Magister Artium - MA (Anthropology/Sociology)
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Item Sensory flows of spice: a multisensory ethnography exploring how spice influences home cooks’ sense of belonging in Cape Town(Universty of the Western Cape, 2023) Deers, Rhoda; Ellis, WilliamThe history of Cape Town is entangled with the spice trade, slavery, colonialism and orientalism. The Cape cuisine narratives often romanticize fixed cultural cuisines, as seen with the "Cape Malay" cuisine, which is only acknowledged for its connection to a spicy Asian origin story and celebrated for its traditional, authentic, and well-balanced aromatic dishes. These exotic narratives of “Cape Malay” kitchens reflect the past segregation programs of colonialism and apartheid, as the home of Cape Malay remains fixed within the rows of colourful houses at the foot of Table Mountain in Bo-kaap previously known as the Malay quarters. This embellishment of a spicy orientalist narrative of Cape history continues to silence the realities of complex overlapping identities that are held in “coloured” bodies in post-apartheid South Africa. It is these fixed cuisine narratives that begin to unravel when spice is used as a narrator for the Cape. I draw on the works of Edward Said’s contrapuntal reading and offer a reading-back of Cape Cuisine to search for the complexities of social lives and lived experiences.Item Animals at work: a multispecies ethnographic study of entanglements of cart-horse labour in Freedom Farm informal settlement, Cape Town.(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Vigeland, Lynné Hazel; Spicer, SharynHuman life experiences are closely intertwined with our relationships with other animals and the environment. From the late 19th century to the late 20th century, Cart-horses served as an informal travel market for the community of District Six of Cape Town. However, because of forced migration, the role of horses in the city of Cape Town changed as people`s living experiences changed. Cape Town City Council may have animal laws regulating the ethical treatment of working horses concerning people's living and working conditions. Informal communities like Freedom Farm rely on carthorses, however, this is not necessarily regulated for the benefit of horses. Non-human animals in urban environments offer perspectives for rethinking urban society. Actor-network theory (ANT) is an empirical, research-based interdisciplinary perspective that focuses on the process of translation and the role of non-human actors in various observations and experiences.Item Mental health promotion: an exploration of a peer community-based intervention in Cape Town(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Moodie, Liezl; Obuaku-Igwe, ChinweThe outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 and the accompanying lockdown, social distancing and quarantine measures across the world separated individuals and families from their loved ones. This separation and social isolation also resulted in loss of jobs due to the closure of the hospitality industry and other sectors. It also caused loneliness and anxiety disorders in individuals with pre-existing vulnerabilities. The government of South Africa provided safety nets and social protection in the form of grants to vulnerable groups. Despite these interventions, most individuals who had suffered the worst impact of COVID-19 lockdown on their emotional wellbeing seemed to have been left without adequate access to treatments and coping resources.Item Mental health promotion: An exploration of a peer community-based intervention in Cape Town(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Moodie, Liezl; Obuaku-Igwe, ChinweThe outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 and the accompanying lockdown, social distancing and quarantine measures across the world separated individuals and families from their loved ones. This separation and social isolation also resulted in loss of jobs due to the closure of the hospitality industry and other sectors. It also caused loneliness and anxiety disorders in individuals with pre-existing vulnerabilities. The government of South Africa provided safety nets and social protection in the form of grants to vulnerable groups. Despite these interventions, most individuals who had suffered the worst impact of COVID-19 lockdown on their emotional wellbeing seemed to have been left without adequate access to treatments and coping resources.Item Making and remaking life under threat: Disposability, extraction, and anti-black historical processes in old coronation, Mpumalanga(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Rabbaney, Zaakiyah; Gillespie, KellyDeveloped in the 1980s on an abandoned Anglo American coal mine, Old Coronation informal settlement in Mpumalanga is a site of environmental, infrastructural, social, and economic ruin. This thesis looks into the lives of the residents of Old Coronation as they navigate their existence in a scarcely-habitable environment compounded by poverty, joblessness, struggle, and historical and ongoing extractivist processes. The thesis intends to understand the lives of Old Coronation residents as they negotiate survival in a political and economic system, and mineral industry, in which their lives and futures have been abandoned. The main argument is that because of racial capitalism, neoliberalism, and extractivist processes, Old Coronation residents are forced into a life of extreme effort: making and remaking life always against threats, the escape of which only heightens the exposure to further threat.Item A sociological study of ideology among the Herero of central Namibia(University of the Western Cape, 1984) van Rooyen, Johann Willem Friedrich; Welz, S.E; Du Pisanti, S.EThe concept of ideology: as portrayed in the works of various social theorists, is comprised of a wider Yet related, range of meanings and connotations. Despite its lack of semantic precision, the concept is of value for sociological analysis and is of special relevance in the theories of Marx and Weber, both on a descriptive as well as explanatory level. In an attempt to test these two theorists I postulates in a substantive setting, the chief ideological and material influences which have affected the socio-culturaI development of the Herero of central Namibia are surveyed and related to some modern social structures peculiar to them. The study indicates that ideological and material factors have indeed both variously been responsible for significant social adaptations that have occurred in Herero society in recent times. The findings suggest that material impulses have far outweighed ideological stimuli in importance for the greater part of recorded Herero history. It is only since the end of World War II that ideological variables seem to have predominated as causal agents of social change.Item ?Anything about us, without us, is against us?: An ethnography of the genocide reparations and decolonial movements in Namibia(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Van Wyk, Bayron; Becker, HeikeThis thesis explores decolonial memory activism and queer activism in Namibia. It demonstrates how activists have mobilized in intersectional struggles (Becker 2020; 2022) against the structural remnants of colonialism. The activists have pointed to how racist-, patriarchal- and heteronormative hierarchies that were imposed through German and South African colonialisms have remained and are taken even further in the postcolony. In this sense, activists have targeted colonial monuments, colonial laws and the colonization of human remains in their decolonial campaigns. I specifically focus on the #ACurtFarewell petition against the Curt von Fran?ois statue, the formation of the Namibia Equal Rights Movement calling for the recognition of same-sex relationships, and the campaigns by the Namibia Genocide Association (NGA) and other activists for the recognition of the graves of Prisoner-of-War graves to show respect to those who died during Germany?s colonial genocide (1904-1908) in Namibia.Item Opportunities of muslim female socio-political interaction in Shariah legislation in the northern Nigerian provinces(University of the Western Cape, 2001) Martin-Isaacs, Wendy; Gottschalk, KeatsThis paper identifies the reasons for the lack of Hausa women's political participation and how women can self-determine regarding social change within their patriarchal societies, by focusing on the socio-cultural factors of religion, age, marital status, and education. The research method is literature based - field research concerning the social realities of Hausa women, interviews with Hausa women regarding their interpretations of their socio-political realities and the interpretation of religious material. Interpretations of Islamic scholars of the socio-religious material of the Qur'an and Ahadith addressed in its historical sphere yet contemporary environment. Findings within the variables were (a) that although Hausa follow the Maliki school of Islamic thought, the infiltration of Wahhabism permeates the religious ideology and culture influencing the position of women b) age determines the position of women within Hausa communities and accords them respect and greater freedom of movement once post-menopausal; (c) most adult women are between marriage and divorce and usually in polygamous relationships, as the rate of divorce increases more women fear being financially destitute and socially outcast as prostitutes for seeking financial security; (d) education for girls differs from that of boys but there is an increase in the attendance at Islamiyah schools which serves as a contemporary method to promote gender ideologies. These results are not unique to Hausa communities, but are a construct of the realm of male dominance and tyranny. There is much emphasis on the natural and biological differences between the sexes and the elaboration of prejudice through social and political institutions.Item Possible causes of Divorce in Asmara(University of the Western Cape, 2003) Beshir, Nuredin Bushra; Spicer, SharynThis research project seeks to account for some of the causes of divorce in Asmara Eritrea. The existing law in this country recognizes adultery, desertion and cruelty as serious grounds for divorce. However, this research, which is based on a sample of forty divorced respondents from both genders, reveals a wider spectrum of reasons for divorce. According to these findings, marital conflict related to money matters was the most frequently cited reason for divorce within the sample. This was followed by in-law difficulties, infidelity, spousal violence and lack of love, respectively. The next most frequently cited reason for divorce was behaviour incompatibility and a lack of effective communication amongst conflicting couples. On the other hand, the sexual side of marriage was the least cited marital problem resulting in divorce, followed by childlessness and heavy drinking. In between ranked behaviour incompatibility and lack of effective communication between conflicting couple. Essentially this study adopts a subjective perspective. It reflects respondents' versions of why their marriages failed. It does however attempt to position the subjective experiences of the respondents within the context in which they lived. The latter includes economic hardship due to the recurrent war and the prevalence of traditional double standards and dominations that favour males. Because of these, gender was a significant social category in the study, which has resulted in differences in reporting patterns. Women respondents were mainly concerned with the issue of money matters, in-law trouble, infidelity, the use and abuse of alcohol and violence by husbands. Men on the other hand were interested in authority, sex and love matters in their marriages. These findings more or less parallel Levinger's (1966; cited in Schulz, 1982) research findings. However, there were in some cases marked differences in the reporting pattern along gender lines, and in the over all picture. What was found to be the most significant reason for divorce in the eyes of the women who took part in the present study (such as in law problems) was among the least of marital complaints in the above quoted literature. In summation, this thesis shows divorce as a significant sociological category in Asmara. In this locally unexplored area of study, it reveals not only some of the major areas of marital conflict that lead to divorce, but also the trend of divorce in the city.Item Our memories of the liberation war: How civilians in post war Northern Namibia remember the war.(University of the Western Cape, 2003) Akawa, Martha; Becker, HeikeThis research looks at the gap that exists between public representation and personal narratives of the Namibian liberation war. Having observed the absence of private narratives in the grand national memory, I address the questions of how civilians remember the war of liberation and how that shapes their lives in postcolonial Namibia. I am interested in how civilians remember and how they relate the memories and the experience of the past, how they locate themselves in public history and their perspectives on national memory and commemorations. The Namibian government has reconstructed the liberation struggle as one where all Namibians fought against colonialism, but it has excluded and suppressed the memories of ordinary citizens of the country. I conclude that national memory is one-sided as it has not included the memories of all Namibians. The civilians have fought and contributed towards the attainment of independence, but their contributions are neither acknowledged nor rewarded.Item Exploring meanings of lesbian spaces in Cape Town and their perceived impact on well-being(University of the Western Cape, 2008) Stevens, Paschaline M. H.; Gibson, Diana M.Cape Town is perceived as one of the'gay capitals'of the world, yet many individuals who identify as homosexual still experience danger and harassment in this city in their everyday lives. This qualitative study was conducted with seven lesbians who live in various locations in Cape Town and who belong to different racial groups. The research focused on how lesbians experience and utilise social spaces to the benefit of their wellbeing. This thesis not only explores the meanings they attach to these spaces, it also ascertains that positive associations with places create a sense of wellness for the women in this study. Thirteen indepth interviews were conducted, and the relevant parts pertaining to this research, were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings demonstrate how these women negotiating their sexual identities in public spaces on a daily basis. They are constantly aware of their surroundings which, in tum, determine the level of self-surveillance of their behaviour. When in predominantly heterosexual public spaces, they tentatively display affection towards their partners if they perceive that environment to be potentially unsafe. Lesbian identified spaces are found to be places of safety and comfort for these women and offer the freedom for the exploration of their sexual orientation. I also illustrate that these women are not passive bystanders being subjected to potential violence, take control of their personal safety. They demonstrate agency - they cope with, and live beyond the threat of harassment and hostility.Item Exploring the effectiveness of distance learning as an alternative to mainstream education for disabled children in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Jones, Yumnah; Obuaku-Igwe, ChinweThe implementation of inclusive education by the South African government has been inspired and mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. While South Africa was among the first United Nations members to ratify this human rights treaty, the challenges associated with the implementation of an inclusive education are so dire that there are 600,000 children living with disabilities that are out of school, with an increasing need to identify an alternative solution to include learners living with disabilities in the education system. This study explores the extent to which distance learning bridges the learning and development gap for disabled learners who are unable to get into mainstream schools.Item Amagqirha nemicimbi: The art of healing(University of Western Cape, 2021) Kokoma, Zikhona; Forte, JungAmagqirha have been understood solely through the framework of health and illness. Their image is tainted and they are misrepresented as clad bone throwers and mystical scammers. There are very few studies that focus on their involvement outside the context of healing. This study seeks to fill this gap revealing the artistic side of amagqirha. I contend that by focusing on the ritual space which includes song, dance, fashion, poetry and story telling, allows us to reveal the aesthetics of ubugqirha, reconstructing the meanings of traditional healers in contemporary South Africa. Where does knowledge about ritual practice come from? What role do intergenerational narratives play in the meanings of amagqirha? In what ways do the rituals of amagqirha are grounded in a disctinctive aesthetics? With the use informal conversations, close interviews and participating in the rituals of amagqirha in the townships of Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Langa, this thesis argues that traditional healing is a complex form of being in the world which draws heavily from intergenerational knowledges. Furthermore it is artistic in its nature as it includes dance, songs, fashion and poetry.Item Commissioned women soldiers and politics in Zimbabwe(University of the Western Cape, 2020) Ziyambi, Gabriel; Gibson, DianaThe Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), are strongly interlinked in politics since independence, that is, the Army largely functions as the military wing of the party (ZANU-PF) and the state. The ZNA is also deeply involved in civilian politics. This study examines the experiences of commissioned women soldiers, as well as their understandings of power and politics in the ZNA. While many male soldiers are in positions of power and authority in the military, party, state, and civilian politics, commissioned women soldiers are marginalised in all of these areas. The role and position of women soldiers in this regard nevertheless remain under-researched. In this thesis I interrogate the complex processes and relations of power which discipline women soldiers and exclude them from processes of power and politics in the ZNA. I argue that there are various practice and discourses which affect women soldiers? roles in the military. To do so, I draw on Foucault?s (1977) work on power/ knowledge, particularly the concepts of practices, relations, power and panopticism to examine how woman soldiers? aspirations regarding power and politics are monitored and restricted in the military. I also draw on Enloe?s (2000) work on power politics and Sasson-Levy?s (2003) work on military gendered practices as interpretive and critical paradigmatic approaches to analyse how women experience hegemonic military masculinities in- and outside the army. The study employed ethnographic methods such as life histories, in-depth interviews and informal conversations with ten commissioned women soldiers in the ZNA. These methods were triangulated to corroborate responses from research participants and the data was thematically analysedItem An investigation of the integration of foreign migrants into South African community: A case of Zimbabweans living in Luyoloville and New Rest in Gugulethu, Cape Town.(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Kalule, Diplock Samuel; Spicer, SharynAccording to migrant research in South Africa, after the advent of democracy in South Africa, in 1994, the country has received an influx of foreign migrants, more especially from the African continent. However, much focus has been on the negative outcomes of the host community and its relationship with immigrants. Recent immigration research labelled South Africa as a xenophobic nation, and much emphasis on xenophobia was in Black South African townships. Although townships in South Africa are widely known for their hostile attitudes towards African nationals, in recent years, townships like Gugulethu have become homes for many African immigrants. This study investigates the integration of foreign migrants into the South African community: a case of Zimbabweans living in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Qualitative research methods? adopting an in-depth interpretation of the findings was used to answer the research question posed by this study. The research question posed by this study is, in the absence of a strategic plan to integrate African foreign nationals intoSouth Africa society, how do African migrants living in Gugulethu use their social capital to integrate themselves into the local community, which is widely regarded as xenophobic? Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews and observations and data was analysed according to the research questions by making codes and themes. In addition, the number of study participants was 30 people; 25 Zimbabwean immigrants and for comparative purposes 2 Ugandan immigrants and 3 local South Africans were also included. Both convenience and snowballing sampling techniques were used. The study found that despite the challenges faced by migrants in their host community, these migrants used their social capital in the form of social networks to integrate themselves into the host communityItem Colonisers to Colonialists: European Jews and the workings of race as a political identity in the settler colony of South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2020) Hunter, Mitchel Joffe; Pillay, SurendrenThis thesis explores the shifting racial identification and politics of the emerging Jewish community in Southern Africa between the Anglo-Boer War in 1902 and the Union of South Africa in 1910. Through an investigation of their actions and thoughts on the cultural, economic, linguistic and political aspects of their lives, I show how the emerging Jewish community formed itself through the political subjectivity of White settlers. Understanding how racial categories were being amalgamated and partitioned in that period of state formation, I argue that the mainstream Jewish community colluded with the colonial state to join into the ?unity of the White races?. I use Memmi?s (1967 [1957], pp. 19,45) analytic distinction between ?coloniser? ? a European on African land - and ?colonialist? ? a coloniser who supports colonialism and believes in its legitimacy - to examine how the process of subject formation is articulated through the political economy of racial capitalism and settler colonialism. When Jews from Eastern Europe (Yidn) began arriving in South Africa in the 1880s, they faced a settler population which simultaneously treated them as members of an undifferentiated European settler population, as candidates for assimilation into colonial Whiteness, and as dirty subjects under threat of colonial state violence. Though there were other possible responses to the colonial relationship that Yidn could have taken, such as linking the fight against antisemitism with other anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles, the community went through a process of colonialist refashioning. To understand this transformation, I focus on four aspects of life. Culturally, Yidn were classed as dirty subjects and Jewish communal institutions worked with the state to ?clean?, i.e. ?Whiten? them up. Economically, Jews of all class positions learnt the exploitative practices of settlers in racial capitalism. Linguistically, Yiddish became classified as a European language by utilising racial hierarchies. And politically, Yidn became citizens by embracing the ideology of a White-only franchise. Focussing in on these processes of assimilation into power, I argue that the primary Jewish communal institutions embraced and internally enforced a colonialist political subjectivity. This thesis is based on archival research conducted in three archives in Cape Town carried out between February and May 2019, and extensive reading of previous historical studies to write a new narrative from previously known sources.Item The long-term effects of domestic Violence: a study of life histories in a homeless shelter in cape Town, South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2020) Munge, Epie Bernadette; Gillespie, KellyThis study examines the effects of domestic violence on adults who witnessed abuse as children in their homes. It seeks to ascertain if the childhood emotional trauma of domestic violence influences the growth and social adaptation of children in their later years. Despite the growing awareness of domestic violence worldwide, there is nevertheless an alarming number of women reporting abuse, and there are those who are reportedly beaten or inflicted with bodily harm at the hands of their abusers. However, most of these domestic or household conflicts take place in situations where children are involved. These children witness such abuse and grow up carrying emotional and physical scars that impact their functioning as members of society. The study adopts a life history approach to investigate 15 adult participants (five women and ten men) within evolving themes relating to their experiences of domestic violence and other life ordeals during their childhood that made them end up at the Elim Night Shelter in Cape Town, South Africa. The study is anchored on the explication of such key concepts as domestic violence, abuse and the physical, social, emotional and behavioural effects of abuse. Furthermore, the study identifies the social consequences of growing up in an abusive environment. The findings of the study reveal that people who witnessed acts of domestic violence as children experience negative consequences as adults. Recommendations have been listed which could assist the further study expansion on the topic, together with intervention strategies.Item Theatre formations: Rethinking theatre and its spaces in Cape Town(University of Western Cape, 2020) Sikhafungana, Zuko Wonderfull; Forte, Jung Ran AnnachiaraScholarship on theatre in South Africa has shown how under the Apartheid government theatrical practices were divided into different genres such as protest theatre, township theatre, black theatre, mainstream theatre etc. In many ways theatre today presents the same fractures and polarisations: community and mainstream theatre. This study investigates ways in which black theatre artists from marginalised and disadvantaged communities with and without formal training negotiate themselves within theatre spaces in Cape Town. Discussing and analyzing the works and the trajectories of two case-studies: the Ukwanda Puppet and Design Company and the Back Stage Theatre Production Company, I attempt to demonstrate how works of arts that awkwardly sits with labels such as ?community? or ?mainstream? theatre are emerging more and more in the Cape Town theatre scene.Item Death ?awayfrom home.? A case study of Cameroonian immigrants living in Cape Town South Africa.(University of Western Cape, 2019) Fru, Terence Fontoh; Spicer, SharynDeath is an everyday occurrence for many urban Africans living in South Africa, and it is expressed through the everyday management of financial and social networks. The purpose of this study is to investigate what happens to African migrants, particularly the Ngemba people of Cameroon living in Cape Town when they die ?away from home?. In this study, I will be exploring the steps followed, the rites that are performed, perceptions regarding death and funerals, as well as the social implications that death has for the group members concerned, and the various challenges faced when someone dies ?away from home?. In other to achieve all this, I used a qualitative research design in which in-depth interviews and participant observation were administered to sixteen (16) participants.Item A socio-historical analysis of education/in the / third world and its implication)lfor rural development(University of Western Cape, 1993) Ernstzen, June; Prah, Kwesi Kwaa; Ellis, J. H. P.The greater part of the analysis relates to the needs of the Third World, with an emphasis on Africa (as opposed to the entire Third World). Within the African context, these needs should be seen against a background created by political, economic and demographic changes. Throughout the educational process the concept of education as learning, and not simply as schooling, has had important implications for development, in particular rural development.