Masters Degrees (History)

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From Jamaica to the Cape Flets : reflecting on the manifestations of a Cape Hip Hop culture, 1983-2015
(Stellenbosh : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Van Wyk, Adrian; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation seeks to reflect on the making of a Cape Town based Hip Hop culture with particular focus on the various manifestations which developed around the Cape Flats. This study investigates the importance of the numerous mediums in the development of a Hip Hop culture at the Cape from 1983 to 2015. Particular attention is given to audio-visual content such as film, music and music videos within the early formations of Hip Hop in the Cape. The audiences and performers who engaged with Hip Hop culture will be investigated. Furthermore, this study will follow the shift in the various forms of dissemination - from radio, television, to self-produced videos uploaded on digital media platforms on the internet. Finally, Cape Town based artists who addressed particular local social conditions through their self-produced videos will be examined. These videos bypassed the normal television curated playlists and thus created their own digital followings. This marked a new platform of engagement beyond the conventional radio and television networks, thus staying true to the original purpose of Hip Hop – an avenue of self-expression for marginalised communities located on the periphery.
A historical exploration of the institutional and residence cultures of Stellenbosch University, c. 2000-2018
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Sharpley, Kristan Ashleigh; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Visser, Wessel P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Universities, as microcosms of society, have been characterized as public interest institutions. According to sociologist, Kathleen Lynch, they have been considered as bastions for the free exchange of ideas and creators of knowledge for the greater good of humanity. Since the inception of democracy in South Africa post 1994, political pressure to transform the remnants of the apartheid regime in the higher education domain has been at the forefront. This has demanded the establishment of a socially just institutional landscape which is responsive to change. Transformation of the university experience has resulted in incongruences between the compilation of policy and the implementation of such framed interventions. Higher Education reform in South Africa has been profoundly shaped by procedures which climaxed in the construction of numerous documents such as the 1996 National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) report, the 1996 Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation and the 1997 Education White Paper which launched a series of commissions, investigations, and task teams which framed and guided the formation of policies within universities across South Africa. This study focuses on Stellenbosch University (SU), one of the highest ranked institutions in South Africa, located in the picturesque town of Stellenbosch. The contentious history of the institution has led to much criticism since the turn of the 21st century. The year 2000 was a turning for the university, as it embarked on various campaigns to reappraise its image, spaces, and practices. This has involved various rectors, stakeholders amongst both staff and students and monitoring structures. Its 2000 Strategic Framework for the Turn of the Century and Beyond was the catalyst to various processes of restructuring and re-dress of past systemic injustices. Despite this, there continues to be a contradiction between its policies and residence spaces, and ambiguity in social interactions has led to scrutiny. This will be examined through the lens of state reports, institutional reports, residential monitor reports, student leaders, residence heads and archival material such as publications and commemorative volumes from sampled residences. Overall, the study explores whether residence culture, through the lens of their welcoming practices, is symptomatic of the Stellenbosch University institutional culture, or whether residence culture is a collective-perpetuated system of the space. Welcoming can be considered a staged manifestation of residence culture and identity, based on intentional design. The question of whether Stellenbosch University and residence practices have changed is evaluated within the context of these constantly changing spaces. As a residence is a collective of individuals, it could be argued that it is a collective-perpetuated system, defined by a symbiotic relationship with the management structure and regulated by student protest. These actions and reactions have had a direct impact on the changing nature of the institutional Matie and residence identities.
The impact of the Mental Health Act No. 18 of 1973 and related legislation on sentencing practices at the Cape Town Supreme Court, 1964-1980
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Kruger, Wilanda; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study will empirically analyse whether the Mental Health Act of 1973 had an impact on sentencing practices for murder and murder related crimes at the Cape Supreme Court from 1964-1980. It contextualises the various discussions and debates that were taking place in the judiciary and mental health fields, and demonstrates that the said Act had little significant impact on sentencing practices after 1975, when the Act was finally ascended into law. Furthermore, analysis of the courtroom testimony not only reveals how debates on criminology, psychiatry, psychology and politics unfolded during the period under investigation, but it is argued that these very debates, rather than any legislation, had a more significant impact on the sentencing practices for the crime of murder in the Cape Supreme Court.
Institutionalising the ‘skollie’: social labelling and philanthropic institutional reform at Klaasjagersberg State Institution for Coloured boys c. 1934-1979
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Barnard, Daniela; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Existing research on punishment and (re)education in state institutions in South Africa reflects the shift in penological discourse from punitive to rehabilitation of children deemed delinquent or ‘in need’. This was racially determined and subject to shifts in global penology, complex internal political wrangling, and further complicated by a racially defined, and an overly bureaucratic, educational system. Institutional histories on Porter Reformatory for Coloured boys (c. 1882-1952), Diepkloof Reformatory for Black boys (c. 1937-1952) and Ottery School of Industries for Coloured boys (c. 1937-1968), for example, provide a remarkable foundation from which education, rehabilitation and punishment are critically analysed. The hitherto unknown Coloured Affairs Department projects, the Klaasjagersberg Youth Preparatory Courses of 1956 and the Klaasjagersberg State Institution that existed between 1959 and 1979, are the focus of this dissertation. These were established during a particularly turbulent period of Coloured political fracturing in the Cape. The state and the pro-assimilationist C.A.D. embarked on a joint project to implement a preventative state solution for the supposed ‘skolliemenace’. Intricately intertwined was the changing definitions of skollie and juvenile delinquent; and the ways in which state, Coloured politicians and Coloured communities were drawn into this ‘philanthropic’ endeavour under the apartheid welfare state system between 1937 and 1979. This dissertation argues that more attention should be given to the preventative ambitions during the establishment of Klaasjagersberg State Institution as it served as a proverbial playing field in which local political and community aspirations infused into the national debates on state philanthropy, education, rehabilitation and even the prevention of the elusive skollie.
Its just a matter of time : African American musicians and the Cultural Boycott in South Africa, 1968-1983
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Waggie, Ashrudeen; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Lambrechts, L.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 1968 the United Nations General Assembly instituted a cultural boycott against apartheid South Africa. The cultural boycott prevented South Africa from having cultural, educational and sporting ties with the rest of the world, and it was an attempt by the international community to sever ties with South Africa. A culmination of this strategy was the publication of an annual registry by the United Nations of all international entertainers, actors, and others who performed in South Africa from 1983. Based on this registry a number of academic studies have been conducted, but very few studies have investigated those who came to perform in South Africa before the publication of the registry even though renowned artists such as Percy Sledge (1970), Brook Benton (1971 & 1982), Jimmy Smith (1978 & 1982) and Isaac Hayes (1978) performed in South Africa during this time. This study will investigate a selection of African American musicians who came to perform in South Africa before the publication of the registry. Specific attention will be paid to the reception of these musicians in South Africa, the promoters that brought them and their accompanying musicians. Based on close readings of their tours, this study will argue that the cultural boycott was not as successful in deterring musicians from performing in South Africa. In fact, in some instances their careers regained renewed relevance after their return to America.
“Keep the boys happy” : a critical investigation into rape trends at the Cape, 1795-1895
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Graham, Jessica Amy; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: “Keep the Boys Happy”: A Critical Investigation into Rape Trends at the Cape, 1795-1895” locates rapists in the Cape Colony within the broader existing literature on rape in British colonial settings. It provides empirical data on rape reporting and conviction rates drawn from a systematic investigation of court records over one hundred years. The focus of this thesis, inspired by the works of Joanna Bourke and Chet Fransch, are: who were these rapists, why did they commit these acts of rape and what was the role of the state in regulating rape at the Cape? It is through these lenses that this dissertation revisits the inter-connectedness of rape, race and class in the colonial setting of 19th century South Africa.
Reading the voices of a fractured Coloured elite : Coloured intellectuals and newspapers in the Cape, c. 1959-1966
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Solomons, Curtley Matthew; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The history of Coloured politics, especially in the Cape, imbibed notions of race, belonging, identity and even linguistic or cultural distinctions. The rise of a Coloured elite who spoke “on behalf” of its people eventually gave rise to a fractured elite who grappled with its identity and place within a broader South African context. Various Coloured organisations were established which represented assimilationist, collaborationist or rejectionist factions. Each birth necessitated a platform from which organisational ideologies could be disseminated to a wider public. This dissertation will trace the divergence amongst the Coloured elite during the particularly volatile period of 1959 to 1966, and how they articulated their political ideologies through three alternative newspapers geared towards a largely Coloured readership: the Torch, Die Banier and the Cape Herald. This dissertation contends that these publications have been described as the political “mouthpieces” of particular political parties but it is argued that they rather serve as an intellectual space for political debate which over time, becomes the mouthpiece of particular individuals who dominated Coloured politics at that time.
"They have put a rope around my neck by bringing me here”: a historical exploration of witchcraft trials in the Transkeian Territories, 1882-1906
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Van der Merwe, Nicole; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: “‘They have put a rope around my neck by bringing me here’: A Historical Exploration of Witchcraft Trials in the Transkeian Territories, 1882-1906” investigates neglected historiographical terrains by exploring the Transkei region, located in the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony, at the cusp of political transition when local African groups began to lose autonomy in the region. Witchcraft cases recorded in the arguably tainted colonial source, the Bantu Affairs Commission, serve as a lens from which to foreground the varying and complex philosophies, motivations and explanations of individual, and more specifically, group acts of witchcraft activities in the region. Probing these courtroom narratives exposes the internal juxtaposition of power and the forging of new alliances within and between African communities. Globally, the intricate relationship between witchcraft, power and conflict are made apparent within the existing literature. This dissertation argues that during this transitional period, witchcraft accusations brought before the courts were more reflective of communal factions and friction within small communities, as groups vied to maintain, and at times extend, their sphere of influence. These groups were intimately involved with colonial agents in negotiating the conditions of the fluctuating politico-legal system and, therefore, cannot be simply farmed as powerless victims during this transition. As such, witchcraft accusations were not only a manifestation of impending political conquest, economic change and environmental disasters, but allowed for the, albeit brief, renegotiation of African political power and politics in the aftermath of outright conflict and clandestine political treaties.

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