https://hdl.handle.net/10646/19 2026-04-29T00:20:54Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/1217 The Urban Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Threat to Human Security and Sustainable Development Hove, Mediel; Ngwerume, Emmaculate Tsitsi; Muchemwa, Cyprian Urban centres have existed and have been evolving for many centuries across the world. However, the accelerated growth of urbanisation is a relatively recent phe- nomenon. The enormous size of urban populations and more significantly, the rapidity with which urban areas have been and are growing in many developing countries have severe social, economic and physical repercussions. This paper argues that the accel- erated growth of urbanisation has amplified the demand for key services. However, the provision of shelter and basic services such as water and sanitation, education, public health, employment and transport has not kept pace with this increasing demand. Furthermore, accelerated and poorly managed urbanisation has resulted in various types of atmospheric, land and water pollution thereby jeopardising human security. This paper offers the conclusion that the increased environmental, social and economic problems associated with rapid urbanisation pose a threat to sustain- able development, human security and, crucially, peace. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/1216 War legacy: a reflection on the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) in south eastern Zimbabwe during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation 1976 - 1980 Hove, Mediel As its central thesis, this paper discusses the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) operations during Zimbabwe’s liberation war on the Hlengwe/Shangaan (a minority group in the south eastern Zimbabwe) from 1976 to 1980. Their homeland was a deeply contested terrain (part of what was dubbed the Gaza province by ZANLA) between the RSF and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Supported by archival, published and unpublished documentary evidence, oral interviews and internet sources the study argues that the Hlengwe/Shangaan area is laden with sites of wartime violence, its inhabitants were; terrorized largely by the RSF, susceptible to the chemical and biological warfare and the deplorable conditions of the protected villages and lost a significant number of cattle to the contending forces. Furthermore the establishment of the Malvernia-Crooks Corner minefield displaced and separated them from their kin on the Mozambican side. As a result of the establishment of the lethal anti-personnel minefield, which continues to kill and maim people and animals long after the war ended, socio-economic development can not take place in the mined area until the anti-personnel mines are removed. 2012-10-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/555 Migrant Chewa Identities and their Construction through Gule Wamkulu/Nyau Dances in Zimbabwe Daimon, Anusa This paper focuses in the construction of the Chewa identity in Zimbabwe through the use of Gule Wamkulu or ‘nyau’ dances. The Chewa are an immigrant ethnic group from Malawi and are a matrilineal entity who distinctly use the Gule Wamkulu (‘big or great dance’) institution to initiate their members into an exalted status of adulthood as well as for entertainment or leisure purposes. The paper is anchored in the assertion that identities are either real, constructed or imagined from a plethora of variables. Thus, it basically argues that these dances are rich traditions that have gone a long way in the construction, reconstruction or imagination of the Chewa identity and in carving a niche for the migrants on the Zimbabwean landscape since the pre-colonial times to the present. The dances have acted as a distinct variable in identity articulation against other popular concepts like race, class, religion, linguistic as well as ethnic characteristics and stereotypes. In other words, the rites have over the years been the most conspicuous identity marker upon which the Chewa identity has been reconstructed or imagined. Despite such vitality and uniqueness, people in general; have tended to misrepresent these dances, which together with their xenophobic tendencies has in the process greatly distorted the image of the traditions and ultimately misconstrued and prejudiced the identity of Chewa people. Therefore, this paper attempts to uncover the dynamics involved in Gule Wamkulu traditions as well as show their role in the construction or imagination of the Chewa identity both amongst the Chewa themselves and the autochthonous groups in Zimbabwe. 2007-05-22T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/554 ‘This is our school…’:Identity, cultural hybridity and the development of an education system among the BaSotho in the Dewure Purchase Areas, Gutu 1932-1960 Mujere, Joseph The development of an Education System among the BaSotho people in Gutu largely revolved around Bethel School, which they established in 1937. In no time at all the school had grown to represent the development of education among the people in the Dewure Purchase Areas, in general, and that of the BaSotho people, in particular. This article seeks to demonstrate that in many ways Bethel School represented the triumphs, failures and challenges faced by the BaSotho in Gutu in the field of education. It also asserts that the way the BaSotho people ran Bethel School reveals some contradictions in the colonial administration’s perceptions of the BaSotho people. Whilst in the early years of the BaSotho people’s settlement in Gutu the colonial administrators viewed them as ‘more advanced natives’ their constant bickering and failures to properly run their school led to the colonial administrators changing their perceptions about the BaSotho. The article is also an attempt to evaluate the success of an attempt at an education system primarily aimed at catering for the needs of the BaSotho people in an area dominated by the Shona people. It endeavours to use the concept of ‘cultural hybridity’ in analysing the development of an education system among the BaSotho in Gutu. The paper grapples with the image of Bethel School more than a school for BaSotho children but as an important part of BaSotho Identity in the Dewure Purchase Areas. 2007-05-22T00:00:00Z