This article explores chieftaincy in democratic South Africa and particularly in KwaZuluNatal, where traditional leadership is particularly vocal and politically embedded.Informed by institutional theories the argument is made that here tradition is more persistent than 'resurgent' and that the relationship between ubukhosi (chieftaincy) and wider governance structures in the province and its relations with South Africa must be seen as part of a much longer history that exhibits both continuities and discontinuities.Indeed, the paper draw parallels between 'indirect rule' under colonialism and beyond, and current plans for involving traditional leaders in local governance but concludes that the analogy has limitations given the broader institutional context of post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on historical analysis of KwaZulu-Natal and contemporary research among traditional leaders, municipal officials and councillors, as well as residents of traditional authority areas, we consider whether the current recognition of traditional authorities and the powers and functions accorded them, constitute a threat to South Africa's emergent democracy or serve as a site of stability in a politically volatile province.

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The Modern Heritage of Africa (MoHoA) initiative was conceived at a critical confluence of existential planetary conditions and rising global inequality, exacerbated and accelerated by the Covid‐19 pandemic, the Ukraine ‐Russia war, and a resurgence of racism and extreme nationalism. These phenomena share a common root in being products of the modern age and yet, paradoxically, endanger its legacy through the pursuit of inequitable and unsustainable practices. It is one of the key questions and concerns for MoHoA. MoHoA seeks to decentre, reframe and reconceptualise the legacies of the recent past in light of these existential crises, and to acknowledge the inequitable ways in which this past has been researched and recorded, and consequently valorised and protected. This article addesses these issues in the context of African cultural heritage and the long duree of its global connections.

This paper is about foreign African Muslims, particularly Malawian and Senegalese Muslim migrants in Durban, South Africa. Modern 21 st century migration processes are a global phenomenon deeply embedded in a complex interaction of social, economic and political patterns and processes, often leading to concentrations and enclaves people in large urban centres, such as Durban, along lines of religious, ethnic or national origins. Durban itself is also a major urban area in Southern Africa with a significant Muslim population and a centre of Islamic influence reaching out across the sub-continent, and may serve as a point of attraction for African Muslim migrants. Religious identity is an important factor that is imbricated in Malawian and Senegalese Muslims attempts to search for new solutions to their problems of adaptation, integration and assimilation into a new place. A key issue addressed in this paper is whether their identities, particularly religious, ethnic and national identities, rather than the normative values, provide a set of resources to accommodate themselves and pursue their aims of being gainfully employed as entrepreneurs and workers in a different country. De Certeau's conceptual distinction between strategy and tactics is used as a framework to evaluate the way in which Malawian and Senegalese migrants use religion and associated values towards making a life for themselves in Durban.