Michael Scott, the long-term Gandhi-esque opponent of the South African government, was a man of ... more Michael Scott, the long-term Gandhi-esque opponent of the South African government, was a man of many talents and one of his ignored skills was using a cine-camera. Between 1946 and 1948 as he worked in Tobruk squatter settlement near Johannesburg and environs and traveled to Namibia, in addition to his powerful writing, he also filmed scenes he encountered. The purpose of this note is to share the delight of viewing “Civilization on Trial in South Africa.” It is, as far as I can ascertain, the first “protest” film made in South Africa, yet is not mentioned in the standard histories of film in southern Africa (Cancel 2004, Davis, 1996, Botha/van Aswegen 1992, Tomaselli 1988). While working on another project I fortuitously came across a copy in the Smithsonian Film Archives that I had copied and have deposited in the Namibian Archives. The Smithsonian catalog dates this 24-minute edited black and white film to ca. 1950, and believes that it was shot between 1946 and 1952, prior to t...
From text: Slham Ataschi raises a similar question in her contribution to this special issue of A... more From text: Slham Ataschi raises a similar question in her contribution to this special issue of Acta Academica on “Silence after violence”. As she writes, drawingfrom her study of Afghanistan, “efforts such as truth telling, documenting and recording of individual memory in relation to past violence provide a voice for women’s narrative and personal memories during war and conflict. However, what if telling is all there is?” (page no). For Ataschi, this question opens a discussion on how stories of violence perpetrated on Afghani women during the country’s successive wars and under the Taliban regime have been drawn into human rights reports and truth-commission proceedings without commensurate efforts to develop meaningful public dialogue or address past injustices. As she suggests, the interests of “the international community” which issues these reports and organizes these proceedings remain distant from the people whose narratives they collect. In this context, “telling” risks r...
Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Malden,... more Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2004. 496 pp.
South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only wa... more South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only was it the scene of the only significant effort to impose 'grand apartheid', but also of its demise. This essay examines the role of social engineering experts in these efforts by focusing on their role in the social construction of Omega base which housed Bushman soldiers. Treating Omega as an extended case study, I trace out the impact of these decisions and how they helped fashion mechanisms of contra-mobilisation used in the internal pacification of anti-apartheid groups like the UDF. The modus operandi of these experts favoured conspiracy theories and their methodology was akin to acts of divination. I argue that they constituted a ‘Potted Factory' in three important ways: Firstly, potted refers to the way facts and ideas were summarised, abbreviated and decontextualised and became part of the symbolic currency of exchange; secondly, they were enclosed ideologically in a c...
ABSTRACT In 1906/7 Moritz Bonn (1873–1965) set out to test Hobson's theory of Imperialism in ... more ABSTRACT In 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.
Michael Scott, the long-term Gandhi-esque opponent of the South African government, was a man of ... more Michael Scott, the long-term Gandhi-esque opponent of the South African government, was a man of many talents and one of his ignored skills was using a cine-camera. Between 1946 and 1948 as he worked in Tobruk squatter settlement near Johannesburg and environs and traveled to Namibia, in addition to his powerful writing, he also filmed scenes he encountered. The purpose of this note is to share the delight of viewing “Civilization on Trial in South Africa.” It is, as far as I can ascertain, the first “protest” film made in South Africa, yet is not mentioned in the standard histories of film in southern Africa (Cancel 2004, Davis, 1996, Botha/van Aswegen 1992, Tomaselli 1988). While working on another project I fortuitously came across a copy in the Smithsonian Film Archives that I had copied and have deposited in the Namibian Archives. The Smithsonian catalog dates this 24-minute edited black and white film to ca. 1950, and believes that it was shot between 1946 and 1952, prior to t...
From text: Slham Ataschi raises a similar question in her contribution to this special issue of A... more From text: Slham Ataschi raises a similar question in her contribution to this special issue of Acta Academica on “Silence after violence”. As she writes, drawingfrom her study of Afghanistan, “efforts such as truth telling, documenting and recording of individual memory in relation to past violence provide a voice for women’s narrative and personal memories during war and conflict. However, what if telling is all there is?” (page no). For Ataschi, this question opens a discussion on how stories of violence perpetrated on Afghani women during the country’s successive wars and under the Taliban regime have been drawn into human rights reports and truth-commission proceedings without commensurate efforts to develop meaningful public dialogue or address past injustices. As she suggests, the interests of “the international community” which issues these reports and organizes these proceedings remain distant from the people whose narratives they collect. In this context, “telling” risks r...
Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Malden,... more Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2004. 496 pp.
South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only wa... more South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only was it the scene of the only significant effort to impose 'grand apartheid', but also of its demise. This essay examines the role of social engineering experts in these efforts by focusing on their role in the social construction of Omega base which housed Bushman soldiers. Treating Omega as an extended case study, I trace out the impact of these decisions and how they helped fashion mechanisms of contra-mobilisation used in the internal pacification of anti-apartheid groups like the UDF. The modus operandi of these experts favoured conspiracy theories and their methodology was akin to acts of divination. I argue that they constituted a ‘Potted Factory' in three important ways: Firstly, potted refers to the way facts and ideas were summarised, abbreviated and decontextualised and became part of the symbolic currency of exchange; secondly, they were enclosed ideologically in a c...
ABSTRACT In 1906/7 Moritz Bonn (1873–1965) set out to test Hobson's theory of Imperialism in ... more ABSTRACT In 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.
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