KATHARINA FINK, MA
UNIVERSITY OF BAYREUTH, GERMANY
FRL_FINK@GMX.NET
the Setting
the Achievements
the Network
the Way
the Future
the City of Bayreuth and its University
Bayreuth
• University and festival city
• 73.000 inhabitants, incl. 11.400 students
the University
• Founded in 1975
• Campus University
• Strong interdisciplinary research priorities
• 1045 registered PhD students including 89 in BIGSAS
• Institute of African Studies
Berlin
outline
• Where we’re at: Week 1: Introduction
• Topic of the course & programme
• What is ‘history’?
• What is ‘popular culture’?
• Who/what is involved?
• Lecture1: History & Representation.
• Who & what are we talking about when we are talking about
‘gangs’?
• What does ‘representation’ have to do with it?
• TUT 2: Representation
• Readings> On the blog
• Visuals: ‘Jerusalema’ & Gangster-Rap
Week 2:
History, Heritage &
Oral History.
Lecture 3:
-
What is history,
what is heritage?
What is ‘history’?
What are the differences
between ‘heritage’ and
‘history’?
How can we analyse
‘history-writing’?
What is the role of the
historian & the heritage
practicioner?
Literature:

Bundy, C (2007): “New nation, new history? Constructing the past in postapartheid South Africa”. In: Stolten, H E (ed.), History Making and Present
Day Politics: The meaning of collective memory in South Africa. Uppsala.
 Lowenthal D (1998): ‘Fabricating heritage’, In:
History and Memory 10, 1 (Spring 1998)




Baines G: The politics of public history in South Africa. Online at:
http://sun025.sun.ac.za/portal/page/portal/Arts/Departemente1/geskied
enis/docs/baines_g.pdf
UNESCO: http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext
Material from South Africa: http://www.nhc.org.za/,
http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/the_politics_of_memory/
Lecture 4:
Popular culture & history?
Topics:
-
What is ‘popular culture’?
Which paradigmatic shifts have happened in
historical studies / cultural studies?
Which different types of sources are there?
How can we understand them?
WEEK 3 Lecture 5 (21st):
“Backdoors” to history:
Gangs in Westbury>
Stereotypes &
their challenges
Meeting with
Shawn Constant & Local Studio
Lecture 6, 22nd :
(Counter-)Images
of Westbury
Stereotypes &
their challenges II
With Michael Abrahams
Photographer from Westbury
Week 4, Lecture 7 :
Sophiatown –
Close Up History.
Topics:
• Gangs/ters in Sophiatown
• Musealizing the Past & the Present?
• What do curators do?
Week 4, Lecture 8
music south africa,
Sophiatown, history & all
that jazz
Film screening & discussion with Peter Makurube,
writer, film-maker & activist, Sophiatown
EXAM
-
12.3. 2012 (mon)
-
Details follow asap on blog & EduLink, as well as in
class.
ASSIGNMENT due in may:
Details in study guide, on blog & EduLink asap
Week 5 Lecture 9:
Gangs/ter/ism & museums:
Musealizing the Past &
the Present?
Themes:
• How do museums work?
• What is ‘curation’?
Week 5 Lecture 10:
History in the museum.
Themes:
• Case studies
Week 6, Lecture 11:
Gangs/ter/ism & the archive
Themes:
• How is knowledge about gangs stored?
• What is an archive?
• How to work with it?
• Original material : DRUM & gangs.
Lecture 12:
Archives II: Case Study
LAST SESSIONS: 20.3 & 21.3.
Wrap Up of our topics:
• Gangs, representation, history
• Timeline…
• Discussion about seminar, themes, your work
etc
LECTURE ONE, 7.2.2012
WHAT IS
‘HISTORY’ –
TO YOU’?
WHAT IS HISTORY – TO YOU?
-
What is ‘history’?
How can we analyse ‘history-writing’?
What is the role of the historian & the heritage
practitioner?
What is your role?
CHEIKH ANTA DIOP
PATRICE LUMUMBA
Until lions tell their tale,
the story of the hunt will always
glorify the hunter
– African Proverb
Some
said...
“God alone knows the future,
but only an historian can alter
the past.” Ambrose Bierce
“the young have fantasies about
the future but the old have
fantasies about the past”. David Hare
from “Berlin/Wall”
ESHU, THE TRICKSTER
Eshu is a trickster-god, in the Yoruba-belief-
system, and plays frequently tempting choices
for the purpose of causing maturation.
He is a difficult teacher, but a good one.
ESHU, THE TRICKSTER
“As an example, Eshu was walking down the road one day,
wearing a hat that was red on one side and blue on the
other. Sometime after he departed, the villagers who
had seen him began arguing about whether the
stranger's hat was blue or red. The villagers on one side
of the road had only been capable of seeing the blue
side, and the villagers on the other side had only been
capable of seeing the red half. They nearly fought over
the argument, until Eshu came back and cleared the
mystery, teaching the villagers about how one's
perspective can alter one's perception of reality, and can
be easily fooled.”
(http://www.crystalinks.com/trickster.html)
SO THERE ARE MANY SIDES TO ‘HISTORY’.
WHO’S INVOLVED IN ‘WRITING’ HISTORY?
Historical Event
(Life)
Studying Historical Event
(Book)
WHO’S INVOLVED IN ‘WRITING’ HISTORY?
- Event
-
Observer/First Hand
-
Researcher/Questions/Interest
-
Testimony/Interview…
-
Transcription
-
Analysis/Comparison with other data/studies…
-
Writing Down/Editing
-
Publisher/Editing
- Students/Public
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Perspective I:
Perspective II:
X writing (in) ‘history’
X writing about
‘history’
-
Herstory
Worker’s stories
Everyday life
Black history
Queer histories
…..
AND WHAT DOES THE MEDIA HAVE TO DO WITH
IT?
REPRESENTATION I
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
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
X
AS IN POLITICAL REPRESENTATION---- ‘VERTRETUNG’
REPRESENTATION II
X

XXXXXXXXXXXXX
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‘Darstellen’ - as in language, media…
WHO IS INVOLVED?
Who reads?
Who writes?
With which
images/intentions?
Who edits?
Who buys?
With which
images/intentions?
Who talks
about it with
whom?
How is it
read/
embedded/
…?
Caption:
Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 1999.
Women walking by a mural of gangsta rapper Tupac
Shakur, who was very popular with the rebels.
Support:
B/W
Photographer:
Voeten T.
Country:
Sierra Leone
Date taken:
December 1999
Copyright:
ILO
bell hooks: reel to real. race, sex,
and class at the movies (1996)
“CHANGING HOW
WE SEE IMAGES IS
CLEARLY ONE WAY TO
CHANGE THE WORLD”
WHAT DOES SHE MEAN?
representation.
“WE keep coming back to the question of representation
because identity is always about representation. People
forget that when they wanted white women to get into the
workforce because of the world war, what did they start
doing? They started having a lot of commercials, a lot of
movies, a lot of things that were redoing the female image,
saying, “Hey, you can work for the war, but you can still be
feminine.”
representation.
“So what we see is that the mass media, film, TV, all
of these things, are powerful vehicles for maintaining
the kinds of systems of domination we live under,
imperialism, racism, sexism etc. Often there’s a
denial of this and art is presented as politically
neutral, as though it is not shaped by a reality of
domination.” bell hooks, Reel To Real: Race, Sex,
and Class at the Movies
WHAT IS A ‘GANG’?
“A gang is a group of people who, through the
organization, formation, and establishment
of an assemblage, share a common
identity.[1]” WIKIPEDIA
British soldiers in Afghanistan, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/05/twobritish-soldiers-killed-helmand
WHAT IS A GANG?
“By definition, gangs involve multiple individuals (the
exact number of individuals it takes to constitute a
gang is a hotly debated topic), typically of a similar age
and/or shared experience, who may or may not cooffend (again, an important area of dissention).”
(Oxford Bibliographies;
http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo9780195396607/obo-97801953966070028.xml;jsessionid=C0834400EEB1983B3AD7E761E8B9A00
B)
“Gangs are defined in many ways, and most
definitions have similar components. One
common definition of a gang is a group of
three or more individuals who engage in
criminal activity and identify themselves with a
common name or sign.”
https://www.ncjrs.gov/spotlight/gangs/summary.html (National
Criminal Reference Service, US)
“A Subculture of Violence
While the term "a culture of violence" denotes the broad
acceptability of violence, there are differences in the extent to
which certain groups endorse violence. Gangs are an example of
a subculture in which violence is particularly pronounced, and
this is connected to the composition of its members and their
societal location. With regard to township gangs, both the youth
and maleness of their members encourage the use of violence,
as a result of the strong association between masculinity and
violence.
“Secondly, given the marginalisation of the
members, violence offers a quick and easy
method to level the social playing field, to
make an impression on an otherwise
indifferent society, to gain social approval
(from fellow members), and to obtain power
and pleasure. “
(both quotations from:
COLLECTING: FEATURES OF GANGS?
-
Group
-
Shared interest
-
Money and Power
-
Male
-
Symbols
-
Identity
“Unfortunately, legislation alone will not be able to deal with the
problems of gangs. What is needed, is an holistic approach,
socio-economic development and a crime prevention
programme that incorporates rehabilitation for those who wish
to turn away from gang activities. History has shown that
the battle against gangs is also the battle of ideas and
resources. If the hearts and minds of Western Cape
communities cannot be diverted from a selective criminal
morality to a more inclusive and caring one, the gangs will
succeed in winning the marginalised sections far easier than
may be imagine.”” I. Kinnes: THE FUTURE, GANGS AND SOCIETY. Published in
Monograph No 48, From urban street gangs to criminal empires: The changing face of
gangs in the Western Cape, June 2000. Online at:
http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/MONOGRAPHS/No48/TheFuture.html
FOR TOMORROW:
READINGS
Wainaina’s How to Write About Africa
and
Clark, J (2003): Introduction: Urban Culture: Representations and Experiences in/of Urban
Space and Culture. In: Agenda, No. 57, Urban Culture (2003), pp. 3-10
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4066376 .: urban space representation
PREPARE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
-
What does representation mean in the two texts?
-
Which ‘problems’ do come with the issue of representation?
- Be prepared to give one example.
All information here>
http://gangsandrepresentation.
wordpress.com/
and on EduLink
YOU CAN ALWAYS GET IN TOUCH…
via frl_fink@gmx.net
what they don’t teach you
“I’ve been making a list of the things they don’t teach you at
school. They don’t teach you how to love somebody. They
don’t teach you how to be famous. They don’t teach you how
to be rich or how to be poor. They don’t teach you how to
walk away from someone you don’t love any longer. They
don’t teach you how to know what’s going on in someone
else’s mind. They don’t teach you what to say to someone
who’s dying. They don’t teach you anything worth knowing.”
Neil Gaiman (thanks to ever/great dream hampton for posting.)