Back to top

Izit? Hoe lyk hulle? Kom ons ǂXoa – A South African Khoe-San narrative

The foundation of the South African narrative is framed by identity politics; a politics instituted at the intersection of race and class to exclude all people considered non-White concerning the socioeconomic and political landscape of the country. The preamble of the Freedom Charter signed in 1955 declared that the country belongs to all who live in it: Black and White people. The dominant constructivist narratives of addressing the racial dichotomy obliterate the injustice suffered by the Khoe-San people whose identity was overshadowed under the homogeneous term, Coloured people.

Mother, daughter, sister, wife? Interrogating constructions of South African Indian women’s identity – a study of South African Indian Women playwrights and our plays

This thesis interrogates the gendered constructions and representations of Indian South African women (ISAW), South African Indian women (SAIW), and/or South African women of Indian descent’s (SAWOID) identity through a study of such playwrights and their plays, including my own work. ISAW, SAIW and/or SAWOID lives are critically affected by the roles we are expected to perform in our families, namely those of daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Sylvia Walby (1990) distinguishes two key forms of patriarchy: public and private.

The semiotics of the mosque and its impact on self-perceptions of the feminine body

From its inception, the primary focus of the field of Linguistic Landscape Studies has been the interplay between language and space, or language on display. Recently, however, scholars have begun to consider the human element of linguistic landscapes (LLs), and include the body in their work [See for example Stroud and Jegels (2014), Peck and Stroud (2015), Peck and Banda (2014)].

A survey of non-isizulu students’ attitudes towards learning isiZulu as a communicative language at a university in the Gauteng province, Pretoria

Several students come from different provinces and enrol at a University of Technology (UoT) in Gauteng for the Language Practice programme, because it offers a range of five indigenous African languages as subjects: isiZulu, Sepedi, Setswana, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga. Students who are not native speakers of these languages are expected to choose and learn one of them for communicative purposes. Nevertheless, when non-isiZulu students are offered isiZulu as an option to study, they seemed to be hesitant.

Silent sufferers: a sociological exploration of gender-based violence against South African men by women

GBV has become an epidemic in Southern Africa. With a growing body of research and policies centred on GBV, the phenomenon is largely understood from the male-inflicting-harm-on-female standpoint. Consider the following quotes regarding the importance ascribed to traditional (read hegemonic) meanings associated with masculinity in African culture: “Mudi wa gwoswi a una malila” (Translated from Tshivenda it means “the house of a weak man does not stand”) (Thobejane et al., 2018).

Guidelines to support students during practicum training at a university in Limpopo province, South Africa

Students registered for a Bachelor of Psychology are required to complete a six-month practicum during the second semester in their fourth year of study before they graduate. During their practicum, they are called student registered counsellors. These student registered counsellors also offer counseling to clients suffering from trauma. Counselling trauma clients exposes the students to various challenges which affect their normal functioning, making them less effective when they offer counseling.

Development of a support programme for nurses who care for patients with chronic mental illness in three Limpopo Province mental health institutions

Nurses working in mental health institutions experience enormous challenges sometimes without formal support structures and programmes to ease their caring duties. This study sought to develop a support programme for nurses caring for patients with chronic mental illness in three mental health institutions in Limpopo Province. A qualitative descriptive phenomenological design was used. A total of thirty participants (male = 7; females = 23) between 27 and 64 years were selected using a purposive homogeneous sampling method. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Exploring the Experiences of the Elderly with the Utilisation of ICTs in Their Health and Social Care

Research shows that elderly people want to be loved, taken care of, and live close to their families, however, they are the most socially excluded people in society. As their well-being, quality of life, health, and social care are overlooked there is also a shortage of research in this field. The care that is traditionally administered by caregivers is deemed problematic and inadequate by some scholars and therefore it was said that information and communication technology (ICT) was employed and implemented in elderly care to improve it.

Dwelling in Diversity Religion and Belonging in Kibera, a Neighbourhood in Nairobi

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of how religious communities make and take place in Kibera, a neighbourhood that is also a homeland in the city of Nairobi. Since its establishment in 1907, the debate about who belongs in Kibera and to whom Kibera belongs has shaped how religious communities in Kibera define themselves and relate to each other.

Food Security in Rural Areas: The Case of the Umkhanyakude District Municipality in the Northern Region of KwaZulu-Natal.

Studies on food security focusing on households began attracting considerable attention in the mid-1970s following a surge in the cost of food production and food prices. The surge in prices led to increasing percentage of food insecure households throughout the world. To address the growing number of people affected by hunger, countries sought to develop new technological techniques to produce food in large quantities particularly in the developing world. The thrust of the approach was to ensure the availability of food first.