Busani Ngcaweni – författare

This book reflects on the complex and contested idea of South Africa, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Ever since the delineation of South Africa as a country, the many diverse groups of people contained within its borders have struggled to translate a mere geographical description into the identity of a people. Today the new struggles ‘for South Africa’ and ‘to become South African’ are inextricably intertwined with complex challenges of transformation, xenophobia, claims of reverse racism, social justice, economic justice, service delivery, and the resurgent decolonization struggles reverberating inside the universities. This book covers the genealogy of the idea of South Africa, exploring how the country has been conceived of by a broad group of actors, including the British, Afrikaners, diverse African nationalist traditions, and new formations such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Black First Land First (BLF), and student formations (Rhodes Must Fall & Fees Must Fall). Over the course of the book, a broad range of themes are covered, including identity formation, modernity, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, autochthony, land, gender, intellectual traditions, poetics of South Africanness, language, popular culture, truth and reconciliation, and national development planning.Concluding with important reflections on how a colonial imaginary can be changed into a free and inclusive postcolonial nation-state, this book will be an important read for Africanist researchers from across the humanities and social sciences.

This book reflects on the complex and contested idea of South Africa, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Ever since the delineation of South Africa as a country, the many diverse groups of people contained within its borders have struggled to translate a mere geographical description into the identity of a people. Today the new struggles ‘for South Africa’ and ‘to become South African’ are inextricably intertwined with complex challenges of transformation, xenophobia, claims of reverse racism, social justice, economic justice, service delivery, and the resurgent decolonization struggles reverberating inside the universities. This book covers the genealogy of the idea of South Africa, exploring how the country has been conceived of by a broad group of actors, including the British, Afrikaners, diverse African nationalist traditions, and new formations such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Black First Land First (BLF), and student formations (Rhodes Must Fall & Fees Must Fall). Over the course of the book, a broad range of themes are covered, including identity formation, modernity, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, autochthony, land, gender, intellectual traditions, poetics of South Africanness, language, popular culture, truth and reconciliation, and national development planning.Concluding with important reflections on how a colonial imaginary can be changed into a free and inclusive postcolonial nation-state, this book will be an important read for Africanist researchers from across the humanities and social sciences.

This book explores the profound intellectual legacy of the late Ntongela Masilela, a groundbreaking literary historian whose analytical significance surged following his death in 2020. Part biography and part scholarly dialogue, the book examines Masilela's extensive unpublished online archive alongside his published works and lectures, contextualisng his revolutionary identification of the New African Movement (1880s-1960s).The volume illuminates how Masilela documented the critical contributions of New African intellectuals and litterateurs who navigated early modernity during the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and thereafter. By analysing Masilela's unfinished historical project and interpretive framework, the volume reveals his far-reaching multidisciplinary influence across literature, film studies, African studies, and sociology.Opening with personal reflections that showcase the extraordinary empathetic relationships Masilela cultivated with each editor, this essential work brings overdue attention to a scholar whose insights continue to reshape our understanding of South African cultural and intellectual history. It serves as an essential resource for students and researchers of African studies, literary criticism, cultural theory, and decolonial thought.Most chapters in this volume were originally published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies and are presented here with a new Preface and personal reflections from the editors.

We Are No Longer at Ease is a collection of personal articles, essays, speeches and poetry mainly from voices of young people who were part of the student-led protest movement known as #FeesMustFall, which began in 2015. It tells the journey of the youth who participated in a movement that redefined politics in post-apartheid South Africa and is evidence of a ‘born-free’ generation telling their own story and leading the discourse and action on transforming South Africa.Young people are not at ease. They are refusing to coexist with coloniality, sexism, democratic indifference and inequality. We need to acknowledge and take heed to their calls. This collection includes works by former student leaders turned researchers such as David Maimela and Asanda Luwaca; student newspaper journalists who covered the protests, like Natasha Ndlebe and Nkateko Mabasa; public intellectuals whose aim was to inform broader society of the key aspects of the movement, like Sisonke Msimang; lecturers who assisted the students to articulate and find clarity in voicing their ideas such as Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni; and most importantly the foot soldiers on the ground who led the students through the police brutality of rubber bullets and pepper spray, like Mcebo Dlamini, Lovelyn Nwadeyi, Ntokozo Qwabe and Sarah Mokwebo.

Liberation Diaries is a powerful and spirited collection of essays from some of South Africa’s most distinctive thinkers on the country’s 30 years of democracy. The writers consider what freedom and democracy mean to them. By turns provocative and daring, these insightful essays amount to a touchstone to accompany the reader in the 30th year of democracy. Busani Ngcaweni edited Liberation Diaries: Reflections on 20 Years of Democracy in 2014.

The African continent is colloquially referred to as the youngest in the world. Seizing on a topic underexplored in African research, Youth Development in South Africa: Harnessing the Demographic Dividend confronts the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing South Africa’s youth, resulting in a rich exploration of the South African corpus on youth development.Bringing together a diverse range of topics and research methodologies, contributors focus on the demographic dividend, South Africa’s relatively large population of young people, and the implications of harnessing this for economic growth and development within this country. Analysing model institutional and policy initiatives for youth development, contributors present a unique translation of ideas into practice, as well as attention to solutions. Highlighting challenges such as health pandemics, social media, and climate change, chapters cover questions surrounding youth aspirations, employment, and inclusivity.Showcasing the voices of researchers from across South Africa and the larger African continent, Youth Development in South Africa: Harnessing the Demographic Dividend is a compelling snapshot of thirty years of South Africa’s democratic dispensation and what it has meant for the youth of the country, as well as how its demographic dividend can be harnessed for a fairer society in the future.