Founded In    1999
Published   quarterly
Language(s)   English
     

Fields of Interest

 

Humanities and Social Sciences

     
ISSN   1543-1304
     
Publisher   Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
     
Editorial Board

Lead Editor:
Andrew van der Vlies - Queen Mary University of London, UK

Editors:
Shane Graham - Utah State University, USA
Karin Shapiro - Duke University, USA

Reviews Editors:
Derek Catsam - University of Texas of the Permian Basin, USA
Annel Pieterse - University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Monica Popescu - McGill University, Canada
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard - University of California, Irvine, USA

International Editorial Board:
Rita Barnard - University of Pennsylvania, USA
Louise Bethlehem - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Kerry Bystrom - Bard College, USA/Germany
Carrol Clarkson - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nadia Davids - University of Cape Town, South Africa
Michele Elam - Stanford University, USA
Norman Etherington - University of Western Australia, Australia
Jeremy Foster - Cornell University, USA
Albert Grundling - University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Rick Halpern - University of Toronto, Canada
Stefan Helgesson - Stockholm University, Sweden
Jon Hyslop - Colgate University, USA
Tsitsi Jaji - Duke University, USA
Christopher J. Lee - Lafayette College, USA
Simon Lewis - College of Charleston, USA
Alex Lichtenstein - Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Peter Limb - Michigan State University, USA
Zine Magubane - Boston College, USA
Mandisa Mbali - University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
David Chioni Moore - Macalester College, USA
Brenna Munro - University of Miami, USA
Dana Phillips - Towson University, USA
Peter Rachleff - Macalester College, USA
Pallavi Rastogi - Louisiana State University, USA
Stéphane Robolin - Rutgers University, USA
Steven Robins - University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Christopher Saunders - University of Cape Town, South Africa
Thula Simpson - University of Pretoria, South Africa
Michael Titlestad - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Hedley Twidle - University of Cape Town, South Africa
Robert Vinson - College of William and Mary, USA
Jennifer Wenzel - Columbia University, USA
Luvuyo Wotshela - University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Founding Editor:
Andrew Offenburger - Yale University, USA

Submission Guidelines and Editorial Policies
     
Mailing Address
     

Safundi Publications
P.O. Box 206788
New Haven, CT 06520
(203) 548-9155 / Phone
(203) 548-9177 / Fax
info@safundi.com

Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies

ALTTEXT

Safundi -- "S" represents "South Africa," "a" stands for "America," and "fundi" comes from the Xhosa verb, "-funda," which translates as "to read/learn."

Safundi is an online community of scholars, professionals, and others interested in comparing and contrasting the United States of America with the Republic of South Africa.

Our journal, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, is the centerpiece of our online community. We believe that analyzing the two countries in a comparative and transnational context enhances our perspective on each, individually. While new comparative research is the focus of the journal, we also publish articles specifically addressing one country, provided the articles are of interest to the comparative scholar. Furthermore, our subject matter is as permeable as any country's border: we will consider research addressing other colonial and postcolonial states in Southern Africa and North America.

Articles that Safundi publishes are academic in nature. Research papers are reviewed as they are submitted. Scholarly essays are welcomed. Any topic may be addressed. We hope to provide our readers with a diverse and insightful collection of articles in each issue.

We publish on a quarterly basis. Our journal is peer-reviewed. Submissions are vetted by the editors-in-chief and the editorial board before they are accepted for publication.

The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not of the editors or of Safundi itself.

 

» Visit Journal Web Site

Safundi Issue 22, Issue 22

The latest issue of Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies features R.L. Watson with “Thoughts on the Post-Emancipation Experiences of the United States and the Cape Colony,” Dawne Y. Curry with a personal view of the “Social Construction of Race in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” J. Barron Boyd on the “U.S. and South African Bills of Rights,” Ann K. Ziker with a review of the new Max Yergan biography, and David J. Carter’s review of a Lewis Nkosi critical anthology.

Abolition, Violence, and Rape: Thoughts on the Post-Emancipation Experiences of the United States and the Cape Colony


While there are a number of similarities between the experiences of the United States and the Cape Colony immediately after the abolition of slavery, the levels of violence in the two societies present a vivid contrast. Nothing at the Cape remotely resembles the savagry of the U.S. experience. This article speculates about the reasons for the contrast and suggests that, among other things, the absence of a fear of ex-slave rapists contributed to the relatively peaceful Cape experience.

An African American Constructs and Confronts the Social Construction of Race in Post-Apartheid South Africa


Curry's article takes readers on an ethnographic journey in post-apartheid South Africa, where she discusses the complex nature of race and its social construction. Using case studies of other African Americans who traveled to South Africa from the 1930s to the early twenty-first century, Curry grapples with the complex issue of race and identity. She concludes that race involves more than complexion, for it also encompasses linguistic ability, geography, cultural traits, body language, and nationality. These identity markers, Curry observes, played an immense role in her "social transformation" from an African American to a South African Coloured.

Parchment Barriers Revisited: The U.S. and South African Bills of Rights


At first glance the U.S. and South African bills of rights appear radically different. Rights the United States codified in 1792 were exclusively civil and political, while South Africa, in 1996, recognized the full panoply of modern rights: economic, social and environmental, as well as civil and political. Such differences can be deceiving as both bills have important similarities. Both were political documents with origins in a complex and difficult social milieu. Both were post-colonial attempts to express a vision of an ideal new political and social order and to establish the rules to guide its realization. Though separated by two hundred years and created in vastly different contexts of rights consciousness, both documents were born in a spirit of compromise and conflict. They were less the result of doctrinal purity than of political struggle. Only with appropriate political will can the legacy of both bills be a genuine commitment to human rights leavening the force of political expediency and creating polities where bills of rights are more than just "parchment barriers" to tyranny.

The Enigmatic Max Yergan: David Henry Anthony III. Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior. New York and London: New York University Press, 2006.


The article reviews David Henry Anthony III's recent book on Max Yergan.

Other Issues

July 2013, Volume 14, Number 3
April 2007, Volume 8, Number 2
January 2007, Volume 8, Number 1
Deterritorializing American Culture, 23
George Fredrickson's White Supremacy , Issue 21
October 2005, Issue 20
July 2005, Issue 19
April 2005, Issue 18
January 2005, Issue 17
October 2004, Issue 16
July 2004, Issue 15
April 2004, Issue 13-14
October 2003, Issue 12
July 2003, Issue 11
April 2003, Issue 10
May 2002, Issue 09
February 2002, Issue 08
November 2001, Issue 07
July 2001, Issue 06
April 2001, Issue 05
January 2001, Issue 04
October 2000, Issue 03
July 2000, Issue 02