 1920s, a defining moment that signalled the end of any autonomy of movement for the people of Komaggas. Apartheid further relegated their position in society and today Komaggas is a poor and underdeveloped place with few prospects. However, given the importance of the land agenda in post-1994 South Africa and the success of the Richtersvelders in gaining compensation for loss of land, there is hope for Komaggas. The evidence will show that the Komaggas community certainly made use of lands outside its current boundaries. Examining the doctrine of aboriginal title it will be argued that they certainly have a claim to some form of land redistribution or restitution. This is based on historical evidence as well as the present need to increase agriculture production and to have access to more land for their livestock.

Bibliography: leaves 69-82. / Waging Peace in Sacred Space ultimately begs the question: """"What does it mean to be a Catholic militant peace?"""" The dissertation tackles this question systematically: in three carefully researched case studies, the ways in which Catholic actors have waged peace in spaces of conflict and war will be explored.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-171). / In 1843, William Sammons founded the peculiarly named Sam Sly’s African Journal (1843 -1851) in Cape Town. Claiming to be a ‘register of facts, fiction, news, literature, commerce and amusement’, the African Journal was a hybrid newspaper and literary and satirical periodical aimed at an Anglophone immigrant readership in the period between the abolition of slavery and the granting of representative government to the Cape Colony.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123). / The rise of the mining industry in the latter half of the nineteenth century transformed southern Africa. It facilitated the process of industrialisation and enabled the growth and advancement of the region's economy. Owing to the importance of South Africa's mineral revolution as the primary driver for economic development, this subject has assumed a strong theme in South African historiography. However, one subject that has been overlooked by historians is the development and evolution of early mineral law that sought to govern the burgeoning mineral revolution in the nineteenth century. This is a history of the introduction and evolution of mineral law in the Cape of Good Hope, the region of southern Africa where minerals were first discovered and exploited on a commercial basis. This history examines the development of mining legislation between 1853, when the Cape legislature implemented South Africa's very first mineral leasing regulations to regulate the leasing of land believed to contain copper deposits in Namaqualand, and 1910, when the Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State joined to form the Union of South Africa.

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis explores some of the memories and recollections of World War Two in South Africa today. It aims to address an absence of work done on South Africa in relation to World War Two, memory and commemoration. This thesis is as much about the diverse processes of remembrance and recollection as it is about the war itself and assumes that memories of the war can be located in different media. Accordingly the chapters herein are each delegated a media form, from newspapers, literature, memorials, film and photography to oral interviews, in which ‘memories’ of the war are located. The arrangement of the chapters mimics the history of the war’s remembrance in South Africa as it moved from public to private remembrance. This follows the historical context of South Africa from the war period until approximately mid-2013. The white Anglophone experience is given prominence in approaching the subject of commemoration and World War Two in Cape Town. This is motivated by Vivian Bickford- Smith and John Lambert, both of whom recognise it as South Africa’s ‘forgotten identity.’1 Nevertheless other non-white memories of the war are also discussed as important to understanding South Africa’s relationship to it. In particular, the sons and daughters of the Cape Corps briefly feature in this thesis in recognition of a greater Anglophone identity that is not necessarily bound by race. Black recruits are also touched upon as an oft-forgotten group involved in the war. Accordingly this thesis emphasizes that although some experiences and memories were shaped by race, there were others that transcended it. Lastly the different media forms discussed within this thesis are suggestive of technology’s advances and its impact on the way memories are stored and retrieved. Ultimately, despite the fact that the war has fallen out of public remembrance in Cape Town today, this thesis concludes that it remains important to a few groups and individuals for whom it continues to inform a sense of history and identity.

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis, based on archival and fieldwork research, provides an historical analysis of the northern Mozambique ajami manuscripts held in the Mozambique Historical Archives (AHM). The main focus is on the role played by ajami literacy in the creation of a local Muslim intellectual class that played a significant role in the establishment of a Portuguese pre-colonial administration in northern Mozambique. The history of Islam in northern Mozambique is viewed as a constant struggle against the Portuguese establishment in the region. Through an examination of ajami correspondence held in the AHM and focusing on two of the main northern Mozambique Swahili centres of the nineteenth century (Quissanga and Sancul), this thesis offers a more nuanced interpretation of the relations between the Portuguese and the Swahili Muslim rulers of the region. On the one hand, it views Quissanga-Ibo Island relations based on systematic and relatively loyal collaboration expressed in more than two hundred letters found in the collection of AHM. On the other hand, it presents Sancul-Mozambique Island relations based on ambiguous collaboration and constant betrayals, expressed in forty letters of the collection. The AHM ajami manuscripts collection numbers a total of 665 letters which were first revealed in the context of the pilot study of northern Mozambique Arabic Manuscripts, held in the Mozambique Historical Archives, under the leadership of Professors Liazzat Bonate and Joel Tembe. The pilot study ended with the selection, translation and transliteration of sixty letters from this collection. For the present study I have read, summarized and translated the whole collection (excluding the 60 letters mentioned above). However, only 266 letters which are more relevant for the analysis and argument of my thesis, I have listed in the appendix of this dissertation; and nine of them I have closely examined and cited as the main sources for the construction of local history and as documentary witness of the historical facts I discuss. The use of ajami literacy in northern Mozambique is analysed in the context of global and regional phenomena. In this sense, it is viewed as a result of a longue duré process which integrated the region into the western Indian Ocean’s cultural, political and economic dynamics. It is argued that the spread of ajami literacy in the region was framed in the context of regional Islamic education and an intellectual network. Both were also part of the process of expansion of Islam in East Africa. xiQuissanga (in Cabo Delgado) and Sancul (in Nampula) represent the two main regional settlements from which most of the manuscripts originated. The ruling elites of both regions represent suitable examples of the integration of northern Mozambique into the Swahili political, economic and intellectual networks. They also offer examples of two different dynamics of the process of integration of northern Mozambique rulers into the Portuguese pre-colonial administration. Through an analysis of the spread of Islamic education and the use of Arabic script in the above-mentioned region, this thesis sought to establish the connection of coastal societies in northern Mozambique to the Swahili world (most specifically to Comoros Islands, Zanzibar and western Madagascar). It was through this connection that the Muslim intellectual class was created in northern Mozambique and played an important intermediary role in the process of the establishment of the Portuguese administration in the second half of the nineteenth century. Through their correspondence and reports, this local intellectual elite produced a body of manuscripts in Kiswahili and other local languages (in the Arabic script), which are now an important source for the history of the region.

Bibliography: pages 227-242. / This dissertation is a study of Walter Stanford's work in the representation of the interests of the black peoples of the Cape Colony while he was a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly from 1908 to 1910. It is not shaped by any conscious ideology of the writer. The principal sources of primary information are the Sir W.E.M. Stanford Papers, volumes of correspondence and letterbooks relating to the establishment of the Inter-State Native College at Fort Hare, the volumes of the Cape Legislative Assembly debates for 1908 and 1909, the report of the Cape Legislative Assembly select committee appointed to investigate the state of African and Coloured education (1908), and the interim and final reports of the 1910 Cape Native Affairs Commission. I also use Stanford's printed magisterial reports contained in the Cape Native Affairs Blue-Books from 1877 to 1903. In addition, I cull material on Stanford from newspapers and periodicals. The most informative of these are The Tembuland News, The Territorial News and The Transkeian Gazette. I supplement material from these primary sources with information from a wide range of modern works on Cape and South African history and native affairs, and from a number of unpublished theses and seminar papers on these subjects. The dissertation begins with a chapter which describes Stanford's background and the context and content of his native affairs philosophy before his entry into politics in 1908. The second chapter outlines the circumstances of Stanford's decision to enter politics and his election to the Cape Legislative Assembly. The third chapter describes the major economic and political features of the context within which Stanford operated as a politician and the circumstances of the black peoples of the Cape Colony. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters deal with Stanford's work in the spheres of black material development, black education, and on the Cape Native Affairs Commission of 1910 respectively. The seventh and eighth chapters discuss Stanford's work in the creation of a union of the southern African colonies. The final chapter summarises the events of Stanford's career after 1910 and evaluates Stanford's work in relation to the debate regarding the motives of Cape liberals. The first eight chapters of the dissertation are empirical in their approach; seeking only to describe Stanford's behaviour within the context of the circumstances in which he operated. Assessment of Stanford's behaviour in relation to models of Cape liberal thinking, constructed by scholars such as Phyllis Lewsen, Stanley Trapido, Colin Bundy and Martin Legassick is confined to the concluding chapter. I adopt this approach in order to allow Stanford's utterances and actions to speak for themselves before I assess whether or not he was a Cape liberal in the sense that the term has been used by scholars in this field of South African history. I conclude that revisionist paradigms of Cape liberal behaviour do not admit of the place that principle and humanity occupied in Stanford's philosophy and actions during the 1908 to 1910 period.

Includes abstract.|Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-103). / As the world refugee population continues to rise, so the debate over how to best assist those who have been displaced intensifies. Humanitarian practices often have a disempowering effect on individuals instead of helping them to become self-sufficient. This problem is compounded by the gap between the realities on the ground and the overarching policies of both governments and organizations. In South Africa, the plethora of social issues, the lack of long-term solutions for refugee resettlement and the unsuccessful implementation of national policies relating to refugees contribute to the xenophobia that has become prevalent across the country. When the xenophobic sentiment turns violent, the Somali community has been targeted in the most extreme ways. Using the oral history methodology, this study draws on 17 life story interviews with Somali refugees residing in the Cape Town area. The interviews focus on the refugees' experience with humanitarian organizations and the government policy of their host country. By exploring their memories of Somalia and their relationship to their homeland, as well as their experiences in exile, it becomes evident that the Somalis' personal histories impact on how they negotiate the different forms of assistance that are available, or the lack thereof. Those who have had little control over their own lies in the past continue to have greater difficulty reaching their financial and educational goals, integrating onto South African society, and accessing the rights granted to them by law. Those who historically had some amount of agency continue to do so, despite the disempowering effects of mass assistance programs. In order for governments and organizations to be successful in their mission to assist and resettle refugees, they must have a more complete understanding of the history and cultural norms of assistance of the communities with whom they are working, as well as the realities of the current circumstances. The oral history method, with its ability to account for personal subjectivity, narrative authority, and historical agency, allows for in-depth exploration into the impact of policies created by the external bodies of international aid organizations, national governments, and local organizations at the grassroots level.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-122). / This study is an analysis of the interactions between the London Missionary Society (LMS) and the San during the period from 1799, when the LMS first arrived at the Cape, to 1833, when the LMS abandoned Bushman Station, the last concerted effort on the part of the Society to administer a mission station directed towards the San. The LMS missions to the San, beginning with the Sak River mission of Johannes Kicherer and ending with Bushman Station under James Clarke, have been investigated with a view to gaining insight into the ways the San responded to pressures upon their cultural integrity and independence stemming from the steady northward advance of the colonial frontier as well as the consolidation of Griqua hegemony along the Middle Orange River during the early 19th century. The San have been widely treated as unreceptive to the work of the missionaries and incapable of acculturation and 'Christianisation' in South African historiography. The discussion draws extensively on first-hand missionary and traveller accounts of the day-to-day proceedings at a number of LMS mission stations established to minister to the San. These mission stations serve as a means to 'see' how the San did in fact adapt and acculturate in response to colonial processes of land dispossession and water alienation. By evaluating the motivations behind the founding of these mission institutions and by examining the numerous factors that resulted in the failure or closure of each one, the interactions between the LMS and the San begin to shed new light on how San individuals and groups responded to the social upheavals associated with the processes of an expanding Cape Colony. The first chapter considers how the northward movements of the trekboers undermined the independence of the San in the north-eastern Cape interior during the late 18th century and what influences these had on the efforts of the LMS to pacify, 'Christianise' and 'civilise' the San. The arrival of the LMS at the Cape and the initiation of the Society's first San missions at Blydevooruitzicht Fontein and the Sak River are considered within the context engendered by the violence and turbulence associated with the advancing frontier. This theme is maintained throughout the study, which goes on to investigate the establishment of the San missions at Toornberg and Hephzibah in the second chapter. The internal dynamics within and external influences upon the LMS at the Cape are also assessed in order to establish how these worked to facilitate or impede the Society's efforts among the San and any likely success those efforts may have had. This becomes particularly relevant in the third and final chapter, which discusses the founding of Philippolis and Bushman Station. Within the space of a few years, both missions were re-orientated towards other population groups. The LMS' commitment to the San waned and groups such as the Griquas attracted the attention of figures such as the Society's superintendent John Philip.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-97). / The Boipatong massacre has been widely recognised as a key moment in the South African transition, yet limited scholarly attention has been given to the details of this event. The massacre is frequently cited as an example of state complicity in the political violence that shook the country during a period of negotiation and reform. This thesis considers the underlying forensic truths of the Boipatong massacre, but more importantly it examines the ways in which the meanings of the massacre were contested by different political interest groups. Analysis of these contestations gives insight into the dynamics of the transition, shedding light on the discursive struggles that have defined it. Through the agency of certain political actors, a dominant narrative of the Boipatong massacre arose. However, the truths this narrative posited remain contested and contentious.