Sep
16

The Seed Is Mine - The Life of Kas Maine

Written in 1997, following what sounds to be an extensive oral history data collection effort, Charles van Onselen wrote "The Seed is Mine". The book brings to life the experiences of one, and one who might otherwise not have any other record in the written historical documents (exception on legal note). This book is an exemplary of oral history. It is heavy and presents immense detail, which at times can be slightly overwhelming as a reader, but nonetheless an important contribution and a product of exceptional work and detail. What I enjoyed about the book was the detail, where the dominant narratives are made complex, complicated or turned around with the lived experiences of Kas. In so doing, the book provides many new windows into seeing, and vicariously experiencing, South Africa of another time. Some examples from the book:

"The foreman lured Kas within his reach, caught hold of him by the arm and then-while he and the stable hand danced his disciplinary jig-called for his wife to remove the leather strap that he had hidden in his back pocket. Before the lady could oblige Kas, inspired by the need for improvisation in a novel such setting, sank his teeth into a conveniently situated white finger, which promptly spurted enough blood to elect a chorus of shouting and swearing from a clearly impressed Mrs. van der Walt. A half-dozen blacks, suspecting that oaths and cries on such a scale could only be summons for their services, suddenly appeared from nowhere to witness some deeply concerned Maine kinsmen persuading Kas to release the hapless foremans finger." (p. 42)

"Kas had reason to feel proud. At a time when most white farmers-who had enjoyed privileged access to commercial banks and the state's services to organised agriculture-where producing maize harvests of around three hundred bags, his family, with far more limited financial resources at their disposal, has matched their efforts. Nevertheless. The price of maize was disappointing-something that the Triangle's deeply suspicious populists ascribed to the functioning of the state's newly introduced Maize Control Board. At eight shillings and sixpence per bag, nobody was going to get rich, but Kas was grateful to have exceeded his target." (p. 194)

"After a careful inspection and much discussion, Kas agreed to purchase plots thirty-one and thirty-four for seven hundred pounds. he put down two hundred pounds as a deposit and agreed to pay the balance in smaller installments over an unspecified period. Phitise, equally impressed, bought himself a plot on basically the same terms. These two open-ended transactions conducted beneath the summer sun on a stretch of stone-strewn veld outside Ventersdrop were the outcome of thirty years labour on the land and a lifetime's ambition to own property." (p. 344)

"The odyssey which had begun in hope at Kommissierust in 1921 and ended in resignation at Varkenskraal in 1956. It took thirty-five years and fifteen farms for the likes of Hendrik Verwoerd and his supporters to get to the Maines where the Nationalists wanted them. The trekpas did not show how a man who but six years earlier had possessed 8 horses, 12 donkeys, 60 cattle, and 220 sheep had now been reduced to owning less than 40 animals. The Mains, who had entered the Mooi river valley on a ford truck with the chance of acquiring freehold property of their own, were leaving on an ox-wagon for a residential stand on a communal farm in a 'black spot.' Kas was on his knees." (p. 387) 

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May
05

New Publication: South Africa & the Group Areas Act

Cochrane, L. and Chellan, W. (2017) "The Group Areas Act affects us all": Apartheid and Socio-Religious Change in the Cape Town Muslims Community, South Africa. Oral History Forum.

Abstract: Oral history interviews with elders of the Cape Town Muslim community were conducted in order to record and explore the socio-religious changes that occurred over the last century. Our research explored experiences related to culture, society, language, religion, education, traditions, family life, dress, food and values. The primary event that was consistently identified by elders as a focal cause of change was the Group Areas Act (1950), which was a policy of the South African Apartheid government that resulted in the forced relocation of many members of the Muslim community in and around Cape Town, South Africa. This paper explores how individuals experienced the Group Areas Act at the time of its implementation and how elders understand this Act as contributing to long-lasting socio-religious change. Rather than draw conclusions, point to causes of change and outline specific outcomes of the Act, we end this article with diverse, inconclusive and debated experiences: a reflection of the oral histories of the Cape Town Muslim community. 

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Jul
08

Postdoc: Web Mapping & Oral History

Based at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling and the Geomedia Lab, at Concordia University, the Postdoctoral Fellow will contribute to the technological and methodological development of the Living Archives Toolkit of the Rwandan Diaspora, a public online platform that will enable researchers, educators and survivors themselves to access 87 recorded life story interviews. This program is supported by two interlocking SSHRC-funded projects and is developed in collaboration with Page-Rwanda, representing the friends and family of those lost in 1994. The platform will be built on two existing open source applications: Stories Matter, developed by High and colleagues to enable the access to audiovisual life stories and Atlascine, designed by Caquard and colleagues to enable the mapping of stories in general; Atlascine is built on Nunaliit. The postdoctoral Fellow will be in charge of exploring and implementing methodological and technological solutions to enable the interfacing between Atlascine and Stories Matter. This interfacing is envisioned as a way to respond to the wider need to develop new ways to access, share, listen, visualize, map and analyse the recorded stories of survivors of mass violence.

More details.

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