scholarly journals Sexual rights and sexual cultures: reflections on "the Zuma affair" and "new masculinities" in the South Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (26) ◽  
pp. 149-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Robins
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
Leadership Succession ◽  
The Third ◽  
Alternative Masculinities ◽  
Rape Trial ◽  
Sexual Cultures

The paper is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on the contested nature of the sexual politics that surrounded the Jacob Zuma rape trial. This sexual politics was not simply the background to the "real" politics of the leadership succession battle between pro-Mbeki and pro-Zuma factions. The rise of sexual politics after apartheid, this paper argues, has largely been due to the politicization of sexuality and masculinity in response to HIV/AIDS. Section two examines the ways in which ideas about "traditional" Zulu masculinity were represented and performed in the Zuma trial, introducing the tension between universalistic sexual rights and particularistic sexual cultures. The third section of the paper is concerned with innovative attempts by a group of young men in Cape Town to create "alternative masculinities" (Connell, 1996) in a time of HIV and AIDS.

“It’s natural to look for a source”: A qualitative examination of alternative beliefs about HIV and AIDS in Cape Town, South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Rubincam
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Outright Rejection ◽  
Past Experiences

This article highlights how African men and women in South Africa account for the plausibility of alternative beliefs about the origins of HIV and the existence of a cure. This study draws on the notion of a “street-level epistemology of trust”—knowledge generated by individuals through their everyday observations and experiences—to account for individuals’ trust or mistrust of official claims versus alternative explanations about HIV and AIDS. Focus group respondents describe how past experiences, combined with observations about the power of scientific developments and perceptions of disjunctures in information, fuel their uncertainty and skepticism about official claims. HIV prevention campaigns may be strengthened by drawing on experiential aspects of HIV and AIDS to lend credibility to scientific claims, while recognizing that some doubts about the trustworthiness of scientific evidence are a form of skeptical engagement rather than of outright rejection.

scholarly journals Steder smitter: hiv, aids-medicin og tavshedens sociale liv i Khayelitsha

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (26) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Houmøller
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Social Contagion ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
Hiv Aids

Denne artikel undersøger, hvordan tavshed udspiller sig i hverdagslivet i Khayelitsha township i Cape Town, Sydafrika, og hvad der driver dens udbredelse. I Sydafrika lever 5,6 millioner mennesker med hiv, og landet har verdens største aids- behandlingsprogram. Et udbredt fravær af mellemmenneskelig kommunikation om hiv og aids har ført til, at aids-epidemien i Sydafrika har været beskrevet som en epidemi af tavshed. Mens tidligere studier har fokuseret på smittevejen mellem tavshed og den sociale betydning af hiv og aids som en dødelig og stigmatiserende sygdom, belyser artiklen, hvordan tavshed også skal forstås i dens forbindelse til Khayelitsha som et specifikt sted, der intensiverer særlige vilkår for tavshed som en form for socialitet, der ikke er særlig for hiv og aids. Med et perspektiv på social smitte er det således artiklens argument, at det også er selve stedet - et hverdagsliv i tvungen intimitet – der smitter. Place is Contagious: hiv, aids medicine and the social life of silence in KhayelitshaThis article explores practices of silence in Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, South Africa, and seeks to investigate what drives silence as a widespread phenomenon. In South Africa, 5,6 million people are currently living with hiv and the country has the largest aids treatment programme in the world. The aids epidemic has often been paralleled to an epidemic of silence with reference to a significant absence of direct verbal communication about the disease. While previous studies have focused on the connection between silence and the association of hiv with death and stigma, the article argues that the spread of silence cannot be understood disconnected from Khayelitsha as a particular place that intensifies silence as a form of sociality not specific to hiv and aids. From a perspective on social contagion, the article argues that it is also the place itself – an everyday life in enforced intimacy – that is contagious. 

Ali Mazrui

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Rasool
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Main Road ◽  
The Third ◽  
Golden Triangle ◽  
The World ◽  
Unity Of God

On the occasion of the passing of Ali Mazrui, Rashied Omar, imam of the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town, South Africa, invoked probably the most appropriate verse of the Qur’an to memorialize him: “God bears witness that there is no god but Allah, and so do the angels and those possessed of knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no God but Allah, the Exalted, the Wise” (Q. 3:18). There are many who testify to belief in the unity of God, and fewer who accept its corollary, the unity of creation and the unity of humanity. There are many who qualify for the description of possessing knowledge by virtue of qualifications obtained in institutions of learning, whether Islamic or other. It is, however, the third angle of this triangle – the triangle of belief, knowledge, and justice – where the world experiences a deficit. Standing for justice is the point of the triangle that is least populated, or if it is populated, it may well bepopulated in the absence of understanding the implications of belief in the unity of God or understanding the dynamism of knowledge. Mazrui will be remembered for epitomizing the completeness and perfection of this golden triangle, for indeed his knowledge was founded in his unflinching commitment to tawḥīd (unity) and this, in turn, impelled him toward utilizing his intellect both for identifying the sources of injustice in the world and positing theoretical and practical solutions towards justice.

scholarly journals Ali Mazrui

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 2-10
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Rasool
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Main Road ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Unity Of God

On the occasion of the passing of Ali Mazrui, Rashied Omar, imam of theClaremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town, South Africa, invoked probablythe most appropriate verse of the Qur’an to memorialize him: “God bears witnessthat there is no god but Allah, and so do the angels and those possessedof knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no God but Allah, the Exalted,the Wise” (Q. 3:18).There are many who testify to belief in the unity of God, and fewer whoaccept its corollary, the unity of creation and the unity of humanity. There aremany who qualify for the description of possessing knowledge by virtue ofqualifications obtained in institutions of learning, whether Islamic or other. Itis, however, the third angle of this triangle – the triangle of belief, knowledge,and justice – where the world experiences a deficit. Standing for justice is thepoint of the triangle that is least populated, or if it is populated, it may well bepopulated in the absence of understanding the implications of belief in theunity of God or understanding the dynamism of knowledge. Mazrui will beremembered for epitomizing the completeness and perfection of this goldentriangle, for indeed his knowledge was founded in his unflinching commitmentto tawḥīd (unity) and this, in turn, impelled him toward utilizing his intellectboth for identifying the sources of injustice in the world and positingtheoretical and practical solutions towards justice ...

scholarly journals Collaborative Work: Negotiations between Music Therapists and Community Musicians in the Development of a South African Community Music Therapy Project

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Oosthuizen ◽  
Sunelle Fouché ◽  
Kerryn Torrance
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
South African ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
After School ◽  
Music Therapists ◽  
Life Project ◽  
Education Psychology

Music therapy in South Africa is slowly negotiating a practice that takes into account our continent's musical vibrancy, as well as contextual understandings of "health" and "illness." Although music therapy in the (so-called) developed world is situated within the paradigms of medicine, education, psychology and research - in the formal and often scientific sense - in South Africa, this practice needs to be re-defined to make it relevant to the contexts in which we work. The Music Therapy Community Clinic (MTCC) is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to provide music therapy services to previously disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Socio-political problems such as poverty, unemployment, gang violence and HIV and Aids have lead to the fragmentation and disintegration of many of these communities. The MTCC's Music for Life project emerged out of a need to provide after-school music activities and to reach a wider group of children than those seen for clinical music therapy sessions. As the project has developed and expanded, the music therapists have drawn in community musicians to offer an increasing range of musical activities to children. The collaboration between music therapists and community musicians has led to many questions about the roles and identities of each. This article is based on a presentation given by the MTCC at a Symposium for South African Arts Therapists held in Cape Town in June 2007. The article discusses the merits and challenges of the Music for Life Project and offers reflections from both community musicians and music therapists pertaining to our negotiated and changing roles as we continue to develop the project together.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

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