This dissertation investigates how photographs and photographic practices have both shaped and have been shaped by the political, cultural and performative demands of the project of postcolonial nation building in Zambia. Drawing on both visual and textual materials from the 1930s to the 1980s, collected from the National Archives of Zambia as well as several private collections, including that of the Fine Art Studios in Lusaka, this dissertation attempts to understand the different ways in which critical attention to the role of the mechanically reproduced images can allow us to reconsider the given boundaries between the colonial and the postcolonial, the public and the private, and the nation and the individual. The first chapter explores the methodological possibilities and the archival limits of writing a social history of photography in Zambia that still remains largely undocumented. The second chapter sifts through thousands of images haphazardly stored in the National Archives of Zambia, reflecting on the shift from the ethnographic mode of observation in the late colonial period to the concerted imaging of developmentalist spectacles in the early postcolonial period. The focus of the third chapter is on the politics of official images of Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of independent Zambia. This dissertation combines uses of photographs, archival documents, semi-structured interviews and brief auto-ethnographic observations.

This thesis is a history of the development of missionary activity in the Little Namaqualand region of southern Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. Through a rich analysis of the archival documents of the various missionary societies who worked in the region, it attempts to fill in the wide gaps present in the historical narrative. Little Namaqualand, an area north of the Olifants River and south of the Orange River, during the nineteenth century was the epicentre of the north-western frontier zone of the Cape Colony. It had long been home to the Little Namaqua, a Khoikhoi group, who occupied the central and mountainous region of the Kamiesberg, the San, who moved between the Kamiesberg and Bushmanland to the east, and ‘baster' (mixed race) groups who migrated from the Cape in the eighteenth century. It has since been a relatively under-studied area despite it being the hub of missionary activity in the north-west in the nineteenth century. An environmentally harsh and politically turbulent region, home to a nomadic people, it presented a unique and trying set of circumstances for the incoming missionaries. The European missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS), Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMMS) and later the Rhenish Missionary Society (RMS) moved through the region in waves during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Their intended destination, however, was not Little Namaqualand, but Great Namaqualand across the Orange River. For the first fifteen years of the century the missionaries moved between Little and Great Namaqualand, unable to establish a permanent and successful settlement. They faced many difficulties – the colonial government's changing attitudes and legislation towards missionary activities in and outside of the colony's borders, the mounting financial strain of maintaining a mission station in such a barren, desolate and sweltering region and existing inter-group tensions between those amongst whom they ministered. From their first arrival in the region in 1805, the early German missionaries of the LMS relied on local and powerful mixed-race groups to facilitate their stay, both financially and logistically. These groups had long been desirous of a missionary in the region for both their spiritual and temporal benefits. On the north-western frontier, access to trading networks and firearms was pivotal to the survival of many groups who relied almost solely on hunting and ivory trading. Many missionaries, themselves struggling to survive under such trying environmental conditions, themselves resorted to hunting and trading to supplement their pitiful income. By 1811, after a devastating attack on their Great Namaqualand mission, the LMS retreated into Little Namaqualand where they paid more attention to establishing themselves on a more permanent basis. A fresh wave of young and enthusiastic German missionaries greatly aided this effort. The Wesleyans joined shortly after in 1816. Both missionary societies were still understaffed and, due to unique regional circumstances, relied heavily on Namaqua and baster translators and teachers. Many of these would become missionaries in their own right. The northerly stations of Little Namaqualand, Steinkopf and Pella, utilised these African evangelists to run the various outposts or satellite stations (necessitated by the people's nomadic habits). The same took place at the southern stations of Leliefontein and Komaggas. From Leliefontein, several Namaqua converts were sent out. Many of them ministered to Sotho-Tswana and Coranna groups in the east. These African evangelists, and the pivotal role they played in facilitating and sustaining the Little Namaqualand missions, form the core of this thesis. Their names have been excavated from the archival records and the often limited anecdotes of their lives have been brought to life. This thesis shows that the spread of Christianity in the region pre-dated the formal arrival of the European missionaries. After their arrival, it was through African mouths that the message of Christianity took on a new form and was more successfully prorogated through the region. The majority of those who heard the gospel message responded emotionally. Most negotiated with what they heard, rejecting some tenets of the message while accepting others. They thus embraced and created a wholly new rendition of Christianity, one which saw to their immediate needs and offered both a remedy and an explanation for their suffering.

This dissertation investigates the presence and the significance of hair in the work of contemporary South African artists Penny Siopis, Tracey Rose and Nandipha Mntambo. The use of this material, a substance embedded in the body and characterizing its appearance, is indicative of a desire to validate the material body and reclaim its connection with the feminine. The author argues for a return to the theories of the French Feminists, Helene Cixous, Luce lrigaray and Julia Kristeva, who were the initial proponents of the idea of l 'ecriture feminine (feminine writing). The feminine text, which enjoyed currency in the seventies, is again relevant for the analysis of these artists' work in light of their calculated use of hair to both explore and exploit the position of the feminine. The author contrasts the French Feminists' use of strategic essentialism with Judith

Sport is located historically within its political, economic, cultural and social context in order to assess its role in human and spatial relations; and its meaning for various communities. This study aims to measure the impact of dominant ideology (imperialism, segregation and apartheid), the degree to which sport was used instrumentally by the authorities, and the extent to which it was seen as a site of struggle by the oppressed. The main sources for this thesis were archival and published material emanating from the municipality. Before apartheid matured and became more secretive, they were remarkably candid about official aims and objectives. A wide variety of secondary sources was consulted; and interviews conducted. The conclusion is that sport is an appropriate lens through which to view urban history and the relationships that shape it. Driven by a consistent ideological desire for White separateness, sport reflected social hegemony and assumptions about relative competence and ability. Instrumental use of sport by the local authority, apart from a skewed use of economic resources to unite whites and maintain their distance from other communities, was poorly regarded. This was because of the availability of other, coercive means of control and the dispensability of the individuals targeted. Black sportspersons were in effect squatters at impermanent facilities. Black recreation was a challenge to White ideas about the use of urban space. For Africans, the controlled area preferred by the authorities was the beerhall, not the sports field. Effective resistance organised around sport emerged only when the authorities needed Asian and Coloured cooperation to implement group areas and at this point sport became a notable site of struggle. Ultimately sports facilities, originally a symbol of White civilisation and authority, became a potent emblem of the spatial conflict that characterised apartheid. They also reflected the fact that South African urban geography had always been an evolving saga of insiders and outsiders. Sport provided the proponents of White dominance with a theatre for propaganda; while at the same time offering its protagonists a stage upon which to demonstrate their opposition. In this scenario hegemony was in a state of periodic flux. For a more descriptive abstract of this thesis, see the section 'Final overview' on pages 353-356.

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has a long history of individuals and groups mobilizing the past to make claims in the present. A notable phenomenon that has captured the attention of scholars of contemporary KZN is how formations such as Ubumbano – that center around the paternal clan and its ancestry – have been invoking ‘pre-Zulu’ pasts to claim resources in the form of land, and even recognition of kingship status by the state. Individuals in former mission stations in turn have referenced the prominence of their families’ histories in the establishment of mission stations. Clearly, the past has potent usability for numerous actors in this province. Rarely have scholars focused on how different generations of Black women in this province, who have not aligned themselves with any formal structure such as Ubumbano, mobilize their families’ histories and for what reasons. Inspired in part to address this gap, this thesis explores the oral historical narrations of three women of three different generations from my maternal family, namely Gogo MaHlubi, Mamkhulu Ntombenhle, and Mam Phindile, who are based in Mpolweni Mission. These women are descendants of amakholwa and were socialized in a mission context albeit at different times. My analysis of these women’s narratives reveals that they mobilize the past to strategically position themselves to lay claims to status, belonging, and identity in Mpolweni Mission. This happens at a time of growing tensions between first-comer descendants (such as the three women) and newcomers, and their contending claims of belonging to Mpolweni. In the process of grappling with their narrations, we learn more about Mpolweni Mission and its complex history from the perspectives of these women. The result of 3 this is that the history of the area is rendered visible. The oral narratives of these women are not relayed ‘oral tradition’: they are fluid, imaginative and not patrilineal in nature. This is in stark contrast to the oral sources that are conventionally treated as ‘oral tradition’ and considered to be passed down from one generation to the other. Moreover, the fluidity of the women’s narratives also means that the narrators are aware of the kinds of work the content of their stories can do for them in different contexts. Individually and collectively, these narratives contribute in crafting what we might call a matri-archive. This matri-archive is constantly being made and remade by the women. The thesis shows how women of different generations are producers of history, and that historical production is not only the preserve of a certain generation of women or of men.

This thesis utilises a sample of major documentary films on the Bushmen of Southern Africa as primary sources in investigating change over time in the interpretation and visualisation of Bushmen peoples over seventy-five years from 1925 to 2000. The primary sources of this thesis are seven documentary films on the subject of Bushmen people in southern Africa. These films are as follows The Bushmen (1925), made by the Denver African Expedition to southern Africa; the BBC film Lost World of Kalahari (1956) by Laurens van der Post; The Hunters (1958) by John Marshall; the 1974 National Geographic Society film Bushmen of the Kalahari; John Marshall's 1980 film N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman; and the South African films People of the Great Sandface (1984) by Paul John Myburgh and The Great Dance (2000) by Craig and Damon Foster. All of these films reflect, to varying degrees, a complex interplay between generic images of Bushmen as pristine primitives and the visible evidence of many Bushmen peoples rapid decline into poverty in Southern Africa, a process which had been ongoing throughout the twentieth century. The aim of the thesis has been to explore the utilisation of film as a primary source for historical research, but focussing specifically on a subject related to the southern African historical context. The films under analysis have been critically appraised as evidence of the values and attitudes of the people and period that have produced them, and for evidence about the Bushmen at the time of filming. Furthermore, each film has been considered as a film in history, for how it influences academic or popular discourses on the Bushmen, and finally as filmic 'historiography' that communicates historical knowledge. This thesis, then, utilises a knowledge and understanding of film language, as well as the history and development of documentary film, to assess and consider the way in which knowledge is communicated through the medium of film. This study has attempted to investigate the popular and academic indictment of documentary film as progenitor and/ or reinforcing agent of crude, reified mythologies about Bushmen culture in southern Africa. It is shown here that the way major documentary films have interpreted and positioned Bushmen people reveals the degree to which documentary films are acute reflections of their historical contexts, particularly in relation to the complicated webs of discourse that define popular and academic responses to particular subjects, such as 'Bushmen', at particular historical moments. Critical, visually literate analysis of documentaries can reveal the patterns of these discourses, which in turn reflect layers of ideology that change over time. A secondary finding of this thesis has been that documentary film might constitute a source of oral history for historians, when the subjects of a documentary film express ideas and attitudes that reflect self-identity. It is proposed that the approach to analysis of documentary film that has been utilised throughout this study is a means of 'extracting' the oral testimony from its ideological positioning within the world of the film. The historian might evaluate the usefulness of a subject's oral testimony in relation to the ideological orientation of the film as a whole, to decide whether it is worthwhile being considered as das Ding an sich or should be seen purely as a reflection of values and attitudes of the filmmaker, or something in between. It is shown in this thesis that documentary film constitutes an important archive of oral testimony for historians who are properly versed in reading film language.

Leliefontein is a Coloured Reserve in the magisterial district of Namaqualand. There are five Coloured Reserves in Namaqualand: Leliefontein, Komaggas, Steinkopf, Concordia and Richtersveld. All these Reserves owe their existence to missionary influence. Leliefontein is the most southerly of the reserves, and the only reserve where mission work is controlled by the Methodist Church. The missions to the North are under the guidance the Dutch Reformed Church. Leliefontein covers an area of 75, 000 acres. To the North-east lies Bushmanland, to the West stretches the vast coastal plain. Leliefontein lies roughly between the towns of Garies and Kamieskroon. The heart of Leliefontein lies in the Kamiesberg range of mountains and much of the Reserve is mountainous and hilly.

Includes bibliography and filmography. / The South African film industry, like the rest of the country, has gone through a very difficult and trying time over the last century and has been faced with enormous challenges since 1994. South Africa is still in a process of transition and the turbulent era of Apartheid is still vivid in our memories and our collective national identity. What is especially exciting about studying the history of the South African film industry, is that it was through film, television and the media at large, that we witnessed the evolution of this history. On a microscopic scale, the history of the film industry, is that of the country, and many of the effects of Apartheid that are being experienced in South Africa today, are likewise being experienced by the film industry. Thus by seeking to understand the historical relationship between film and politics in South Africa, we are enabled to comprehend and contextualise the circumstances that have determined film's socio-political, economic and cultural place in society today. It was with this intention that I began to investigate the documentary film industry in South Africa. My particular interest was in the development of an independent, progressive documentary film movement that tentatively originated in the late nineteen fifties and established itself in the late seventies and eighties as a major force in the resistance movement. Concentrating on organisations such as the International Defense and Aid Fund to Southern Africa (IDAF), Video News Services/ Afravision, and the Community Video Education Trust (CVET), as well as many individual anti-Apartheid filmmakers, the focus of this paper and documentary film, Redefining the Griot, is thus limited to an analysis of the history of socio-political documentary filmmaking in South Africa, in particular, the anti-Apartheid film and video movement that emerged both in reaction to the ideologically-specific and restrictive State control of media, film and eventually television, and as a cultural weapon in the liberation struggle. Understanding this history enables valuable insight into the nature of the documentary film and video-making industry today - one that is still considered emergent in terms of having a homogeneous national identity.

Op 1 Mei 1967 kon die Suid-Afrikaanse vloot sy een-en- twintigste verjaardag vier. Bloedjonk dus, as weermagsdeel; maar eweneens belangrik as integrale deel van ons land se Weermag en as tydelike tuiste jaarliks van honderde dienspligtige jong Suid-Afrikaners. 'n Honderd twee-en-sewentig jaar tevore - op 11 Junie 1795 - het 'n eskader van die Britse vloot sy verskyning in Simonsbaai gemaak. Dit was die begin van 'n vlootverbintenis tussen Brittanje en die latere Suid-Afrika wat, met 'n onderbreking van net drie jaar (1803-6), tot 1957 besonder heg sou wees, en wat selfs sedert die oorname van Simonstad nog steeds bly voortbestaan danksy die sg. Simonstad-ooreenkoms. In hierdie verhandeling word die eerste agt jaar van die Britse vloot se verblyf aan die Kaap - die beginjare van hierdie "verbintenis" - van naderby beskou.

The nineteenth century's creation of different optical devices such as the camera obscura, the kaleidoscope and the thaumatrope signifies a change in the perception of vision at the time. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the work of four artists with reference to nineteenth century concerns surrounding vision. The scope for this examination is limited to the painted portraiture of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Singer Sargent and photographic portraiture of Julia Margaret Cameron and Félix Nadar Tournachon. Rossetti and Cameron represent two Victorian artists whose vision is turned inward to the imagination, with feelings of nostalgia and sentimentalism evoked in their portraits. This dissertation argues that the act of turning the eye inwards to the imagination is at the root of the flattering quality of these two artists' portraits. A further argument is that the sustained use of literary reference is the catalyst to the inward vision seen in these two Victorian artists' work. I examine Dante Gabriel Rossetti‟s later phase of idealised and "flattering" portraits of women in relation to the sonnets that Rossetti began to physically attach to either the frame or canvas of the portrait. The use of literary reference as catalyst to the inward vision is discussed namely through Julia Margaret Cameron‟s photographic portraits based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Enoch Arden. Cameron's allegorical and often mythological portraits of women are then analysed in order to establish the "flattering" quality of her portraits. With regards to the two artists who have been termed "faithful", an examination of their more outward vision and focus on the exterior realities is discussed. An exposition surrounding Félix Nadar Tournachon's "faithful" photographic portraits of nineteenth-century celebrities follows the discussion on Cameron. In order to further enquire into the notion of nineteenthcentury celebrities, an examination of John Singer Sargent follows. With the idea of Sargent being torn between the faithful and the flattering, I examine his more faithful Portrait of Madame X in relation to his later flattering celebrity portraits painted in the Grand Manner. In conclusion it will be suggested that Victorian and French ideas of vision and representation differed, exemplified by these four artists. These two very different perceptions of vision, one inward and the other outward, is the root of my distinction between the "faithful" and the "flattering" as manifested in portraiture.