Department of African Studies

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    Get rich through persistence: An iquiry into the Get rich through persistence: An iquiry into the prospects and challenges of savings and lendings groups among women in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    (University of Fort Hare, 2014) Dube, Thandeka Heather
    Conventional wisdom holds that informal savings groups are simply a means in which the poor mobilise resources in times of economic distress and hardship. This research sought to explore whether informal savings groups can be salvaged as vehicles of economic development or they are indeed piecemeal activities engaged in by the poor in times of need. This study builds upon fieldwork conducted in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The study made use of qualitative research interviews with women from informal savings groups in Bulawayo. The interviews were transcribed and later analysed through content analysis. The research findings through comparative information gathered revealed that informal savings groups can be used to further economic development for the marginalised as these groups provide readily available capital to survivalist micro-enterprises. Informal savings groups provide an avenue for women’s empowerment. However the study noted that the potential of informal savings groups is tied to the wider institutional environment in which they are located.
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    Youth cultures and identities in post - apartheid South Africa : a study of white youth in East london
    (University of Fort Hare, 2015) Bubulu, Thandiwe
    This study sought to examine identities of young white people residing in East London in post-apartheid South Africa. Most of these young people were born post 1994, after the democratically elected government; therefore they have no direct experience of apartheid. Considering that it is now two decades since South Africa has been emancipated from apartheid which was not only a system but also an ideology that separated cultures and races, and promoted white people as superior over other races (Jansen 2009:57). As I will show in literature, the identities of young people during apartheid were obviously embedded in the political context of the time and they were influenced to view themselves as a superior race.
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    The rise and fall of Black commercial middle class in Mdantsane
    (University of Fort Hare, 2015) Rubushe, Ondluhlanga
    This study contributes to our understanding of South Africa’s historical Black Commercial middle class; a class defined by access to business opportunities before the implementation of the homeland system and enhanced by the government support during the homeland system. The class under study is a particular Black Commercial middle class that rose and established itself in Mdantsane between 1967, when Mdantsane was established, and fell and disappeared post 1994. Post 1994 marks the time for a new political dispensation in South Africa; a period that allowed the presence of foreign nationals in the South African township economies. The study explores the origins and historical evolution of African entrepreneurship in Mdantsane Township, East London, South Africa. The study discusses the internal and external forces that led to the emergence of local enterprises and how the arrival of newcomers, post 1994, impacted on the Mdantsane entrepreneurs. The study is presented in three phases that show how phase 1 of the Black Commercial middle class began as a success story between 1967 and 1979, and expanded through phase 2 between 1980 and 1994, but gradually displaced by foreign traders and commercial operators during phase 3 (post 1994); a transition defined by a shift from formal to informal entrepreneurship.