THE COSATU PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRATIC TRADITION AND SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW PARLIAMENT: ARE THEY RECONCILABLE?

COSATU, The Congress of South African Trade Unions, has a participatorydemocratic tradition on the shopfloor that dates back to theemergence of some of its constituent unions in the 1970s. Infact, an ethic developed among members that the unions oughtto be democratic. By 1994, when South Africa underwent a majorpolitical transformation and the African National Congress cameto power with the support of COSATU, the question arose whetherthe new parliament would be reconcilable with COSATU's expectationsof it. A random survey of 643 COSATU members shortly beforethe 1994 election established that COSATU had sustained itsdemocratic shopfioor tradition and that its members expectedthe 20 union leaders it sent to parliament on an ANC ticketto be as accountable to them as their shop stewards are. Subsequentresearch found dissatisfaction with the ANC on account of unsatisfactorydelivery and inadequate consultation, especially by the ministries.In response, COSATU has adopted a dual strategy of strengtheningits representation in parliament by opening a ParliamentaryOffice and putting pressure on the government and organizedbusiness by engaging in mass action on selected issues. COSATUthus reconciled itself to parliament by combining new terrainsof struggle.     

THE ASSYRIANS IN WORLD WAR ONE AND THE 1933 MASSACRE: NEW DISCOVERIES IN THE RSAA ARCHIVES

The recent discovery of a bundle of documents in the archives of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs has shed more light on the history of the Assyrian Christians of Iraq from the time of the First World War up to the Simele massacre in 1933. The documents are accounts and correspondence written primarily by a number of leading British players including Major-General Dunsterville, Sir Henry Dobbs, Colonel J.J. McCarthy, and also the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Shimun. They also shed further light on the role played by Leo Amery, Secretary of State for the Colonies. The documents appear to have been compiled by Sir Percy Sykes, the then Secretary of the Royal Central Asian Society (as the Royal Society for Asian Affairs then was) as part of an investigation into the situation of the Assyrians. This article introduces the newly-discovered collection of documents and discusses how they advance our understanding of this period.     

COMMISSION OF RESEARCH: AFRICA: COMMISSION SET UP TO STUDY DEFORESTATION AND EROSION UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ROYAL AFRICAN SOCIETY

A Note on the psychological aspect of the Desiccation problemcontributed as a Commentary on the proceedings of the Commissionas Summarised in this Journal from October, 1942, to April,1943, by Mr.C.Gillman, C. B. E., former Chief Engineer of theTanganyika Railways and Water Consultant to the Tanganyika Government.     

EXORCISING WITCHCRAFT: THE RETURN OF THE GODS IN NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS ON THE JOS PLATEAU AND THE BENUE REGIONS OF NIGERIA

This articles looks at anti-witchcraft cults and the spiritworlds among the Eggon of the Jos Plateau and the Tiv of theBenue valley of central Nigeria. These cults, which were oftenanti-colonial in origin, were suppressed by the colonial authoritiesand strongly discouraged by Christian missionary activity. Morerecently they have demonstrated a dynamic resurgence, not onlyin Nigeria but elsewhere in Africa. The history of various Eggonand Tiv exorcist movements are examined in the context of NewReligious Movements in formation. However, the conclusion isthat the cults are not so much a revival of indigenous religiousbeliefs but that the old gods never went away.