Urban Culture and Urban Crisis
ST. ANTONY'S COLLEGE, OXFORD
SATURDAY 9 JUNE 2007, 9.00am-5.30pm
Africa is still predominantly a rural economy, and this is as true for southern Africa as for the rest of the continent. Yet for all the familiarity of the discourse on the rural paradigm, there has been an increasingly powerful and complex counter-culture of urbanisation. The dynamics and analytical debates on urbanisation are increasingly at the nexus of discussions on the political, security, developmental, environmental, and cultural paradigms for Africa and its citizens in the 21st century.
Urbanisation is not a recent phenomenon - many of Africa's cities are centuries old - and Africans navigate the tidal cross-currents of urban and rural life, often on a daily basis. For urban Zimbabweans, the collision of the rural and the urban, the past and the present, is given greater impetus by the impact of the ongoing national political and economic crisis. This gives a rich variety to the formation of urban identities in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. There is also an ambiguous tension between the crises of urbanisation, and the dynamism of urban renewal, which is often most creatively expressed by the diversity of urban cultures.
The Britain Zimbabwe Society Research Day 2007 will explore Zimbabwe's past and present urbanisation, with a particular focus on the nature of the crises facing those who live in urban and peri-urban areas; and how the city offers both challenges and opportunities for those who are folded into its embrace. The Research Day will also provide a comparative, regional context for the theme of urbanisation.
The pattern of the day is to hold four 90 minute sessions plus a concluding discussion. The opening session will explore the making of urban cultures in Zimbabwe; the next two will explore the roots of the current crisis and the nature of the crisis itself; the fourth session will look at what cultural resources there are for responding to the crisis. In concluding, the Research Day will draw generalisations from the day and compare the Zimbabwean situation to other African contexts.
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
9.00 – 9.30 am Registration
9.30 – 11 am Session 1: The Making of Urban Culture
Chair: Edgar Moyo, BZS
Joyce Makwenda, Wits: ‘Township Music and Urban Culture’
Terence Ranger, St Antony's: ‘The Formation of Urban Culture in Bulawayo’
Petina Gappah, Geneva, reads from her novel A Feast of Mourning. Petina
recently won 2nd & 4th prizes in the HSBC SA PEN short story competition for which there were 303 entries.
11.00-11.15 am Coffee/tea
11.15-12.45 pm Session 2: The Making & Nature of the Urban Crisis (1)
Chair: Diana Jeater, UWE
Zoe Groves, Keele: 'Malawians in Salisbury/Harare'
Tim Scarnechia: 'Slum clearance in Harare, 1950s and today'
Busani Mpofu: ‘African Urban Housing: 1960s to the Present’
Jocelyn Alexander: ‘Vagrancy in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe’.
1.00 to 2.00 pm Lunch
2.00 to 3.15 pm Session 3: The Making & Nature of the Urban Crisis (2)
Chair: Debbie Potts
Joost Fontein, Edinburgh, ‘Anticipating the Tsunami: Rumours, Planning & the Arbitrary State in Zimbabwe'
Sara Rich Dorman, Edinburgh, 'Running from the Land? Urban Development and the Zimbabwean State in Historical Perspective'
13.15-3.30 pm Tea/coffee
3.30 to 5.00 pm Session 4: Cultural Resources for Response to Crisis
Chair: Tendai Marima
Cont Mhlanga: 'Township Theatre' (to be read on his behalf)
Gemma Rodrigues: 'Nyau dance and Murambatsvina' (tbc)
Pathisa Nyathi, Bulawayo Council, 'How Does Bulawayo Survive?'
Ennie Chipembere, Action Aid: 'Women's Urban Struggles post Murambatsvina
5.00 to 5.30 pm Conclusion
Chair and commentator: Knox Chitiyo
Brian Raftopoulos's reflections (to be circulated)
Lawrence Vambe, pioneer urban historian, Final Comments
* * *
For more information on the programme, contact the convenors:
Terence Ranger terence.ranger@sant.ox.ac.uk
Knox Chitiyo chitiyon@aol.com
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BRITAIN ZIMBABWE SOCIETY 2007 RESEARCH DAY
Urban Culture and Urban Crisis
ADVANCE REGISTRATION FORM
To register in advance, print out, complete and return this form with payment to:
Marieke Clarke
5a Crick Road
Oxford OX2 6QJ
Email: mariekefclarke@pop3.poptel.org.uk
Registration fees: £15 BZS members; £25 non-members; £5 unwaged
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Acknowledgement of registration will be sent by email, or by post if you send a stamped addressed envelope. If you need advice about accommodation in Oxford, please look at the website www.visitoxford.org or contact Marieke Clarke.