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SUMMARY:“To Illuminate this Proverbial Dark Continent”: Lighting Infra
 structure and the South African Night\, 1860-1976 - Zachary Fleishman\, Fa
 culty of History\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20241126T131000Z
DTEND:20241126T140000Z
UID:TALK224827@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Amelia Hassoun
DESCRIPTION:From the mid-nineteenth century\, towns in the territory we no
 w call South Africa began to light up at night\, lit first oil and then ga
 s and electric lamps. By the mid-twentieth century electricity was in plac
 e in most South African towns. As they appeared\, these new light sources 
 significantly altered the understandings and experiences of the night for 
 those living in the areas in which they were introduced\, producing ideas 
 and experiences that came to link lighting and the brightly lit night with
  notions of security\, progress and modern life. However\, the distributio
 n of electricity throughout the region was uneven. Consistently\, the area
 s reserved for African occupation\, both rural and urban\, were not provid
 ed with electricity\, leaving them in darkness at night. Still in 1989\, t
 he national electricity provider reported that only one-third of South Afr
 icans had access to electricity. My research explores the work of lighting
  infrastructure to materially light the night in South Africa\, generating
  a novel set of nighttime activities and sensations\, and thereby imbuing 
 the night\, as a timespace\, with new symbolism and ambiance. However\, wi
 th attention to South Africa’s divided lightscape\, I examine the ways i
 n which the unequal and differentiated distribution of lighting infrastruc
 ture works to construct significantly distinct nights\, with their own com
 prising semantic and phenomenal entanglements\, in separated areas – dis
 crete timespaces\, that nonetheless exist and make meaning/are made meanin
 gful in direct relation to each other.
LOCATION:Richard King room\, Darwin College
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