Talking Heritage: Africa at the Crossroad of Tradition and Modernity 2 Tom Sanya
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Revue Africaine de Sociologie Un périodique semestriel de Conseil pour le Développement de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA) (Incorporant le South African Sociological Review) Rédacteurs en Chef: Olajide Oloyede Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo Elisio Macamo Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology, Université de Ouagadougou, Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungssoziologie University of the Western Cape, Burkina Faso Universität Bayreuth Private Bag X17, Bellville, [email protected] 95440 Bayreuth, Deutschland Cape Town, South Africa GWII, Zr. 2.24, Germany Tel: +2721959 3346; Tel. +49 921 55 4207 Cell: 0820541962 Fax. +49 921 55 4118 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Onalenna Selolwane Tel: 267-355-2758 Fax: 267-318-5099 Mobile: 267-71555321 E-mail: [email protected] Comité de Rédaction: Slaheddine Ben Frej, Tunisienne des Sociologues (ATS), Tunisie Ifi Amadiume, Dartmouth College, USA Gbein Paul N’da , Ecole Normale Supérieure, Abijan, Côte d’Ivoire Jimi O. 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Olayiwola Erinosho, Social Science Academy of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria Rudebeck Lars Edward Axel, Uppsala University, Sweden Ben Magubane, South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET), Pretoria, South Africa Adama Ba Konaré, Bureau de l’Ancien Président, Niaréla, Bamako / Mali Ali El Kenz, Université de Nantes, France Alfred Babatunde Zack-Williams, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, Harri Englund, Free School Lane, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dzodzi Tsikata (PhD), University of Ghana, Ghana Jean-Ferdinand Mbah, Université Omar Bongo, Gabon Alcinda Honwana , The Open University , United Kingdom Elizabeth Annan Yao, Iford, Cameroun Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Winnie Mitullah, University of Nairobi, Kenya Jean Copans, Université René Descartes, Paris V, France Bawa Yamba, Diakonhjemmet College, Norway Carlos Lopes, New York, USA La Revue Africaine de Sociologie est une publication semestriel du CODESRIA à Dakar, au Sénégal. 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Institutions africaines R80 $80 African Sociological Review/Revue Africaine de Sociologie 17, 2, 2013 Contents/Sommaire Editorial 1 General Issues Talking Heritage: Africa at the Crossroad of Tradition and Modernity 2 Tom Sanya Memory and Disenchantment in Nadine Gordimer’s None to Accompany Me and Zoe Wicomb’s Playing in the Light. 24 Zuhmboshi Eric Nsuh The Phenomenon of Social Conversion Among Farmers in France: From Traditional Agriculture to the Spiriluna Superfood 43 Philippe Stéfanini and Samuel Ravatua-Smith, Research Papers Declining Job Security Level and Workers’ Performance in selected Banks, South Eastern Nigeria 55 Aliyu Taofeek Kolawole, O.A. Ajani, A. L. Adisa Donner un sens au nom du festival de la ville: Les enjeux de la reconstruction des liens d’appartenance dans une ville tunisienne naissante 71 Mouldi Lahma The Management of Diabetes Among the Rural Poor in South Africa 81 Olajide Oloyede Land Use Correlates of Street Children in Ogbomosho, Nigeria 100 Olufemi A. Fawole, David V. Ogunkan and Deborah S. Adekeye AFRICAN SOCIOLOGCAL REVIEW VOL. 17 2 2013 1 EDITORIAL: This issue carries three pieces of work, which readers of this journal, familiar as the subject matter might be to them, have hardly been given space in the journal. These are Tom Sanya’s Talking Heritage: Africa at the Crossroad of Tradition and Modernity, Eric Nsuh’s Memory and Disenchantment in Nadine Godimer’s None to Accompany Me and Zoe Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and the piece by Philippe Stéfanini and Samuel Ravatua-Smith titled Phenomenon of Social Conversation Among farmers in France: From Traditional Agriculture to the Spiriluna Superfood. In terms of the sub-disciplines in sociology, they fall, generally into sociology of development (the focus on architecture not withstanding), literature and agriculture or rural sociology respectively. The Editors felt that these sub-disciplines have not been accorded the attention they deserve in the journal over the tears and were pleased to welcome the pieces of work when they were submitted by the authors. The reviewers gave positive reviews and the African Sociological Review considered it necessary to have them appear in the same issue. Tom Sanya is concerned with, in general, development issues. He asks whether, given the ethical imperatives of today’s world, what he refers to as traditional building heritage can realistically make any fresh contributions to an alternative development model? Using Uganda as a case, he explores this core question. Eric Nsuh is concerned with showing how Nadine Gordimer, in None to Accompany Me and Zoe Wicomb, in Playing in the Light represented the past in these two post-Apartheid novels and the influence on the ontological situation of the characters in the novels. His point is the familiar one that the behaviour and present conditions of the characters in the works of the above novelists have been shaped by the trauma of their past. Philippe Stéfanini and Samuel Ravatua-Smith attempt to shed light on the phenomenon of social conversion that occurs when farmers change from traditional agricultural practices towards a less well-known form of aquaculture; in this case, the production of the Spirulina superfood (Arthrospira platensis). Though the focus is on farmers in southeast France, the practice resonates with some farmers in Africa Olajide Oloyede Managing Editor 2 AFRICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW VOL. 17 2 2013 Talking Heritage: Africa at the Crossroads of Tradition and Modernity Tom Sanya School of Architecture, Planning and Geometrics University of Cape Town, South Africa Email: [email protected] Abstract This paper address the question: given the ethical imperatives of today’s world, could traditional building heritage realistically make any fresh contributions to an alternative development model? The above questions are explored via a dialectics between the traditional earth building methods and modernity as widely understood in Uganda. Heritage is conceptualised as constitutive of interactions between processes, products and people, and the environment The paper tests the conjecture that, claims to culture and its preservation, constitute a multi-layered veil which advertently or inadvertently obstructs Ugandans from comprehending and making the deep structural changes required to re/produce their desired architecture and lifestyles. Key words: Heritage, modern architecture, critical regionalism, museology, Uganda, sustainability Résumé Ce document traite de la question : compte tenu des impératifs éthiques du monde d’ aujourd’hui , patrimoine de construction traditionnelle pourrait faire réaliste des nouvelles contributions à un modèle de développement alternatif ? Les questions ci-dessus sont explorées par une dialectique entre les méthodes de construction en terre traditionnelles et la modernité aussi largement compris en Ouganda . Patrimoine est conceptualisée comme constitutive d’interactions entre les processus, les produits et les personnes et l’environnement Le papier teste l’ hypothèse selon laquelle , prétend à la culture et à sa préservation , constituer un voile multicouche qui entrave délibérément ou par inadvertance Ougandais de comprendre et de faire la structure profonde changements nécessaires pour re / produire leur architecture et leur mode de vie souhaité . Mots clés: patrimoine , architecture moderne , le régionalisme critique , de la muséologie , de l’Ouganda , de la durabilité Mots clés: patrimoine , architecture moderne , le régionalisme critique , de la muséologie , de l’Ouganda , de la durabilité TALKING HERITAGE: AFRICA AT thE CROSSROADS OF TRADITION AND MODERNITY 3 Introduction This paper is an analysis of building heritage. The term “building” is used in three senses: as the physical artefact (the building), as the building processes (the construction processes), and as the process of construing (or building) the heritage of things in society. This equivocal stance is reflected throughout the paper – be it in the dialectical analytics of the tension between tradition and modernity or in the normative arguments for hybridisation. This broad conception facilitates a deep engagement with building heritage in a modern context, especially because, as Berman (1983) argues, any modern condition is quintessentially pregnant with its contradiction. Modernity has generally enhanced people’s living standard. Yet, most in the developing world remain, by modern measures, at a miserable standard of living. The paper starts with an analytical overview of the evolution of heritage conception. A link is then made to the architectural theory of Critical Regionalism to