PRESERVING SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITY ARCHIVES IN A CONTEXT OF UBUNTU

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Mathodi Freddie Motsamayi
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Community Archives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Communal Memory ◽  
Personal Archives ◽  
African Community

South Africa is rich in archival collections that contribute significantly to nation building and to sociocultural cohesion in the post-apartheid era. The archives bring the past to life and reveal threads of continuity in the historical development of communities. The present paper discusses personal and independent community archives in localities in Limpopo Province. The study considers villages in their entirety as living, evolving entities. From that perspective it looks at the prospects of personal and independent community archives which are in the custody of, respectively, private individuals and social groups striving sustainably to preserve archival material of interest to broader communities while simultaneously advancing the ubuntu principle (a person is a person through other persons). By conducting unstructured interviews with inhabitants involved in the creation of archives, and by applying the ubuntu principle as a theory that provides insight, it has become clear that personal and independent community archives function as tools that preserve communal memory for the interest of present communities and future generations. The study looks at personal and independent community archives in different localities and identifies ways to better manage such archives for the benefit of the community at large. In Limpopo Province archives of various types have not been meaningfully integrated into mainstream community archives. This has resulted in a gap separating individuals building personal archives from social groups that generate their own repositories. This separation hinders the profitable exchange of informative materials within communities. During interviews, community members have recommended practical steps to improve the preservation of their community archives and promote the ubuntu principle.

“Traditional” Venḓa Women’s Beadwork Accessing the Contemporary Tourist Market in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-224
Author(s):  
Mathodi F. Motsamayi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Heritage ◽  
Trading Networks

Beads and beadwork have played a role in South Africa’s Limpopo Province dating back to the pre-colonial times. Whether the beads were produced locally or imported via trading networks, the region already had a rich tradition of constructing beadwork before the arrival of Europeans. Today, this tradition is continued by new generations of women beaders. It has been found that literature on contemporary Limpopo beadwork produced by Vhavenḓa women is scarce. This article addressed this imbalance. It is vital to state that, during the last decade and in the context of South African heritage and tourism, there has been a steadily increasing number of scholarly studies on Nguni beadwork. This study offered new insights into contemporary beadwork traditions. It also contributed to an understanding of Vhavenḓa beading by drawing on the knowledge and experience of beadworkers, identifying influences from the past, and countering some stereotypical perceptions of beadwork production.

scholarly journals The role of refugee-established churches in integrating forced migrants: A case study of Word of Life Assembly in Yeoville, Johannesburg

2010 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vedaste Nzayabino
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Community Members ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Independent Churches ◽  
African Community ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Faith Based Institutions ◽  
Church Affiliation ◽  
Word Of Life

The increasing embeddedness of religious issues within contemporary global phenomena has increased the role religion plays in migrants’ spiritual, social, and economic lives. Drawing on the findings of the study, conducted within one of the Pentecostal migrant churches in Johannesburg, this paper explored ways in which a (migrant) church shapes a refugee’s motivation to integrate and his resultant quest for a transient alternative belonging and inclusion within diasporic communities through church affiliation. Through interviews with members of the Word of Life Assembly (WOLA), one of the independent churches established by forced migrants in Yeoville, the study revealed that refugees tend to integrate themselves within their own churches, while the refugee church itself – labelled a ‘foreign’ entity by South African community members – works to garner approval and acceptance from South Africans and faith-based institutions. Cultural and linguistic problems were identified as major barriers to a refugee’s attempts to integrate into local churches, thereby becoming important issues that need to be considered in the establishment of migrant churches within the South African host community.

scholarly journals Socio-demographic characteristics of parents and emotional burden on discovery of disabilities of their children in a South African community

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Useh
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Emotional Burden ◽  
Community Based Rehabilitation ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
African Community ◽  
Research Assistants

Objective: This study investigated the socio-demographic characteristicsof parents of children with disabilities in a South African community. Also studiedwere their emotional responses. Design and methodology: A social survey research and focus group designs wereemployed in this study to explore and describe parental emotions Participants: 174 parents of children with disabilities were randomly selected andinterviewed by this author and four research assistants at different locations in theVenda area of Limpopo Province of South Africa. Results: Out of the 174 parents interviewed 95 (54.6%) were parents of children with physical impairment (PCWPI),51 (29.3%) parents of children with hearing impairment (PCWHI) and 28 (16.1%) were parents of children with visual impairment (PCWVI).  Only 16 (9.2%) of the parents interviewed had tertiary education with a majority (121 (or 69.5%) of them unemployed. These unemployed parents solely relied on the monthly, government disabilitygrant of R620 (or US$89). Responses to grief, anger, shame were highest amongst PCWVI, while PCWPI were most worried (64.2%) and demonstrated the highest percentage emotions of fear (22.1%) and guilt (221.1%). The following percentage of emotions were expresses by parents with formal tertiary education, anger (44%), shame (37.5%), disbelief (25%), guilt (6.3%), worry (50%) and fear (25%). While participants with the highest income (over R1800or about US$257), expressed the following percentage of emotions: grief (70.6%), and disbelief (47.1%). Conclusion: Physiotherapist working with the disabled and their carers in the community within the concept of community based rehabilitation and social model of care would need to understand the characteristics and their emotional burden prior to assisting in creating an enabling environment and holistic empowering activities that wouldassist all.

Suicidal Behavior in Black South Africans

Crisis ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourens Schlebusch ◽  
Naseema B.M. Vawda ◽  
Brenda A. Bosch
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
South African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
To Come

Summary: In the past suicidal behavior among Black South Africans has been largely underresearched. Earlier studies among the other main ethnic groups in the country showed suicidal behavior in those groups to be a serious problem. This article briefly reviews some of the more recent research on suicidal behavior in Black South Africans. The results indicate an apparent increase in suicidal behavior in this group. Several explanations are offered for the change in suicidal behavior in the reported clinical populations. This includes past difficulties for all South Africans to access health care facilities in the Apartheid (legal racial separation) era, and present difficulties of post-Apartheid transformation the South African society is undergoing, as the people struggle to come to terms with the deleterious effects of the former South African racial policies, related socio-cultural, socio-economic, and other pressures.

Learning Zulu

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
South African ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
African History ◽  
African Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Correct Form ◽  
Linguistic Purism

When this book's author began studying Zulu, he was often questioned why he was learning it. This book places the author's endeavors within a wider context to uncover how, in the past 150 years of South African history, Zulu became a battleground for issues of property, possession, and deprivation. The book combines elements of analysis and memoir to explore a complex cultural history. Perceiving that colonial learners of Zulu saw themselves as repairing harm done to Africans by Europeans, the book reveals deeper motives at work in the development of Zulu-language learning—from the emergence of the pidgin Fanagalo among missionaries and traders in the nineteenth century to widespread efforts, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, to teach a correct form of Zulu. The book looks at the white appropriation of Zulu language, music, and dance in South African culture, and at the association of Zulu with a martial masculinity. In exploring how Zulu has come to represent what is most properly and powerfully African, the book examines differences in English- and Zulu-language press coverage of an important trial, as well as the role of linguistic purism in xenophobic violence in South Africa. Through one person's efforts to learn the Zulu language, the book explores how a language's history and politics influence all individuals in a multilingual society.

Creating Meaning in the Present by Reviewing the Past: Communal Memory in the Psalms of Solomon

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-392
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Gordley
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Communal Memory ◽  
Psalms Of Solomon ◽  
Creating Meaning

This article examines Psalms of Solomon with an eye toward how these compositions may have functioned within the setting of a first-century B. C. E. Jewish community in Jerusalem. Several of these psalms should be understood as didactic hymns providing instruction to their audience through the medium of psalmody. Attention to the temporal register of Pss. Sol. 8, 9, and 17 shows how the poet’s use of historical review and historical allusion contributed to a vision of present reality and future hope, which the audience was invited to embrace. Issues relating to the place of these psalms in the tradition of Solomonic discourse are also addressed insofar as they contribute to the didactic function of this psalm collection.

A Review of Medical Waste Management in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaniyi FC ◽  
Ogola JS ◽  
Tshitangano TG
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
South African ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Medical Waste ◽  
African Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Medical Waste Management

Background:Poor medical waste management has been implicated in an increase in the number of epidemics and waste-related diseases in the past years. South Africa is resource-constrained in the management of medical waste.Objectives:A review of studies regarding medical waste management in South Africa in the past decade was undertaken to explore the practices of medical waste management and the challenges being faced by stakeholders.Method:Published articles, South African government documents, reports of hospital surveys, unpublished theses and dissertations were consulted, analysed and synthesised. The studies employed quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods and documented comparable results from all provinces.Results:The absence of a national policy to guide the medical waste management practice in the provinces was identified as the principal problem. Poor practices were reported across the country from the point of medical waste generation to disposal, as well as non-enforcement of guidelines in the provinces where they exit. The authorized disposal sites nationally are currently unable to cope with the enormous amount of the medical waste being generated and illegal dumping of the waste in unapproved sites have been reported. The challenges range from lack of adequate facilities for temporary storage of waste to final disposal.Conclusion:These challenges must be addressed and the practices corrected to forestall the adverse effects of poorly managed medical waste on the country. There is a need to develop a medical waste policy to assist in the management of such waste.

The Three-Legged Stool of Voter Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Adelaide K. Sandler ◽  
Mary E. Hylton ◽  
Jason Ostrander ◽  
Tanya R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Voting Decisions

Disparities in voter turnout have increased significantly over the past four decades. Members of historically oppressed groups, those who are low-income, and or who have lower levels of education vote at significantly lower rates than white, wealthy and or more educated community members. These disparities correlate directly to political power and the eventual allocation of resources by elected officials. Therefore, eliminating these disparities through targeted voter engagement with client groups is particularly important for the profession of social work. This article describes the conceptualization of voter engagement as a three-legged stool, consisting of voter registration, regular voting, and basing voting decisions on self-interest.Without attention to all three legs, the potential for generating political power collapses, resulting in minimal influence on elected officials.

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