Research Articles (Anthropology and Sociology)

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What is scholar-baiting? when the watcher is watched, and the social engineering attacks on scholars
(SAGE Publications Inc., 2025) Lazarus, Suleman
I write from the dual position of witness and analyst, using autoethnography to examine a scholar-targeted form of social engineering. The scammers baited me, mimicking academic language, citing published work, and deploying emotionally charged narratives to elicit trust and ethical engagement. From this dual role, I introduce two emergent constructs (“scholar-baiting” and “document staging”) to describe how epistemic trust and narrative craft are exploited in academic-facing fraud. Scholar-baiting is a sub-genre of spear phishing, defined as a narrative-based form of deception. Document staging, on the other hand, is a dramaturgical tactic in which realistic artefacts are embedded to simulate plausibility and suppress suspicion. I further theorise emotional enmeshment and symbolic entrapment as emerging risks for scholars whose work centres on harm, justice, and vulnerability. I conclude by proposing a framework of defensive scholarship that repositions cyber hygiene as a form of epistemic reflexivity. This framing recognises that scholars’ ethical commitments to engagement and vulnerability can be exploited as attack surfaces. By framing scholars as high-trust nodes in digital ecosystems, I highlight a threat to academic labour that remains under-theorised but urgently relevant.
Nigerian confraternities and mass cross-border fraud
(Springer, 2025) Lazarus, Suleman; Button, Mark; Hock, Branislav
Nigeria is well-known for its significant problem with criminal actors who commit industrial-scale online fraud and related crimes, predominantly targeting foreign nationals and businesses. However, the structures and characteristics of those involved remain less understood. A key area of debate concerns the degree of organization among these perpetrators and their affiliation with organized crime groups. A specific focus of this debate is the involvement of confraternities, such as Black Axe, originating from Nigerian universities. This paper will seek to offer a deeper assessment of the growing role of confraternities in organised fraud and how they utilise networks of members, often based in Western countries, to perpetrate fraud and launder money. The study argues that while the full extent of their involvement is challenging to ascertain, there is mounting evidence that confraternities play a significant role in cross-border fraud and money laundering operations in Western nations.
Making and remaking life under threat: fenceline communities in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga
(Routledge, 2025) Rabbaney, Zaakiyah
In fenceline communities alongside coal extraction operations in South Africa, residents experience extreme environmental, social and economic conditions that can be traced to the country’s extractivist economy and race-based capitalist logic that created informal settlements in abandoned landscapes to which abandoned people have been relegated. These dystopian spaces present the immortality of coal’s impacts, even in its obsolete post-industrial extraction state. Because of this destruction, in addition to a lack of basic services and mass unemployment and underemployment, individuals are forced into a perpetual cycle of making and remaking life, underpinned by the afterlives of industrial coal extraction, and aggravated by the state’s relegation of impoverished families, who cannot afford formal housing, to abandoned and forsaken spaces. This article illustrates the extent of the deleterious effects of systematic environmental devastation on people whose lives have been historically and systematically devastated, and the ways in which their efforts to make life under such circumstances all too often turn out simply to reinforce their marginality and extreme vulnerability.
Strategic business movements? the migration of online romance fraudsters from Nigeria to Ghana
(Elsevier B.V., 2025) Lazarus, Suleman; Button, Mark; Garba, Kaina Habila
This study used an emic approach to examine the dynamics of online romance fraud, focusing on the migration of offenders from Nigeria to Ghana. We collected data through qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Ghanaian police officers and Nigerian law enforcement officers were consulted for their perspectives. Thematic analysis revealed key findings, including the migration patterns of Nigerian offenders to Ghana and the institutionalisation of scamming enterprises. These findings shed light on the transnational and structural factors driving online romance fraud in West Africa, highlighting both its global reach and the local mechanisms sustaining these criminal networks. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of regional and international cybercrime dynamics, offering valuable insights to inform policy and law enforcement strategies.
Conversations with deviant website developers: a case study of online shopping fraud enablers
(SAGE Publications Ltd, 2025) Lazarus, Suleman; Whittaker, Jack M; McGuire, Michael R
This study explores the experiences and challenges faced by Cameroonian website developers involved in creating non-delivery fraud websites. Through semi-structured interviews with 14 developers, four key themes were identified: (1) the psychological impact of the Ambazonian crisis, including heightened stress and anxiety due to ongoing civil conflict; (2) infrastructure disruptions, such as frequent power outages and Internet blackouts, which hinder their work and increase operational risks; (3) the influence of spiritual beliefs on decision-making, where concerns about offending ancestral spirits deter developers from direct fraud involvement; and (4) cultural perceptions of cybercrime, particularly the glorification of the “Big Boy” image, which normalises fraudulent activities as symbols of success. The study suggests that redirecting these developers’ skills towards legitimate tech employment opportunities in Cameroon and internationally could help reduce cyber deviance and contribute to economic growth in affected regions.
Women in Namibia
(Oxford University Press, 2025) Becker, Heike
Women and gender in Namibia: concise introduction and literature review: Women have had a significant role throughout Namibian history. Prior to colonization men were generally dominant, but certain women of high rank attained powerful posi¬ tions. Namibian societies and politics became thoroughly gendered during the German and South African colonial periods. After independence the postcolonial Namibian state drew on the intensive involvement of women in the liberation struggle and adopted a le¬ gal framework and policies that emphasized gender equality. Nonetheless, little real im¬ provement has been achieved for the majority of women in postcolonial Namibia. The country's high level of social inequality continues to be profoundly gendered.
Grappling with Refusal, Self-representation, and Visual Sovereignty at the Knoflokskraal Khoisan Reclaim
(Routledge, 2025) Ellis, William; Verbuyst, Rafael
In 2020, a group Khoisan activists began occupying state-owned land near Grabouw, South Africa. Knoflokskraal has since attracted thousands of residents against the backdrop of widespread disappointment with land reform, heritage policies, and various forms of socio-economic marginalisation. The common labelling of Knoflokskraal as a “land invasion” overlooks the unique features of this self-styled “reclaim”, not least the agency that its residents embody in asserting a sense of indigenous visual sovereignty. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022 among residents and community representatives, we highlight instances of interlocutors refusing to go along with mainstream research practices and conforming to widely held expectations surrounding Khoisan representation, but instead imprinting their presence on the landscape in unique ways. Knoflokskraal offers a rare glimpse into self-representation through land reform beyond the purview of the government. Read through the lens of refusal, this case study also prompts researchers to grapple with broader issues relating to research practices, indigenous agency, and visual sovereignty.
Social support available to commuter couples in Jos, Nigeria
(SAGE Publications Inc., 2024) Kumswa, Sahmicit Kankemwa
Commuter couples are married couples who do not share the same residence due to work and career commitments. In this study, heterosexual married commuter couples were studied concerning their social support networks to include people or activities they rely on to share their burdens and day-to-day activities when their spouses are not with them. The article reports on what social support is available to commuter couples in Jos, Nigeria and how these couples make use of the identified support networks to secure work-life balance. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 17 commuter couples in Jos, Nigeria and is a part of a larger study. Results show that commuter couples studied identified emotional and instrumental social support that serves as a succour to their stressful work and daily lives. These include immediate close family members such as parents and siblings who understand their lifestyle as commuter couples and encourage and support them in various ways including child care, meal preparation and even moving in with them to ease the burden of taking on certain responsibilities alone; colleagues and kind bosses in the workplace who facilitate their visits home and give them the flexibility to cope with the home front; personal religious practices were also identified by couples to see them through tough days and difficult challenges.
Inhibitions to sexual and reproductive care of Somali immigrant women living in the United States of America and South Africa: A postcolonial feminist theory reflection
(Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd., 2024) Iyi, Lydia Eghosasere; Amaechi, Kingsley Ekene
In the era of increased migration of women across the world, the sociology of gender literature in South Africa seems to have paid less attention to structural inhibitions to women’s access to sexual and reproductive care. This paper attempts to add to the literature through a comparative analysis of Somali women’s experiences in South Africa and the United States. Drawing on a desktop comparative analysis of studies conducted between 2010 and 2022 on Somalia women’s access to sexual and reproductive care, the paper delves into a nuanced discussion of the complex interplay of cultural norms and socio-political frameworks in the host communities in the shaping of diaspora women’s experiences of sexual and reproductive care. The study’s main argument is that even though the conceptualisation of health itself starts with cultural and religious ideologies from home countries and, as such, provides the background upon which what is needed is formulated, women’s interest in sexual and reproductive care is reformed and often navigated along structural barriers present, as the women navigate the host countries’ healthcare systems in diaspora communities. Based on this, the paper recommends that host countries consider the specific healthcare needs of different immigrant women through the provision of necessary support that assists them in easily settling in the host countries.
A decolonial anthropology: You can dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools
(Sage, 2024) Venkatesan, Soumhya; Gillespie, Kelly; Ntarangwi, Mwenda
The 2022 meeting of the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory (GDAT) Social Anthropology, University of Manchester. The motion is, of course, a riff on Audre Lorde’s well-known 1984 claim that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.’ Lorde is asking about the tools of a racist and constitutionally exclusionary world, but we can ask similar questions about the tools of an academic discipline, anthropology, which arose during the height of empire, and the house that anthropology has built and its location in the university. Are anthropology’s tools able to dismantle a house built on oppression, exploitation and discrimination and then build a different better house? If not, then what kinds of other tools might we use, and what is it that we might want to build? The motion is proposed by David Mills and Mwenda Ntarangwi and opposed by Kelly Gillespie and Naisargi Dav´e with Soumhya Venkatesan convening and editing the debate for publication.
Narratives of HIV disclosure and masculinity in a South African village
(Routledge, 2012) fecane, Sakhumzi
This paper describes men�s experiences of disclosing their HIV status, arguing thatdisclosure restored their social respect, which was previously undermined by an illnessfrom AIDS. Results are from a 14-month ethnographic study conducted in ruralSouth African health facility, among a group of 25 men attending an AIDS supportgroup. The men included in this study tested while they were critically ill and somewere negatively labelled as �already dead� because of their poor state of health. Themajority voluntarily disclosed their HIV status to the public after recovering from thephysical symptoms of AIDS. This elicited positive reaction from the community, whotreated them with admiration for disclosing their HIV status. The paper emphasisesthe fact that the good response received by participants from the community waspredicated mainly on having healthy physical looks that men gained from usingantiretroviral medication. This paper then further analyses the ways in which a �healthyappearance� facilitates disclosure of HIV status and also disrupts the stigma attached toHIV in the studied community.
AIDS activism and globalisation from below: Occupying new spaces of citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa
(Institute of Development Studies, 2004) Robins, Steven; von Lieres, Bettina
Former President Nelson Mandela, Bono, Peter Gabriel and other superstars stood together on the stage at Greenpoint StadiuminCape Town in front of billions of television viewers around the world, watching the �46664�music extravaganza in support of the fight against AIDS in Africa. AIDS is clearly a global pandemic and responses to it have inevitably been on a global scale. At the same time, the disease has highly localised aspects to it. AIDS activists have had to address both the global dimensions and the local specificities of this epidemic.
Exploring the ties of incarcerated fathers with their families and communities in the Western Cape-The perspectives of care professionals
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2022) Rabe, Marlize; Londt, Marcel
It is often argued that incarcerated men who stay connected withtheir families are less likely to reoffend. Despite the growingliterature on non-residential fatherhood in South Africa, littleresearch has been conducted on incarcerated men in SouthAfrica. In this article, we draw on the expertise and perspectivesof three research participants who used to work closely, as careprofessionals, with incarcerated men in the Western Cape. Bydrawing on Bronfenbrenner�s human development theory, thejourneys of incarcerated men as fathers are explored here. Thediversity and the nature of offences are important when the linksbetween fathers, their children and other family members areconsidered during their entry, stay and release from correctionalfacilities.
Traditional health practitioners� perceptions, herbal treatment and management of HIV and related opportunistic infections
(BMC, 2014) Davids, Denver; Blouws, Tarryn; Aboyade, Oluwaseyi
In South Africa, traditional health practitioners� (THPs) explanatory frameworks concerning illness aetiologies are much researched. However there is a gap in the literature on how THPs understand HIV-related opportunistic infections (OIs), i.e. tuberculosis, candidiasis and herpes zoster. This study aimed to comprehend THPs� understandings of the aforementioned; to ascertain and better understand the treatment methods used by THPs for HIV and OIs, while also contributing to the documentation of South African medicinal plants for future conservation. The study was conducted in two locations: Strand, Western Cape where THPs are trained and Mpoza village, Mount Frere, Eastern Cape from where medicinal plants are ordered or collected. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 53 THPs of whom 36 were diviners (amagrirha: isangoma) and 17 herbalists (inyanga). THPs were selected through a non-probability �snowball� method. Data were analysed using a thematic content analysis approach.
Impact of social interactions in the community on the transmission of tuberculosis in a high incidence area
(BMJ Publishing Group, 1999) Classen, Collette N; Warren, Robin; Richardson, Madeleine
Tuberculosis (TB) is transmitted by close contact with an infectious person. It is assumed that close contact occurs amongst household members and that contact outside the house is �casual� and does not play a major role in the transmission of TB. This study was conducted in an impoverished area with a high incidence of TB and a low HIV seropositive prevalence. Thirty three households with 84 TB patients were identified between February 1993 and April 1996 and the transmission of TB was studied by combining Mycobacterium tuberculosis fingerprinting with in depth sociological interviews.
�Youth speaking truth to power�: Intersectional decolonial activism in Namibia
(Springer, 2022) Becker, Heike
This article portrays a recent movement towards intersectional activism in urban Namibia. Since 2020, young Namibian activists have come together in campaigns to decolonize public space through removing colonial monuments and renaming streets. These have been linked to enduring structural violence and issues of gender and sexuality, especially queer and women�s reproductive rights politics, which have been expressly framed as perpetuated by coloniality. I argue that the Namibian protests amount to new political forms of intersectional decoloniality that challenge the notion of decolonial activism as identity politics. The Namibian case demonstrates that decolonial movements may not only emphatically not be steeped in essentialist politics but also that activists may oppose an identity-based politics which postcolonial ruling elites have promoted. I show that, for the Namibian movements� ideology and practice, a fully intersectional approach has become central.
Orders of protection: Feminist lessons in anti-privatization and authoritarianism from South Africa
(Society for Cultural Anthropology, 2022) Gillespie, Kelly
The feminist adage �the personal is political� is not ahistorical. It is being operationalized in a time when the relationship between the private and the public is undergoing historic transformation. Making privatized violence public under current conditions often involves channeling the most authoritarian tendencies of the state into relationships made increasingly desperate by the conditions of contemporary capitalism. The ethnographic focus of the essay is the work of a feminist organization operating in the context of Lavender Hill in Cape Town, a neighborhood created by apartheid forced removals and made more precarious by post-apartheid abandonment. The essay focuses on an explosion in the use of protection orders to compel police to intervene in the intimate relationships of households and neighbors, and offers an extended explanation of how and why feminism provides an exemplary case of reactionary politics for our times. The essay ends with a plea to draw on a different trajectory of feminism as a way of reconstituting a transformative political agenda, one that must take the historical transformations of racial capitalism seriously.
At the limits of spatial governmentality: A message from the tip of Africa
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2002) Robins, Steven
Urban studies scholars drawing on Foucault�s analysis of govern-mentality have investigated how urban social orders are increasingly moreconcerned with the management of space rather than on the discipline ofoffenders or the punishment of offences (Merry, 2001). This paper examines the�rationality� and efficacy of spatial governmentality in post-apartheid CapeTown, and shows how the city has increasingly become a �fortress city� (Davis,1990), much like cities such as Los Angeles, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. These�global cities� are increasingly characterised by privatised security systems inmiddle class suburbs, shopping malls and gated communities (Caldeira, 1999).These spatial forms of governmentality draw on sophisticated security systemscomprising razor wire and electrified walls, burglar alarms and safe rooms, aswell as vicious guard dogs, neighbourhood watches, private security companies,and automated surveillance cameras.
Politicization and resistance in the Zimbabwean national army
(Oxford University Press, 2017) Maringira, Godfrey
While the dominant discourse in Zimbabwe on and about soldiers is that they are perpetrators of political violence, this does not always reflect the lived experiences of soldiers who joined the army in post-independence Zimbabwe. Based on army deserters� narratives emerging from 44 life history interviews and two focus groups, this article argues that not all soldiers have been supportive of President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Rather, ZANU-PF had to work quite hard to ensure the political loyalty of its soldiers, who often resisted and challenged ZANU-PF political coercion.
Rape culture: Sexual intimidation and partner rape among youth in sexually diverse relationships
(SAGE Publications, 2022) Mayeza, Emmanuel
South African studies on rape culture have examined this issue in relation to heterosexuality. They demonstrate how toxic masculinity exercises sexual power by victimizing women and girls. However, little is known about manifestations of rape culture in contexts where both victims and perpetrators are same-sex attracted young people within intimate relationships. Thus, this article extends the scope of the scholarly discussions on rape culture by exploring how rape culture manifests itself in the social and intimate lives of sexually diverse South African youth. It will also reflect on some of the ways that could be explored to address rape culture.

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