A woman on the other side of the country to me left today, after forty eight hours. Left the planet, I find myself asking myself? Where did she go to? The same place as so many other women who were here and are no longer visible? I never knew her, I do not even know whether she existed or is herself a figment of a story which must be sold me for reasons of expediency and so ‘imported’, so to speak, from the realms of fantasy. Imported and exported, same day ticket. So how would I ever miss her, truly? Yet I miss her, I think of her, I hope she is safely arrived in a new country where everything is interesting, flabbergasting, where she can be new identities and adopt new modes of thinking, of talking, even dressing.

What I propose in this paper is that, with the advent of feminist psychoanalysis which repudiates Freudian notions of feminine desire and sexuality (and thus the discourse of patriarchal control in which we have been schooled to understand) we have been provided with an alternative ‘system of sexuality’ which reveals these feminine issues, and it has thus become possible to identify and theorise ‘latent’ feminine subjectivity in literature, and perhaps other cultural productions. This process of (re)interpretation permits the realisation of feminine subjectivity, even in the plays of that ‘Patriarchal bard’ Shakespeare, as feminists become better equipped to read previously illegible – not impossible – expressions of the female psyche. In terms of this I should theoretically be able to analyse the speech of Cordelia, Goneril and Regan as manifestations of their unconscious, and reread King Lear as the tragedy of three sisters whose father goes senile, instead of the tragedy of a great and noble man pushed to insanity with rage at the loss of filial gratitude.

There is a difference between asylum seekers and forced migrants, although the two typically move in tandem, and both are called asylum seekers if permission to remain in the country is granted. Like Lanie, people who can’t live and work in peace although it can’t be proved that they are certainly at risk of physical security, move on until they can, just the same as the already-limbless. But no-one who has the gumption to flee war and death is deliberately moving toward another life of fear, so what is the carrot which draws people to South Africa despite our inhospitable reputation? Is it the tourist brochures, healthy miners smile over golden Johannesburg? The myth of a rainbow nation, the archetypal millennial melting-pot society where all cultural identities are to be nurtured alongside each other? Is it that long-standing habit of employees to travel vast distances to work for next to nothing in the major cities of South Africa, often in inhumane conditions?

The next morning, the wind has died down and the dawn across the Mediterranean is mindblowingly gorgeous. We walk across to sit at its shores, through the remains of last night’s party. Some people are still dancing, most are sitting or lying in large groups, telling stories and laughing, relaxing. The further out of the party we get, however, the more it starts to smell: on the sand as far as we can see is a concoction of piss, shit and puke, it’s a health hazard to walk on this beach barefoot. We try left; we try right; we go back for our shoes. For peace-bringers, this is a disgrace, I think.

Her hair was completely grey and although her face looked aged, her eyes still darted back quickly as she started to inquire about my life, my habits, my work. As I recounted the relevant information of studies, friends and work, she became quieter, occasionally glancing down out the corner of her eye, to another place, where she was a young woman with open destinies. The chance for success; for self-fulfilment and determination offered itself once again for a fleeting second, as what could have been was materialized in my own success. She said that she had almost given everything up to marry a wealthy man whose hurried life would have uprooted her too much to sing with a company. Another wealthy man who encouraged her to make of her life her dreams became her lover after a private recital of Carmen, and so she was spared that tragedy of not singing for her life.

My tea was cold and low in my cup, and the evening was warm and dusty. I appreciated the honesty of the woman’s words, the frankness with which her eyes gave away her envy of me, of my generation, on the brink of something huge which had somehow eluded her despite her own promise and talent. Her enthusiasm and complacency about our beginnings was sympathetic, supportive.

Robben Island Robert Sobukwe Complex Intro

In 1967 and 1968 four children visited their father on an island. For two weeks each year they lived and played in these buildings. But these four children weren’t allowed outside the perimeter fence – their father was a prisoner. He was Robert Sobukwe, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. The island was Robben Island.

To pass time Robert Sobukwe’s children invented games to play. One of their favourites was the ancient game of Morabaraba, which had been played for thousands of years around the world. For game pieces the children used 24 stones that they found lying around. For a board they scratched the lines on the concrete floor of one of the buildings.

Before Robert Sobukwe’s children stayed here, this place was a school, and other children played here at break. They had a happy time. They could explore the island and climb trees.

These children have long since left the island. In the spaces where they used to play, cages were built for fierce dogs. The children have grown into adults in a new South Africa. Even the fierce dogs are now gone, and these empty buildings are reminders of what happened here in the past.

But the 24 game stones that Robert Sobukwe’s children left behind are still here. These magic stones have witnessed everything that has happened here from long before the children stayed here, and since they left.

Each of these stones can tell us a story about this place.

To discover each story, search for the stones on the site.

The envisaged product

We consider a consultative user-centred design process as essential to the development of an end product that is appropriate, relevant and successful to the goals of Robben Island Museum and visitors to the site. This process is detailed in ‘The admataz Development Process’ on pages seven and eight of this document.

Our vision is of a dynamic wall-size (40”) touch-screen depiction of the Robert Sobukwe site across all historical uses. As a central focus point in a group activity, the on-screen exhibition will use resources currently in the possession of Robben Island Museum to entice participating learners to form interpretations of the key significances of the Robert Sobukwe site.

The media memory-scape exhibition will provide learners at two distinct schooling levels with detailed information about the history and memories of the site and its connections with other sites, both on and outside of Robben Island, and within the scope of the national curriculum as appropriate.

We envisage that the end product will have approximately ten screens showing the different epochs of use. Learners will interact with objects on each screen, which serve as cue points for stories represented in video or photographs and which inform or question the users’ understandings of the issues.

Learners may be led through the site by uNyosi, a virtual guide who provides a friendly and empathetic guide to the interaction and provokes users into engaging with different elements of the content through a variety of techniques, such as questioning.

Words work for you, not you for them. English fits into all patterns, just as any language must express all that its users do, think and say. In this course we’ll look at these patterns and build skills around them. You can expect to find grammar here, but aside from a brief refresher course on the fundamental workings of a sentence, the only grammar is grammar which seems to be causing particular problems to learners of your age throughout the country. There is nothing that you will find boring!

English Skills is a course in Standard British English. You might use a different version of English at home and in your private correspondence. Many people do. In Standard British English, you can communicate with an international community of speakers who also use another English at home and in their private correspondence.