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MAR
15
Year of Global Africa: Eye on Africa - Liz Timbs, MSU PhD Candidate; "Phaphamani Zulu!"
Date:
Thursday, 15 Mar 2018
Time:
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Location:
201 International Center
Department:
African Studies Center
Event Details:

"'Phaphamani Zulu!': The Use of Amabutho in the Recruitment of Zulu Service in the First and Second World Wars.""

Liz Timbs is a Ph.D. candidate in African History at Michigan State University. Her dissertation research, funded by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship, traces the permutations of Zulu martial heritage in the present-day KwaZulu-Natal province from the era of Shaka Zulu (ca. 1816) to the present-day. Taking a bottom-up approach, it focuses on the changing status and symbolism of Zulu amabutho (regiments, age-grades), noting the shifts and changing meaning of these institutions from the pre- colonial era to the present, arguing that the Zulu amabutho shaped, and continue to shape, youth socialization amongst Zulu young men, while also framing public perceptions of the violent potential of these same young South Africans.