Artbooks as witness of everyday resistance. Using art with displaced children living in Johannesburg, South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 204361062199582
Author(s):  
Glynis Clacherty
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Creative Arts ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Displaced Children ◽  
Everyday Resistance ◽  
Laws And Policies

Artbooks, which are a combined form of picture and story book created using mixed media, can be a simple yet powerful way of supporting children affected by war and displacement to tell their stories. They allow children to work through the creative arts, which protects them from being overwhelmed by difficult memories. They also allow, even very young children, to show us how they cope with past violence and present injustice by recalling and representing the small everyday overcomings of their lives – a garden they planted in DRC, a mother who walks them across a busy Johannesburg street, a curtain blowing in the door of their new home – just as it did in their old home. The books allow them to witness to the injustice of xenophobic violence by neighbours and the immoveable bureaucracy attached to accessing documents, through representing the small details of their lives in crayons and paint. Making artbooks also allows for some measure of meaning-making in the chaos of the everyday in a hostile city where their parents struggle to maintain a normal life for them. Books are also a powerful way for children to safely share their stories and advocate for changed attitudes, laws and policies in the increasingly migrant-hostile South African society. The article will tell the story of a book-making project run over a number of years at a community counselling centre that works with families on the move in Johannesburg South Africa. It will also describe how some of the children’s books have become a powerful advocacy tool through their inclusion in the digital library of the African Storybook project. The article will explore some of the practical details of the project and the theory around the power of the representation of the everyday which we are beginning to derive from the work.

Some Reflections on Reparation in Post-Apartheid South Africa, using a Couple Therapy Intervention as a Microcosm of South African Society

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Hill ◽  
Sylvia Poss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Couple Therapy ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Depressive Position ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
Transference And Countertransference ◽  
Constructive Engagement ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Therapy Intervention

The paper addresses the question of reparation in post-apartheid South Africa. The central hypothesis of the paper is that in South Africa current traumas or losses, such as the 2008 xenophobic attacks, may activate a ‘shared unconscious phantasy’ of irreparable damage inflicted by apartheid on the collective psyche of the South African nation which could block constructive engagement and healing. A brief couple therapy intervention by a white therapist with a black couple is used as a ‘microcosm’ to explore this question. The impact of an extreme current loss, when earlier losses have been sustained, is explored. Additionally, the impact of racial difference on the transference and countertransference between the therapist and the couple is explored to illustrate factors complicating the productive grieving and working through of the depressive position towards reparation.

Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 097370302110329
Author(s):  
Vusi Gumede
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
National Income ◽  
Population Group ◽  
Poverty Dynamics ◽  
The South ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty Index

There are many questions related to poverty in South Africa that remain unsatisfactorily answered. Given the poor performance of the South African economy, including declining per capita incomes and increasing unemployment, since 2010 or so, it is important to examine poverty dynamics in the recent years. Many recent studies in this regard have relied on 2015 data, and do not examine all the three interrelated aspects of wellbeing viz. poverty, human development and inequality. In this context, this paper uses all the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study and employs different poverty and inequality measurement techniques to investigate poverty dynamics, human development and inequality during the post-apartheid period in South Africa. The estimates suggest that although poverty was declining prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the African/Black population group is the most affected by poverty. The phenomenon of feminisation of poverty is also verified based on the evidence of increasingly more women in poverty than men. The proportion of population experiencing multiple deprivations, measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index, have not changed in the post-apartheid period. Similarly, human development has not improved during this period. South African society continues to be one of the most unequal societies in the world. The paper argues that the inability to sufficiently reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality results from the weak performance of the South African economy. In the same vein, it is the structure of the South African economy that has kept the levels of human development low and income inequality high.

Why English dominates the central economy

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Wright
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
African Society ◽  
World Language ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Economic Basis ◽  
State Of Affairs

This paper sets out to formulate some of the economic reasons for the continuing dominance of English in the boardrooms, government forums, parastatals and laboratories of South Africa, to consider whether this situation is likely to change, and to assess the extent to which such a state of affairs is at odds with South Africa’s new language policy. The historical reasons for the dominance of English in this sphere are well known: the language’s imperial history, its status as a world language, its role as a medium for political opposition during the apartheid conflict, and the accumulation of capital and economic influence by English-speakers from the mid-nineteenth century onward. However, the day-to-day economic basis for the continuing dominance of English at the apex of South African society has hardly been considered.

The Everyday in a Time of Transformation: Exploring a Single South African Lifeworld after 20 Years of Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
P. Conrad Kotze ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Transformation has come to be a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, while it has rarely been studied in a way that gives acknowledgement to both its societal effects and the experience thereof by the individual. This article discusses a recent study that attempts to do just that. The everyday life of a South African is explored within the context of changes that can be linked, more or less directly, to those that have characterized South Africa as a state since the end of apartheid in 1994. The study strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with either an empirical or solely constructivist appreciation of this phenomenon, but rather represents an integral onto-epistemological framework for the practice of sociological research. The illustrated framework is argued to facilitate an analysis of social reality that encompasses all aspects thereof, from the objectively given to the intersubjectively constructed and subjectively constituted. While not requiring extensive development on the theoretical or methodological level, the possibility of carrying out such an integral study is highlighted as being comfortably within the capabilities of sociology as a discipline. While the article sheds light on the experience of transformation, it is also intended to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the current “ontological turn” within the social sciences.

scholarly journals A Quarter Century of Democracy and the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo Johannes Modise
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Measuring Tool ◽  
The Church

This paper focuses on the role of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in the South African society during the past 25 years of its services to God, one another and the world. Firstly, the paper provides a brief history of URCSA within 25 years of its existence. Secondly, the societal situation in democratic South Africa is highlighted in light of Article 4 of the Belhar Confession and the Church Order as a measuring tool for the role of the church. Thirdly, the thermometer-thermostat metaphor is applied in evaluating the role of URCSA in democratic South Africa. Furthermore, the 20 years of URCSA and democracy in South Africa are assessed in terms of Gutierrez’s threefold analysis of liberation. In conclusion, the paper proposes how URCSA can rise above the thermometer approach to the thermostat approach within the next 25 years of four general synods.

scholarly journals SASS: South African Simulation Survey – a review of simulation-based education

2019 ◽  
pp. 12-20
Author(s):  
R Swart ◽  
R Duys ◽  
ND Hauser
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
The Impact

Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) has been shown to be an effective and reproducible learning tool. SBE is used widely internationally. The current state of SBE in South Africa is unknown. To the best of our knowledge this is the first survey that describes the use and attitudes towards SBE within South Africa. Methods: An online survey tool was distributed by email to: i) the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists (SASA) members; and ii) known simulation education providers in South Africa. The respondents were grouped into anaesthesia and non-anaesthesia participants. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Ethics approval was obtained: HREC REF 157/2017. Results: The majority of the respondents provide SBE and integrate it into formal teaching programmes. There is a will amongst respondents to grow SBE in South Africa, with it being recognised as a valuable educational tool. The user groups mainly targeted by SBE, were undergraduate students, medical interns, registrars and nurses. Learning objectives targeted include practical skills, medical knowledge, critical thinking and integrated management. Amongst anaesthesia respondents: the tool most commonly used to assess the quality of learner performance during SBE, for summative assessment, was ‘expert opinion’ (33%); the most frequent methods of evaluating SBE quality were participant feedback (42%) and peer evaluation (22%); the impact of SBE was most frequently assessed by informal discussion (42%) and learner feedback (39%). In anaesthesia SBE largely takes place within dedicated simulation facilities on site (47%). Most respondents report access to a range of SBE equipment. The main reported barriers to SBE were: finance, lack of trained educators, lack of equipment and lack of protected time. A limited number of respondents report engaging in SBE research. There is a willingness in both anaesthesia and non-anaesthesia groups (96% and 89% respectively) to collaborate with other centres. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge this publication provides us with the first cross-sectional survey of SBE in anaesthesia and a selection of non-anaesthetic respondents within South Africa. The majority of respondents indicate that SBE is a valuable education tool. A number of barriers have been identified that limit the growth of SBE within South Africa. It is hoped that with a commitment to ongoing SBE research and evaluation, SBE can be grown in South Africa.

scholarly journals Sense (Scents) of South Africa

1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Katherine F. Shepard
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
South African ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Speech Pathology ◽  
African Society ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
The University ◽  
Physiotherapy Education

This paper presents a brief description of some of the author’s perceptions of the land, of physiotherapy education and practice and of the struggle of the nation of South Africa acquired during a 4 week visit in late spring 1997. One week was spent in Cape Town participating in several venues at the International Congress of the South African Society of Physiotherapy. Three weeks were spent at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg presenting a course in qualitative research to health care colleagues representing the disciplines of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology and occupational health. During the time in Johannesburg several health care facilities were visited including Baragwanath Hospital, Natal Hospital and the Wits Rural Facility and Tinswalo Hospital at Acornhoek.

scholarly journals Interpreting the Bible in the 'new' South Africa: Remarks on some problems and challenges

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Human
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
South African Society ◽  
The Bible ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Interpretation Process

Interpreting the Bible in the 'new' South Africa DJ Human Department of Biblical Studies (Sec B) University of Pretoria The Bible plays an important role in South African society. The interpretation of this book within or outside the Christian community has become an increaslingly major source of debate. It has been used and misused in several spheres of society. This article does not intend providing an extensive and composite picture of the problems and character of biblical hermeneutics. Nor will it attempt to elaborate on or explain the origins, development and influences of all the different her-meneutical approaches. Rather, it poses to be an introduction to a few of the problem(s) encountered in the attempt to understand the Bible, especially in terms of the 'new' South Africa. Within the framework of this scope, remarks will be made regarding the challenges involved in interpreting the Bible, the role of the interpreter in the interpretation process, the varied forms of literature to be found in Scripture, and in the last instance, to take cognisance of a few methodological approaches to the text analysis of the Bible.

scholarly journals ‘A Sentimental Attachment to the Neighbourhood’: African Christians and Land Claims in South Africa

Itinerario ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 243-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah James ◽  
Geoffrey Nkadimeng
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
South African ◽  
Ethnic Difference ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
African Society ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Local Construction

As part of its attempt to understand ‘an apartheid of souls’, this volume is concerned to show how mission activity, particularly that of European-based churches with close links to the expansion of Dutch/Calvinist influence, may have nurtured the local construction of race or ethnic difference in Indonesian and South African society. One well-known account of Christianity in South Africa shows how the interaction between mission and missionised produced a sharply dichotomised sense - experienced by the Tshidi Tswana as the contrast between setsivana and segoa - of difference between indigenous and imported culture. While this shows how processes devoted to undermining it may paradoxically strengthen a sense of cultural identity, what it does not yield is a sense of how Christianity, appropriated within Tswana and other African societies, furnished a means of marking internal distinctions of social class, dovetailing in unexpected ways with ethnic difference. It is such divisions - potently fusing class with ethnicity and having crucial implications for the ownership, reclaiming, and use of land - with which the present paper is concerned.

scholarly journals Flitse van sosiale verandering in enkele postmodernistiese Afrikaanse romans

Literator ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. H. Steenberg
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Change ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Social Transition ◽  
African Society ◽  
Historiographic Metafiction ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Multicultural Community

Glimpses of social change in some postmodernist Afrikaans novelsPostmodernist novels, and thus also Afrikaans postmodernist novels, are radically anti-traditional. In one respect, however, they maintain the tradition of Afrikaans fiction: they open perspectives on the development of the society from which they originate. Functioning in a multicultural community, the novelists' awareness often concerns the development of relations between different racial groupings in the South African society, which is seen as basically African. The breaking down of the (colonial) barriers between black and white by writers of historiographic metafiction - like John Miles and André Letoit - can perhaps be regarded the first step in the direction of social transition. Letoit hails Africa as the continent of promise, and authors like Berta Smit, Eben Venter and Etienne van Heerden present visions of a growing harmony between black and white in the new South Africa.

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