Project MUSE®: Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa.daily12026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USNo. 49 (2002) through current issueLatest Articles: Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern AfricaTWOProject MUSE®Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa1726-13680258-7696Latest articles in Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa. Feed provided by Project MUSE®African Mountainscapes and the Anthropocene: Reflections on Orographical Humanities
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985170
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‘How dare you speak of the mountain as though you were its masters and it were your plaything, your child? Have you understood nothing of what it has been trying to teach you?’ So exclaims an Adept (a spiritual leader) in Amitav Ghosh’s The Living Mountain, a novella cast as a dream tale that fuses history, myth and fiction to imagine a landscape in which the fate of a sacred mountain is central (Ghosh 2022, 35). Mahaparbat is a fictional, personified and living mountain in Ghosh’s text. With its peak perpetually veiled by clouds, Mahaparbat is revered by those who live in its shadow. Not to be traversed, the living mountain serves as a repository of knowledge and identity, an indispensable presence in the lives of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallAfrican Mountainscapes and the Anthropocene: Reflections on Orographical Humanities2026-03-06text/htmlen-USAfrican Mountainscapes and the Anthropocene: Reflections on Orographical Humanities2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®457872026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Her summit was a school: Maxi Schoeman (29 November 1954 – 14 September 2025)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985171
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You can make yourself clever by readingThis dedication is in some ways both ironic and poignant. The phrase ‘Her Summit was a School’ evokes a rich metaphorical landscape when used to honour a scholar and person such as Professor Maxi Schoeman. It is no coincidence that she was also a participant at the conference at which several papers in this edition featured (more about this later).As an active Emerita Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Pretoria, Maxi left a lasting impact on everyone whose lives she touched, whether colleagues, students, politicians, family, friends or acquaintances. She continued to supervise and teach postgraduate students literally until the end of her
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallHer summit was a school: Maxi Schoeman (29 November 1954 – 14 September 2025)2026-03-06text/htmlen-USHer summit was a school: Maxi Schoeman (29 November 1954 – 14 September 2025)2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®341642026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Comparative Mountain Epistemes: Exploring the Southern Appalachians and the Maloti-Drakensberg
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985172
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This article proposes the distinct and yet epistemically generative idea of mountain spaces as sustainable plurivocal knowledge repositories and production sites (Chaves et al 2017; Hill et al 2025). Various scholarly streams regard mountains as elevated land formations, typically with a height of 600m or more, which not only provide biodiversity sanctuaries for both human and environmental systems but also serve as critical water towers1 (Price et al 2011). Imbued with powerful symbolism, mountains are not only biodiversity hotspots and critical ecological corridors but also distinct cultural and spiritual landscapes that inspire rituals, traditions and other mountain-specific cultural and knowledge practices
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallComparative Mountain Epistemes: Exploring the Southern Appalachians and the Maloti-Drakensberg2026-03-06text/htmlen-USComparative Mountain Epistemes: Exploring the Southern Appalachians and the Maloti-Drakensberg2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®1632512026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Re-Figuring Mountains: Constructing Pathways to Inclusive Environmental Citizenship in South Africa
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985173
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The article then moves to the South African context to examine the ways in which these inherited aesthetic values have informed conservation practices within the colonial and postcolonial periods. It reveals how early conservation efforts were shaped by imperial logics, and that the inherited modes of aesthetic appreciation worked in the service of alienating indigenous people from nature and the land, resulting in forms of ‘colonial conservation’ that continue to structure the limits of environmental citizenship today. Finally, it argues that constructing pathways to more inclusive forms of environmental citizenship requires that we more directly interrogate and disrupt the representational legacies that continue
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallRe-Figuring Mountains: Constructing Pathways to Inclusive Environmental Citizenship in South Africa2026-03-06text/htmlen-USRe-Figuring Mountains: Constructing Pathways to Inclusive Environmental Citizenship in South Africa2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®1203332026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Dwelling in Resistance: Baviaanskloof as Memory, Landscape and a Cape Rebel Skirmish
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985174
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The South African War (1899–1902) was a brutal and complex conflict fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, namely the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State and was characterised by significant set-piece battles and scorched-earth tactics (Wessels 2011). Fighting took place across a wide range of South Africa’s diverse landscapes – from the open Highveld plains of the interior to the mountain ranges, valleys and semi-arid Karoo of the Eastern and Western Cape. While major battles often occurred on the open plains, a significant part of the war was fought in the rugged mountainous terrain of the Cape Colony. It was in these frontier zones that the crucial
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallDwelling in Resistance: Baviaanskloof as Memory, Landscape and a Cape Rebel Skirmish2026-03-06text/htmlen-USDwelling in Resistance: Baviaanskloof as Memory, Landscape and a Cape Rebel Skirmish2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®799522026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Mountain Women Of The World: Transformative Resilience And Gendered Power In The African Highlands
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985175
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Mountain regions across Africa are sites of ecological wonder and rich cultural heritage, yet they remain marked by systemic marginalisation, both geographically and socio-politically. For the women who inhabit these landscapes, this marginalisation is doubly felt: shaped by both their remoteness and their gender. Within the highlands of Kenya and Tanzania, women sustain the ecological and economic life of these regions as farmers, guides, porters, healers and community organisers. Despite their critical roles, they remain largely invisible in both scholarship and policy, their contributions sidelined by patriarchal structures and extractive economic models.The Mountain Women of the World research project sought to
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallMountain Women Of The World: Transformative Resilience And Gendered Power In The African Highlands2026-03-06text/htmlen-USMountain Women Of The World: Transformative Resilience And Gendered Power In The African Highlands2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®508312026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Cinematic Mountains and the Anthropocene: Visualising Mountain Cultures and Ecologies in Qwaqwa: Place of Barriers and Bridges (2025)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985176
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Vasu Reddy and Jared McDonald’s Qwaqwa: Place of Barriers and Bridges (2025) is a documentary film set in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains situated on the border between the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Kingdom of Lesotho.1 Its storyline is primarily about the mountains and the people. According to its YouTube page,2 the film ‘explores the deep connection between the people of Qwaqwa and the majestic mountains that surround them’. It continues: ‘Boasting a cast of residents, royalty, and researchers, the film draws attention to the challenges of life in the mountains amid climate change and ineffective local government, and the opportunities that mountains present for development and progress’. This thematic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallCinematic Mountains and the Anthropocene: Visualising Mountain Cultures and Ecologies in Qwaqwa: Place of Barriers and Bridges (2025)2026-03-06text/htmlen-USCinematic Mountains and the Anthropocene: Visualising Mountain Cultures and Ecologies in Qwaqwa: Place of Barriers and Bridges (2025)2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®1091972026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Environment, Knowledge, and Injustice in Lesotho: The Poverty of Progress by Christopher R. Conz (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985177
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The recent mocking reference by President Donald Trump to the Kingdom of Lesotho in his State of the Union address (Ngcobo and Jones 2025) that suggested no one has ever heard of the country illustrates the kinds of global erasure Christopher R Conz’s most recent book, Environment, Knowledge, and Injustice in Lesotho: The Poverty of Progress, is seeking to address. Conz is a lecturer, historian and writer who has taught at the College of the Holy Cross and Tufts University, and he has held tenure as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of the Free State between 2024 and 2025. His work engages with environmental history and African studies, specifically concerning the contested histories of development and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallEnvironment, Knowledge, and Injustice in Lesotho: The Poverty of Progress by Christopher R. Conz (review)2026-03-06text/htmlen-USEnvironment, Knowledge, and Injustice in Lesotho: The Poverty of Progress by Christopher R. Conz (review)2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®172592026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Sustainable Futures in Southern Africa’s Mountains: Multiple Perspectives on an Emerging City ed. by Andrea Membretti, Sue Jean Taylor, and Jess L. Delves (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985178
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In recent years, development discourse has turned with renewed urgency towards the margins, mountain regions, small cities and historically neglected areas that have long remained peripheral to global economic circuits and the epistemic centres of planning and scholarship. Sustainable Futures in Southern Africa’s Mountains: Multiple Perspectives on an Emerging City is a timely and compelling contribution to this expanding frontier of critical inquiry. Focused on Phuthaditjhaba, a sprawling settlement in the eastern Free State and the former capital of the apartheid homeland of Qwaqwa, the book does more than fill a geographic or thematic gap. It offers a new grammar for thinking about the entangled futures of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallSustainable Futures in Southern Africa’s Mountains: Multiple Perspectives on an Emerging City ed. by Andrea Membretti, Sue Jean Taylor, and Jess L. Delves (review)2026-03-06text/htmlen-USSustainable Futures in Southern Africa’s Mountains: Multiple Perspectives on an Emerging City ed. by Andrea Membretti, Sue Jean Taylor, and Jess L. Delves (review)2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®237412026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06Notes on Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985179
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Jared McDonald is Assistant Dean of the Faculty of The Humanities and Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of the Free State. mcdonaldjr@ufs.ac.zaVasu Reddy is Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies), University of the Free State and a Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Pretoria. reddyv@ufs.ac.zaStephanie Cawood is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS), University of the Free State. cawoods@ufs.ac.zaGrey Magaiza is Deputy Director of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) and Associate Professor in Community Development, University of the Free State.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/198/image/coversmallNotes on Contributors2026-03-06text/htmlen-USNotes on Contributors2026-03-062026TWOProject MUSE®57562026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-03-06