Masters Degrees (History)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7192

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The 1949 Durban riots : a community in conflict.
(1983) Kirk, S. L.; Warhurst, Philip R.
No abstract available.
The administration of Sir Arthur E. Havelock as Governor of Natal, 1886 - 1889.
(1979) Moodley, Manikam.; Heydenrych, Dirk Hendrik.
No abstract available.
Against the odds : a social history of African women medical doctors in South Africa, 1940s-2000s.
(2017) Rehman, Amanda-Bea.; Noble, Vanessa.
This thesis focuses on the lives of six women medical doctors of African ethnicity, from the 1940s to the 2000s. These women are of different generations and were all born in South Africa. They trained in South Africa and have worked in a variety of institutions across the country. It investigates how the profession of medicine has evolved over time and what role a changing political climate has had on the development of the medical profession; particularly in terms of race and gender. It considers the broad historical context within which South Africa’s general medical training and professional development took place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then looks at the early lives of the six interviewees, which include their childhood and later motivations to study medicine. It also investigates the medical training experiences of these African women doctors. The lives and experiences of black women doctors after they graduated from medical school with a Bachelor of Medicine (MBChB) degree, during the apartheid period, is also discussed. Their training experiences, internship experiences and the experiences of their working lives in post-apartheid South Africa is a focus of this study too. Finally, it considers the impact of recent political transformation on the racial, gendered and class dimensions of the medical profession.
"- and my blood became hot!" : crimes of passion, crimes of reason : an analysis of the crimes against masters and mistresses by their Indian domestic servants, Natal, 1880-1920.
(2005) Badassy, Prinisha.; Burns, Catherine E.
This thesis posits that the experiences and emotional strain associated with being a domestic servant gave rise to a culture of anger and violence within the ranks of Indian Domestic Servants in Colonial Natal during the period 1880 to 1920. These acts of violence, in particular physical and indecent assault and poisoning are explored here not in admiration of their brutality, but for their historical relevance to the study of Indenture, more specifically in the area of servant-master/mistress relations. The study uses these crimes as a window into the social dynamics of the settler home and domestic space in Colonial Natal, since they were created within their own set of orchestrating emotions and situations. The thesis draws on international and local literature around master/mistress-servant relations as well as relations between domestic slaves and the owners of their labour at the same time in other regions of the world. The findings of this thesis contribute to the historiography of South Africa; to the historiography of Indian South African life; to the historiography of servantmaster/mistress relationships; to the analysis of the complex intermingling of private and public labour and lives bound up with this labour form, both in past moulds and in its present form; and to the growing literature on the linkages between utilizing analysis of legal institutions and legal records in researching and writing the history of South African lives. Most importantly however, this thesis is the story of ordinary men and women whose lives, cultures, individualities and histories intersected with the domestic and colonial nexus.
"Archiving Apartheid": the archives of the Department of Bantu Administration, (Pietermaritzburg) and the Drakensberg Administration Board.
(2000) Gokool, Neesha.; Guy, Jefferson John.
No abstract available.
Attitudes to history and senses of the past among grade 12 learners in a selection of schools in the Durban area, 2004 : a pilot study.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg., 2004) Mackie, Emma-Louise.; Wright, John Britten.
This study explores attitudes to school history and 'senses of the past' among a sample of Grade 12 learners in a selection of six schools in the Durban area. It traces the history of history education in South Africa from its formal introduction to the Cape Colony in 1839 to the debates surrounding the revision of the history syllabus and the introduction of Curriculum 2005 in the present day. It makes the point that the context within which school history in South Africa arose and developed has led history education authorities to view school history as a subject with 'problems' for which they need to find 'solutions' from the top down. Thus, learners who come to school with an insufficient knowledge or awareness of the past must be encouraged to become more 'historically aware'. Recent developments within western academic history have led a number of historians to acknowledge the significance of histories produced outside the realms ofthe academy. Some of their literature points to complex and diverse ways in which ordinary people make and use the past in their everyday lives. These developments are of particular relevance when one considers learners at school because school history education authorities have given very little attention to the ways in which learners make and use histories in their everyday lives. This study set out to explore whether further investigations into learners' attitudes to history, their senses of the past and the relationship between the two would be a valuable line of enquiry for future research. It concludes that adolescents are just as much 'producers' of pasts as they are 'learners' of history and that far from showing how little learners know about the past, these senses tell us much about how learners feel in the present.
Broadening the Black Sash’s reach: a biographical study of women activists in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
(2023) Kheswa, Sandile Derick.; Hiralal, Kalpana.; Denis, Philippe Marie Berthe Raoul.
This dissertation examines the contribution made by Black Sash women to the anti-apartheid struggle in the Natal Midlands region. It gives special attention to the biographical narratives of three women who were members of the Black Sash organisation in the Natal Midlands region. These women are Joan Kerchhoff, Mary Kleinenberg, and Anne Harley. This study explores how, for thirty years, these activists who belonged to two different generations of the Black Sash employed different modes of resistance. Furthermore, this study will examine their participation in the anti-apartheid movement, which is unique as they were willing to take risks and go to jail. These Black Sash activists rose to the call of duty and took a stand against injustice, taking a stance that other white people refused to accept. They were passionate in their beliefs, serving jail sentences, and suffered hardship as they lost friends and were often socially ostracised. These activists discarded the white privileges afforded to them by the apartheid government. They dedicated their lives to combating injustice while fighting for their vision for the future, a free and democratic South Africa. It was due to their involvement in the anti-apartheid movement that the fight against the apartheid regime was not merely a black versus white issue but rather against an oppressive system. Their participation in the anti-apartheid movement transformed the liberation movement into becoming multi-racial, albeit their numbers were small. Thus, this study on the three Black Sash women will integrate the role of white women and contribute to the liberation narratives of South Africa. It will demonstrate that the antiapartheid struggle was a collective effort and included a small group of whites, who were to become in some ways the white consciousness of South Africa. This dissertation via the narratives of Joan Kerchhoff, Mary Kleinenberg, and Anne Harley, highlights the contestations between gender oppression and political oppression that so characterised the anti-apartheid struggle. It also provides a more in-depth insight into women’s political collective organisation in the Natal Midlands. Also, it helps us to understand the complex relationship that existed between the Black Sash and other women’s organisations.
Caste, class and community : the role of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha in (re)making Hinduism in South Africa, 1912-1960.
(2010) Gopalan, Karthigasen.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
No abstract available.
The Catholic Church and apartheid, 1948-1957.
(1984) Abraham, Garth.
No abstract available.
Class, race and gender : the political economy of women in colonial Natal.
(1982) Beall, Josephine Dianne.; Lumby, Anthony Bernard.
Colonial Natal has become an increasingly popular field of investigation for historians of Southern Africa over the last decade or so. This trend is not premature or " irrelevant for, although not demonstrating" the economic impact of the diamond-mining industry of the Cape, or the gold-mining industry of the Transvaal, the political " economy of nineteenth century Natal played a significant role in forming patterns of South African social and economic development, as well as attitudes towards this, not least of all in terms of labour exploitation. The history of Natal during this period has been lacking by and large in what I consider to be two important aspects. Firstly, the colony, on the whole, has been neglected by Marxist and radical historians; and secondly, the history of women in South Africa, as yet a nascent area of research in itself, has not included an attempt to date, understand the lives of those women who lived along the south-east coastal belt of Southern Africa, between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean. This study strives to be a preliminary step in the direction of redressing this imbalance, by offering an introductory exposition on the political economy of women in colonial Natal.
The Colonial-Born and Settlers' Indian Association and Natal Indian politics, 1933-1939.
(1992) Cheddie, Anand.; Warhurst, Philip R.
This thesis seeks to examine Indian political development in South Africa during the period 1933-1939, with specific reference to the emergence of the Colonial-Born and Settlers' Indian Association and its influence on the course of Natal Indian politics. The primary aim of the thesis is to examine the role played by this Association in obstructing the Union government's assisted emigration plans and colonisation scheme. To achieve this aim it was necessary to examine the establishment of the Association and to determine whether the Association fulfilled its main objective. After a brief exposition of early Indian immigration, the activities of the successive Agent-Generals are examined in the context of their relationship with the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) and the Association and how these diplomats articulated the aspirations of their government. The Agency attempted to secure improvements in the socio-economic position of the South African Indian community. In terms of various directives from the Indian government it was clear that they emphasised the value of negotiations and compromise and aggressively suppressed the strategies of those who opposed this approach. This attitude surfaced particularly in its relationship with the Association relative to the Association's stance on the colonisation issue. Notwitstanding the disabilities experienced by the Association in its fight for the equal status of its supporters and for the right to remain in South Africa, the Association is seen to have succeeded in the realisation of its fundamental objective. The thesis also seeks to establish that there was a need for the creation of the Association and later after it had served its function the need for its dissolution. In this process the author also deals with the general activities of the Association and the crucial negotiations conducted with the Congress to the point of amalgamation in 1939 when the Association and the NIC amalgamated to form the Natal Indian Association. The significant influence of the Agency in the process of negotiations is emphasised. There are three main themes in this study. The first reflects the manner In which the moderate leadership articulated the aspirations of their supporters. Secondly, it demonstrates the internal differences, sectionalism and the class struggles within the Indian organisations. , The third theme seeks to reveal the often devious roles played by the respective governments, their intransigence, connivance and particularly the apathy of the government of India.
Community, identity, and memory: Group Areas and the forced relocation of "Coloureds" to Woodlands, Pietermaritzburg, 1960 - 1990.
(2021) Msweli, Qhelani Banzi.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
This dissertation investigated the impact of the Group Areas Act (GAA) of 1950 on the Coloured community in Pietermaritzburg. The implementation of Group Areas resulted in the residents of Pietermaritzburg being rehoused in racially segregated townships and suburbs. The township of Woodlands was established for Coloureds. This dissertation uses oral history and a life history approach, supplemented with archival research, to examine the experience of the Coloured residents of Pietermaritzburg before the implementation of Group Areas, the experience of forced removals, how residents coped with the pain of being moved from their old communities. In contrast, others were pleased with the better quality housing and amenities they were given and how they reestablished aspects of community life in Woodlands, including building places of worship, sport, and education. This study, more broadly, explores the idea of community, showing how it comes into being, race as a social construct as what is considered Coloured has always been subject to change, and the (re)making of Coloured identities that resulted from the residents of Woodlands being placed in a defined physical space and having to work together to build institutions and infrastructure in their township. This study shows that while many take for granted the apartheid-era racial categorisations such as Coloured, African, Indian, and white, identities are multiple and fluid. Group Areas were instrumental in concretising the essence of being Coloured, but in the post-Apartheid period, that category, too, is subject to change. Finally, this dissertation considers the attitudes forged amongst Coloureds concerning the African and Indian residents of Pietermaritzburg in particular, showing that ideas of a racial hierarchy were embraced by some Coloureds and were not confined to whites.
Contexts, resistance crowds and mass mobilisation : a comparative analysis of anti-apartheid politics in Pietermaritzburg during the 1950s and the 1980s.
(1998) Mkhize, Sibongiseni Mthokozisi.; Nuttall, Timothy Andrew.
This thesis examines crowds and resistance politics in Pietermaritzburg, focusing particularly on the 1950s and the 1980s. These two decades were characterised by heightened anti-apartheid political activity in South Africa. It is against that background that this thesis explores mass mobilisation and resistance in Pietermaritzburg. The 1960s and the 1970s have not been ignored, however, in this comparative analysis. It appears that there was not so much overt mass mobilisation that was taking place in South Africa during this period, on the same scale as that of the 1950s and the 1980s. This thesis analyses selected case studies of events such as protest marches, popular riots and stayaways. It examines the similarities and differences in the socioeconomic and political contexts in which such events occurred. The key aspect is that of resistance crowds. This thesis examines how, when and why resistance crowds formed in Pietermaritzburg during the two periods. It begins with a literature survey, which sets out the framework for comparison. Aspects such as the kinds of constituencies, the roles of political organisations, trade unions, church groups, youth organisations, government policies and the nature of the campaigns are raised in the literature. Drawing from that framework this study explores the socio-economic contexts in which the selected case studies took place. The way in which the changes in the socio-economic and political contexts influenced mass mobilisation forms a central theme of this dissertation. The four case studies explore crowd events in anti-apartheid politics in Pietermaritzburg. The thesis concludes with a comparative evaluation of the case studies of resistance crowds in their differing contexts.
Demystifying the Muslimah : changing subjectivities, civic engagement and public participation of Muslim woman in contemporary South Africa.
(2015) Asmal, Fatima.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
This study interrogates the validity of generalizations about Muslim women. While Islam is undoubtedly important in the lives of most practising Muslim women, rather than regarding their actions and behaviours as governed by Islamic law, the study seeks to historicise their experiences through a life history approach of five women engaged in the civic life of their communities (however widely this may be defined) and in public participation in various ways. Using oral history as a methodology, it investigates what drew these women to civic participation; the nature of their participation in terms of the organisations they are members of and the activities they are involved in; the stimulus for civic engagement and public participation and their achievements in this regard as well as the impact of participation on their identities and subjectivities. Most existing work on Muslim women deals with issues such as sexuality and reproductive choices, the AIDS pandemic or conversion to Islam. This study adopts a life history approach to understand multiple aspects of the women’s lives, including and especially their civic and public engagement.
The development of African agriculture in Southern Rhodesia with particular reference to the interwar years.
(1979) Punt, Eira.; Lumby, Anthony Bernard.
No abstract available.
Divided facilities : early cottage hospitals and the provision of health care Services in Natal, 1880-1910.
(2018) Ngubane, Nontobeko.; Noble, Vanessa.
This dissertation investigates the history of the introductory of the cottage hospital system in the colony of Natal. This thesis examines the history of three cottage hospitals that were erected in Natal from the late 1880s to 1910, namely; Umsinga (1889), Newcastle (1901) and Dundee (1903). This thesis examines the reasons behind the formation of these public health care facilities and how they worked. Furthermore, this study considers the contributions made by these cottage hospitals in the magisterial districts where they were erected. Initially, these cottage hospitals were located in small villages that were fully funded by the colonial government, but in later years were also built in more urbanised areas. Similar to other institutions, these cottage hospitals were not immune from inequalities that were associated with race. This research also considers whether or not these cottage hospitals were used as tools or instruments of empire by the British. Finally, this study also investigates the decline of the cottage hospital system in Natal in 1910, including the effect the formation of the Union of South Africa had on these health care institutions.
A doctor of conscience: an analysis of the life of Ivan Toms, a medical practitioner, conscientious objector and LGBTQ rights activist in South Africa, 1952 to 2008.
(2022) Lea, Cameron Trevor.; Noble, Vanessa.
Using a micro historical lens, this thesis examines the life history of Ivan Toms. Born in 1952 in Cape Town to a white middle class family, after qualifying as a medical doctor, Toms was conscripted into the South African Defence Force (SADF) as a non-combatant doctor in 1978. He, like many 17- to 65-year-old South African males of European descent, were required (i.e., it was made compulsory) to join the SADF to protect the white minority government from what it regarded as anti-apartheid threats both in South Africa and north of its borders. As a conscript, he experienced first-hand the brutality of the apartheid regime’s military arm while serving in the SADF in South West Africa (now known as Namibia). After his return, he witnessed the apartheid regime’s violence at the Empilisweni informal settlement clinic, which he helped establish in the Cape Flats area. These experiences, together with his experiences of being gay, propelled him to become a founding member of the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), which ultimately led to his imprisonment. During the early 1990s, after his release from Pollsmoor prison, he became a health and gay rights activist until his untimely death in 2008. This thesis on Dr Ivan Toms contributes to the historiography on South Africa’s militarization and Conscientious Objection history. A microhistory on a Conscientious Objector like Toms, not only makes a concerted effort to provide a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted life experiences of a particular individual, but through an analysis of his life, try to comprehend more about the broader history of the period of military conscription and Conscientious Objection in apartheid South Africa. In addition, while there has been a surge of interest in the study of black anti-apartheid activists in the post-apartheid period, there has been a shift away from analysis of white activists who contributed to the anti- apartheid movement. This study seeks to bring me attention back to the struggles of such an individual who was active in the ECC, LGBTQ rights movement and health rights struggle.
Economic rationality or religious idealism : the medieval doctrines of the just price and the prohibition of usury.
(1982) Anderson, J. J.; Lumby, Anthony Bernard.
No abstract available.
The end of the future : the development of the South African Chemical and Biological Weapons Research Programme, 1981-1991.
(2002) Brown, Julian.; Burns, Catherine E.
This thesis is an examination of the relationship between the institutional and practical workings of the late Apartheid state's Chemical and Biological Weapons Research Programme, code-named Project Coast. It is written against the background of the changing nature of the South African state in that period, and presents a partial picture of that change. The greatest part of the thesis, however, is a history of the Research Programme itself. The Programme's institutional structure was developed around the charismatic figure of Dr Wouter Basson: following Weberian arguments, it is clear that his charisma was used, within the bureaucratic structure of the Programme, to legitimate the scientific research projects undertaken. Two of these projects are examined in the body of this thesis: the first of these is an attempt to develop a new form of tear gas, the second is the attempt to develop a new form of contraceptive. The animating ideologies of these research projects are compared to each other, and to the supposedly hegemonic ideologies of the changing state, revealing discrepancies between these grand structures and their local workings. The importance of Basson's charismatic authority is emphasised by the rapid dissolution of Project Coast following his withdrawal from his leadership position at the end of the 1980s. By the end of the thesis, then, it seems clear that, within the legitimating aura of Basson's authority, the scientists at Project Coast developed a set of racial and political ideologies that more little to no substantive relationship to the seemingly hegemonic ideologies of the late Apartheid state, of which Project Coast was an organ.
Exploring the migration experiences of Muslim Yao women in KwaZulu-Natal, 1994-2015.
(2016) Mbalaka, Joseph Yusufu.; Hiralal, Kalpana.; Vahed, Goolam Hoosen Mohamed.
There is very little to no research accessible on Muslim Yao women in South Africa; the available literature focuses primarily on Muslim Yao male migrants. This study critically examines the lived migration experiences of Malawian women in South Africa. This research is contextualized within the larger narrative of migration to South Africa in the post-apartheid period and experiences of many migrant communities in recent years. It will interrogate and explore the migration experiences of Muslim Yao women in KwaZulu-Natal between 1994 and 2015. The Yao form the largest proportion of the Muslims of Malawi and have a long tradition of emigrating from their original homeland to other regions, including South Africa. This study aims to historicise their experiences through a life history and narrative approach of the women who have migrated to Durban. These are Muslim Yao women who are engaged in the civic life of their communities and in public participation in various ways. Key themes examined in this dissertation include the reasons for their migration to South Africa, the challenges and constraints they face as immigrants, and how Yao Muslim women are negotiating their identity in multiple contexts – with fellow Malawians, other, predominantly Indian, Muslims, and black South Africans with whom they are in contact in various settings on a daily basis. The complex and complicated triangular relationship between Malawian women, local indigenous peoples (officially designated as “Black African” in the census), and Indians is explored in this study. Currently there is little work of the kind envisaged here, as most existing works on post-apartheid Muslim Yao migrants deal primarily with men. These studies focus on limited aspects of the lives of Muslim Yao women in South Africa. This study will contribute to our understanding of Malawian women migrants in South Africa. The working hypothesis of this study is that in the process of creating a new life in South Africa, Malawian women are contributing to the economy of Malawi through remittances in significant ways, engaging in the civic life of their communities in very public ways and changing perceptions of Islam as being predominantly an “Indian” religion in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition, this study will add to current debates on migration by focusing on issues of gender, identity, and agency in Africa.

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