Conference Programme: 
Discourses on difference and oppression

Provisional Programme

Organisers: Alan Kirkaldy, Department of History, University of Venda
Godfried Dederen, Department of Anthropology, University of Venda

The aim of this excursion is to provide an alternative understanding of the work of rural Black artists in South Africa as well as the problems which the latter face. This will be achieved through meeting with the artists themselves, at home, rather than encountering them through their work in the alienating and eurocentric setting of an exhibition hall or museum. One of the themes of this excursion, namely, that of ‘false representation’, will be explored in the paper to be presented by Godfried Dederen in Session Three of the conference.

09h00 – 12h00: Visit to A. Mainganye

This artist has been involved in the development of local woodcarving, both as an agent and mediator for the metropolitan art markets. A. Mainganye has been an organiser of local artists’ interests in the region and has also organised art classes for children and prisoners. He is currently reviving an earlier moutain studio collective project. The visit to A. Mainganye’s studio should be contrasted with a visit to the Ditike Gallery, which represents metropolitan interests.

13h00 – 17h00: Visit to E. Nemurunzini
Elkana Nemurunzini is a figurative woodcarver, who is also a drum maker. In the 1950s and 1960s, his family ran malombo. He has a keen interest in the performing arts. During the past five years, Elkana and Lizzie Nemurunzini, and their family, have struggled to organise a group of tshigombela dancers. They have recently built a great rondavel to accommodate visitors interested in the performing arts.

18h00 – 18h30: Opening address: Moving from problems to solutions
Professor D. R. Thakhathi, Vice-Principal & Deputy Vice-Chancellor
University of Venda for Science and Technology

18h30 – 19h15: Keynote address: Culture and race: myth and reality.
Professor K. K. Prah, Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in African Society

19h30: SUPPER

08h30 – 09h00: Keynote Address: ‘We’re here because we’re here …’: speaking African womanism. Ms Yvette Abrahams, Department of History, University of Cape Town.

09h10 – 09h20: Shifting boundaries of oppression: women and difference in African literature. Anna Poshai, Department of English, University of Venda.

09h20 – 09h40: Reluctant Blackness and ‘whole new loneliness’ in Rayda Jacobs’ The middle road: a womanist critique. Pumla Gqola, Department of English, University of the Free State. 

09h40 – 10h00: Constructing lives: Black South African women and biography under apartheid. Desiree Lewis, Department of English, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

10h00 – 10h20: ‘Branches of the same tree’: Insights into culture gender and the TRC. Judy Clark, Department of Psychology, University of Durban-Westville.

10h20 – 10h40: Mediating difference: Politics of representation. Antjie Krog’s chronicling of women … in ‘Country of my Skull’. Jo-Anne Prins, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

10h40 – 11h00: TEA

11h00 – 11h20: Voices of the ‘nation’ and voices of ‘loss’: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and women’s testimonies. N. Motsemme, University of the Western Cape

11h20 – 11h40: Racial subjectivity and gender activism among Black women. 

Cheryl De la Rey & F. Boonzaier, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town

11h40 – 12h00: Discourses of culture in students’ talk on heterosex
Tammy Shefer, University of the Western Cape

12h00 – 13h00: Input from conference participants/ Respondents

13h00 – 14h00: LUNCH

09h10 – 09h30: [Topic] [Presenter]

09h30 – 09h50: ‘Of tophats and cannibals ...’ Alan Kirkaldy, Department of History, University of Venda.

09h50 – 10h10: Dance, ethnic differences and oppression: instruments of labour and social control at the Messina Copper Mines. Felix Malunga, Department of History, University of Venda.

10h10 – 10h30: The regime of terror, fists, sjamboks and the gun. Rashidi Molapo, Department of History, University of Venda.

10h30 – 11h00: TEA

11h00 – 11h20: The culture of protest among black workers in the Witwatersrand: 1941-1947. N. T. Mahosi, Department of History, University of Venda.

11h20 – 11h40: ‘Listen here, just because YOU think I’m a coloured …’: Responses to the construction of difference in racist discourses. Norman Duncan, Department of Psychology, University of Venda.

11h40 – 12h00: Cultural identity and difference in South African poetry. Mashudu Mashige, Department of English, University of Venda.

12h00 – 13h00: Input from conference participants/ Respondent

13h00 – 14h00: LUNCH

14h00 – 14h20: Watching 'generations': love, language and culture 
or 
Regarding relationships around race . Kopano Ratele, Department of Psychology, University of the Western Cape.

14h20 – 14h40: Black artist, white critic. Political mindscapes of otherness’.  Godfried Dederen, Department of Anthropology, University of Venda.

14h40 – 15h00: The many faces of racism: emerging identities amongst youth in post-apartheid South Africa. Garth Stevens, Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa.

15h00 – 15h30: TEA

15h30 – 15h50: South Africa in transition: a study of the impact of cultural diversity on nation building. Samuel Kiguwa, Department of Political Studies, University of Venda

15h50 – 16h10: Religion, difference and human rights. Murray Hofmeyr, Department of Religious Studies, University of Venda.

16h10 – 16h30: Many languages, different cultures: effects of linguicism in a changing society. Goantobale Nodoba, Department of English, University of Venda

16h30 – 16h50: Ethnicity: African colonial heritage, ethnic and political manipulation? Sandile Schalk, Department of Political Studies, University of Venda

16h50 – 17h50: Input from conference participants/ Respondents

18h00: SUPPER

08h30 – 09h00: Keynote Address: Training in academic conventions: our role as public intellectuals. Ms Sheila Tyeku, Director: Research Capacity Development, National Research Foundation.

09h00 – 09h20: Africentric approaches to tertiary education in South Africa. Playi Khusi, Department of Nursing, University of Venda.

09h20 – 09h40: ‘Cursed desires’: Insights into homosexuality in the African cultural context. L. Makhaba, Department of Psychology, University of Durban-Westville.

09h40 – 10h00: Race, culture and mental illness. Tendani Ramulongo, Department of Psychology, University of Venda.

10h00 – 10h20: Afrocentrism and Afrocentric Social Work. Dumisani Thabede, Department of Social Work, Univ. of Venda

10h00 – 10h30: TEA

10h30 – 11h30: Input from conference participants/ Respondents

11h30 – 11h50: Struggling for survival in a multi-cultural society: an Afrocentric perspective. N. Manona, Department of Religious Studies, University of Venda.

11h50 – 12h10 Legislating against discrimination to found equality. Z. N. Jobodwana, Faculty of Law, University of South Africa

12h10 – 12h15: CLOSURE: 
Norman Duncan, Department of Psychology, University of Venda.

12h15 – 13h00: LUNCH

This post-conference workshop, hosted by the National Research Foundation (Division for Social Sciences and Humanities), will explore the rationale, function and format for a possible authorship development initiative that would specifically seek to increase publication amongst women and black researchers.