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From King Solomon To Ian Smith: Rhodesian Alternate Histories Of Zimbabwe, Edward Guimont
From King Solomon To Ian Smith: Rhodesian Alternate Histories Of Zimbabwe, Edward Guimont
Doctoral Dissertations
In the eleventh century CE, the Shona people of Central Africa built the city of Great Zimbabwe, an administrative center and royal home. Connected to the Indian Ocean gold trade, it would become the largest pre-colonial city in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it entered into decline and was ultimately abandoned by the sixteenth century – when the first Portuguese expeditions came in contact with the region. The fact that this city entered into decline just as Europeans encountered it set it up to become the center of a number of fantastical legends about its origins, typically linking it with the Biblical …
Euromodernity's Undertone: On Reconceptualizing Political Speech, Derefe Chevannes
Euromodernity's Undertone: On Reconceptualizing Political Speech, Derefe Chevannes
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation contends speech is indispensable to politics. It begins with Aristotle, whose conception of political speech grounds our modern understanding. I argue the Aristotelian position is colonizing insofar as it essentializes speech as sound. The consequence is that speech becomes phonocentric, privileging a particular mode of communication. This raises the issue of Deaf subjects who engage politics in non-phonocentric ways. That is, their speech is seen in what I contend is a visual vernacular. Subsequently, I turn to the issue of race. If Deaf subjects raise questions about what it means to speak, Black subjects, who speak audibly and …