A Review: Rhino What You did Last Summer, by Paul Howard (2009)

Howard, Paul (2009). Rhino What You did Last Summer, Penguin Ireland

In this blog, I will discuss the emergence of modern Ireland and look at how Paul Howard satirizes Americanisation, celebrity, designer and consumer culture amongst the socially privileged D4 materialists in the novel Rhino What You did Last Summer.

 

Contemporary Ireland is certainly associated with the Celtic Tiger, an experience of economic boom from 1990 – 2007; however Ireland had already experienced some economic growth with social and cultural change since the 1960s. The introduction of television to Ireland in 1961 was marked as a “key instrument of modernisation”, [1] and revolutionised advertising which can be linked to the emergence of “the creation of a consumer society in Ireland”.[2] It also allowed for avenues of openness to challenge social practices and cultural discourses that had been learned in school and from the Catholic Church. EU investment and tax incentives to multi-nationals also contributed to economic growth and by 1990 Irish society was well-groomed for an introduction to globalisation and cultural modernity. The advances in technology and communications made it possible and the profitable housing development boom made it appear affordable for Irish society to embrace Americanisation and a celebrity, designer and consumer culture even if it had to be on the basis of buy now – pay later.

The book opens with the introduction of Howard’s main character Ross O’ Carroll-Kelly, the son of a property developer from Dublin’s Southside who was sacked as the International Rugby coach for Andorra due to trying “to dip his wick where it shouldn’t have been dipped . . . [i.e.] the boss’s wife” (p.38). He catches a plane to L.A., after he found out that his wife’s best friend whom he also slept with, was actually his half sister (pp. 1-5) and then decides he needs “to see his own daughter and find out if there’s still a chance with Sorcha” his ex-wife (pp.2-3) who is now in Los Angeles attached to Cillian, a “senior advisor in international risk assessment” (p.25). The portrayal of Ross as a narcissistic, womanising socialite armed with his “old man’s credit cord” (p.3) assists Howard to use the theme of analogy of the socially constructed hegemony and cronyism of the D4 materialists. Senator John Dardis (2005) summed this up perfectly in a Seanad debate on the tendency of newspapers to report opinion as fact:

one finds a preponderance of articles from self-proclaimed experts who tend to be from middle class backgrounds — dare I say Dublin 4 types, which is a state of mind rather than a geographic location. These articles tend to reflect the attitudes of a particular section of society and regard those attitudes as dominant [469][3]

The cronyism of the “honour among Rock boys” is further reinforced when Ross and his friends from Foxrock who won the “Leinster Schools Senior Cup” (p.297) are re-united in Vegas and Oisinn jokes about trying to get planning permission for a Star Wars casino in Ireland; “J.P’s there, ‘Ross’s old man probably could – with some of his contacts’ and everyone laughs” (p.361).

Howard has a field day satirising celebrity, designer and consumer culture through Ross’s ex-wife Sorcha and her “obsession with material things” (p.304), her celebrity text alerts, her commentaries from celebrity-info-entertainment magazines and even to the extent of making their 18 month old daughter wear “Stilettos for babies” on the grounds that “girls eventually have to learn to wear designer heels” (p.17). Ross’s agent Trevion sums it up with “People are obsessed with celebrity lives” (p.102) after a coincidental photograph is taken of Ross with a reality TV star that hurls him into the celebrity z list overnight and spirals into a series of events which includes dates with ‘wannabe’ actresses, plastic surgery and his own MTV reality show. Howard uses this to lampoon the celebrity related reality TV concept of being famous for being famous with Ross adding, “Then I’m thinking about all the people who’ve tried to crack America and basically failed. Robbie Williams, blah . . . But look at me. Fame. Women. I presume somewhere down the line there’ll be money. And it all fell in my lap” (p.120).

In conclusion, I did not enjoy reading this novel. Perhaps the grim reality of the recession has taken its toll and only for I was required to write an essay on the novel, I would have put it down earlier. However I continued reluctantly, with very little interest in Howard’s satire of the social and cultural elements of the Celtic Tiger or his parodies of Irish society embracing celebrity, designer and consumer culture.The only satire I found really funny was in the fact that Howard managed to write ten novels in the “Ross” series, some of them best-sellers so he actually made money and achieved commercial success from the very society he satirised.

 Notes:  

[1] Inglis, 1998a, cited in Tovey and Share, 2000, p.377. Tovey, H., Share, P. (2000). A sociology of Ireland, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Seanad Eireann Debate, (2005). Privacy and Defamation: Statements. Vol. 179 No. 6 [online], available: http://debates.oireachtas.ie/seanad/2005/02/09/00005.asp

 

The Origins of the Tolerance in the Dutch Republic (1522-1648)

Under the rule of Charles V as the King of Habsburg Spain and ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the region of the Netherlands made up part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries, which also included a large part of Belgium, Luxembourg and some areas of France and Germany. Each of the seventeen states had their own representative assembly or State Council and in turn they appointed a representative to the States-General, which was then answerable to Charles V. Many of the cities had high standards of banking and mercantile trade, indeed, Antwerp was a major centre of international trade and “contained of the greatest concentrations of wealth in Europe” (Zagorin, 2003).

 

Charles was an avid Catholic, and with the spread of the spread of Lutheran Protestantism in Netherlands from 1522, Charles established an Inquisition (Offen, 2010). In the Netherlands, from 1540-1550, there was an increase in Anabaptist Protestantism, which led Charles to issue the ‘Edict of Blood’ in 1550. This established the death penalty for Protestant heresies (Offen, 2010). From 1550-1560 there was a sharp increase in Calvinist Protestantism. This movement gained strength as French (Calvinist) Huguenots, fled to the Low Countries from the civil religious wars in France. While the Peace of Augsberg (1555), granted under Charles V became the first permanent legal basis for the co-existence of Lutheranism and Catholicism in Germany, this was not extended to the Low Countries (Mout, 1997). Charles V was convinced that heresy would be eradicated there, and when Charles V abdicated in 1555, his son Philip II, had the same perspective (Mout, 1997). By the 1560s, Philip II’s “religious persecutions and financial extractions” created opposition in the nobility and political elite (Zagorin, 2003). William of Orange was one of the leaders of the opposition and favoured religious peace (Mout, 1997). By 1566, a political stand-off developed in government circles “between the severe and lenient standpoints on religious persecutions” (Mout, 1997). Most of the nobility were Catholic, but some had Humanist views, and also a view of tolerance, as a necessity for commercial interests and trade (Lesger, 2006; Rowen, 1990).

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip II

In the meantime, during the summer of 1566, there was an upsurge of social unrest which was driven by famine conditions in many cities. At this time, Calvinist ministers drew large gatherings of people for outdoor services, particularly in Antwerp, and the social unrest soon took the form of a wave of iconoclastic riots against Catholic churches. This worried Philip II and the Catholic Church, as not only was he challenged by the nobility, the common people had also reacted. In 1567, Philip II sent in his army under Duke Alba to crush the rioters, and to set up courts to trial those who opposed the King, which resulted in many executions (Kamen, 2005). William of Orange fled but returned in 1568 with his own troops, and assisted French Huguenots to remove the Duke. Though, this did not come to fruition as William could not sustain the finance of his army. Nonetheless in 1572, a second phase was wagered with the support of some northern regions. In 1573, William converted to Calvinism and attained their support. By 1575, Philip II was financially strained and Holland and Zealand were free from the Spanish rule.

Following the massacre at Antwerp 1576 by Spanish mercenary soldiers who mutinied as they were not paid, Antwerp then joined in the revolt against Spain (Lesger, 2006). Moreover, the Pacification of Ghent, signed November 1576, was an alliance of the provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands for the purpose of driving mutinying Spanish  troops from the country and promoting a peace treaty with Holland and Zeeland. It aimed to regulate religion and abolish enforcement of Catholic laws against heresy (Bangs, 2010). It also aimed to defend the traditional political freedoms, rights, and privileges of Netherland states—a goal which aimed to unite Catholics as well as Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists. (Bang, 2010)

Sack of Antwerp

However, Philip II gained more finances and strengthened his army by 1579, and so some of the solemnly Catholic southern provinces redirected their alliance and signed the Union of Arras (Atrecht), re-expressing their loyalty to the Spanish king.  In response, 5 of the northern states signed the Union of Utrecht (1579) and 2 more joined soon after. The Dutch wrote in the Union of Utrecht (1579), which would later function as their defacto constitution that “each person shall remain free, especially in his religion” and that investigation or persecution would not be conducted against an individual because of religion.

According to Mout (1997), the idea of toleration, in the Union of Utrecht was not wholly original as the ideas were dispersed from the Peace of Augsburg and also in the writings for freedom of conscience through such French writers as Castellio and others. Moreover, Frydenborg suggests that one of the main forces to push the Union in that direction was an economic one. However, according to Bangs (2010) the tolerance necessary for political unity during the revolt met immediate resistance, from Calvinists who wanted to suppress every alternative to their version of the faith. Toleration was certainly not a trademark of Calvinism (Bikk, 2007). As the Calvinists were a driving force in the revolt, they gained positions of power and began a repression of Catholics, as allies of the Catholic Philip II (Mout, 1997). From here, most of the population of the Northern provinces became converted to Protestantism over the next decades. The south, under Spanish rule, remained a Catholic stronghold; and most of its Protestants fled to the north. Indeed, the 1579 Union of Utrecht’s promise of religious toleration soon began to shrink.

In 1583, the States agreed to maintain and protect the Reformed Church and forbade “the public teaching or practice of any other Religion in the present United Provinces” (Bangs, 2010).  But politicians argued that toleration of the non-Reformed would contribute to social stability and economic growth. The Reformed clergy complained, but they did not completely dominate civil politics (Bangs, 2010). The debate on toleration gained further momentum among intellectuals, theologians and writers. The theologian Dirck Coornhert believed that religious freedom should be a fundamental along with freedom of speech and the press (Mout, 1997). Justus Lipsius argument was grounded in politics for the best functioning of the state (Mout, 1997). From 1590-1620 the debate on toleration was caught up in discussions ‘on relations between the church and state’ (Mout, 1997).

While freedom of conscience as encapsulated by the Union of Utrecht was respected, there were still heated debates (Mout, 1997). Strict Calvinists believed that the government was morally obliged to oppose heresy, that the government had no control over the church in doctrinal matters, and ultimately that all non-Calvinists were heretics (Mout, 1997). Whereas those who believed in freedom of conscience  believed that people should be free to choose their belief without coercion, which also encouraged freedom to worship, though political rights were discouraged for Catholics as they were still seen as Spanish allies (Mout, 1997 ). However, while the Calvinist church was the established state church it only catered for one fifth of the population, hence over the next few decades, other Protestant factions (Lutheran, Mennonite and Arminian) gained that status of tolerated churches.

The Dutch Revolt was decisive in shaping not only the ideas of toleration, but also the political and religious situation in which toleration could operate in the Dutch Republic. When the war finally ended between the Dutch republic and Spain in 1648, it was clear that toleration was a workable solution. While Catholicism was prohibited until the end of the Dutch republic in 1795, religious worship in private and even some provisions for schools were allowed (Mout, 1997). According to Zagorin (2003), the Dutch toleration controversy was an outgrowth of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule. The revolt was on behalf of political, religious and economic freedom and is seen as a precursor for the anticipation of the French Revolution (Rowen, 1990).

Bibliography

Bangs, Jeremy Dupertuis (2010). “Dutch Contributions to Religious Toleration”. Church History, Vol. 79, No. 3, pp. 585-613

Mout, M.E.H. Nicolette (1997). “Limits and Debates: A Comparative View of Dutch Toleration in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century”. In: Berkvens-Stevelinck, C., Israel, J.J.I., Meyjes, G.H.M.P. (eds), The Emergence of Tolerance in the Dutch Republic. BRILL: Leiden; New York; Koln

Offen, Lee (2010). “The Eighty Years War (1568-1648)”. History Reconsidered [online] available: http://historyreconsidered.net/eighty_Years_War_1568_1648.html

Rowen, H. H. (1990). “The Dutch Revolt: What Kind of Revolution?” Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 570-590.

Zagorin, P. (2003). How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford

An Introduction to the Reformation in Ireland under King Henry VIII

 
Initially, to understand the emergence of the Reformation in Ireland it is useful to look back at England under the guidance of Tudor King Henry VII. King Henry VII’s accession to the throne in 1485 was threatened by plots and conspiracies. To strengthen his position he made alliances and trade treaties with France and the Netherlands and arranged the marriage of his daughter, Margaret Tudor, to James IV of Scotland in order to secure peace between the two countries. Henry VII also wanted to establish peace between England and Spain, and secured a marriage between his eldest son and heir, Prince Arthur, and the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, in 1501. However, the 15 year old Arthur died suddenly in 1502, leaving Catherine a widow and making his younger brother, Henry, the new heir to the throne (www.royal.gov.uk)

King Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son, Prince Henry in marriage to Arthur’s widow Catherine at the age of 10. A Treaty was signed in 1503, to agree the betrothal but Henry was only 11 and too young for cohabitation. By the time Prince Henry was 14 he repudiated the proposed marriage, but following the death of his father in 1509, he changed his mind and decided to marry Catherine of Aragon, to keep the peace between England and Spain and benefit from Catherine’s profitable dowry.

Catherine of Aragon only gave a daughter, Mary, to Henry VIII but not a male heir to the throne. To secure a strong monarchy, he wanted a son and decided to divorce Catherine and replace her with a wife who would bear him a son. He petitioned the Pope for a divorce but the Pope refused to give his permission. In May 1533 the Archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine as invalid, on the grounds that it was against the scripture to marry one’s brother wife.

Catherine of Aragon

King Henry VIII, then married Anne Boleyn. The Pope responded later with the excommunication of King Henry VIII. However, Henry VIII had already been enacting legislation to break with the Roman Catholic Church.With the Act of Succession 1533, Catherine’s daughter, Mary, was declared illegitimate; and his marriage to Anne Boleyn as legitimate. The Act of Supremacy (1534) declared King Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church of England, thus separating England from papal authority in Rome (www.royal.gov.uk). This and subsequent acts gave the Crown the authority to disband monasteries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriate their income and dispossess them of their assets. The dissolution of the monasteries took place from 1536-40.

Portrait of Henry VIII

The late medieval pre-reformation church in the Pale in Ireland was responsive to the authority of Rome and operated through a network of parish churches and chapels, under the remit of a diocese. Indeed, Jeffries (2001) claims there is much evidence that the pre-reformation churches in the Pale were ‘well administered, pastorally effective and demonstrably popular’ prior to King Henry VIII’s reformation. Following the Norman Settlement of Ireland, the Pale was described as the barrier, separating the lands occupied by the colonial settlers from those remaining in the hands of the Irish. Over the 14^th and 15^th centuries the Pale decreased in size until the Dublin Government was effective only in the ‘four obedient counties’ i.e. Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Meath. According to Jeffries (2001) the institutions, parliament, courts of the Pale, as well as its ‘urban councils, were closely modelled on those of England’ and the ‘nobility, gentry and the urban oligarchs of the region were English by descent, loyalty and culture.’ Nonetheless, the common population of the Pale was significantly Irish, and spoke the Irish language. The Pale was not shielded from the controversy surrounding Henry’s VIII’s divorce. The Earl of Kildare, a ‘leading nobleman of the Pale’ was confined at the English Royal court from 1529 to 1532’, and witnessed the proceedings first-hand (Jeffries, 2001).

When Henry planned to send a deputy to Ireland with a programme to ‘terminate the pope’s jurisdiction over the Church in Ireland’, the vice-deputy of Ireland, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Kildare, and also known as Silken Thomas, renounced his allegiance to the English monarch and launched a rebellion (Jeffries, 2001). The rebels declared Henry as ‘accursed’ (Jeffries, 2001) and Silken Thomas attained much support from the Pale community. Although, once the rebellion failed, most of them claimed to have acted ‘under compulsion’ (Jeffries, 2001). Nonetheless, some primates and noblemen were removed from office, while many clerics active in the rebellion fled for fear of repercussions. Nonetheless, the Kildare rebellion demonstrated the presence of noteworthy hostility towards ‘the planned extension of Henry VIII’s religious programme to Ireland’ (Jeffries, 2001). This revolt also exemplified that there was a considerable amount of colonial settlers in Ireland who were ‘willing willing to transfer their allegiance from the English monarchy to the Holy Roman Emperor, ostensibly for religious reasons’ (Jeffries, 2001). So, while Henry’s attempts at Reformation, depended greatly on ‘obedience’ to the crown, the ‘Kildare revolt suggests that the English crown could not depend on the same level of obedience among the colonial elites in the Pale’ (Jeffries, 2001). So, the enforcement of the Reformation may not have been pursued as rigorously in the Pale as elsewhere in England ‘for fear of making the lordship ungovernable’ (Jeffries, 2001). Although, action was taken by the crown to eliminate many opponents of the Reformation to weaken the opposition in the Pale to some extent, and there were no problems presented at the convening of the Irish parliament in May 1536 (Jeffries, 2001).

According to Ford (1986) the real start of the Irish Reformation can be traced back to the declaration of the Irish Parliament in 1536 which made Henry VIII “the only supreme head” of the whole Church in Ireland. This was met with some opposition though not enough to alter the outcome. However, Ford (1986) notes that ‘the development of a distinct Protestant Church’ did not formulate until much later. Indeed, King Henry VIII was primarily concerned with appropriating the authority from the Pope as the head of the Church in England and Ireland than altering the doctrine or theology of the Church, such as happened in Germany with Martin Luther.

Further opposition was voiced in the Irish Parliament over the dissolution of the monasteries, and for some years pleas were made to the King to prevent the dissolution of some monasteries within the Pale. While these appeals were ignored, it does show that the ‘colonial community’ of the Pale did not readily agree to Henry VII’s dissolution of the monasteries. However, Henry proceeded, and as it was inevitable ‘several of the colonial elites in Ireland were pragmatic enough to take their share of the monastic spoils once it was apparent that in this instance self-denial would have achieved nothing’ (Jeffries, 2001). Indeed, developments in England in the dissolution of the monasteries ‘helped to psychologically prepare people in the Pale to acquiesce in religious change’ (Jeffries, 2001).

In England, ‘coercion, intimidation and censorship were widely used to silence conservative opponents’ and an intense ‘propaganda campaign’ through print and preaching ‘ensured that the Tudors’ ecclesiastical decrees were enforced successfully in England’s parishes’ (Jeffries, 2001). On the other hand, in the Pale there was little or no propaganda campaign and the Bishops lacked the support of the clergy to preach in many parishes. Indeed, the later injunctions to remove relics and images were also interpreted differently from parish to parish. In some cases, ‘images were effectively removed and hidden by the locals, sometimes so successfully that they were not rediscovered for centuries’ (Bottigheimer, 1976).

Thus, the changes made by the Irish Parliament in 1536, were merely directed at replacing ‘the power of the pope by the power of the king’ (Ford, 1986) and there were no dramatic changes in the role of the clergy or in the traditions of service during Henry’s reformation period. In 1542 the Irish Parliament passed the Crown of Ireland Act which granted Henry, by his own directive, the title of King of Ireland to him and his successors. According to Jeffries (2001) ‘the dissolution of the monasteries was the most dramatic feature’ of the Reformation of Ireland under Henry VIII, in doing so he neutralised ‘the potential opposition of a powerful group.’ Nonetheless, Henry’s dissolution of the Irish monasteries only ‘reached 55 percent of approximately 140 monastic foundations, and 40 percent of approximately 200 mendicant orders in Ireland’ (Bottigheimer, 1776). So the surviving friars may have proved beneficial to the attempts of the counter-reformation during the later reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I.

Portrait of King Edward VI

King Edward VI succeeded his father King Henry VIII at the age of nine under a Protectorate Regency from 1547-1553. During his short-lived reign he made some attempts ‘to introduce liturgical reforms’ (Ford, 1988) and the Church of England became slightly more Protestant. The Book of Common Prayer was introduced in 1549 and aspects of Roman Catholic practices such as stained glass, shrines and statues were removed or destroyed and clergymen were allowed to marry (see www.royal.gov.uk). During the reign of Edward VI , the Forty-Two Articles were written in 1552 under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. It was in this document that Calvinist thought reached a new summit of its influence in the English Church. Religious change in the Pale was also accelerated with the introduction of the Common Prayer Book across many parishes, with the exception of the diocese of Armagh (Jeffries, 2001). However, Edward VI’s attempts to introduce a more Protestant church were halted by the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary I.

Bibliography

Bottigheimer, Karl S. (1976) ‘The Reformation in Ireland Revisited’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2

Ford, Alan (1986) ‘The Protestant Reformation in Ireland’ in eds. Ciaran Brady and Raymond Gillespie Natives and Newcomers: Essays on the Making of Irish Colonial Society, 1534-1641 Irish Academic Press, 1986

Jeffries, H., ‘(2001). ‘The Early Tudor Reformation in the Irish Pale’, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 52, No. 1

 

Images

Portrait of Henry VIII by the workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger.  public domain work of art. Retrieved from  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Workshop_of_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Portrait of King Edward VI by Circle of William Scrots (fl. 1537–1554). It is a formal portrait in the Elizabethan style of Edward in his early teens.  public domain work of art. Retrieved from  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Edward_VI_of_England.jpg

Catherine of Aragon by Lucas Hornebolte.  public domain work of art. Retrieved from  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_aragon.jpg

A Brief Introduction to Dublin Core

In a previous post, I briefly discussed CONTENTdm as a software option for the purpose of creating and managing digital collections. In the same post, I noted that it appears to be a consequence of the manual annotation of descriptive metadata entered in the fields of such software which ensures that a political cartoon is described both objectively and subjectively to provide relevance and meaning. Thus, while software solutions such as CONTENTdm provide basic and customised options for faculties/institutions to describe their digital resources, through local fields which can then be mapped to Dublin Core metadata scheme, I suggested that it is not a software issue, rather, I proposed it is a human issue in that political cartoons need to be described manually as visual communications, with both content and meaning. However, elsewhere I found that the application of metadata standards also seems to be relevant for the purpose of the discovery and retrieval of political cartoons from digital collections. Since the development of the World Wide Web, there has been a challenge to develop metadata based systems for the purpose of discovery and information retrieval. One of the early front runners was Dublin Core Metadata Element Set and this post will provide a brief introduction for same.

Metadata is often plainly described as data about data (Miller 1; Pearce-Moses 248; NISO 1), however, as a term it refers to structured information about resources or objects that support other functions such as search and retrieval or information management (Day; Zavalina 147; NISO 1). Metadata is applied to a digital collection as a whole, as well as to the individual digital items (Fenlon, Jett and Palmer) and may be encoded within a digital object itself, or in a separate but closely related file (Digital Gateway). Miller adds that “the quality of the metadata that is input into the fields is what determines the findability and interpretability of the resources in the collection” (19). The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, also known as Dublin Core (DC) was an early front runner to become an international standard. It originated in a conversation by a small group of individuals, in late 1994, at the Second International World Wide Web Conference (Phelps 326). Within this conversation, it was determined that there was a need for a metadata system which “a system of metadata” with a “core set of semantics for Web-based resources” to provide for an easier approach in search and retrieval on the Internet (Phelps 326). The aim was to determine a system of metadata to describe a HTML page and embed the encoded metadata within the actual HTML page, to facilitate its identification and discovery.

From there, a workshop for over fifty representatives from the world was devised in Dublin, Ohio, USA, and sponsored by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) (Weibel et al.). Its aims were to identify “the needs, strengths, shortcomings, and solutions of the stakeholders” and to reach “consensus on a core set of metadata elements to describe networked resources” (Weibel et al). Thirteen metadata elements were adopted at the initial workshop and described as “a simple resource description record” to be known as Dublin Core (Dempsey and Weibel). A further two elements were added, due to a third DC workshop in late 1996, which sought to broaden the resource scope to include images. It was acknowledged “that though texts and visual resources are different in many ways, the categories for grouping them and describing them are not so very different” (Weibel and Hakala). This brought Dublin Core metadata elements up to fifteen with the aim of enabling electronic and web-based information providers with the means to describe their resources without the need for specialist training, as was required for MARC records (Beale 40)

The fifteen elements fall into three types of categories as outlined below in Table 1 (Weibel, Kunze, Lagoze and Wolf). From 1997, the development and appraisal of Dublin Core metadata scheme was entrusted to a community of volunteers who became known as the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), and work began on complimenting the original element set with qualifiers for more specificity, known as the Canberra Qualifiers (Weibel and Iannella). This resulted in the introduction of Qualified Dublin Core from 2000 with an additional three elements, and a class of refinements (qualifiers) for further elaboration on the original elements (Harper 23). From 2001, all proposed changes for the terms and documentation of Dublin Core fell under the remit of the DCMI Usage Board. Dublin Core is optimised for use via XML or HTML formats for simple indexing, human understanding, and basic interoperability. From 2001-2003, Dublin Core became a national (ANC/NISO) and international standard through ISO 15836, and from there became a “core vocabulary for RDF predicates” (Talley; Harper 23).

In 2004, Beale critiqued Dublin Core for its simplicity and cited the loss of specificity and data as a fundamental flaw (Beale 40). Similar arguments were highlighted by the library community by weighing up Dublin Core “through comparisons with MARC and other standards in use in the library community” (Harper 22). On the other hand, Harper notes that the development of Dublin Core was not intended to replace other resource description frameworks, but to complement them and provide interoperability between more complicated resource description frameworks (Harper 22). While a study by Phelps (2012) indicates that Dublin Core did not reach its hoped potential for being a widely implemented standard, nonetheless, it has been adopted by digital asset management software such as CONTENTdm and Omeka as a default metadata scheme.

In the context of its application as an appropriate metadata scheme for political cartoons in digital collections, Landbeck dismisses Dublin Core as a metadata scheme (“The Description and Indexing of Editorial Cartoons” 59). He claims that while it is designed for multiple use “it does not deal well with complex relationships between items”, therefore, he notes that because of this its value is lessened as a metadata scheme for “cartoon-description” (Ibid.). Moreover, he adds that it is “less than ideal” for applying to editorial cartoons due to “the focus in its origination and continued emphasis on Web-based information sources” (Ibid. 59-60). On the other hand, Landbeck asserts that the Visual Resources Core 4.0 (VRA) metadata scheme “is designed for the cataloguing of such things as editorial cartoons” (Ibid. 60).  VRA Core was created by the Visual Resources Association (VRA) as a metadata standard “for the description of works of visual culture as well as the images that document them” (VRA “Support Pages”). However, Landbeck fails to discuss why VRA Core is not widely adopted by mainstream information organisations. In a study by Park and Tosaka (2013) on the metadata schemes used by a sample section of information organizations for some or all of their resources, only 14.9 percent of the sampled organisations use VRA Core, whereas 25.4 percent of the sampled organisations use Simple Dublin Core, and 40.6 percent use Qualified Dublin Core. Landbeck also negates to mention that later versions of VRA Core were influenced by Dublin Core (JISC “Putting Things in Order”). Thus, in investigating this further, this research will further explore Qualified Dublin Core for its potential as a metadata scheme applicable to political cartoons, and the findings will be analysed in a later post.

 

Bibliography

• ___ “NISO Announces Dublin Core Metadata Element Set Approval, Formation Of Committee To Revise Library Statistics Standard.” Information Today 18.10 (2001): 46. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May. 2015.
• Beall, J. “Dublin Core: An Obituary.” Library Hi Tech News 21.8 (2004): 40–41. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/bibcontrol/osmc/dcobit.pdf>
• Day, Michael. “Metadata in a nutshell.” UKOLN, Draft of an article published in Information Europe 6 (2), Summer 2001. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/publications/nutshell/>
• DCMI. “About Us: Mission and Principles.” The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), n.d. Web 01 Apr. 2015 <http://dublincore.org/about-us/>
• DCMI “Glossary/DCMI Abstract Model.” “ DCMI Wiki <http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/Glossary/DCMI_Abstract_Model>
• DCMI. “Metadata Basics.” The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), n.d. Web 29 Apr. 2015.
• Dekkers, Makx. “History, objectives and approaches of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.” DCMI Tutorial: Dublin Core – Building blocks for interoperability, 17 December 2009. Web. 01 May. 2015. <http://dublincore.org/resources/training/frd_20091217/Tutorial_FRD_dekkers-1.pdf>
• Dempsey, Lorcan and Weibel, Stuart L. “The Warwick Metadata Workshop: A Framework for the Deployment of Resource Description” D-Lib Magazine, July/August 1996. Web 29 Apr. 2015. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july96/07weibel.html>
• Digital Gateway. “Metadata.” Washington University, Digital Library Services, Digital Gateway, 23 January 2013. Web 12 Mar. 2015. <http://digital.wustl.edu/manage/metadata.html>
• Fenlon, Katrina, Jacob Jett, and Carole L. Palmer. “Digital Collections and Aggregations.” DH Curation Guide(2011): n. pag. Web. 12 May 2015.<http://guide.dhcuration.org/collections/>
• Harper, Corey, A. “DCMI: Beyond the Element Set.” Information Standards Quarterly 22.1 (2010): 20-.Web 17 May 2015. <http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/free/FE_DCMI_Harper_isqv22no1.pdf>
• Iannella, Renato and Heery, Rachel. “Dublin Core Metadata Initiative – Structure and Operation.” Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, 31 May, 1999. Web 18 Apr. 2015. <http://dublincore.org/documents/1999/05/31/dcmi-structure/>
• JISC. “Putting Things in Order: a Directory of Metadata Schemas and Related Standards” JISC Digital Media | Guide. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.<http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/putting-things-in-order-links-to-metadata-schemas-and-related-standards/>
• Landbeck, Chris. “The Description and Indexing of Editorial Cartoons. An Exploratory Study.” PhD Dissertation, Florida State University, 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015. Electronic Theses, Treatise and Dissertations Paper 5469, The Florida State University, Diginole Commons.
• NISO. Understanding Metadata. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 2004. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf>
• Park, Jung-ran, and Yuji Tosaka. “Metadata Creation Practices in Digital Repositories and Collections: Schemata, Selection Criteria, and Interoperability.” Information Technology and Libraries 29.3 (2013): 104–116. ejournals.bc.edu. Web. 30 May 2015. <http://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/3136/2750>
• Pearce-Moses, Richard. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. <http://files.archivists.org/pubs/free/SAA-Glossary-2005.pdf>
• Phelps, Tyler Elisabeth. “An Evaluation of Metadata and Dublin Core Use in Web-Based Resources.” Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services 62.4 (2012): 326-335. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
• Talley, David. “A process documentation model for DCMI.” Proceedings of the 30th ACM international conference on design of communication (2012):  289-294.Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
• Weibel, Stuart and Renato Iannella. “The 4th Dublin Core Metadata Workshop Report. DC-4, March 3 – 5, 1997, National Library of Australia, Canberra.” D-Lib Magazine, June 1997. Web 09 Mar. 2015 <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june97/metadata/06weibel.html  >
  Weibel, Stuart; Godby, Jean; Miller, Eric; Ron, Daniel. “OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Report.” DC-1: OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop, March 1-3, 1995, Dublin, Ohio USA. Web 29 Oct. 2014 <http://dublincore.org/workshops/dc1/report.shtml>
• Weibel, Stuart and Juha Hakala.“DC-5: The Helsinki Metadata Workshop: A Report on the Workshop and Subsequent Developments.” D-Lib Magazine, February 1998. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february98/02weibel.html >
• Weibel, S.; Kunze, J.; Lagoze, C.; Wolf, M. “Dublin Core Metadata for Resource Discovery.” IETF #2413. The Internet Society, September 1998. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2413.txt>
• Weibel, Stuart and Miller, Eric. “Image Description on the Internet: A Summary of the CNI/OCLC Image Metadata Workshop.” D-Lib Magazine, January 1997. Web. 01 Oct. 2014 <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january97/oclc/01weibel.html>
• Zavalina, Oksana L. “Free-Text Collection-Level Subject Metadata in Large-Scale Digital Libraries: A Comparative Content Analysis.” International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications (2011): 147–157. dcpapers.dublincore.org. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://dcpapers.dublincore.org/pubs/article/view/3630&gt;

Using CONTENTdm for digital collections with political cartoons

In the last post I looked at a brief review of digital collections with political cartoons, and suggested that the metadata standards applied to digitised political/editorial cartoons is varied, and most likely dependent on the general metadata standards of the faculty/library involved. I also noted that the provision of descriptive metadata in the reviewed collections was applied inconsistently, perhaps with the exception of the AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection. I found it interesting that the software used to manage the AAEC collection is CONTENTdm which uses Dublin Core as a metadata standard by default. Thus, I thought it might be worth investigating further whether CONTENTdm is a useful system for the purpose of the discovery and identification of digitised political cartoons in digital collections.

CONTENTdm is Digital Collection Management software. Various libraries, museums, and archives have adopted CONTENTdm to deliver their digitised content through digital collections, and while it “derives its default metadata scheme directly from Dublin Core, the application allows implementers to add locally defined unique metadata fields on a collection-by-collection basis” (Han et al. 216). According to Miller it is one of the “most widely used multipurpose software for digital collections” within the United States (Miller 16). In defining a digital collection, Miller proffers it as “a collection of digital resources, along with metadata about those resources, made available online through an interface that allows users to search and/or browse the contents of that collection” (Miller 6).

Following widespread user testability, CONTENTdm 6 version was released in 2011 with emphasis on a user-centred design to enable “a more intuitive experience for end users” in delivering digital collections (“OCLC Launches Redesigned CONTENTdm” 5; Land; Grunberg et al. 205). It is regarded as a useful tool for archives and libraries that have “no in-house technical support” (Kirkland qtd. in “OCLC Launches Redesigned CONTENTdm” Libraries 5), while it can also be customised to a more advanced level for institutions with technical expertise (Grunberg et al. 205). It is also noted as offering “simpler access to digital items, easier navigation paths, dynamic interaction with digital items, and multiple avenues for discovery” (“OCLC Launches Redesigned CONTENTdm” 5). It has the capability to extract “embedded image metadata” (Ibid.) and allows for the inclusion of “locally defined metadata fields and the freedom to then map or not map these local fields to Dublin Core however the implementer sees fit for purposes of metadata record export” (Hans et al. 214). According to Han et al. “no single metadata standard works for every digital collection”, therefore they add that “it is inevitable for collection curators to develop and use locally defined unique fields for collections in their local environments” (214). However, the use of local content fields also presents a challenge for regulating metadata records for the purpose of aggregation and interoperability. To this end, CONTENTdm also includes “OAI-PMH functionality” and this has been welcomed as “a boon to digital special collection curators and metadata aggregators alike” (Han et al. 217).

In a 2006 report, titled Contexts and Contributions: Building the Distributed Library, Brogan notes the importance of metadata aggregation, and adds: “[as] the digital content in repositories proliferates, efficient and consistent interoperability specifications are essential for effective downstream applications across a full spectrum of scholarly information arenas extending from e-research and e-learning to Web publishing and administrative computing (“Introduction”). The Open Archives Initiatives “develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content” and is a defined by OAI-PMH as a “low-barrier mechanism for repository interoperability” (Open Archives Initiative Website). The Open Archives Initiatives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) was released in 2001, and was co-funded in its early development by the Digital Library Federation (DLF), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Brogan “Introduction”). It has since “become a widely accepted, international harvesting protocol for sharing metadata between services” and is based on the open standards of Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) (Brogan “Introduction”).

As part of the research, I recently reviewed fifteen online digital collections with political cartoons for the purpose of examining indexing consistencies, and metadata application. From the sample review, I found that there appears to be no consistency for the descriptive indexing of digitised political cartoons and my findings are expressed in the chart below.

Interestingly, the sample review also revealed that four collection resources utilised CONTENTdm software, being the AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection, the Editorial Cartoons of Jay N. “Ding” Darling Collection, Penn State University Digital Collections, and Sykes Editorial Cartoon Collection. However, in evaluating these collections for the provision of descriptive metadata, and while this should not be deduced as conclusive, the chart below reveals that the use of CONTENTdm does not guarantee more consistency. Moreover, it appears to be a consequence of the manual annotation of descriptive metadata entered in the fields of such software which ensures that a political cartoon is described both objectively and subjectively to provide relevance and meaning. Nonetheless, software solutions such as CONTENTdm provide basic and customised options for faculties/institutions to describe their digital resources, through local fields which can then be mapped to Dublin Core metadata scheme, thus, I suggest that it is not a software issue, rather, I propose that it is a human issue in that political cartoons need to be described manually as visual communications, with both content and meaning.

Bibliography

• —. “CONTENTdm.” Brochure, OCLC, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.<http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/services/brochures/211472usb_contentdm.pdf>
•  —. “OCLC Launches Redesigned CONTENTdm.” Advanced Technology Libraries 40.4 (2011): 5–5. EBSCOHost. Web 02 Mar. 2015.
•  Brogan, Martha L. Contexts and Contributions: Building the Distributed Library. Washington D.C.: Digital Library Federation, 2006. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://old.diglib.org/pubs/dlf106/#ack>
•  Land, Jennifer. “CONTENTdm Review.” G2 Crowd. 01 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 May 2015. <https://www.g2crowd.com/survey_responses/contentdm-review-30087>
•  Grunberg, Eve, Francesca Francis, and Jennifer Bazeley. “Sailing the Digital Seas: Charting a New Course with CONTENTdm.” The Serials Librarian 66.1-4 (2014): 204–211. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. 14 May 2015.
•  Han, Myung-Ja et al. “Metadata for Special Collections in CONTENTdm: How to Improve Interoperability of Unique Fields Through OAI-PMH.” Journal of Library Metadata 9.3-4 (2009): 213–238. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
• Miller, Stephen J. Metadata for Digital Collections (How-to-Do-It Manual). Pap/Psc edition. London: Neal-Schumann Publishers, Inc. Series:  How-To-Do-It Manual Series (for Librarians). Print.
•  Skinner, Geoffrey. “CONTENTdm Review.” G2 Crowd. 03 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 May 2015. <https://www.g2crowd.com/survey_responses/contentdm-review-30230>

A Brief Review of Digital Collections with Political Cartoons

For my post-grad I undertook the AFF613A module for Special Topics in Digital Humanities at NUIM – MA in Digital Humanities. It involved independent research and engaged with an analysis of metadata standards for political cartoons that were intended for publication, or published in print media and are now digitised and presented online in digital collections. Political cartoons are often referred to as editorial cartoons with the term ‘political’ being applied in a constricted sense, in that the portrayal of social, cultural and economic issues may result in political consequences (Mazid 435). The rationale for the research evolved from issues I detected in the search and retrieval processes of political cartoons in various digital collections. I hypothesise that issues relating to the discovery and identification of digitised political cartoons in online digital collections arises from a lack of consistency in the indexing of such cartoons, but also in the application of metadata standards. As an attempt to justify the assertion of this hypothesis, I have compiled a brief review of digital collections with political cartoons.

AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection

The AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection at McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi has over 1000 editorial cartoons by more than 50 cartoonists from the 1960s-1970s. They use a “core set of forty metadata fields based on Dublin Core” (Capell and Ginn 3; also see Nasr 47). The metadata “fields are mapped to the appropriate DC elements in CONTENTdm”, a data management system (University of Mississippi Libraries “Best Practices (General Documents)”). While, they make no reference to the editorial or headlines of the newspaper in which the cartoon appeared, they provide a good description of the cartoon inclusive of the speech text, and persons depicted. The subject headings tend to be from a controlled vocabulary and are relevant in providing a further description of the cartoon. It is extremely user-friendly and documentation for best practices and metadata guidelines is easy to find. Overall, it is consistent in following the same standards for each cartoon, and is one of the better model examples of a digital collection for political/editorial cartoons.

British Cartoon Archive (BCA) – University of Kent – Templeman Library

The BCA specifically deals with cartoons, and has vast experience in digitising cartoons from the 1990s (for a full overview of the history of the BCA, see Newton). They pursued a mass-scale digitisation project from 2007-2009 funded by the JISC, and developed a new-website to support their collections (BCAD Steering Group). Presently, the cartoons are catalogued using ISAD (G) 2nd edition through Calm software, and often include the use of keywords and authority files for personalities to assist in deciphering the meaning (BCAD Steering Group 6). To facilitate interoperability, the records are field mapped to MODS and Dublin Core metadata standards for their digital collections (Ibid.).  In their online digital collections, they use authority file headings for ‘People depicted’ which is quite consistent, but they also have a field for ‘People referred to’, although this seems to be used inconsistently. Some cartoons are accompanied by a field labelled ‘Embedded text’ which provides the verbatim text within the cartoon, another field used is ‘Implied text’ via a description of news events or newspaper headlines, but neither are applied consistently. For some cartoons, there are considerable efforts made to provide information in as many fields as possible, and particularly in the subject headings. On the other hand, there are many cartoons with a minimal amount of information. Ultimately, it is hard to find documentation for their best practices and metadata standards, and this review was dependant on a BCA steering group report for the JISC from 2009. Nonetheless, overall this was an ambitious undertaking and it appears to be improving all the time.

Cartoon Image Database – Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at the Ohio State University Library is one of the largest academic research facilities in the United States “devoted to cartoon art” (Wu 541). The Ohio State University Library is a member of the OhioLINK consortium of libraries and faculties, which was founded in 1987 to bring “an extensive array of resources and services together to meet the information and research needs of Ohio students, faculty, staff, and a broader community of citizens” (Gilgenbach et al. 151). OhioLINK emphasises the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) as a metadata standard for its members to enable interoperability between libraries, archives and faculties. From 2002, the Ohio State University Library (OSUL) developed “templates for encoding finding aids in accordance with the EAD standard, with the goal of producing a system that could be used across all its special collections departments” (Gilgenbach et al. 152). Nonetheless, in the political cartoon section, there is no provision for a description of the cartoon, subject headings or a note of the in-text or embedded speech; nor is there a mention of the editorial or headlines of the news. Although, there are occasions when the cartoon is provided within its publication as a tear sheet (for example: “Israel Zangwell Absolves Great Britain and Attacks George Bernard Shaw”). While it may be a faculty that specialises in cartoon art, the information provided in its digital collections for political cartoons is somewhat disappointing in terms of descriptive metadata.

Charlie Daniels Editorial Cartoon Collection

The University of Tennessee uses Omeka to present the “Charlie Daniels Editorial Cartoon Collection” online. Omeka is an open source content management system for presenting digital collections online, and adheres to Dublin Core metadata standards (“Omeka”). All the cartoons presented are the original artwork (pre-press), and while the collection applies Dublin Core, there are a minimal number of elements. For example, the ‘Subject’ field is included but is minimal as a descriptor, the ‘Description’ element is also provided but contains no description of the cartoon, rather the field contains an ID number, and the ‘Date’ field is not provided. Moreover, there is no account of the in-text or text in speech bubbles. However, the University of Tennessee acknowledges that the “captions and dates were not a part of the original drawings, but were added later in the printing process”, thus, in order “to make the collection accessible without this information, the cartoons [were] arranged by themes” (The University of TennesseeLibraries). This would explain why some of the information provided is minimal; however, it does not explain why the in-text or text in speech bubbles is not accounted for as this could be easily added in a ‘Description’ field.

Digital Resources and Imaging Services (DRIS) @ TCD Library

The Digital Resources and Imaging Services (DRIS) Department in Trinity College Library, Dublin also contains political cartoons, and uses MODS metadata (Digital Humanities Observatory) but is not consistent with its descriptive information. For example, in their collection of digitised cartoons from the Irish Catholic Magazine Plates (1807-1815), attempts are made to include a note on the background of the cartoon, to describe its content and meaning, and its relationship to other cartoons within that particular collection. While this is of great benefit for the user to interpret the cartoon, this type of detail is absent in many other cartoons in the DRIS digital collection. Nonetheless, the department does admit that they are temporary records with basic information for identification and retrieval purposes only, and will be updated with scholarly research at a later time (see for example DRIS, Collection of Caricatures – shown below). This suggests that the Trinity College Library acknowledge that the indexing of political cartoons is not a straightforward process, and indicates that there is a need for more scholarly research into the process of indexing political cartoons for future digital collections.

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog – Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has various digital collections for print, video, audio, images and websites and subsequently uses a variety of metadata standards (Library of Congress “Digital Library Standards”). It has one the largest collections of historical and contemporary editorial cartoons in the world, with over 60,000 cartoons from both the US and foreign contributors (Landbeck 179). In the case of their editorial cartoon collections, they apply a MARC 21 record for their holdings of analogue cartoons. However, in their digital collection, the MARC record is field mapped to Dublin Core.

While there are many instances where there is provision of a summary for a cartoon, this is inconsistent with information. Some cartoons have the provision of a visual description in the summary field, while others have no description. While some cartoons have a note of embedded text and text speech in the summary field, this is not applied consistently, despite the apparent visibility of text in a cartoon, as shown in the image above and below. Also apparent from the image above and below is the lack of consistency in the application of subject and format headings through a controlled vocabulary. Finally, there are little or no instances of their relevancy to the editorial content of the newspaper in which they may have been published.

Conclusion

From this brief review it appears that the metadata standards applied to digitised political/editorial cartoons is varied, and most likely dependent on the general metadata standards of the faculty/library involved. Also, it is evident that the provision of descriptive metadata in the collections above is applied inconsistently, perhaps with the exception of the AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection at McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi. Thus, it is interesting that the software used to manage the AAEC collection is CONTENTdm which uses Dublin Core as a metadata standard by default. Indeed, this may warrant further research into how useful CONTENTdm is as system for the purpose of the discovery and identification of digitised political cartoons in digital collections.

Bibliography

• —. “Omeka.” Omeka Website, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. Web. 06 Jan. 2015. <http://omeka.org/>.
• —. “Working with Dublin Core.” Omeka Website, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. <http://omeka.org/codex/Working_with_Dublin_Core>
• —. “Overview.” CONTENTdm. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.oclc.org/en-US/contentdm.html>
• —. “AAEC Editorial Cartoons.” Digital Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/cartoon>
• —.“About the AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection.” Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries. Web. 02 Mar. 2015 <http://www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/exhibitions/aaec/about.htm>
• —.“Best Practices (General Documents).” The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.lib.usm.edu/techserv/metadata/bestpractices>
• —. “Charlie Daniels Editorial Cartoon Collection.” The University of Tennessee Libraries. Web. 28 Feb. 2015 <http://kiva.lib.utk.edu/omeka153/>
• Capell, Laura, and Linda Ginn. “Digital Collections: Design and Practice.” Mississippi Libraries 73.1 (2009): 3–7. Ebscohost. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
• DHO. “Digital Resources & Imaging Services.” Digital Humanities Observatory. Web 02 Mar. 2015. <http://drapier.dho.ie/node/222>
• Gilgenbach, Cara, Amy McCrory, and David Gaj. “The OhioLINK EAD Factory: Consortial Creation and Delivery of EAD.” Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference 31.2 (2007): 151–170. EBSCOhost. Web 07 Apr. 2015.
• Ginn, Linda.  “Metadata for Digital Collections.” The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, 23 April 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.  <http://www.lib.usm.edu/techserv/metadata.html>
• Library of Congress. “Digital Library Standards: Digital Collections and Services, Access to Print, Pictorial and Audio-Visual Collections and Other Digital Services.” Library of Congress webpage. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.       <http://www.loc.gov/library/digitalstandards.html>.
• Library of Congress. “MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk: Development and MARC Standards Office Library of Congress.” 24 April, 2004. Web. 02 Apr. 2015 <http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc2dc.html>
• Mazid, B. “Cowboy and misanthrope: a critical (discourse) analysis of Bush and bin Laden cartoons.” Discourse & Communication 2.4 (2008): 433–457. Sage Journals. Web. 02  Dec. 2014.
• Nasr, Nadia. “The AAEC Editorial Cartoon Digital Collection at McCain Library and Archives.” Mississippi Libraries 68.2 (2004): 47–48. Academia.edu. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
• Newton, Jane. “The Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury.” Contemporary British History 13.4 (1999): 170-179. Taylor & Francis. Web 08 Dec. 2014.
• Wu, Yejun. “Searching Digital Political Cartoons.” 2010 IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing (GrC). N.p., 2010. 541–545. IEEE Xplore. Web. 01 Mar. 2015

What is GIS Data?

GIS is an acronym for the term Geographic Information System. A GIS is a computer-based data management system that facilitates the input, capture, storage, retrieval, analysis, management, manipulation, output and display of georeferenced data, otherwise known as data that relates to a location on the surface of the Earth (Scurry; National Geographic). GIS software and tools are employed in a vast array of projects and scenarios such as urban and regional planning, forest and wildlife management, and emergency response analysis. GIS organises geographic data in such a way that “a person reading a map can select data necessary for a specific project or task” (ESRI 1). Therefore, a good GIS program should be capable of processing “geographic data from a variety of sources and integrate it into a map project” (Ibid.). According to Morais, GIS data tends to be separated into two types of categories: spatially referenced data which is represented in vector and raster data forms; and attribute tables which is data in tabular format (Morais “GIS Data Explored”).

Vector Data

There are normally three types of vector data:

• Polygon data: used to represent boundaries on large scale maps, i.e. a city, a forest. They are 2-dimensional and so may be used “to measure the area and perimeter of a geographic feature”, and tend to be distinguished via colour schemes (Morais “GIS Data Explored”).
• Line /Arc data: used to represent linear features, i.e. rivers, roads. They are 1-dimensional with a start and end point and so only measure length, and tend to be distinguished as unbroken, thickened or dashed lines (Ibid.).
• Point data: used to represent distinct data points or nonadjacent features. They are 0-dimensional with no length or area to measure i.e. a school, a library. It might also be used for a place name of a town as an abstract point (Ibid.).
  Raster Data

On the other hand, raster data or grid data represents land surfaces as a fourth type of feature. It is cell-based and includes satellite and aerial imagery (Morais “GIS Data Explored”; Briney; ArcGIS “What is raster data?”). When discussing imagery as a data type for GIS applications, it is inclusive of digitised vertical negatives, scanned photographs that were printed from film, or born-digital images. Digitised topographic maps are also included under the domain of raster data imagery (Briney; ArcGIS “What is raster data?”). In raster data, imagery types are often described in terms of hyperspectral, multispectral and panchromatic (Briney). For example, hyperspectral imagery is used for classifying different land types, and it is beneficial for agriculture, forestry management and monitoring the environment (Briney; Morais “Satellite imagery”). A raster is comprised of a grid of cells (or pixels) that are arranged into rows and columns, and each raster cell is assigned a value that represents information such as temperature or elevation (Briney; ArcGIS “What is raster data?”).

Raster Data Cell (Image source: ArcGIS ““What is Raster Data?”).

Typically, for use in GIS, a photograph/digital image needs to be registered to a specific place on the earth’s surface, a process known as georeferencing (Land Trust GIS). However, for such an image to present itself as an accurate representation of that surface it needs to go through a process of orthorectification (Ibid.). According to Lear, aerial photographs and maps appear to be “a natural combination to record and analyze geographical information: Maps provide geometric information and photographs add realistic, timely detail” (12). However, aerial imagery is recorded via cameras as a “flat plane . . . whereas the earth is curved and its terrain takes on many varied shapes” (Lear 12). Thus, aerial images are distorted and are rendered “invalid for mapping and geographic analysis” (Ibid.). Orthorectification is an attempt to overcome this problem. The process begins with the rectification of a scanned (rasterized) aerial photograph. Rectification “removes distortions arising from the camera lens, the aircraft’s position, and elevation and other topographical features” (Ibid.). The aerial photograph is then transformed into a high-resolution digital image “that correctly represent[s] the geometry of an area and its terrain” (Ibid.).

Typically, for best practice, in order for aerial images to be presented as accurate representations of the land surface through a GIS application, the images will need to undergo the process of orthorectification beforehand.

Bibliography

• ArcGIS. “What is raster data?” ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop Help, 22 Sept. 2008. <http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=What_is_raster_data%3F>
• Briney, Amanada.“Imagery and its use in GIS” GIS Lounge, 05 March 2015. <http://www.gislounge.com/imagery-use-gis/1/>
• ESRI. GIS Best Practices: Imagery. ESRI, September 2010. <http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/imagery.pdf>
• ESRI. “What is GIS?” <http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/howgisworks>
• Land Trust GIS. “Use Aerial or Satellite Imagery.” Land Trust GIS and GreenInfo Network, 2011. <http://landtrustgis.org/technology/advanced/imagery>
• Lear, A.C. “Digital Orthophotography: Mapping with Pictures.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 17.5 (1997): 12–14. IEEE Xplore. Web. 8 Jan. 2015.
• Morais, Caitlin Dempsey. “GIS Data Explored – Vector and Raster Data.” GIS Lounge. <http://www.gislounge.com/geodatabases-explored-vector-and-raster-data/>.
• Morais, Caitlin Dempsey. “Satellite Imagery.” GIS Lounge 9 Mar. 2011. <http://www.gislounge.com/satellite-imagery/>
• National Geographic. “GIS (geographic Information System).” National Geographic – Education Encyclopedia. N.d. <http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/geographic-information-system-gis/>
• Scurry, J. “What is GIS?” Characterization of the Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) Basin, South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Service Center. <http://www.nerrs.noaa.gov/doc/siteprofile/acebasin/html/gis_data/gisint2.htm>
• NCSU Libraries. “Overview of GIS in the Libraries.” New York State University Libraries, N.d.  <http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/overview.html>

A Visually Brief History of Genocide in the 20th Century

An Introduction to 3D Recording and Photogrammetry

This post provides an introduction to 3D recording and photogrammetry in the context of cultural heritage.

The recording of measurements and documentation has long been a process used by archaeologists to record fragile archaeological sites and excavation processes (Pollefeys et al. 2). Indeed, evidence is often disturbed or destroyed during the excavation process itself (Pollefeys et al. 2). Moreover, archaeology has relied on graphical documentation through “maps, excavation drawings, matrices and photographs”, and relied on “methods of presentation that are essentially two-dimensional” (Campana 7). One of the fundamentals behind the creation of 3D objects from 2D images is based on the concept of stereoscopic vision. For example, although human eyes are placed close together, nonetheless, both eyes see from different angles. The brain processes this information into one picture “interpreting the slight differences between each view as depth” (Speck). Thus, stereoscopic vision is the image perception from each eye which produces “a three-dimensional picture: one with height, width and depth” (Speck).

3D data is recognised as “a critical component to permanently record the form of important objects and sites so that, in digital form at least, they might be passed down to future generations” (Remondino 1104). The 3D recording of cultural heritage artefacts has several benefits. It allows for “the generation of very realistic 3D results (in terms of geometric and radiometric accuracy)” (Remondino 1105). The 3D results are then used for such purposes as

• Historical documentation;
• Conservation and preservation of the original artefact (interaction without handling, decreased risk of damage);
• Cross-comparisons with similar objects in terms of colour, texture and shape;
• Optimising restoration techniques;
• Creating simulations for aging and deterioration;
• Visual display of artefacts in multimedia exhibitions or web-based exhibitions;
• Virtual Tourism (Remondino 1105; Remondino and El-Hakim 269).
• 3D printing, i.e. additive manufacturing for research and educational purposes (Neumüller et al. 115)

Even with the availability of low cost computers, the advances in producing tools and software to create 3D models, and the ease of access to the Internet to display such models, “the generation of a precise and photo-realistic computer model of a complex object still requires considerable effort” (Remondino and El- Hakim 269). In order to acquire accurate and reliable 3D data, deliberation needs to be given to the workflow beforehand (Redmondino and El-Hakim 274). Questions like the type of camera to be used, the angles to be considered for obtaining a full representation, and the types of software required need to be considered as part of the approach when designing a workflow. Choosing the right software may ultimately depend on cost, the technical abilities of the user and the availability of suitable documentation to support the products. Often, the design phase of the workflow will consider the setting of the object, whether it is indoors or outdoors or whether it can be moved to a more appropriate location. For example, in a museum setting the design of the workflow will depend on the availability of museum staff to assist in the handling of the object, as this will determine whether the object can be turned upright to capture the base.

Other things to consider when planning the workflow are the management and conservation of the final 3D models, and the preservation of the data used to allow for the retrieval of such information for use in other applications for educational and further research purposes (Remondino 1105; also Pletinckx and Tartessos 34).[1] Remondino adds that “standards, comparative data and best practices are also needed; to show not only advantages but also limitations of systems and software” (1126). From this, it seems clear that the actual production of a 3D model should not be the solitary outcome. Rather, the documentation of the workflow in terms of capturing the data (or a rationale for the data selected for input), the processing methodology for the selected data, and the preservation and retrieval of the selected data for re-examination are equally important in terms of an outcome.

There are various methods used to produce 3D models in the cultural heritage sector, and methodologies will vary depending on the approach and tools used. According to Campana, “survey and documentation, as well as photography, present not an alternative to reality but an interpretation of reality, whether it be of an object, a context or a landscape” (7). Moreover, “a good interpretation relies on a clear understanding of the object itself, and of its essential characteristics” (Campana 7). Over the past two decades laser scanning and digital photogrammetry have emerged as important additions in providing “extraordinary potential for promoting a revolution in the documentation and recording of archaeological evidence and in its subsequent dissemination”  (Campana 7). Nonetheless, such innovations do not necessitate “a revolution in the field of archaeology generally” (Campana 7). Rather, Campana suggests that “[t]o play an active role in such advances a technique must be developed in such a way as to answer to the real needs of the archaeologist” (Campana 7). In contemporary settings, museums have also taken to using “robust digital imaging practices” through the “selective extraction of information from a sequence of standard digital photographs” (Mudge et al.). The extraction of information from the photographs is “selected by computer algorithms” and “integrated into a new digital representation containing knowledge not present in the original photographs” (Mudge et al.). This process is part of an emerging science and is more commonly known as Computational Photography (Mudge et al.).

Photogrammetry

The term ‘photogrammetry’ is derived from the Greek words phos or phot – meaning light; gramma – meaning a letter or something that is drawn; and metrein – meaning measurement (Schenk 3; Walford). As a concept, photogrammetry has developed in line with science and technology, and its phases of development are “directly related to the technological inventions of photography, airplanes, computers and electronics” (Schenk 7). Schenk suggests that the genesis of photogrammetry can be traced to the invention of photography in 1839 by Daguerre and Niepce, and thereafter through experimentation with “terrestrial and balloon photogrammetry” (Schenk 7-8). It was used by the military in World War II, and later by NASA “to make topographical maps of the moon for the Apollo missions” (Speck). In recent decades it has been applied in various fields from engineering to forensics (Walford; Svatý 121), environmental to forestry (Atlis Geomatics), and cartography to the “precise 3D documentation of Cultural Heritage” (Remondino 1111).  While current definitions are debated, Schenk provides a definition below to capture the central concept:

“Photogrammetry is the science of obtaining reliable information about the properties of surfaces and objects without physical contact with the objects, and of measuring and interpreting this information” (Schenk 3).

Major photogrammetric phases as a result of technological innovations (Schenk 8)

Remondino and El-Hakim describe photogrammetry as a 3D measurement technique which involves non-contact (269-270). It may be broken down into distinct phases: 1) data acquisition (inputs); 2) the application of photogrammetric procedures; and 3) the creation of photogrammetric products (outputs) (Schenk 4-6). Data is acquired through the use of sensors, such as digital cameras or laser scanners, and the products are derivatives of “single photographs or composites of overlapping photographs” (Schenk 5). Typical outputs include maps, measurement drawings and 3D models of a real-world scene or object (Walford). Photogrammetry may be further classified based on the location of the camera during photography. Aerial photogrammetry indicates that the data was acquired through a camera mounted on an aircraft or drone, while close-range photogrammetry indicates that the camera was hand-held or placed on a tripod close to the object (Walford).

Photogrammetry is considered as a suitable approach for processing image data due to its ability to “deliver at any scale of application accurate, metric and detailed 3D information with estimates of precision and reliability of the unknown parameters from the measured image correspondences (tie points)” (Remondino 1111). It is based on the principle of triangulation to produce 3D point measurements. Photogrammetric software figures out the exterior orientations of the images, that is “where the camera was and what direction it was pointing in when each image was captured” (Adams Technology Team Blog). Then “[b]y mathematically intersecting converging lines in space, the precise location of the point can be determined” (Geodetic Systems). For some time photogrammetry has been reserved for use by experts with expensive sensor equipment, however, in modern day, even a mobile camera phone with up to 5 Megapixels can be used for photogrammetric purposes (Remondino 1111-1112).

In conclusion, it would seem that the creation of a 3D digital object from 2D images is not merely about the production of a final 3D digital illustration, rather, it entails numerous and varied actions from planning the approach, designing a workflow, documenting the capturing and processing procedures as well as ensuring for the preservation of the data and the 3D model for the future.

Footnotes

[1] Pletinckx and Tartessos suggest that “the key elements are appropriate tools, a reliable and well understood workflow and a successful integration into the relevant institutes and organisations” (Pletinckx and Tartessos 33). Additionally, Pletinckx and Tartessos add that there also needs to be consideration for “the long term preservation of the results and all its sources in a structured way” (Pletinckx and Tartessos 34).

Bibliography

• Adam Technology Team Blog. “How Does Photogrammetry Work?” Web 27 Feb. 2015. <http://www.adamtech.com.au/Blog/?p=102>
• Campana, Stefano. “Archeological Needs.” 3D Recording and Modelling in Archaeology and  Cultural Heritage Theory and best practices. Eds. Remondino, Fabio and Stefano  Campana, 2014. Web. 04 March 2015. Academia
• Geodetic Systems “The Basics of Photogrammetry.” Geodetic Systems. Web 22 March 2015. <http://www.geodetic.com/v-stars/what-is-photogrammetry.aspx>
• Mudge et al. “Principles and Practices of Robust, Photography-based Digital Imaging Techniques for Museums.” VAST 2010, The 11th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, September 21–24, 2010, The Louvre, Paris, France. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. <http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Do/Publications/vast2010/vast2010_tu            torial_final_print.pdf>
• Neumüller, Moritz et al. “3D Printing for Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Accessibility, Research and Education.” 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage: A Roadmap in Digital Heritage Preservation. Ed. Marinos Ioannides and Ewald Quak. New York; Dordrecht; London: Springer, 2014. 119–135. Google Books.
• Pletinckx, Daniel, and Premio Tartessos. “Virtual Archaeology as an Integrated Preservation Method.” Virtual Archaeology Review 4 (2011): 33. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://varjournal.es/doc/varj02_004_07.pdf>.
• Pollefeys Marc; Luc Van Gool; Maarten Vergauwen; Kurt Cornelis; Frank Verbiest and Jan Tops. “3D Recording for Archaeological Fieldwork.” IEEE Computer Graphics and   ApplicationsIEEE Computer Society. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/pomarc/pubs/PollefeysCGA03.pdf>.
• Remondino, Fabio. ‘Heritage Recording and 3D Modeling with Photogrammetry and 3D Scanning. Remote Sensing 3 (2011): 1104-1138;
• Remondino, Fabio, and Sabry El-Hakim. “Image-Based 3D Modelling: A Review.” Photogrammetric Record115 (2006): 269-291. Academic Search Complete. Web.
• Speck, Shane. “Stereoscopic Vision.” HowStuffWorks. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/3d-pc-glasses.htm>.
• Schenk, T. ‘Introduction to Photogrammetry.’ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, The Ohio State University, Autumn Quarter 2005.Web 01 Mar. 2015.<http://www.mat.uc.pt/~gil/downloads/IntroPhoto.pdf>

 

Exploring the History of Uganda and the effects of British Foreign Policy

Some commentators consider history as a significant factor for the contemporary study of economic, social and political development in African countries (Bandyopadhyay and Green; Acemoglu et al.). Moreover, in order to grasp an understanding of contemporary conflicts in Africa, it is often essential to re-visit the diplomatic and foreign policies of colonial powers. Thus, this blog-post briefly explores the history of Uganda, the policies of the British in Uganda, and the development of conflicts which ensued after de-colonisation.

Prior to colonisation by the British, Uganda did not exist, thus, Uganda as a country is a man-made invention. Before colonisation, some regions were based on horizontal clan systems with clan councils, however, other areas gradually evolved to become kingdoms and power was centralised through a king or head chief (Kasozi 17-18).[1] Buganda and Bunyoro were both prominent kingdoms in the nineteenth-century. This is outlined in the map below.

Fig. 1 – Map of Uganda Protectorate with inner clan systems and kingdoms [2] 

Uganda Protectorate with inner clan systems and kingdoms. (Click on Image to enlarge)

British influence in Uganda first began in 1862 through explorers who were interested in finding the source of the river Nile (Low 74; Pulford 2; Beachey 451; Jones 8). British Anglican missionaries arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877,  followed by French Catholic missionaries, and the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was chartered to negotiate trade agreements in the region from 1888 (Pulford 51-58). From 1886 there were a series of religious wars in Buganda, initially between Muslims and Christians and then, from 1890, between ba-Ingleza Protestants and ba-Fransa Catholics.[3] Indeed, this religious schism would later re-emerge in the lead up to independence. With this conflict, British commercial interests were ardent to protect the trade route of the Nile, which prompted the British government to annex Buganda and other adjoining territories in order to create the Uganda Protectorate in 1894 (Pulford 3-4). Revolts and resistance were manifested in Bunyoro, Ankole, Lango and the West Nile. Bagandan, Nubian and Sudanese soldiers were led by British officers to quell resistance and were adept in the use of violence and “scorched-earth policy” (Kasozi 23-24).[4] The construction of the Ugandan Railway in 1896 also helped to consolidate the protectorate (Bell cited in West 3-4). However, the real conflict in Uganda emerges from the British system of indirect rule, which favoured the kingdom of Buganda due to its predominant exposure to Christianity (Pulford 4). Also, in line with British ideas of social Darwinism and racial science, Buganda was favoured as it had a more advanced system of political organisation than other kingdoms of the area (Rukuuka 72).[5]

In a divide-and–rule strategy the British exported the Ganda “political systems to other areas” and propped up “Baganda agents” throughout the protectorate (Stonehouse).[6] Indeed, the “Baganda became the cruel arm of the British” (Rukuuka 74) and this caused great resentment. Further divide-and–rule strategies favoured Buganda and parts of Busoga in agriculture, education and business opportunities, which promoted greater levels of prosperity (Kasozi 53-54). However, northern regions of Ankole, West Nile and the very South region of Kigezi were designated to supply labourers (Kasozi 53; Rukuuka 74). The British were cautious “not to empower the economically powerful south with the army, and so they reserved it for the northerners” (Rukuuka 74), such as the Lango and Acholi, and developed a myth that the Northerners were more appropriate for the army as they were renowned warriors (Stonehouse). As a consequence, a North-South divide was delineated due to British divide-and-rule strategies, and this would become more salient as time progressed.

From 1952, the British considered the prospects of the independence of Uganda, as a unitary state through the principle of uti possidetis.[7] However, Uganda lacked the presence of national liberation movements and local and regional politics was centred on discontent with Ganda administration, rather than with the British (Rukuuka 74). Indeed, Rukuuka (74) suggests that the “people of Uganda thus considered themselves primarily as members of their ethnic groups regions; their religions second, and then of Uganda last. This was the state of affairs at the dawn of independence.”[8] In the run up to Independence, the British introduced a system of elections for a National Assembly that would “include African representatives elected from districts throughout Uganda” (Rukuuka 74). This prompted the realisation that there would be a shift of power from Ganda elites to a more nationwide representation. In reaction, political parties began to emerge with their own regional agendas.

Catholics in Buganda formed the Democratic Party (DP) in 1956 “to fight the Protestant oligarchy” in the proposed forthcoming elections (Kasozi 66). The DP had Catholic votes from Buganda, Bunyoro and other regions (Rowe). The Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), led by Apolo Milton Obote was set up as a “party mainly for [P]rotestants outside Buganda” (Twaddle 81). It was flavoured with unitary Uganda nationalism, and they were sworn to prevent Ganda domination in the proposed new state of Uganda (Kasozi 60). The Kabaka Yekka (KY) was established in June 1961 as a Protestant, “neo-traditionalist”, monarchic party in Buganda and as a counter-movement against the Catholic DP, but also to fight for Bugandan autonomy (Hancock 419). The British then proposed a “federal form of government” to accompany the independence of Uganda, and met Buganda half-way, granting “a measure of internal autonomy if it participated fully in the national government” (Rowe). The UPC and KY formed an alliance in the run up to pre-independence elections in April 1962, despite Obote’s “known anti-Bagandan sentiments” (Kasozi 68). However, the UPC and KY only colluded to prevent the Catholic DP from gaining any control in a Ugandan state government. Such was the nature of the religious schism that existed since the religious wars of the late nineteenth-century. The KY and UPC gained the upper hand in the elections and formed a coalition government (Kasozi 68). Obote became prime minister and the Kabaka became the head of state and led Uganda to official independence in October 1962 (Kasozi 68).

From independence, Uganda lacked an indigenous political, social and economic leadership to guide the country from a colonial legacy to stable sovereignty. According to Kasozi (31):

Ugandans were handed a country with no integrated economy geared to the satisfaction of domestic demands; no indigenous property-owning class with an economic stake in the country – a class that would have had a lot to lose by the occurrence of social conflict – and no consolidated ruling class that could offer a strong base for social stability.

After a power struggle within the UPC and KY coalition, “the Kabaka was overthrown” by Obote in 1966, with the assistance of Idi Amin, who consequently “seized power for himself in 1971” (Johnson 194; Kaufman). As Obote was a member of the Lango tribe, and was supported by a large amount of Lango and Acholi soldiers in the army, Amin first set out to have them murdered and then targeted Acholi and Lango civilians (The Combat Genocide Association). Amin’s murderous dictatorship was finally brought to an end and Obote regained power in 1980, but there was controversy surrounding the elections and “[i]n 1981 Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A) launched a guerrilla war in central Uganda with the objective of replacing Milton Obote’s second government” (Finnström 200). Obote responded by targeting civilians in central Uganda, under the pretext that they were rebel supporters. Obote had people rounded into camps, but also left a trail of death that was found long after his reign in power (The Combat Genocide Association). The Acholi army general, Tito Okello, then ‘”ousted Obote and was head of state for a brief period before Museveni seized power in 1986” (Finnström 200). Indeed, from 1966 to 1985, “there were six changes of government and several institutional transformations. Each was violent, involving loss of life and property among the guilty and innocent alike” (Kasozi 59). Kasozi suggests that the ensuing violence from 1966 to 1985 can be summed up as “political violence [which] grew out of the deadly competition amongst various members of the political elite to grab state power as a means of securing economic benefits for themselves” (59-60). Thus, the conflict that ensued in Uganda from 1986 was largely due to a lack of indigenous social, economic and political leadership, ethnic regionalism and political and instrumentalist power struggles.

Notes:

[1] Clan leaders were elected by clan elders, to chair a clan council, and the council made decisions.Thus, clan leaders “had no power to extract labour, demand taxes, or enforce laws” – this was a council decision (Kasozi 17-18).

[2] Image Source: This map is an alteration of an excerpt available at Safari-in-Uganda.com (http://www.safari-in-uganda.com/en/safariafrika-country-und-people/history-und-politics/colonial-period/colonial-period.html); sources to provide alterations are from Kasozi (17-18).

[3] The Anglican evangelist Church Missionary Society (CMS) arrived in Buganda from 1877 and was closely followed by the French Roman Catholic Founding Fathers. This manifested Christian disunity in the area as both organisations were in contempt of each other. From the Anglo-German Agreement (1886), East Africa was organised into German and British spheres of influence. Soon after, Muslim revolts against the Germans, organised by Arabs, spilled over into Buganda, and dethroned the Kabaka (king) and expelled Christian missionaries. Anglican and Catholic missionaries and chiefs reluctantly joined forces and re-grouped against the Muslims to regain control of Buganda in 1890. With the Christians back in command, Anglicans and Catholics then struggled for control, but the Anglicans won with the support of the British imperial forces in 1892 (Beachey 455; Kasozi  28-29; Butlin 23). For a greater analysis on the battles between the ba-Ingleza Protestants and the ba-Fransa Catholics see Pulford (Chapter 14).

[4] According to Kasozi (23-24), there was a subsequent mutiny by Nubian and Sudanese soldiers, who disagreed with such policies, and they were executed if  apprehended.

[5] Prior to a European presence, Buganda was organised politically from 1750 – with the Kabaka (king), a Katikiro (chief minister), a treasurer, chief judge and other leaders with responsibilities to protect the kingdom. This formed a council of advisors known as the Great Lukiko, and was headed by the Kabaka (BUCADEF).

[6] Baganda: People of Buganda; Ganda: Adjective to describe culture, institutions etc of Buganda, for example – Ganda culture (Pulford; Kasozi). Roberts (1963 cited in Kasozi 24)  notes that the duties of Baganda agents “included providing intelligence to the collector (European official), keeping the peace (in many cases by violent means), upholding the authority of chiefs, recruiting labour, supervising the storage of food reserves, and enforcing the resolution of conflicts ‘among people who had never acknowledged their authority’.”

[7] Uti possidetis, ensured that the demarcation of the protectorate boundaries remained in tact.

[8] British policies of divide-and-rule in Uganda indirectly thwarted the development of any unitary nationalist movements in line with nationalist developments in other African states.

Bibliography:

• Acemoglu, Daron; Chaves, Isaías N.; Osafo-Kwaako Philip and Robinson, James A. “Indirect Rule and State Weakness in Africa: Sierra Leone in Comparative Perspective.”  NBER Chapters, in: African Successes: Sustainable Growth National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 2014, Web. 02 Oct. 2014 <http://www.nber.org/chapters/c13443.pdf>
• Bandyopadhyay, Sanghamitra and Green, Elliott2012. “Pre-Colonial Political Centralization and Contemporary Development in Uganda.” Working Papers 39, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research, 2012. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/pmartins/CGRWP39.pdf>
• Beachey, R. W. “The Arms Trade in East Africa in the Late Nineteenth Century.” The Journal of African History, 3.3 (1962): 451-467. JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.
• BUCADEF, “Parliament – The Great Lukiko.” Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. <http://bungandafriend.wordpress.com/parliament-the-great-lukiko/>
• Butlin, Robin A. Geographies of Empire: European Empires and Colonies c.1880-1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.
• Finnström, Sverker. “In and Out of Culture: Fieldwork in War-Torn Uganda.” Critique of Anthropology, 21.3 (2001): 247-58. Sage Journals. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.
• Finnström, Sverker. “Wars of the Past and War in the Present: The Lord’s Resistance Movement/Army in Uganda.” Africa (Edinburgh University Press) 76.2: (2006): 200-220. JSTOR. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.
• Hancock, Ian R. ‘Patriotism and Neo-Traditionalism in Buganda: The Kabaka Yekka (‘The King Alone’) Movement, 1961-1962’. The Journal of African History, (1970): 11.3: 419-434. JSTOR. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
• IRIN. “In-depth: Life in northern Uganda.” UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2004. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.<http://www.irinnews.org/in-depth/65780/23/uganda-overview>
• Johnson, Robert. British Imperialism. Gordonsville: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 2003. Ebrary. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.
• Jones, Herbert Gresford Uganda in Transformation: 1876–1926. London: The Camelot Press Limited, 1926. World Digital Library. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.<http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7771/>
• Kasozi, A. B. K. Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 1964-1985. Montréal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1994. Ebrary. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
• Kaufman, M. T. “Idi Amin, Murderous and Erratic Ruler of Uganda in the 70’s, Dies in Exile’. The New York Times, 17 August 2003. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/world/idi-amin-murderous-and-erratic-ruler-of-uganda-in-the-70-s-dies-in-exile.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1>
• Low, Donald Anthony. The Mind of Buganda: Documents of the Modern History of an African Kingdom. California: University of California Press, 1971. Print.
• Pulford, Cedric (1999). Eating Uganda: From Christianity to Conquest. London: Ituri Publications, 1999. Ebrary. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
• Rowe, John A. Chapter 1, in Rita M. Byrnes Ed. UGANDA, a country study, Federal Research Division – Library of Congress Web. 24 Oct. 2013. <http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html>
• Rukuuka, Solomon Bareebe. “Uganda’s ethnic revolution.” African Renaissance, (2005): 2.3: 72-80. Sabinet Reference. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.<http://reference.sabinet.co.za/document/EJC10108>
• Stonehouse, Aidan. ‘The Weight of History: Ethnic Identity and Colonial Rule in Uganda’, Think Africa Press, (2011). Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://thinkafricapress.com/uganda/identity-teso-acholi-lango>
• Twaddle, Michael. ‘The Emergence of Politico-Religious Groupings in Late Nineteenth-Century Buganda’. The Journal of African History, (1988): 29.1: 81-92, Special Issue in Honour of Roland Oliver, JSTOR. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Image Source: This map is an alteration of an excerpt available at Safari-in-Uganda.com (http://www.safari-in-uganda.com/en/safariafrika-country-und-people/history-und-politics/colonial-period/colonial-period.html); sources to provide alterations are from Kasozi (17-18).