Southern African Societies Research Articles

Unravelling Socio-Technological Barriers to AI Integration: A Qualitative Study of Southern African Newsrooms

This study explores the socio-technological barriers to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions in three countries of the global south – South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Through 20 in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, it examines the distribution and circulation of AI technologies within selected newsrooms. Furthermore, the article explores socio-technological obstacles to the integration of AI among journalists. Lastly, it examines the consequences of these socio-technological obstacles to journalism. The article specifically seeks to answer three questions: How are AI technologies integrated in southern African newsrooms? What are the socio-technological barriers attendant to the use of AI in selected news organisations of sub-Saharan Africa? What are the implications of these socio-technological barriers to the process of news production in these newsrooms? The article reveals the challenges hindering the development and deployment of AI in these organisations, and I highlight the detrimental effects of limited AI access, which places Southern African media organisations at a disadvantage on the global stage, perpetuating socio-technological disparities between the global north and global south. The findings underscore the urgency of addressing these barriers in order to reduce information inequality, increase efficiency and productivity and improve audience engagement. Reducing technological barriers and democratising AI integration can enhance the influence of Southern African media in promoting domestic and international equity. The article therefore, propose a model for AI adoption and reduction of technological barriers in adopting these technolgies. This study emphasises the need for collaborative efforts among policymakers, industry leaders and stakeholders to create an inclusive environment that maximises the potential of AI for the greater benefit of parts of Southern African societies. The study adds to extant literature at the intersection of AI and media, particularly how AI technologies are impacting on specific communities of practice, like newsroom organisations.

Doing the Word: Reawakening the Church to Save Society in Southern Africa

Southern African societies are presently beleaguered by manifold socio-economic, political, and environmental challenges. Ordinary people long for answers to questions about how to mitigate these challenges. Meanwhile, the Church mostly preaches the gospel and establishes and grows denominations across the world. Proclaiming the gospel in word is good; however, without demonstrating the gospel with transformational deeds, the Church remains Salvationist and partially missionary. Bearing in mind that the integral mission of the Church is advancing the gospel holistically, fractional mindfulness of the gospel, hearing the words without performing the corresponding deeds, is defacing its identity. Today, this situation is problematic and helpless, as society is in dire need of a wholesome Church that acts in accordance with its own faith and values and attends to the soul, the body, and all other facets of life. Much has been published about the integral mission of the Church, though little has been said about its role in social action. By qualitatively reviewing the literature and observing the Southern African context and some biblical examples, this paper finds the integral mission to be the predominant and comprehensive purpose of the existence of the Church. While the Church could be aware of its mandate, it should be reawakened so that it becomes a doer of the Word and stands out as the salt and light of the world by contributing to addressing the needs of society.

Thirty years of Male Daughters, Female Husbands: revisiting Ifi Amadiume’s questions on gender, sex and political economy

ABSTRACT This paper examines the legacy of Ifi Amadiume's Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society (1987) to African gender theorisation three decades after its publication. We argue that Amadiume's detailed ethnography of the Nnobi society provides an example of what can be achieved when African scholars centre local histories, languages, and kinship ties to provide contextualised understandings of sex and gender. In southern African societies, we assess the ways in which gender fluidity, drawing from local languages, age, seniority and lineage do not strictly fix sex to gender, thus providing possibilities for flexible gender structures that allow women to access institutions of power through the lineage as first daughters (umafungwashe) and wives, among others. We further examine the ways conservative patriarchal discourses continue distorting African cultures and traditions, thus undermining women's rights and access to social, cultural, economic and political power. We argue that current Eurocentric attempts that aim to delink sex and gender do not move us beyond the universalised binaries of gender and sex. Through revisiting local social and linguistic histories that practised gender fluidity and tolerance, we can also begin to challenge the conservative attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ communities. Given the continued sexual and gender diversities that are being challenged daily in the African continent, it is timely that we revisit the historical meanings along with their contemporary implications for sexual citizenship and gendered power relations today.

No Rainbow yet in Sight: Southern Africa under Liberation Movements as Governments

ABSTRACTThis article engages with the limits to liberation in Southern African societies under former liberation movements. It argues that the policies executed in the new societies are still infected by substantial elements of the old power structures and mindsets claimed to be left behind. The five former anti-colonial movements in Angola (since 1974), Mozambique (since 1975), Zimbabwe (since 1980), Namibia (since 1990) and South Africa (since 1994) exercise, as governments, continued control over the sovereign states. But the majority of the electorate has outgrown the struggle days. Their expectations are measured against the promises and failures, rather than the expected reward for being ‘liberated’ – which as ‘born frees’ they have never been. This fuels frustration and causes new conflicts, which at the same time tend to reproduce old and new dichotomies and battle lines, blending (and at times confusing) the notions of race and class. Contrasting realities with original hopes, the analysis points to the mission not yet accomplished.

Bernard Magubane’s critique of anthropology in southern Africa: an introductory essay

ABSTRACTThis essay is an attempt to piece together the fundamentals of Bernard Magubane’s critique of anthropology in southern Africa. The point is not to berate the discipline of anthropology, but to discuss Magubane’s work in relation to it. The essay comprises three main parts. First, it examines Magubane’s critique of southern African anthropology in a colonial situation – particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Second, it assesses the usefulness of anthropological notions of pluralism and ‘tribalism’ in explaining conflicts in Africa. The remainder of the essay contends with anthropological themes such as social change and ‘modernisation’ in southern Africa. Generally, anthropology had problems at two levels: political and epistemological. Politically, anthropology was a handmaiden of colonialism and imperialism; and its main flaw was to study southern African societies outside of history and context. Epistemologically, anthropology is a discipline founded on alterity, that is, on studying the cultural Other.

Interest in geological and palaeontological curiosities by southern African non-western societies: A review and perspectives for future study

Compared with other parts of the world, the study of geomythology in southern Africa, and the associated documentation of non-western awareness of palaeontological and geological phenomena, is in an early phase. We focus on examples of rocks and fossils as items of special interest and curiosity, and we search for evidence of an indigenous palaeontology and geology. We review twenty-one sites or cases for which published accounts exist, and we describe a newly identified trilobite manuport site. In combination these sites provide various levels of evidence of palaeontological and geological awareness exhibited by non-western cultures in southern Africa, and how these cultures incorporated this knowledge into their understanding of their world. We anticipate that in time a diverse heritage of such ‘natural knowledge’ may become evident in southern Africa, aided in part by recognition of the possibility that rock art images may be associated with awareness of body fossils and trace fossils. We suggest ways in which further analysis may bolster this contention.

Trade, Globalisation and the Archaic State in Southern Africa

The earliest southern African state societies based in the middle Limpopo valley and the southern regions of the Zimbabwe plateau had extensive commercial links with eastern Africa and the continent of Asia from the late 1st millennium to the middle of the 2nd millennium of the common era (CE). These states witnessed phenomenal growth and expansion propelled by this trade. However, they also became victims of the changing patterns of the Indian Ocean trade, involving eastern Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East, and the auriferous Zimbabwean plateau hinterland and adjacent lowlands. It is argued here that while there are multiple reasons for the demise of Mapungubwe (1000–1300 CE) and Great Zimbabwe (1100–1550 CE), long-distance, regional and inter-continental trade involving precious commodities such as gold was perhaps the primary cause in triggering this. Thus the dynamics of ancient state development and decline associated with the archaic state cannot be completely dissociated from intensified interactions with societies in Asia and, later, Europe.

The Relationship between Trade in Southern Mozambique and State Formation: Reassessing Hedges on Cattle, Ivory and Brass

For the past 37 years, David Hedges’ cattle trade theory has dominated the historical analysis of state formation in southern Africa during the 19th century. This theory centres on a cattle trade that came to replace the ivory trade from the late 18th century onwards, and was based on the demand for fresh meat by whalers. In the view of Hedges, the increased cattle trade placed considerable pressure on societies to replenish herds, given the socially and politically important role that cattle played in southern African societies. And since this change coincided with a severe and prolonged drought, it necessitated the restocking of cattle herds through the systematised military raiding of cattle, which, in turn, required a centralised government. In reviewing the evidence for shifts in the patterns of trade at this time, during which whalers called at Delagoa Bay to hunt, discrepancies in Hedges’ analysis came to light.The Portuguese ivory trade at Delagoa Bay started in 1545, when a sporadic trade based on the monsoon seasons laid the foundation for the export of ivory that would boom in the latter half of the 18th century. This trade has been a key element in the dominant explanations offered for accelerated processes of political centralisation in northern Kwazulu-Natal, which culminated in the rise of the Zulu kingdom. David Hedges developed the most influential and enduring of these arguments in his doctoral dissertation in 1978. He argued that it was a sharp contraction of the ivory trade in the last two decades of the 19th century that was a major cause of conflict and state formation. This article reviews the evidence and arguments presented by Hedges and suggests that while his work has provided an important contribution to the debate, elements of his argument need substantial revision.

Milk not Meat: The Role of Milk amongst the Khoe Peoples of Southern Africa

Historical sources emphasise the different uses of livestock in southern African Khoe societies. Here we review the role of milk gained from livestock amongst the Khoe, as recorded over the last few centuries, and demonstrate that it was of greater subsistence value than the meat of livestock. In addition, we highlight the recorded technological, social and ritual importance of milk amongst the Khoe. Finally, attention is drawn to recent genetic research that suggests the dependence of southern African Later Stone Age herders on milk.

San Cross-border cultural heritage and identity in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa

the aim of this paper is to examine the indigenous San cultural identity that transcends ecological zones across the borders of botswana, namibia and South Africa respectively. the paper explores the representation of borders and boundaries within traditional culture, dance and music. Dance, music, material art and craft, if broadly defined, become a medium through which San women and men narrate their experiences to a broader audience. the paper contends that giving voice to the San: in the many forms that such voice is captured, will significantly enhance our understanding of indigenous knowledge systems and thus better guide strategies towards transformation of modern southern African societies. the discussion aims to showcase San indigenous knowledge systems and creativity, and shift the discourse from a ‘marginalised and suffering only’ sphere to appreciation of their voices through culture, art, music and dance. the article suggests that the San artistic contribution, the articulation of their specific experiences and traditional knowledge enjoy significant attention across political

Moritz Bonn, Southern Africa and the Critique of Colonialism

ABSTRACTIn 1906/7 Moritz Bonn (1873–1965) set out to test Hobson's theory of Imperialism in southern Africa. His extensive analyses, published in the leading social science journal of the era and in pamphlet form, constitute the first systematic analyses of southern African societies. Bonn's experiences in the region also led him to become the first scholar to argue for the necessity and inevitability of decolonization; he also anticipated the rise of fascism. While Bonn was well known and well connected during the inter-war period, he is today virtually forgotten even among specialists. This paper offers an intellectual biography in order to understand how Bonn's first-hand experience of colonialism, in Ireland, South Africa and German Southwest Africa led to important insights. A fresh consideration of this important liberal political economist of colonialism and empire challenges the established genealogy of ideas and approaches to world system theory and to empire, and especially the recent tendency to view German liberals as imperialist boosters.

The spatial construction of young people's livelihoods in rural southern Africa

ABSTRACTYoung people in southern Africa, in common with young people around the world, are social agents, constructing their own lives, albeit within significant structural constraints. Unlike young people in some regions, for most the need to generate a livelihood is a key consideration. Livelihood construction is a profoundly spatial activity, yet while there have been a number of studies of the spatial construction of young people's livelihoods in African cities, the spatiality of rural livelihoods has received less attention. Rural environments pose particular challenges for livelihood construction, and require particular spatial strategies. Four are discussed here: accessing education and training; migration for work; developing extensive social networks; and producing for markets. There are, however, aspects of the spatial structuring of rural southern African societies that seriously constrain the pursuit of productive livelihoods by young people. Two are considered: migration (for reasons unconnected with young people's livelihoods) and marriage practices.

Ethical quandaries in spiritual healing and herbal medicine: A critical analysis of the morality of traditional medicine advertising in southern African urban societies

This paper critically examines the morality of advertising by practitioners in spiritual healing and herbal medicine heretofore referred to as traditional medicine, in southern African urban societies. While the subject of traditional medicine has been heavily contested in medical studies in the last few decades, the monumental studies on the subject have emphasised the place of traditional medicine in basic health services. Insignificant attention has been devoted to examine the ethical problems associated with traditional medicine advertising. Critical look at the worthiness of some advertising strategies used by practitioners in traditional medicine in launching their products and services on market thus has been largely ignored. Yet, though advertising is key to helping traditional medicine practitioners' products and services known by prospective customers, this research registers a number of morally negative effects that seem to outweigh the merits that the activity brings to prospective customers. The paper adopts southern African urban societies, and in particular Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe as particular references. The choice of the trio is not accidental, but based on the fact that these countries have in the last few decades been flooded with traditional medicine practitioners/traditional healers from within the continent and from abroad. Most of these practitioners use immoral advertising strategies in communicating to the public the products and services they offer. It is against this background that this paper examines the morality of advertising strategies deployed by practitioners in launching their products and services. To examine the moral worthiness of the advertising strategies used by traditional medical practitioners, I used qualitative analysis of street adverts as well as electronic and print media. From the results obtained through thematic content analysis, the paper concludes that most of the practitioners in traditional medicine lack both business and medical ethics. That said, the paper urges practitioners to seriously consider the morality of their adverts as in most cases they (adverts) do more harm than good. Further to that, the piece recommends the governments of the affected countries to put in place stringent measures to address this mounting problem.

Towards an effective commons governance system in Southern Africa?

This special feature presents several papers generated under the EU-funded ‘Cross Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa’ (CROSCOG) project. The feature builds on knowledge generated in case studies which explored existing integrated resource knowledge and governance practices of rural people living in Southern African commons. In earlier generations, especially during the pre-colonial periods, most Southern African societies developed quite effective indigenous institutions for the management of entire landscapes and their component ecosystems, when this was in their interest. Few of these integrated Southern African systems are effective today as they have gone through massive changes, for example due to colonial influences, the increased role of the market and/or conflicts over use and access to natural resources. Meanwhile, most efforts to rebuild or affirm (the management of) the commons through various initiatives, have been specific to certain resources or localised areas. Conversely, the smaller number of ecosystem-wide land use planning initiatives that sought to enhance overall environmental health have been dominated by technical, anti-political approaches that failed to understood the differential roles of resources in the spectrum of local livelihoods, and failed to achieve the required broader reinforcement of local governance. This introduction and the papers it introduces explore opportunities and challenges with respect to integrating scale – landscapes, ecosystems, and governing systems – into the local commons.

Towards an effective commons governance system in Southern Africa?

This special feature presents several papers generated under the EU-funded ‘Cross Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa’ (CROSCOG) project. The feature builds on knowledge generated in case studies which explored existing integrated resource knowledge and governance practices of rural people living in Southern African commons. In earlier generations, especially during the pre-colonial periods, most Southern African societies developed quite effective indigenous institutions for the management of entire landscapes and their component ecosystems, when this was in their interest. Few of these integrated Southern African systems are effective today as they have gone through massive changes, for example due to colonial influences, the increased role of the market and/or conflicts over use and access to natural resources. Meanwhile, most efforts to rebuild or affirm (the management of) the commons through various initiatives, have been specific to certain resources or localised areas. Conversely, the smaller number of ecosystem-wide land use planning initiatives that sought to enhance overall environmental health have been dominated by technical, anti-political approaches that failed to understood the differential roles of resources in the spectrum of local livelihoods, and failed to achieve the required broader reinforcement of local governance. This introduction and the papers it introduces explore opportunities and challenges with respect to integrating scale – landscapes, ecosystems, and governing systems – into the local commons.

‘Route Work’ through Alternative Archives: Reflections on Cross-Disciplinary Practice

ABSTRACT The Five Hundred Year Initiative stresses the value of cross-disciplinary perspectives in investigating the antecedents of contemporary southern African societies, with archaeological sources playing a prominent role in its associated projects. To produce effective histories, these projects require analytical attention to both the processes that gave rise to contemporary societies and those that shape history making in the present. In this article, I build on Paul Gilroy's notion of ‘route work’ (by comparison to ‘root work’) to explore the value and methodological challenges of constructing historical understandings that simultaneously attend to the dynamics of past cultural practice and the processes through which our understandings of those practices are produced. Drawing on examples from Ghana, I argue that a methodological engagement with the negotiated quality of historical understanding – an approach that brings into view our processes of ‘coming to know’ – lays the groundwork for an ethically engaged and responsive, at the same time as empirically grounded, understanding of past socio-historical processes.

Some southern African entry points into global history

So-called Global History has taken off in the Unites States to liberate undergraduates from Big Power parochialism, and has been the topic of a major conference held in London in May this year. The key element of Global Studies is to demonstrate the connectedness between different peoples and lands and periods of time. This paper is an attempt to crack the small-end of the egg by starting studies in one familiar region of the world, rather than the big-end approach of starting with general explanations or theory and then relating them back to particulars. It suggests three ways in which Southern Africa could be used as the starting point to throw more general light upon the world’s history. First, by taking cues from and asking questions about the latest genetic research which suggests that modern human population dispersal about 60 000 years ago began in Angola-Namibia frontier region. Second, by taking cues and asking questions about Indonesian contact with Africa and coastal settlement that may account for significant influences on southern African societies. Third, by tracing the biographies of real individuals whose careers encompass not only southern Africa but other parts of the world and in doing so demonstrate not only inter- connectedness of cultural, social, political and economic histories but also significant points of comparison in the experience of global trends and events.

Regionalisation and Civil Society: The Case of Southern Africa

This article argues that the general neglect of civil society in the majority of the literature on regionalism is above all a theoretical and methodological failure. It argues that a critical perspective on regionalism in the form of the new regionalism approach (NRA) provides a useful point of departure for better understanding civil society on at the regional level. To this approach should be added general insights from literature on civil society and the post-colonial state in Africa. The analysis shows that Southern African civil societies in Southern Africa are is not powerless, is not simply ‘national’, nor is it necessarily subject to state policies or states-led regional organisations. Rather, civil society in Southern Africa is extending its field of competence and is increasingly engaged in various forms of regionalisation activities, particularly in fields such as social economic justice and debt, trade, health, democracy and human rights, the environment, and research. But regional civil society is by no means harmonious. It encompasses several paradoxes and internal conflicts within itself, and comprises complex relations with states and donors.

Imagining migration: Placing children’s understanding of ‘moving house’ in Malawi and Lesotho

Research pertaining to children’s geographies has mainly focused on children’s physical experiences of space, with their ‘imagined geographies’ receiving far less attention. The few studies of children’s imagined geographies that exist tend to focus on children’s national identities and their understanding of distant places. However, children’s lives are not necessarily static and they often move between places. Research has not so far considered children’s images of these transitional spaces or how such images are constructed. Through an examination of over 800 thematic drawings and stories, regarding ‘moving house’, produced by children aged 10–17 years in urban and rural communities of Lesotho and Malawi, this paper explores southern African children’s representations of migration. The research considers how ideas of migration are culturally-constructed based on notions of family, home and kinship, particularly in relation to the fluid family structure characteristic of most southern African societies. The results suggest that most children imagine migration as a household rather than an individual process, rarely including micro-migrations between extended family households in their drawings. Further, children’s images of migration are place-rooted in everyday life experiences. Their representations concentrate on the reasons for migration, both negative and positive, which are specifically related to their local social and environmental situations and whether house moves take place locally or over longer distances. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these conceptualisations of moving house for children’s contemporary migration experiences, particularly in light of changing family structures due to the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The structural articulation of generations in Africa

The article highlights a contrast between West African Niger-Congo and East and Southern African Bantu societies. Amongst the latter, kin-generations are sharply distinguished and alternate generations characteristically merged, whereas among the Niger-Congo peoples it is rather adjacent generations that are merged (a fact Radcliffe-Brown ignored). The difference is integral to the social structures of the two regions, between which however some continuity can be traced through the processes of the “Bantu expansion”. An explanation for the heightened awareness of generational differences is sought firstly in the effects of matrilineal kinship crosscutting patrifilial residence and secondly in the axial emergence of the people identified by C. Ehret as “Mashariki” in the Great Lakes area.