Browsing by Author "De Jongh, Martha Susanna"
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- ItemMusic and Militarisation during the period of the South African Border War (1966-1989) : Perspectives from Paratus(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) De Jongh, Martha Susanna; Muller, Stephanus; Van der Waag, IanENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the absence of literature of the kind, this study addresses the role of music in militarising South African society during the time of the South African Border War (1966-1989). The War on the border between Namibia and Angola took place against the backdrop of the Cold War, during which the apartheid South African government believed that it had to protect the last remnants of Western civilization on the African continent against the communist onslaught. Civilians were made aware of this perceived threat throughvarious civilian and military channels, which included the media, education and the private business sector. The involvement of these civilian sectors in the military resulted in the increasing militarisation of South African society through the blurring of boundaries between the civilian and the military. Examples include where civilians were madeaware of the military effort and where they were militarily prepared from a young age through school visits, participation in para-military activities, and the school cadet system, leading to conscription. While some actively participated in the war through conscription, those at home were drawn into the effort by means of supporting roles. Through a perusal of the former South African Defence Force (SADF) magazine, Paratus (formerly known as Commando), this study investigates the role of music in these processes of militarisation. This dissertation includes descriptions of official military structures such as bands and choirs and their participation at civilian and military events. This does not exclude civilian groups and individual musicians who participated in military environments. The performance of non-military music by military bands, and the involvement of civilian musicians in military environments indicate how military ideals were transferred through the re-contextualisation of music as it was framed by the military environment. Other structures implicated in these processes included broadcasting and how the message of the military was conveyed through programmes, with music as vehicle, directed towards civilians and soldiers alike, contributing towards the construct of the soldier and the collective military effort. By means of numerous examples gleaned from Paratus, this study illustrates that music served as conduit in the process of militarisation of South African society.
- ItemA national electronic database of special music collections in South Africa(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-03) De Jongh, Martha Susanna; Muller, Stephanus; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.In the absence of a state-sponsored South African archive that focuses on collecting, ordering, cataloguing and preserving special music collections for research, the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) was established in 2005 as a research project at the University of Stellenbosch. Music research in South Africa is often impeded by inaccessibility of materials, staff shortages at archives and libraries, financial constraints and time-consuming ordering and cataloguing processes. Additionally there is, locally, restricted knowledge of the existence, location and status of relevant primary sources. Accessibility clearly depends on knowing of the existence of materials, as well as the extent to which collections have been ordered and catalogued. An overview of repositories such as the Nasionale Afrikaanse Letterkundige Museum and Navorsingsentrum (NALN), the now defunct National Documentation Centre for Music and the International Library of African Music (ILAM) paints a troubling picture of archival neglect and disintegration. Apart from ILAM, which has a very specific collecting and research focus, this trend was one that ostensibly started in the 1980s and is still continuing. It could be ascribed to a lack of planning and forward thinking under the previous political dispensation, aggravated by policies of transformation and restructuring in the current one. Existing sources supporting research on primary materials are dated and not discipline-specific. Thus this study aims to address issues of inaccessibility of primary music materials by creating a comprehensive and ongoing national electronic database of special music collections in South Africa. It is hoped that this will help to alert researchers to the existence and status of special music collections housed at various levels of South African academic and civil society.