 From left: Ms Annamarie de Beer (French, UP), Dr Anthony Court (Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Unisa), Prof Ulrike Kistner (Classics and World Languages, Unisa), Prof Ernst Wolff (Philosophy, UP) & Dr Charles Mironko (cultural anthropologist focusing on Rwanda)  Prof Johan van der Walt (School of Law, University of Glasgow) |
States of statelessness
A symposium entitled "States of statelessness: politicide and constitution in the African postcolony" was held at Unisa this week under the auspices of the NRF project "Locations of literature in global contexts".
The symposium yielded a diverse array of perspectives and contributions by scholars located at South African universities (Unisa, UP, Wits, US, UJ and Monash) as well as the universities of Zürich, Kent and Glasgow.
Participants explored the relationship between the political and the concepts of state, sovereignty, territory, constitution and law in the context of Africa’s postcolonial history. A consensus emerged that "statelessness" is not, as many analysts of the postcolonial states in Africa would make it out to be, only a failure pertaining to states as governments; it destroys the very capacity to act as people living in a human society.
The participants have established several joint initiatives and a consensus emerged that a symposium be organised for 2010 to extend the exchange of ideas. The papers presented at the symposium will be published in a special edition of a local journal.
The symposium was organised by Prof Ulrike Kistner (Classics & World Languages) with the assistance of Prof Wessel Le Roux (Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law), Prof Johan Strijdom (Religious Studies) and Dr Anthony Court (Holocaust & Genocide Studies). The organisers would like to thank Prof Greg Cuthbertson (Director: School for Graduate Studies), Ms Nthabiseng Motsemme (Research Directorate) and Ms Moetsie du Plessis (College of Human Sciences) for their generous assistance and contributions toward the success of the symposium. |
