Postcolonial Reconstruction Research Articles

Translating Humanitarian Aid into Technical Cooperation: Yugoslavia’s Medical Assistance to the Algerian National Liberation Movement (1958–1965)

Shedding light on the complexities of humanitarian aid, this study showcases its intersection with national interests and exposes the agency of beneficiaries in shaping international aid agendas. The paper examines Yugoslavia’s medical assistance to the Algerian national liberation movement, tracing its evolution from humanitarian emergency relief amidst decolonisation conflict into technical assistance aid in post-colonial reconstruction. Spanning the years 1958 to 1965, it demonstrates the transitions and the nexus between humanitarian aid and development assistance, revealing blurred lines between the two. Yugoslavia’s humanitarian efforts in Algeria were not merely acts of solidarity but strategic manoeuvres to enhance its image and influence in the Third World. Following the conflict’s end and Algerian independence, the Yugoslav government translated humanitarian aid into technical assistance, thereby exhibiting a shift towards a commercialised approach to aid. However, the research underscores the significant role of non-political actors, particularly the Yugoslav Red Cross, in building bridges to the post-colonial world and shaping effective humanitarian responses. Moreover, emphasising the donor-recipient dynamic, it challenges the idea of aid relationships as exclusively hierarchical. Possessing a significant negotiation capacity, evident at both state and individual levels, the paper revealed how the Algerians were able to direct Yugoslav aid agendas.

Puesta en escena de la masculinidad: el impacto de los legados ancestrales y coloniales en las relaciones de género y la transformación social a través del estreno cinematográfico de Sembene Ousmane (1960-1965)

This article studies the debut of Sembene Ousmane’s cinematic narrative during the early years of Senegal’s independence. Sembene was a renowned anti-colonial Senegalese writer who shifted to filmmaking during the “independence interlude”, from 1960 to 1965, with his first film Borom Sarret (1963), he became a pioneer of African cinema. Sembene’s revolutionary filmmaking and radical artistic project catapulted him to the realm of world cinema. Drawing on postcolonial film criticism, this article focuses on two of Sembene’s pioneering films: Borom Sarret and Niaye. I argue that he strategically crafted these films to genuinely contribute to the collective effort of postcolonial reconstruction. I start with a brief review of Sembene’s literary works during the independence interlude to understand how this period influenced his artistic perspective and cinematic narrative regarding gender. I then delve into an analysis of masculinity and colonial legacy in Borom Sarret, and finally focus on Niaye to explore how the filmaker depicts collective memory and patriarchal dynamics in a pseudo-feudal society in transition from colonialism to independence, from tradition to modernity. This article contributes to a better understanding of how Sembene approached social transformation, navigated (post)colonial power structures shaped by colonial and ancestral legacies, and established himself as an iconoclastic artist

Postcolonial Reconstruction in Ghana, 1952–66

In 1952, the West African nation of Ghana, recently having freed itself from British imperialism, set out on a project of radical economic reconstruction unmatched anywhere on the continent in scope and ambition. Having attained political independence with the creation of a sovereign parliament and executive office, the Convention People's Party under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah drew up extensive plans for ensuring the conditions necessary for real, not just on-paper, independence.

Steve de Gruchy’s theology and development model

The article sets out to demonstrate that Steve de Gruchy’s model of Theology and Development (T&D), as opposed to Theologized Development or Developmental Theology, is a creative and an authentic paradigm which is in continuum with African Theology of Reconstruction (ATOR) and other theological initiatives in postcolonial Africa. As a post-colonial and/or post-apartheid theologian, De Gruchy addresses cutting-edge issues facing our contemporary society such as health, poverty, environment, sustainable livelihoods, the South-North divides, fair trade, the racial equation, the reconstruction of our social consciousness; and indeed, the changing circumstances in post-colonial (south) Africa. In its methodology, the article also hypothesizes that Development and Reconstruction are two sides of the same coin, with one clear motif, though with some distinctions. It then goes on to point out the possibility that the Leadership and Development programme that was started by Klaus Nürnberger at the then University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, logically preceded de Gruchy’s Theology and Development (T&D) programme which continues to date, despite his demise in 2010. On the whole, the T&D and ATOR are largely seen as livelihoods theologies “from the other side of the river” that are geared towards sustainable living, especially with reference to the African context in the 21st century. Steve de Gruchy’s contribution to development studies is certainly critical considering that he published extensively on the same; and even headed the Theology and Development programme at the then University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). His approach turns out as the beacon that maps the way out as we focus on sustainable development and the post-colonial reconstruction of Africa.

Why is it so Hard to Engage with Practices of the Informal Sector? Experimental Insights from the Indian E-Waste-Collective

Electronic waste is one of the biggest and dirtiest waste streams worldwide, endangering humans and non-humans especially in the 'global south'. The government of India issued a new law to deal with this issue in 2011: the ‘e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules’. This article reconstructs the process by which this law was developed over eight years with ethnographically collected data. It points particularly to the ways the law threatens parts of the informal sector. 'Refurbishers’, who repair used electronic items, are ignored—even though they initially played a crucial part in the newly composed value chain, including during early draft of the electronic waste law. Such informal practices were neglected because of the particular focus of the legislature on modern recycling. This occurred because of the eerie imagination attached to the object electronic waste. Based upon voices from the informal sector, an alternative to this imagination is introduced and critically discussed: 'juggad', a new ideal of the broken down. Taken together, the diplomatic endeavour in this article wants to do more than show that the values of informal sector practices such as refurbishment are not appreciated. The goal is to also describe why it is so hard to engage with these practices in the first place. Bruno Latour's new approach, developed in 'An Inquiry into Modes of Existence' (2013), helps unfolding the argument. This recent shift in the actor-network-theory (ANT) renders a postcolonial reconstruction of democracy feasible.

Social Philosophy in Postcolonial Africa: Some Preliminaries Concerning Communalism and Communitarianism

There is one thing about some of the first crop of post independence rulers of Africa that I admire greatly. It is their keen sense of the practical importance of philosophy. Preeminent among them were leaders like Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Awolowo, Kaunda, and Sekou Toure. Amidst the awesome exigencies of postcolonial reconstruction they still devoted considerable attention to the philosophical bases of their programs. It can be debated whether the limits of the appreciation of the relevance of theory to practice were not touched in Nkrumah's Consciencism in which proof of the consistency of his “revolutionary” propositions was offered by means of mathematical logic, but there can be no doubt of the sincerity of the underlying passion. South African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 27 (4) 2008: pp. 332-339

Transition from Below: Forging Trade Unionism and Workplace Change in South Africa (review)

Reviewed by: Transition from Below: forging trade unionism and workplace change in South Africa Ari Sitas (bio) Karl von Holdt (2003) Transition from Below: forging trade unionism and workplace change in South Africa. Scottsville: University of Natal Press. I thumbed through Von Holdt's Transition from Below with feelings of envy and sadness —envy because in 1979 I had toyed with the idea of doing my PhD work on Witbank, Highveld Steel, KwaGuqa and the hostels; sadness because the area brought back memories of a number of people, crucial to my intellectual and creative development, who have passed away.1 A further cause for envy was that Von Holdt's study could span the period from the initial steps of trade union organisation in the area, the early 1980s, the resistance and insurrection that followed and the transition to democracy. That he does so with commitment, care and analytical rigour makes this book a great contribution to the field of industrial sociology in the country. By focusing on what he terms the 'micro-institutional level' of analysis, he attempts to demonstrate that South Africa's transition is not only a combination of a 'political transition to democracy and an economic transition towards a liberalised economy' but it also entails a 'third dimension': 'a process of internal decolonisation and reconstruction of society' or a 'contested transformation of post-colonial reconstruction' (2003:3). A core concept that explicates his approach and which constitutes the object of this 'contested transformation' is the 'apartheid workplace regime' (2003:5-8). Such a regime of domination at work constitutes, in turn, 'a national pattern of workplace practices' (2003:11). Alongside the above conceptualisation of the workplace, there lies an understanding of the trade union as a central institution but also as a social movement: 'union structure includes the formal institutional girders ... but [End Page 124] also values and meanings, discourses and repertoires of action' (2003:9). The dramatic transformations occur in the KwaGuqa township and the hostels servicing Highveld Steel, the largest private steel producer in the country. They are driven by the dynamics of trade union organisation, initiated by the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), and are taken to an unprecedented crescendo of politicisation through the campaigns of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The second chapter is particularly crucial as the concept of the 'apartheid workplace regime' is given flesh and blood in the context of the steelworks: its racial division of labour, its racial segregation of facilities, the racial structure of power in the workplace, the role of the black 'baas-boys', but, also, the 'differentiation of black migrant and urban workers', and traces how each one is beginning to be challenged by the emerging unionisation in the factory and the area. The third chapter explores the arrival of the trade union and the consolidation of its struggles, the winning of trade union recognition and the role of migrant and urban labourers in an emerging challenge that 'ushered in a period of unstable and fiercely contested transition' (2003: 71). The first consequence of these processes was not only a challenge to 'baasskap' and conditions of work, but also a process of untold hardship between the union shop stewards and a militant strike committee which used violence to establish control and discipline in the workers' struggles. This led to deep divisions and a loss of NUMSA's legitimacy among a sizeable section of the workforce by the late 1980s (2003:83). The fourth chapter illuminates the relationship between social movement unionism, popular alliances and 'ungovernability' in the community. The rolling out of stayaways and resistance brought tensions between unions and community organisations, and between hostel-based migrant workers and residents. The complexity of the tensions was enormous because many of the shop stewards were also 'increasingly active in the community' (2003:107). The fifth chapter explores how the interlacing of manifold struggles spilled over into the factory, and between 1986 and 1987 a 'chaotic' challenge and counter-challenge was under way with the 'lockout strike' of 1987, which ended with the 'union (securing) a relatively orderly surrender', but in the workplace 'it was smashed completely, there were no longer meetings, there was nothing… the militant...

Scholarship and Societies in Senegal: A Survey

EBA SALL CODESRXA Councilfor the DeveZopment of Social Science Research tn Africa ebrima@sonatel. senet. net Review trallslated by Nathalie Goubet Ibrahim 198 5; Hopkins and Ibrahim 199 7) . Arab Maghreb (North African) sociologists have tilted their research toward Arab migrants in Europe; Arab Gulf sociologists toward the impact of Asian migration on their societies; and Palestinian and Lebanese sociologists toward postwar and postcolonial reconstruction.

Provincializing europe: towards a post-colonial reconstruction: a critique of baconian science as the last stand of imperialism

This article treats Europe's claim to universality as its problematic, and contends that any serious attempt to reorganize the past and/or the future must subvert the European appropriation of the universal. Noting that the justification for Europe's ‘confiscation’ of the universal is often grounded in the argument that only Europe has succeeded in inventing an epistemological tool (namely, Baconian science) that successfully opens the doors to Truth, the article seeks to further its project of provincializing Europe by demonstrating the inadequacy of Euro-science as humanity's chosen vehicle to Truth. This the article does by developing the thesis that violence is encoded in the very fabric of modern science. Following a broadly Gandhian perspective, therefore, the article rejects science's epistemological pretensions. Such rejection of Euro-science, the article points out, leads also to a denial of Europe's presumed universality. Finally, the paper offers some preliminary thoughts on a post-science reorganization of knowledge-creative practices.

The Quest for Adjustment: Tanzania and the IMF, 1980-1986

The second crisis of the world market economy in this century affected all countries according to their respective position within the international hierarchy (Rosier, Dockes, 1983: 222ff). The weakest economies, classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), were hardest hit because their socio-economic profiles showed severe flaws during the preceding boom (Arnaud, 1984:91-100). They exported agrarian raw materials and, lacking an industrial basis, imported manufactured goods. Consequently, the low level of development limited the internal generation of surplus which made foreign assistance imperative and a major feature of the political economy (Hoogvelt, 1982). The share of African economies among the LDC countries is remarkably high (Sanchez Arnau, 1982:15ff). Those countries, however, which maintained close links with the former colonial metropolis suffered less than Tanzania which tried to establish an autonomous way toward social development. Indebtedness was a characteristic feature of post-colonial reconstruction during the 1960s and 1970s. Foreign capital inflow was the most adequate means to build and to diversify the economy. Internal surplus generation remained severely restricted because of the colonial legacy. Hence, indebtedness was widely accepted among scholars and policy-makers as an unavoidable prerequisite for development. It was the dramatic shift from indebtedness to insolvency in the early 1980s that created alarm and jeopardized the international monetary system. The former commodity exchange lacked the necessary financial resources and a significant segment of the world economic system was about to be suddenly disaggregated.