This article recognises that any attempt to theorise the first wave globally must specify the use of the term ‘global’, so as not to elide the specificity of local differences, and must critically account for how feminist struggles among postcolonial, indigenous women are intertwined with a resistance to a history of colonialism and racial domination. While more than a demand for equal access to the symbolic order on the basis of gender alone, Western feminists must study carefully the cultural and (...) gender implications of work by indigenous women in postcolonial contexts which do not easily fit into familiar theoretical paradigms that mimic the development of Western feminism, given the heterosexist biases of Western feminism historically. To what extent does the very form of historicisation of feminist struggles in the West repeat the colonising gesture when attempting to historicise the struggles of women in postcolonial contexts where the three waves of feminism as an organising framework, however loosely constructed, are transplanted to locations where they did not emerge historically? Through an examination of feminist work coming out of southern Africa, the article argues how attention to affective and erotic bonds between women in Lesotho provides a critical response to the heterosexist biases of African cultural nationalism, as well as to the colonising tendencies of feminist and queer enquiry in the West that do not account for the primacy of the performativity of sexual expression rather than its discursive naming as a precise sexual identity. The article concludes by asking for a reconceptualisation of the temporality of feminism not limited to its periodisation in the West, but informed by the specificities of feminist struggles locally and globally, including erotic autonomy as a viable praxis of decolonisation and a heightened self-reflexivity about the imperialist gestures guiding the production of (feminist) history and scholarship. (shrink)

During Women’s month in South Africa (August), a group of Sunday school children from the rural congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), Middelburg- Nasaret, got together to read the narratives of the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus and the healing of the woman suffering from a blood disease. The exercise which appears to be quite innocent is in a sense subversive in its hidden script. In the Reformed tradition, the pulpit as a centre of reading (...) and preaching the Word has become the ‘holy of holiest’ which nobody, leave alone children, except the ordained minister could occupy. This is of course contrary to the intention of the Reformation to return the Bible to the people and have the people return to the Bible. The reading exercise of this article goes beyond all exegetical and theological presuppositions, unsettling conventional interpretations of Scripture. The children allow their real life experiences in the township of having witnessed, among others, child and women abuse to inform their reading of Mark 5:21–43. In the process they avoid a linear reading of the Bible which is based on the explication-application scheme of matters. Put differently, instead of doing a deductive reading of the portion, i.e. trying to explain or exegete the text clinically and then applying it to their context, they read it inductively, resulting in a hope sharing and hope giving understanding of the rising from the dead of the 12-year-old girl and the healing of the woman with a blood disease. A major spin-off of such reading of the Bible by children is the unlocking of refreshingly new avenues of reading the Bible and interpreting the text. (shrink)

En Europe, la recolonisation progressive des territoires par les grands carnivores, espèces protégées, fait l’objet de conflits virulents notamment dus à l’impact des actes de prédation sur les activités d’élevage. Les conflits provoqués par le retour du loup en France ont été abondamment relayés par la presse et ont ainsi été diffusés auprès d’un public élargi. À travers une mobilisation conjointe de méthodes de la lexicométrie et de l’analyse du discours, nous avons étudié l’évolution de l’image médiatique de l’éleveur (...) dans la presse régionale (Nice-Matin) et nationale (Le Monde) entre 1993 – date de première médiatisation du retour du loup – et 2014. Notre recherche témoigne d’une construction axiologique de cet acteur dans les deux quotidiens considérés. Tout au long de la période, Nice-Matin opère une légitimation de l’éleveur à travers la valorisation de son témoignage et de la profession qu’il exerce. La posture du quotidien national évolue quant à elle au cours du temps. Les premières années (1993-1999) sont marquées par un discours évaluant négativement la parole de l’éleveur et favorisant l’expertise institutionnelle. À partir du début des années 2000, marquées d’un point de vue institutionnel par l’autorisation de tirs de prélèvement dérogatoires de loups, Le Monde établit progressivement une image positive de l’éleveur et développe un discours empathique proche de celui de la presse régionale. En 2012, la publication d’un éditorial en faveur de la politique de régulation du loup inscrit explicitement un rapprochement entre les postures du journal et de l’institution. (shrink)

The article sets out to explore the lessons that can be drawn from the selfless and integrity-driven leadership offered by some pioneer post-independent Kenyan leaders such as Karubiu wa Munyi. With more financial scandals increasing in the public domains, as in the case where over 15 mega corruption scandals remained unaccounted for, by 2018, the need to draw some lessons from the likes of wa Munyi becomes an important matter worth consideration in the 21st century. As we seek to demolish (...) both colonial mentality and neo-colonialism in the 21st century, there is a need to reconstruct the memories of some of our key actors in our African societies, as we seek to rebuild our respective contexts. Having lived under deadly and complicated theo-historical times, but eventually overcame hunger and famine, war, colonial bombs and general poverty, the article hypothesises, he stands out on a pedestal and remains a critical reflective case for masses of people who are walking through the valleys and shadows of death in Africa and beyond. In its methodology, the article develops mainly from the researchers’ interviews with wa Munyi who is eventually chronicled, as it seeks to ascertain whether there are lessons to draw from his ‘philanthropic’ and integrity-driven leadership. Was the virtue-driven leadership of Karubiu wa Munyi a by-product of Africa’s Ubuntu [caring for the other] cultural heritage and the evangelical Anglican Christianity that settled in his locality since 1912? And has the society lost its cultural morality and the virtue-leaning evangelical Christianity that was ushered in by the Church Mission Society at the beginning of the 20th century? In this article, Gitugi kia bururi [the critical cornerstone] – the casual description of wa Munyi – symbolises the ideal leaders who remain at peace with themselves and the general society even after retiring from active public duties; as their respective consciences are above board. Africa has to take lessons from such selfless leaders. The materials in this article are gathered through interviews with wa Munyi and other people who are connected to issues under consideration. A review of relevant literature has also been done.Contribution: The article adds to the growing knowledge by its originality; a phenomenon where a little-known civic leader is used as a lens through which we can understand the modern day Africa. Has the continent that sought independence from the colonialists who came after the Berlin Conference of 15 November 1884 to 26 February 1885 recolonising itself through neo-colonialism and corrupt practices of unimaginable proportions? The article is relevant to the HTS Journal and the world of scholarship as it shows God’s works in history, as it confirms that a people who walk through the desolate valleys and shadows of death, and are starring at the total annihilation, do also have a future. (shrink)

Recent decades have seen a rethinking and renewal of Marxism on various levels, beginning in the 1950s and 1960s when New-Left movements in the developed capitalist countries combined with Maoist, Guevarist, and other Third-World liberation struggles to challenge the ossified theory and practice of Soviet-style communism and traditional social democracy. More recently, the rethinking of Marxism has been driven largely by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its official Marxist ideology, and by the movement toward neoliberal ‘free market’ policies (...) on a global scale, which together have brought forth a tidal wave of frankly pro-capitalist as well as ‘postmodern’ left varieties of ‘end of history'-type thinking. The contemporary challenge to Marxism, however, also has a positive side in the form of popular revolts against the neoliberalisation of the global economy – the Chiapas rebellion in Mexico, the December 1995 public sector upheavals in France, and many others, not to mention the heroic struggle of the Cuban people against the threat of recolonisation by US and global capital. Here the challenge is to incorporate the changing forms of working-class movement, and their new prefigurations of post-capitalist society, into the theory and practice of Marxian communism. (shrink)

La théorie économique marxiste rend compte des rapports entre capitalisme et violence à l’aide notamment du concept d’accumulation primitive. Cet article se propose de montrer comment ce concept s’est construit et étoffé en analysant trois étapes : d’abord son élaboration initiale par Karl Marx (l’accumulation primitive comme préhistoire du capital), ensuite une première extension par Rosa Luxemburg (l’accumulation primitive comme mouvement actuel d’extension géographique de la logique du capital du centre vers la périphérie), et enfin une seconde extension par David (...) Harvey (l’accumulation primitive comme mouvement de recolonisation « intérieure » et d’« accumulation par dépossession »). L’article propose d’articuler ces trois étapes à partir de la dialectique entre droit et violence telle que l’a problématisée le philosophe Walter Benjamin (2018). Codes JEL : B14, B24, B5. (shrink)

A tireless Israeli activist for peace between the Palestinian and Israeli people, Michel Warschawski paints a lucid picture of the terrible current situation. In front of a Palestinian population which is condemned to passive resistance and mere survival, his analysis of the Oslo Agreements and of the Sharon Plan is merciless. Considering the disproportion of forces and the fact that Palestine is « the outpost, as well as in some ways the laboratory, of global war and of the recolonisation (...) of the world », he calls for an urgent mobilization of the international community. (shrink)