PERMANENT PERSUADERS: CULTURE, POLITICS AND NATIONALISM IN THE EASTERN CAPE, 1945-65

            

PERMANENT PERSUADERS: CULTURE, POLITICS AND NATIONALISM IN THE EASTERN CAPE, 1945-65 

 

Conference convened by  

Fort Hare Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Fort Hare, and the African Studies Centre, Oxford University.  

 

9-11th August 2011, 

University of Fort Hare, 

East London campus 

 

This conference aims to take a new and critical look at culture, politics and nationalism in the Eastern Cape in the post-war period, reflecting on processes of social, cultural and political change. This is examined through the prism of the lives of key Eastern Cape intellectuals, cultural brokers and political activists – who we call ‘permanent persuaders’, borrowing from Gramsci.

 

The 1940s were watershed years in South African politics and the Eastern Cape was at the epicentre of new developments, spawning new political formations such as the ANC Youth League, the All African Convention, the Non-European Unity Movement and other civic, worker and political bodies. This period also witnessed far-reaching social and cultural change with new religious and cultural groups emerging in town and countryside.

  

In the 1950s, Eastern Cape cities were at the forefront of political resistance, while the rural areas were characterized by increasing unrest and resistance to rural betterment and rehabilitation schemes.  

Culture, politics and African nationalism intersected in new ways across and between these spaces, fuelling new connections, ideologies, beliefs and charters for social and political action. In the 1960s, the state clamped down brutally on people with the entrenchment of apartheid and Bantustan rule, driving political resistance and cultural expression underground.  

The post-war era in South Africa created new possibilities with increased connectivity between town and country and rising literacy rates. Ideas were translated, interpreted and communicated through active agents from urban and rural communities into regional, national and continental frameworks. These were committed political and cultural brokers with a desire to push forward intellectual, social and political agendas without leaving their communities behind. The conference will profile a range of these ‘intellectual organisers’ who changed their own lives and outlooks through education, travel, politics and participation, and then re-imagined and re-shaped the worlds of others.

For more information contact:

Nkosazana Ngcongolo
Tel: 043 704 7511
e-mail: nngcongolo@ufh.ac.za