Tools
Tools
Feather, DJ (2022) Keeping Britain ‘‘in the fore’’: The Establishment of the British Council in South Africa and its Contribution to the 1960 Union Festival. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 50 (4). pp. 757-788. ISSN 0308-6534
|
Text
Keeping Britain in the Fore The Establishment of the British Council in South Africa and Its Contribution to the 1960 Union Festival.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This article discusses the establishment of a British Council presence in South Africa through the appointment of a cultural advisor at the British High Commission in 1958. It analyses the role of cultural advisor, what policymakers hoped to achieve by creating it, and why they were initially hesitant about establishing a British Council presence in South Africa. The article will highlight how the decision to appoint a cultural advisor was predicated on fears that the rise of Afrikaner cultural nationalism jeopardised British interests in South Africa. It therefore contributes to the emerging scholarship which positions Britain’s relationship with the independent Commonwealth members in the 1950s and 1960s within the established literature on the political decolonisation which was taking place at that time. The article also analyses the cultural advisor’s initial work focussing, in particular, on Britain’s contribution to the 1960 Union Festival. The debates over how best to represent British culture at the festival will be highlighted, and the reasons why a tour by the Royal Ballet Company was ultimately chosen as the main contribution will be discussed. Finally, the article will analyse the controversies surrounding this tour, and how the British government responded to them. This included the omission of Johaar Mossaval, a South African-born ‘coloured’ dancer from the touring party, and the decision to complete the tour as planned in the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 2103 Historical Studies |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DT Africa |
| Divisions: | Humanities & Social Science |
| Publisher: | Routledge |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Feb 2022 10:21 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Mar 2023 14:15 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1080/03086534.2022.2057738 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16280 |
 |
View Item |