Publications

Dear Prof. White,

Congratulations! It is indeed very heartening to know that the journal, African Communication Research has been unveiled

which will provide incisive understanding of the research in the area of communication and media in Africa.  Going through

the contents of the initial issues, one cannot but hope that we will be able to find more affinity with the selection of issues and

the trends analysed since there is lot in common between African and Asia and India in particular.

We at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication have been engaged in researching and evaluating communication

initiatives in the development sector since 60s. This Institute was set up with active consulation of Wilbur Schramm by the

Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru.

It will be indeed very interesting to share some of our work with you since we have lately worked on the traditional media

and scope of using it to promote issues of development and also another study which focuses on if Internet is posing a

threat to the press industry in India.

Best wishes,

Gita Bamezai Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Department of Communication Research
India

Engraved Landscape Biesje Poort: Many Voices tells two stories. It provides a valuable record of pre-historicand historic artifacts that would ordinarily be inaccessible to many South Africans. But more significantly it showcases new ways of doing research in a contested and fractured environment. Using a series of historic rock engravings as a springboard, the various contributors to the book- academics, communications experts, historians, architects, local ?Khomani residents- probe questions about the nature of heritage, about our differing cosmologies, and about our links to the land. These are inevitably subject to multiple interpretations and meanings, hence the multi-disciplinary team invited to participate in this important investigation of our heritage. –Melinda Silverman, Department of Architecture, FADA, University of Johannesburg.

 

Like most brilliant and eye-catching coffee table books, this compilation straddles the tantalisingly academic and the pop(ular) in anthropology… Its scholarly sections are well researched and tightly articulated. They retain this quality without being dry and overly pedagogical, and hence accessible to a lay reader who just wants to glean useful information. I foresee this book, contributing to media anthropology, receiving critical appreciation. Descendants of the ‘First People’ participate as co-authors in the research- informants and people with their experiential and ontological perspectives. As producers of new contemporary realities in postcolonial South Africa, their voices include stories and myths surrounding the engravings, presented here in their own terms. As for the site, the researchers and informants are aware of the need to protect and preserve: the engravings that are the focus of this encounter are fragile. Research paradoxically may itself result in deterioration as people move over the rocks, but, here, awareness results in research actions and methods that try to ensure care and preservation. This is a heritage that requires informed interventions and use so that posterity may continue to enjoy the benefits of a valuable archaeological wealth.- Dr. Nhamo Mhiripiri, Department of Media and Society Studies, Midlands State University.   

 

  Contents

Foreword: Setting the Scene: what’s in a landscape?

Keyan G. Tomaselli

Reflections on Biesje Poort 2011

Belinda N. Org

Chapter 1: Past voices on the Biesje Poort rock engravings: “where, what, when and who?”