Afrikadag: the best of this year Master studies on Africa! On a new South African Middle Class and the absence of BMWs

ASC workshop to be presented on the   Afrikadag

On a new South African Middle Class and the absence of BMWs

Nkululeko Mabandla is the winner of the Africa Thesis Award 2012, with his thesis entitled 'Lahla Ngubo - The Continuities and Discontinuities of a South African Black Middle Class'. Nkululeko describes in much historical detail the formation of a landed middle class in Mthatha (or Umtata), the former Transkei, going as far back as three generations. The thesis challenges the notion summarised by Rory Carrol in The Guardian in 2004 that the new middle class in South Africa is to be recognised as urban, 'young and driving a BMW'. This is not the case in the former Transkei. Here they are to be recognised for their ownership of land: it is rural and a landed middle class.

 Written in a beautiful style and vocabulary, matching its research and analysis, Nkululeko presents us with a very powerful piece of academic work. Please come and hear for yourself what he has to say about his winning thesis. The presentation will be followed by a Q & A session.

Moderator: Dr. Harry Wels, VU University and African Studies Centre