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University of Reading research, in collaboration with a South African partner, has led to the development of materials on literacy learning in multilingual settings in Africa, transforming teaching practice across the continent.
A second, related project is helping to deepen understanding of the conditions necessary for African language publishing to thrive, attracting considerable interest from the South African book industry. The findings have also been used to justify the inclusion of African languages in a South African reading campaign; to help civil society organisations campaigning for improved basic education in South Africa; and to support the development of local language materials in seven African countries.
Heather Hughes' 2011 publication of the first full-length biography of John Dube, founding president of the ANC, has had a significant impact on local and national government, public history, national media and public debate in South Africa. This work has changed public attitudes towards Dube as a political leader, and towards the role of women in early twentieth-century African nationalism. This revision of ANC history has been built into permanent exhibitions at several sites within the country. The book's use in a government green paper on land reform also reveals the depth of her work's political impact.
Tamar Garb's curation of two thematically linked exhibition projects at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and a series of shows at the Walther Collection, along with related activities and publications, raised awareness of contemporary photography in southern Africa; brought African photographic history and related political/aesthetic issues to the attention of scholars and publics; impacted exhibition programming, acquisitions policies and educational activities of a museum and private collection; created new audiences for contemporary African and South African lens-based work; and offered cultural enrichment to a wide public audience.
Attwell and Attridge's paradigm-shifting research on the culturally and linguistically diverse literary history of South Africa has had a significant influence on the country's reassessment of its cultural past, present and future. In a national situation in which literature has always been embedded in political life, apartheid divisions left different racial and linguistic groups out of touch with each other's literary heritage. Attridge and Attwell undertook to bridge these differences by producing the first comprehensive history of literature across all languages and in all periods, widely seen as a major step forward in national cross-cultural awareness. The key beneficiaries are a range of political, cultural, media and educational institutions, and the people served by them, in South Africa and across the world.
The Africa in Motion Film Festival (AiM), based in Glasgow and Edinburgh, directly emerged from research led by David Murphy and a community of postgraduate students at the University of Stirling. The festival has attracted new audiences for African cinema (over 20,000 spectators since 2006) and contributed to wider debates about it amongst the general public, NGOs, as well as cinephiles in Scotland and more widely. In particular, two projects on the `lost classics' of African cinema allowed neglected films to be discovered both by a general audience and influential film critics/journalists.
African filmmakers have long experienced difficulties in funding, exhibiting and distributing their work, reflecting the dominance of Hollywood and `mainstream' cinema. Dr Lindiwe Dovey's research into African film and international film distribution investigates how such difficulties might be overcome, while drawing attention to the diversity and originality of African filmmaking practices. This research inspired and enabled the creation of the UK's largest film festival, Film Africa, showcasing African-made culture to a wider audience, and providing a space where African filmmakers can meet with distributors and funders, enhancing their potential to further their careers internationally.
This project has had significant reach beyond the academy, through two main avenues. Through sustained relationships with NGOs, faith-based organisations and other members of civil society involved in the management of death in South Africa, the project has aided in the professional development of African staff, and shaped training and facilitation on responses to death, grief and loss. And, through public engagement with its research on the funeral industry — including very broad dissemination of the documentary film `The Price of Death'— the project has engaged local South African audiences in debates around the cost of death and the commodification of funerals.
Research carried out by the University of Nottingham has significantly informed international policies designed to transform technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and its role in development. This has been achieved through direct contribution to policy making at global, regional and national levels, most notably for UNESCO, the Southern African Development Community and the South African government. This has led to the revision of global, regional and national policy guidelines and the development of new regional and national indicators. Conventional policy wisdoms have been questioned at global and national levels and new concepts introduced into the policy debate.
The research impacts on public discourse, professional practice and cultural life. It raises public awareness and professional understanding of how contemporary development is being viewed in Africa. Analysing the work of creative artists from several countries in sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, the research has revealed that, far from presenting development as positive change, artists are depicting economic development in the region as a form of enslavement. For over a decade they have been creating a visual vocabulary to speak about `development' around the most iconic and disturbing images of the Atlantic slave trade. In public events delivered in English, French and Spanish, supported by digital resources, the author is disseminating this view from the continent to a broader audience across the world.
Imruh Bakari's film projects such as African Tales (2005/2008) and Big City Stories (2011) have had impact in the areas of civil society and cultural life, specifically in illuminating social and cultural assumptions (of audiences of audio-visual culture in Africa and the UK) about contemporary Tanzania and Black London.
The impact of Bakari's research focusing on African and Caribbean cinemas, and related subjects in cultural studies, also extends into areas of policy making, education, and training surrounding film production and distribution in Africa and Europe. This is evident through public engagement (with film industry professionals, younger audiences, and the wider public) and archiving, and through engagement with policy initiatives for the creative industries sector in Tanzania.