FROM 'NATIONHOOD' TO REGIONALISM TO THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE: 'BOPHUTHATSWANANESS' AND THE BIRTH OF THE 'NEW' SOUTH AFRICA

Although majority rule has been achieved in South Africa, thefinal years of one ‘independent’ bantustan, namelyBophuthatswana, and their aftermath, illustrate the problemsof creating a unified identity. Ironically, in the death throesof apartheid, a Pandora's box of ethnic and regionalist claimswas opened. Although these claims were tied to the maintenanceof privileges gained by a tiny minority created through apartheidpolicy, Bophuthatswana had also been sustained by an ideologywhich, although at times highly contradictory, was also indicativeof the space given to twenty years of bantustan nation-building.This article provides a reinterpretation of these complex territoriesby showing how, in the 1990s, in the wake of fundamental politicalchanges in South Africa, the Bophuthatswana regime reshapedits nation-building discourse into a distinctive regionalistcoalition based upon socio-economic and ethnic criteria. Moreover,unlike previous approaches to the region, it shows how contestedterritorial claims were integral to this regionalist movement.Whilst the Bophuthatswana regime finally imploded and its regionalistcoalition was absorbed into South Africa's North West Province,the legacy of the bantustans for South Africa is replete withambiguity. In the post-apartheid era of transition to the NorthWest Province, some of these fault lines, termed ‘Bophuthatswananess’,are discussed. The continuing influence of their core of ‘Batswanaarbiters’ raises pertinent questions concerning the obstaclesto inclusive nation-building.     

THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY IN MALAWI IN THE 1960s: THE LEGACY OF SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF MALAWI AND THE ROLE OF DR KAMUZU BANDA AND HIS MALAWI CONGRESS PARTY

This article joins the debate on culture, history and politicsin postcolonial Malawi. Concentrating on the production of historyin the 1960s, the paper shows how the decade marked the beginningsof serious research, teaching and public discourse of Malawi'shistory. It proceeds to examine factors, such as the existingliterature, which helped to fashion the direction which theplayers, mainly teachers and researchers, took in accomplishingtheir tasks. In this connection the paper considers the mannerin which Harry Johnston, the first person to write widely onthe peoples of the Lake Malawi region, influenced the historiographyof the country. It also evaluates the role of the Society ofMalawi and its publication, the Society of Malawi Journal, inthe production of history. Finally, the article pays attentionto the ways in which the work of historians was affected byPresident Kamuzu Banda and the policies and actions of his rulingMalawi Congress Party.     

LETTERS FROM THE RSAA ARCHIVE: SIR AUREL STEIN,COLONEL REGINALD SCHOMBERG AND A SECRET MISSION TO CENTRAL ASIA

In 2004 a collection of thirty-four letters from the Silk Road explorer Sir Aurel Stein was found in the archives of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and catalogued, although not transcribed or studied. Neither of Stein's biographers, Jeannette Mirsky (published 1977), nor Annabel Walker (published 1995) knew about these letters, and there are no references to them in more recent publications either. What is perhaps even more interesting is that the Society's letters are addressed to a man whose name does not appear in any published works on Stein; a man who remains an elusive figure more than half a century after his death – Colonel Reginald Schomberg D.S.O. (1880-1958), an explorer and spy. This article analyses the contents of the letters, which shed light on a secret mission undertaken by Schomberg in Chinese Central Asia in the early 1930s.     

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.     

THE CROSSING OF THE GYAMAN TO THE CROSS OF LORRAINE: WARTIME POLITICS IN WEST ARICA, 1941-1942

In January 1942 virtually the entire leadership of the Gyamankingdom of the Abron crossed the border into Ghana (then theGold Coast), seeking sanctuary from the Vichy controlled administrationof the Côte d'Ivoire. Leaving the cercle of Bonduku, theGyamanhene, joined by several thousand followers who riskedtheir lives and property, declared that ‘they had lefta dead flag’ and had come to ‘continue war untilvictory and the liberation of France, our dear mother country’.The migration occurred at a time when the Gold Coast was completelyencircled by hostile territory. This passage of the Gyaman courtinto Asante's North West Province is a little-known but extraordinarychapter in wartime politics in West Africa. This paper arguesthat the exodus involved a combination of ‘traditional’and ‘modern’ interests, as the Gyaman leaders skilfullymanipulated the colonial system and the wartime situation totheir own advantage. It reviews not only the sequence of events,but probes the role played by British intelligence organizationsin facilitating, if not encouraging, the migration.     

AFGHANISTAN AS A CULTURAL CROSSROADS: LESSONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF ELLA MAILLART,ANNEMARIE SCHWARZENBACH AND NANCY HATCH DUPREE

Much has been written about Afghanistan, a complex cultural space that different people see in different ways. But not all of their views are of equal value. Stereotypes do no-one any favours. Ella Maillart and Annemarie Schwatzenbach were two Swiss women writers who set off for Afghanistan in June 1939. Ella was a traveller who wrote, Annemarie a writer who travelled, but their books give a sense of the realities of Afghanistan, Nancy Dupree first visited more than twenty years later than the two Swiss, but stayed involved for decades in a variety of different ways. She accepted and coped with the fact that the country was changing and would change still further.     

FROM CHAOS TO CHAOS: SOUTH YEMEN 50 YEARS AFTER THE BRITISH DEPARTURE

Fifty years after the British departure the future of South Arabia or South Yemen is just as uncertain as it was on 30 November 1967, when the People's Republic of South Yemen (PRSY) came into existence. The old order was swept away in the revolutionary tide of the mid- 20^th century to be replaced by a Marxist state. Yet, within less than 23 years the new order was undermined by unresolved issues inherited from South Arabia and led to an ill-prepared union with the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in 1990. Today, after over two and half years of war, Yemen is fragmenting and one outcome might be the return of a southern state which will have to confront the same unresolved issues. Are southerners Yemenis or South Yemenis? Can institutions be created to overcome tribal and regional differences with the South? Can a viable economy be created in a country with so few natural resources? This article provides a history of the region and the conflicts of the last 50 years, along with a consideration of the present situation and a discussion of the enduring issues.     

SIDESTEPPING A QUAGMIRE: RUSSIA,SYRIA, AND THE LESSONS OF THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR

Russia's military intervention in Syria (2015-present) has ensured the Assad regime's survival to date. Why though has Russia succeeded in achieving its objective? This article provides an analysis of Russia's involvement in the Syrian civil war in comparison to the Soviet Union's military debacle in Afghanistan (1979-89). Accordingly, by avoiding the USSR's mistakes in Afghanistan, this article posits that Russia has not become entangled in a protracted conflict in Syria. In Syria, Russia has militarily intervened to buttress the Assad regime, not to reorganize the host government's leadership and assume control over the war effort. Meanwhile, Syrian opposition forces lack concerted international support and Russia has allies that are assisting the embattled Syrian government. Lastly, Russia intends to ‘freeze’ the Syrian civil war in place by (i) pressuring opposition forces to submit and other countries to re-embrace Damascus in a diplomatic forum, (ii) endorsing Syria's claim to sovereignty, and (iii) relying upon a small military presence to deter others from destabilizing Assad's rule.     

THE SINS OF THE GREAT-GRANDFATHER: THE ROWLATT ACT AND THE AMRITSAR MASSACRE

Justin Rowlatt, the BBC's South Asia Correspondent, writes a reflection on the 1919 Amritsar Massacre and the 1919 Rowlatt Act, which was a precursor to the Massacre. The author is the great-grandson of Sir Sidney Rowlatt, who was responsible for the 1919 legislation.     

EXILE POLITICS AND RESISTANCE TO DICTATORSHIP: THE UGANDAN ANTI-AMIN ORGANIZATIONS IN ZAMBIA, 1972-79

The contemporary debate on democracy and change in Africa appearsto have largely concentrated on the current and future roleof the political parties and the relative merits and demeritsof multi-partly politics vis-a-vis single party rule duringthe 1980s and 1990s. In the case of Uganda, not enough attentionhas been paid to the historical background to the present. Inparticular, a major lacuna has been the role played by organizationsoutside the country for most of the 1970s in the struggle toremove the Idi Amin regime (1971–79) from power. Thispaper seeks to make a contribution towards filling this gapand thus add to our knowledge of the post colonial history ofUganda. It considers critically the part played by such organizationsin the anti-Amin resistance movement which culminated in theformation of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) inMarch 1979 and the establishment of the first post Amin governmentin Uganda a month later. While recognizing the proliferationof similar exile bodies elsewhere, this paper concentrates onZambia-based groups, the Uganda Liberation Group (Z) and theUganda National Movement.     

AGAINST ODDS: A THIRTY-YEAR STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE FORESTS OF SARAWAK

When Malaysia came to independence, considerable powers, particularly in the natural resources sector, were devolved on the rulers of the states of East Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. The subsequent deforestation, which benefitted the logging companies (and the politicians) was hard to reconcile with the interests of the indigenous peoples. Their plight was projected internationally by a Swiss activist, Bruno Manser, who lived with the Penan people for several years. But the resulting expressions of international concern over the rate of deforestation from, for example Al Gore and Prince Charles, have received short shrift from the government of Malaysia. Sarawak reputedly continues to have among the highest rates of forest destruction in the world.     

PROJECTIONS OF EMPIRE: INDIA AND THE IMAGINED METROPOLIS

This article describes how the British first tried to come to terms with India and to rationalise their role by postulating that Indians were at a different stage of the development trajectory. It then considers the development of the debate on good governance and the way in which the Imperial idea found expression in an “architecture of possession” both in India, (especially Lutyens’ Delhi) and in Britain itself. Lastly it assesses the way in which post-Imperial London has evolved.