Race and hospitality: Allied troops of colour on the South African home front during the Second World War

Though often marginalised in histories of the Second World War, South Africa, in addition to contributing manpower and economic support to the Allied war effort, was a transport hub and a site for military training. Millions of Allied servicemen and women spent time in South Africa, which became an important node in both imperial and Allied wartime networks. Examining the varied experiences of Allied personnel of colour in South Africa, with a focus on the Māori battalion, this essay, working towards a transnational social history of the conflict, highlights the ways in which wartime hospitality both reflected and subverted ideologies and practices of racial segregation.     

Ten years of peace,bravery and resilience in Aceh

The date 15 August 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the Helsinki Peace Agreement, which ended a major thirty‐year conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia. In this article I argue that much greater acknowledgement should be given to the creative responses that ordinary conflict survivors have brought to the process of post‐conflict social recovery. The article briefly discusses some observations on resilience made through 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Acehnese conflict survivors. I conclude that while Acehnese resilience is impressive, there remains a need for greater recognition of the experiences of conflict survivors, both to support justice for survivors and to enable a deeper understanding of ongoing political complexities in Aceh.