Research Articles (Historical and Heritage Studies)

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Exploring a process-relational approach to qualitative research methods for sustainability science
(Wiley, 2024-08) García, María M.; Abunge, Caroline; Bandeira, Salomão O.; Cheupe, Christopher; Combane, Dadivo J.; Daw, Tim; O’Neill, Elizabeth M.D.; Hertz, Tilman; Mubai, Marlino Eugenio; Muthiga, Nyawira; González, Taís S.; Shauri, Halimu
As sustainability scientists increasingly put forward the relevance of process-relational approaches to make sense of social-ecological phenomena, an inquiry on which methods would fit a process-relational approach is necessary. This paper discusses how a process-relational approach can be applied to traditional qualitative research methods, namely interviews and coding and the tensions associated with it. Process-relational perspectives share commonalities with interpretative approaches but also present specific characteristics, such as the importance of material aspects and the understanding of the phenomenon as a moment in which different elements become defined respective to each other. The paper uses data and researchers' experiences from an action research project seeking to support collective action among coastal communities affected by environmental changes in Kenya and Mozambique.
When South Africa tried to make Zimbabwe its fifth province : settler colonial interests and legacies of the 1922 Rhodesian referendum
(Routledge, 2023) Nyamunda, Tinashe
This article is an introduction to a special issue on the hundred year scholarly reflections on the Rhodesian referendum and subsequent attainment of Responsible Government status. Foregrounded by an assessment of factors that led to the 1922 referendum, what follows examines new themes about the implications of Southern Rhodesia's settler state. A product of a workshop hosted by the University of Pretoria in 2023, the article introduces the studies carried in the special issue. It also points to possible new themes for future research on citizenship, state and economy-making that new research could explore.
Britse Intelligensiediens tydens die AngloBoereoorlog, 1899–1902
(Suid Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, 2024-12) Pretorius, Fransjohan; fransjohan.pretorius@up.ac.za
This study investigates the role played by the British Military Intelligence Division and more specifically, its subdivision, the Field Intelligence Department, in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. It starts with a brief overview of the sound work done by this division prior to the war. In 1896, an important new dispensation dawned with the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Sir John Ardagh as Director of Military Intelligence. Despite a limited budget the Military Intelligence Division did excellent work. Between 1896 and 1899 it prepared twelve reports with a view to the possibility of war in South Africa. The highlight of this preparatory work was the publication of a guide, Military notes on the Dutch republics of South Africa. The role played by the Field Intelligence Department (South Africa) in the defeats suffered by the British during “Black Week” (10 to 15 December 1899) next receives attention, as does the heavy storm of criticism that erupted in Britain over “Black Week”. This criticism of the Military Intelligence Division is largely unwarranted. Given its lack of funds and authority within the War Office it accomplished much, notably its accurate findings on the number of Boers liable for military service, the number and types of Boer armaments and the intentions of the Boer military leaders. There was indeed an initial lack of accurate mapping of the probable operational area. However, in the last eighteen months of the war the Topographical Section issued several maps, based on existing maps and reconnaissance, compiled for the most part by intelligence officers of the various columns. When Lord Roberts replaced Gen. Sir Redvers Buller as commander-in-chief of the British troops in South Africa in January 1900, intelligence improved dramatically. The Boers’ guerrilla warfare from the mid-1900s forced Roberts to apply counter-guerrilla tactics and split his force into smaller mobile units to gain better intelligence about Boer assaults. Between February 1901 and the end of the war on 31 May 1902, Lt.-Col. David Henderson the Director of the Field Intelligence Department (South Africa) made an important contribution to the effectiveness of the intelligence system. He divided the operational area into four districts – the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, the Cape Colony south of the Orange River, and Kimberley. These districts were then subdivided into sub-districts. A staff officer was placed in charge of each and was given the responsibility of collecting information on the enemy in his sub-district. It was his duty to supply the columns with interpreters, guides, scouts and maps. He also had to pass on relevant information received from his own agents, from columns in adjoining districts, and from headquarters in Pretoria. The staff officer was also required to send a telegraph to Henderson on Sunday evenings, providing a weekly summary of the situation in his sub-district. Where did the Field Intelligence Department (South Africa) get its information other than from its own scouts? It is clear that some Boers acted as British spies and there is also evidence that black people provided the department with information. An important source on intelligence activity was the private diaries and other documents that were confiscated from Boer prisoners of war. The point also made is that even when scouts gained valuable intelligence, problems arose with communication and this caused operations to fail. During the guerrilla phase the number of people working for the Field Intelligence Department (South Africa) increased dramatically, largely because the independent units now had their own intelligence officers. The department did good work in South Africa, but the Boer intelligence system was so efficient that they were able to out manoeuver the British troops, even when the Field Intelligence Department (South Africa) had accurate intelligence of their strength and disposition. In conclusion, two diaries taken from Boer prisoners of war that were translated by the Intelligence staff are analysed to determine their possible value for British intelligence.
The medical life of William Anderson Soga in late nineteenth-century Britain and South Africa
(Royal Society, 2025-04) Chetty, Suryakanthie; chetty.s@up.ac.za
William Anderson Soga is considered the first indigenous Western-educated medical doctor in the region that would become South Africa. As a medical missionary he epitomized the union of medicine and religion to promote ‘civilization’. This paper explores the world inhabited by the Sogas which comprised the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’, progress, conflict and conquest. It seeks to contextualize the figure of William Anderson Soga in late nineteenth-century South Africa and uses as a case study Soga’s thesis on the Bomvana as a means of understanding his own position as a figure of mixed heritage during a period when Western ‘civilization’ was unequivocally harnessed to the narrative of progress. Soga’s analysis of the health and indigenous healing practices of the Bomvana spanned the fields of medicine and ethnography, with a focus on the role of the environment, an environment that was rapidly changing owing to modernization. While Soga explicitly advocated Western medical practices, his thesis was nevertheless an attempt to record aspects of indigenous culture as they were being eroded by the pervasive influence of Western knowledge systems. Finally, this paper addresses the intellectual influences that underpinned Soga’s analysis, demonstrating the ambiguous legacy of modernity.
South Africa, 1994 + 30 : a conversation about history after apartheid
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-03) Dlamini, Jacob; Hassim, Shireen; Phillips, Laura Helen; Saunders, Chris; Simpson, Thula; Thumbran, Janeke; Magaziner, Daniel
In this wide-ranging conversation, six scholars of South Africa detail threads of continuity and change in the historiographies, popular memories, archives, research agendas, methodologies, and within the South African academy and historical professional since the end of formal apartheid in 1994.
“I have concluded that the US government will adopt a new focus in its policies towards the Government of South Africa.” President Jimmy Carter and Apartheid South Africa
(Routledge, 2024) Michel, Eddie
This article examines the shift in the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa that occurred during the period of the Carter administration. The White House, guided primarily by Carter’s deep commitment to humanitarian principles made a progressive transformation of South African society and the ending of racial discrimination a major foreign policy objective. Both publicly and privately the Carter administration took a tough stance against Pretoria including supporting a mandatory UN arms embargo. Ultimately, however, Carter failed in his goal of dismantling apartheid and his opposition to commercial sanctions led to a deepening of economic ties between Washington and Pretoria. His administration was also unable to stop South Africa from joining the nuclear club.
Electrochemical dating of archaeological gold based on repetitive voltammetry monitoring of silver/copper in depth concentration gradients
(Elsevier, 2023-07) Domenech-Carbo, Antonio; Scholz, Fritz; Brauns, Michael; Tiley-Nel, Sian; Van Bennekom, Joosje; Van Bork, Ellen; Barrio, Joaquin; Martinez-Caballero, Santiago; Oliver, Arturo; Aguilella, Gustavo; Martinez, Betlem; Domenech-Carbo, María Teresa
The use of repetitive voltammetry for dating archaeological gold objects is described. The method involves the record of the gold- silver-, and copper-related voltammetric responses obtained for metal nanosamples attached to graphite electrodes immersed into HCl electrolytes. This methodology permits to characterize different electrochemical types representative of different manufacturing techniques. Age estimates are based on the assumption that decuprification/desilvering processes advance with time under reasonably uniform conditions. Age calibration curves covering a range of ca. 2500 years were obtained from a set of archaeological samples from the Mapungubwe Gold Collection at the University of Pretoria Museums, South Africa, the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the Rheinische Landesmuseum Trier of Mannheim (Germany), the Museu de Belles Arts de Castelló, Spain, the Museu de Segovia, Spain, and the repository of the Servei d’Investigació Arqueològica Municipal de València, Spain.
Towards a history of xenophobia in Zimbabwe : rethinking racism and the culture of ‘othering’ in Zimbabwe, 1890-2020
(University of the Free State, 2023-12) Mlambo, Alois S.; alois.mlambo@up.ac.za
The article explores Zimbabwe’s history of racism, ethnicity, and other forms of “othering” from 1890 to 2020 and argues that, although scholars of Zimbabwe’s past have, hitherto, shied away from using the term, these pathologies amounted collectively to xenophobia. It calls on scholars of the country’s colonial history to investigate the degree to which the above pathologies were, arguably, xenophobic. The article argues that xenophobic tendencies in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe emanate from a number of key historical developments. These include the establishment of artificial colonial borders at the turn of the 19th century and the creation of an artificial nation-state called Southern Rhodesia, which engendered a new colonial identity that eventually crystallised into an exclusivist Zimbabwean nationalism and the divide and-rule segregationist racial colonial policies that promoted national disharmony. Also significant was the development of the settler colonial economy and its insatiable hunger for cheap African labour, which led to labour migration from neighbouring countries and the socio-economic tensions this unleashed. Last was the role of an increasingly parochial Shona nationalism, which claimed the Shona as the real owners of the land and whose proponents advanced a particularistic rendition of the past that is known in Zimbabwean historiography as “patriotic history”. The article then concludes by sketching out the various manifestations of xenophobic tendencies in the country in the period under study. The study is essentially a reappraisal of Zimbabwean history and not a product of new research and fieldwork.
A fart in the corridors of power : a socio-theological analysis of Evan Mawarire and Raymond Mpandasekwa’s activism
(AOSIS, 2023-12-26) Muzambi, Prosper; Dombo, Sylvester
#ThisFlag movement was started by Pastor Evan Mawarire in April 2016 bemoaning the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy at the hands of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government under President Robert Mugabe. Although it started off as accidental, it, however, galvanised disparate groups and enabled them to transform anger against the state from online media to the streets. #ThisFlag movement officially started on the 20th of April 2016, when Pastor Mawarire wearing the Zimbabwean flag posted a video to his Facebook page decrying the state of the economy and what he felt was government's neglect of its duties to serve the citizens of Zimbabwe. Although one government minister described Mawarire's actions as a 'pastor's fart in the corridors of power', the reaction by the state security agents points to the contrary. Street protests have been banned. This article interrogates the transformation of #ThisFlag movement from an online struggle to street protests that have turned violent. It also looks at other movements that are complementing #ThisFlag and how the state is responding to these protests both on the social media and on the ground. Evan Mawarire may be considered as an unusual voice from the ever mushrooming new church establishments. As such, it becomes a point of interest to find out what voice there is, which represents what is commonly viewed as mainline churches. Such a voice is identified as coming from Bishop Raymond Mpandasekwa of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chinhoyi who in one of his sermons delivered an acerbic attack on Mnangagwa's government as a 'blood thirsty' government. The study explored the messages of Mawarire and Mpandasekwa using the socio-theological lenses as guided by Rawls' theory of civil disobedience. CONTRIBUTION : This study locates #ThisFlag activism in the context of toxic transformative politics in Zimbabwe. In addition, it contributes to our understanding of the relationship between religion and politics in an unstable political and economic setting. It calls for a re-thinking of the role of the church in Zimbabwean society and discusses the state's response to those deemed to be not towing the line. It shows that while some religious organisations and groups are too keen to be co-opted by the regime, some have effectively resisted this and have become combative as they fight for people's rights. Another important contribution is located in how these pastor-cum-activists have harnessed social media to amplify their voices and to reach huge audiences beyond the pulpit. The study is important because it contextualises the role of religion in the country's contemporary politics, and this fits into the scope of the journal in that it is a multidisciplinary study of both religion and politics.
The face of battle : the ‘fighting first’s’ baptism of fire at the Battle of Elandslaagte, 21 October 1899
(Historical Association of South Africa, 2023-11) Mouton, Dawid J.
This article investigates the experiences of the 1st Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in the Battle of Elandslaagte fought on 21 October 1899 during the South African War of 1899 to 1902. This was the Manchesters’ first battle in nearly two decades and their first against modern weapons. Studies of the experiences of ordinary British soldiers during the South African War are limited. This scrutiny of letters written by the officers and troops of the Manchesters is supplemented by accounts published in British newspapers and an unpublished letter preserved in the Manchester Regiment Archive, all of which have been used to enhance existing narratives of the battle by exploring the soldiers’ perspectives of war. The article suggests that by making use of such sources it is possible to reconstruct the British ‘face of battle’ during the South African War. These published letters have some limitations, however, and are inclined to adhere to the popular ‘Tommy Atkins’ stereotype. Exploring the battle from the Manchesters’ viewpoint reveals that even though Elandslaagte was a near perfect execution of the three-stage set-piece battle, the soldiers involved experienced a turmoil of emotions ranging from confusion, frustration, loss, pain, discomfort, and even joy.
Traditional and biomedical health practices of adolescent boys and young men living with perinatally-acquired HIV in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
(Routledge, 2023-01) Gittings, Lesley; Colvin, Christopher; Hodes, Rebecca
Men are less vulnerable to HIV acquisition than women, but have poorer HIV-related health outcomes. They access HIV services less, and are more likely to die on antiretroviral therapy. The adolescent epidemic presents further challenges, and AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. We explored the health practices of adolescent boys and young men (aged 13–22) living with perinatally-acquired HIV and the processes through which these practices are formed and sustained. We engaged health-focused life history narratives (n=35), semi-structured interviews (n=32) and analysis of health facility files (n=41), alongside semi-structured interviews with traditional and biomedical health practitioners (n=14) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Participants did not access traditional products and services for HIV, a finding that deviates from much of the literature. Findings suggest that health practices are mediated not only by gender and culture, but also childhood experiences of growing up deeply embedded in the biomedical health system.
Residents’ quality of life in smart cities : a systematic literature review
(MDPI, 2023-04) Chang, Songling; Smith, Melanie Kay; u05256209@up.ac.za
Despite its popularity in urban studies, the smart city (SC) concept has not focused sufficient attention on citizens’ quality of life (QoL) until relatively recently. The aim of this study is, therefore, to examine the concept of QoL in SCs using a systematic review of 38 recent articles from 2020–2022. This includes definitions and concepts, indicators and domains that are used to measure QoL, and the typical research methods that are used to collect data. The review analyses some of the main themes that emerge from the field of SCQoL which include smart urban governance, sustainability, smart living, participation, and social inclusion. The findings from this SC and QoL research can help city planners to prioritize which domains are the most important or meaningful for citizens and which services to invest in. It has been suggested that smart living is the most important domain of a SC. However, various studies have found that citizens experience SC initiatives holistically and that QoL is quite dependent on context in terms of priorities. Therefore, citizen participation strategies should be tailored and adapted to each respective context. SC governance also needs to be more long-term and strategic with real evidence that citizens are involved in decision making and problem solving and are not just passive recipients.
Transnational revolutionary : Noel Mukono’s navigation of Zimbabwe’s fractious liberation struggle, 1957–77
(Routledge, 2023) Marmon, Brooks; eb.marmon@up.ac.za
This article recovers the role of Noel Mukono in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. The defence chief of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1964 to 1973, his pioneering role in instigating the armed struggle against the white settler government in Rhodesia is largely overlooked today. Mukono is a leading casualty of ‘patriotic history’, the contemporary Zimbabwean state’s manipulation of the independence struggle narrative. A journalist, Mukono left behind an unfinished memoir and personal papers which facilitate a deep examination of his political engagements. This material highlights Mukono’s status as a transnational revolutionary, instrumental in the internationalisation of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle. Through Mukono’s personal journey, this account explores transnational networks linking Zimbabwean nationalism with Zambia, the United Kingdom, Malawi, and Ghana. It provides new information regarding the extent of ZANU’s collaboration with the Mozambican nationalist movement, Frelimo. Finally, Mukono’s case illuminates an enigmatic period of ZANU infighting in exile which saw the Nhari Mutiny and assassination of Herbert Chitepo, the party’s National Chair. During this time, his globetrotting lifestyle was strategically used against him.
Modifying the model : developing the domestic tourism remodelling model
(AfricaJournals, 2023) Harris, Karen Leigh; Botha, Christoffel Rudolph
COVID-19 brought travel as we know it to a complete standstill. At the time it was believed that the impact of the pandemic was unprecedented and that the projected recovery would need to be both different and transformative. This was particularly evident from a product (supply) point of view given the renewed attempts to increase tourists (demand) to destinations. As a result of this hiatus, the travel industry needed to reconsider the shape and form of the tourism product in order to revive and ensure its sustainability. The objective of this investigation is to demonstrate how the product (supply) could be remodelled in a destabilised environment as a contingency plan so as to maintain and sustain tourist arrivals (demand) in the wake of any internal crises and other external emergencies. As a result, this article presents research on a newly devised novel approach to remodel the actual supply-side of the domestic tourism value chain so as to become more resilient and resistant. In principle this remodelling hones in on stimulating the development of a tourism product that takes into account other dimensions that were not formerly or conventionally regarded as part of the hyper-local touristic experience.
Cooperation and competition : South Africa and southern Rhodesia during and after the Second World War
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2023-08) Gwande, Victor Muchineripi; Mlombo, Abraham; abraham.mlombo@up.ac.za
This paper discusses relations between South Africa and Southern Rhodesia from 1939 to 1948. The article begins in 1939 when the outbreak of the Second World War brought mixed fortunes for the two neighbours. For Southern Rhodesia, which relied mainly on imported manufactured goods from the United Kingdom, the war induced shortages resulting in huge domestic demand. Shortages stimulated calls for local industry to fill the vacuum. Consequently, an import substitution industrialisation (ISI) drive developed. In addition to the ISI, South Africa, which had a comparatively established secondary industry by the time the war broke out, increasingly became an essential source for Southern Rhodesian imports. This, however, was not without its challenges. Southern Rhodesia’s economic interest groups often raised complaints against South Africa’s economic competition and its threat to the Rhodesian economy. Nonetheless, Pretoria and Salisbury worked closely and found ways to ease the challenges. By 1948, the end date of the paper, Southern Rhodesia and South Africa’s relationship had resulted in the signing of a Customs Union Agreement. Thus, the article demonstrates, thematically and chronologically, that relations between the two countries evolved through cooperation and competition during the Second World War until the onset of Apartheid in South Africa and the Customs Agreement. The paper relies on primary material from the Zimbabwean and South African archives comprised of correspondences of Customs Agreements negotiations, economic policies and relations, and Parliamentary debates.
‘We must analyse where our national interest lies and not worry too much about other people’s domestic policies’ : Richard M. Nixon and apartheid South Africa in the early 1970s
(Routledge, 2022) Michel, Eddie
This article explores the pragmatic stance that the United States adopted, during the Nixon era, regarding relations with Pretoria. The Nixon administration believed that Washington needed to prioritise the protection of its own strategic and commercial interests and not become overly concerned about the domestic agenda of its global partners. The vehement anti-communism of the National Party government combined with a profitable economic relationship and the abundant mineral resources of the apartheid state dictated a need on practical grounds for closer ties with South Africa. This stance was further reinforced by Nixon’s contempt for sub-Saharan Africans and lack of interest in achieving racial justice.
Money for Africa and money in Africa : colonial currencies and the making of economies and states, 1860s-1960s
(Cambridge University Press, 2023-09) Krozewski, Gerold; Nyamunda, Tinashe; tinashe.nyamunda@up.ac.za
No abstract available.
Civil society and peacebuilding in Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections
(Routledge, 2023) Ndakaripa, Musiwaro
Zimbabwe’s 30 July 2018 elections took place after ‘a military assisted transition’ that ousted Robert Mugabe and installed Emmerson Mnangagwa as president in November 2017. Initially, the new government projected a reformist image and gave civil society hope for a democratic dispensation. Using the ‘local approach’ framework of analysis, this article examines the role played by civil society organisations (CSOs) in peacebuilding in the 2018 elections. Arguably, civil society’s activities defused some tensions; and promoted cohesion, harmony, dialogue, engagement and peace among political actors in the pre-election period. However, CSOs’ lack of autonomy and partisanship dented their credibility and legitimacy in peacebuilding. Civil society’s polarised response to post-election violence shattered hopes for a common peacebuilding strategy.
‘Remember there is that thing called confidentiality’ : experiences of institutional discrimination in the health system among adolescent boys and young men living with HIV in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa
(Taylor and Francis, 2024) Gittings, Lesley; Hodes, Rebecca; Kom, Phakamani; Mbula, Sinebhongo; Pantelic, Marija
Adolescents and men are two populations that perform poorly within the HIV cascade of care, having worse AIDS-related health outcomes, and experiencing higher levels of HIV-related stigma. This paper explores institutional health system discrimination as experienced by adolescent boys with perinatally-acquired HIV, situating them within the social and gendered contexts of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Life history narratives (n = 36) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 32) with adolescent boys living with HIV aged 13–22 were conducted in 2017-2018. In-depth semi-structured interviews with biomedical and traditional health practitioners (n = 14), analysis of health facility files (n = 41) and clinic observations were also conducted. Together, triangulated sources point to an incongruence between the complex needs of adoelscent boys and young men living with HIV and their experiences within the health system. Two institutional discrimination-related deterrents to retention in care were identified: (1) lack of confidentiality due to health facility layouts and practices that visibilised people living with HIV; and (2) mistreatment in the form of shouting. This article contributes to the limited literature on the experiences of young men within the HIV continuum of care, focusing on how stigma influences how young men experience and engage with the health sector.
Rhizome networks : turmeric’s global journey from haldi doodh to turmeric latte
(Routledge, 2023) Paleker, Gairoonisa; nisa.paleker@up.ac.za
Turmeric has a long history of use in South and Southeast Asia going back thousands of years. Its first known reference is found in the Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedic texts of Hinduism. In Sanskrit it has over fifty names based on its use in cuisine, cosmetics, folk medicine, as dye and in Hindu cultural and religious rituals. Turmeric is also gendered in Sanskrit; it is feminised as gauri (to make fair, also a woman’s name), jayanti (winning over disease, also a woman’s name) and Lakshmi (prosperity, also a woman’s name as well as the goddess Lakshmi). It is the base spice in ‘curry’, central to marriage and religious rituals among many Indian communities and a staple of folk medicine for conditions ranging from sore throats to rheumatism and as antiseptic and antibiotic (jayanti). Haldi doodh (turmeric milk) is a common folk remedy for coughs, sore throats and related respiratory conditions. Turmeric, or haldi (its Hindi name) has also entered the global self-care and health foods wellness discourse with curcumin supplements being readily available in health shops and pharmacies. In the last few years it has also entered global popular culture with the introduction of beverages such as turmeric latte, aka, haldi doodh. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘rhizome thinking’ (1987), which recognises connections rather than ruptures, this article explores the global circulation of turmeric discourses as networks anchored in aspects of Vedic culture. In this framing, the metaphoric rhizome of curcuma longa is rooted in ancient Vedic culture but like the rhizome, has sprouted a multiplicity of offshoots, connections and discourses in networks of reciprocity and re-invigoration rather than only networks of cultural appropriations and cultural bastardisation. These discourses are gendered both in the deployment of the feminised attributes such as gauri and jayanti as well as in the domain of beauty and wellness branding by predominantly female food and wellness ‘gurus’. The article argues that this global circulation and sprouting of offshoots has imbricated turmeric in a globalised matrix of discursive meanings and social cultural practices that are rhizomatic.

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