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Objective: To identify the factors enabling and limiting family medicine (FM) programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Design: A narrative review was conducted by searching a variety of databases. Papers focusing on the training, deployment, or contribution to healthcare systems of doctors with postgraduate training in FM in SSA, published in peer-reviewed journals from 2015 onwards and in English language were included. Included papers underwent qualitative analysis. Results: Seventy-one papers were included in the review. 38% focussed on South Africa, while papers focussing on FM in a further 15 countries in SSA were identified. Key factors enabling FM programmes are support from key stakeholders, recognition of family practitioners (FP) as specialists, international collaboration, and dedicated FPs. Key factors limiting FM programmes are a lack of sufficient and well-trained faculty, inappropriate training settings, higher rates of trainee attrition, lack of FM in undergraduate curriculums, lack of career pathways, inappropriate deployment, and a lack of a critical mass. Conclusions: Support from national stakeholders, the recognition of FPs as specialists, and sustainable international collaboration promote FM programmes. The absence of a defined role within the healthcare system, low numbers of FM faculty, a poor presence in undergraduate curriculum, high attrition rate of trainees and the lack of a critical mass limit FM programmes. The standardisation of the role of FM and the implementation of undergraduate and postgraduate FM programmes with national and international collaboration could enable FM to reach a critical mass and realise its full potential in strengthening primary healthcare in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenophobia in South Africa is often depicted as anti-immigrant sentiments and stereotypes that emanate from social, political, and economic misconceptions. This paper argues that though the causes of xenophobia are many and complex, they stem from the dashed hopes of independence and the legacy of apartheid. This narrative has over the years been overshadowed by the view that xenophobic attacks in South Africa are a product of hate and anti-migration. We argue that the failure of successive governments of the ANC to correct the wrongs of the apartheid past and make the economy inclusive has stoked the tensions between citizens and foreign nationals. To underscore this point, this paper undertakes a discussion on the pertinent implications of the political trajectory of xenophobia in South Africa and makes some recommendations on what can be done to reduce incidences of xenophobic attacks in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gender equality remains an outstanding global priority, more than 25 years after the landmark Beijing Platform for Action. The disconnect between global health policy intentions and implementation is shaped by several conceptual, pragmatic and political factors, both globally and in South Africa. Actor narratives and different framings of gender and gender equality are one part of the contested nature of gender policy processes and their implementation challenges. The main aim of this paper is to foreground the range of policy actors, describe their narratives and different framings of gender, as part exploring the social construction of gender in policy processes, using the Adolescent Youth Health Policy (AYHP) as a case study. Methods: A case study design was undertaken, with conceptual underpinnings combined from gender studies, sociology and health policy analysis. Through purposive sampling, a range of actors were selected, including AYHP authors from government and academia, members of the AYHP Advisory Panel, youth representatives from the National Department of Health Adolescent and Youth Advisory Panel, as well as adolescent and youth health and gender policy actors, in government, academia and civil society. Qualitative data was collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 30 policy actors between 2019 and 2021. Thematic data analysis was used, as well as triangulation across both respondents, and the document analysis of the AYHP. Results: Despite gender power relations and more gender-transformative approaches being discussed during the policy making process, these were not reflected in the final policy. Interviews revealed an interrelated constellation of diverse and juxtaposed actor gender narratives, ranging from framing gender as equating girls and women, gender as inclusion, gender as instrumental, gender as women's rights and empowerment and gender as power relations. Some of these narrative framings were dominant in the policy making process and were consequently included in the final policy document, unlike other narratives. The way gender is framed in policy processes is shaped by actor narratives, and these diverse and contested discursive constructions were shaped by the dynamic interactions with the South Africa context, and processes of the Adolescent Youth Health Policy. These varied actor narratives were further contextualised in terms of reflections of what is needed going forward to advance gender equality in adolescent and youth health policy and programming. This includes prioritising gender and intersectionality on the national agenda, implementing more gender-transformative programmes, as well as having the commitments and capabilities to take the work forward. Conclusions: The constellation of actors' gender narratives reveals overlapping and contested framings of gender and what is required to advance gender equality. Understanding actor narratives in policy processes contributes to bridging the disconnect between policy commitments and reality in advancing the gender equality agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist discourses around the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) have historically prioritized the voices and contextualities of cisgender heterosexual women, often to the exclusion of trans persons. In light of the continual invisibility of black trans persons and in particular black trans women in anti-GBV activism, this paper explores black trans women’s experiences of violence in postapartheid South Africa. The study was undertaken from a transfeminist framework that asserts that the stories and histories of trans persons are central to the development of trans epistemologies within an inclusive gender liberation. The study followed a narrative methodological approach. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted with eight black trans women living in South Africa. Narratives of gender policing and punitive sexual violence in addition to narratives of cissexism as well as of the paradoxical hypervisibility and invisibility of black trans positions revealed violence meted against black trans women in South Africa as structural, grounded on a patriarchal matrix of cisgender power representing trans women as devalued others. Apartheid legacies of racialised economic marginalisation manifest as bearing a strong mediating role in shaping black trans women’s sustained vulnerability to violence. By addressing anti-trans violence as a feminist concern, this paper disrupts the ciscentricism of feminism, enabling more nuanced and inclusive constructions of GBV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of emotion in white students' experiential narratives about institutional attempts to transform racial demographics and relationships within residences at a historically white South African university. Three distinct narrative forms are presented each with a unique emotional politics constructed around the tropes of "culture" and "tradition". The "white victim" and "white saviour" narratives demonstrate an emotional investment in maintaining a sense of invulnerability combined with a politics of denial of continued racial injustice. In contrast, a third narrative form "out of my comfort zone" demonstrates an opening through which some white students are coming to challenge the comfortable norms of whiteness both internally as well as externally. The paper argues that through coming to embody the emotional position of vulnerability these students have developed a transformative capacity for "critical cultural openness" which represents a different emotional politics to the white victim and white saviour narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited scholarship on planning practice that foregrounds narratives of practitioners, especially those based in the post-colonial contexts. Juxtaposing biographical narratives of 12 practitioners from South Africa, this paper highlights the diversity and plurality that exist amongst planners and their practice in these contexts. Having trained in planning to enable socio-spatial change, these practitioners curate their practice within and beyond planning, following their passion, interests, personality, and personal circumstances. It is argued that central to this curation are the considerations of 'where' and 'with whom' to practice. The place of practice and the people they practice with become expressions of what practitioners value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary theatre in South Africa has a history of hegemonically framing narratives that prevalence cisheteronormative stories. These narratives exacerbate the already existing acts of violence resulting from systems that place queerness against the backdrop of marginality. Inquiries in queer histories, identities, and sexualities arouse questions of belongingness, emphasising perspectives and tensions that many queer people in South Africa grapple with due to inherited systems of silencing. This article applies a dialogic framework between Diana Taylor's The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (2003) and Judith Butler's Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (2009) to explore the process of queering contemporary theatre and performers in South Africa. In this article, I explore how the work of Koleka Putuma, with specific reference to No Easter Sunday for Queers (2019), participates in the act of carving out a space of belongingness through embodied modes of re-membering and re-memorying through theatre and performance. The orientation of Putuma's work guides this paper to ask: in what ways does South African queer theatre confront systems of power, violence, and dominance that silence queer people in contemporary South Africa? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the official end of apartheid, different state actors and non-state actors have been chanting the creed of national reconciliation and reconstruction for a better and harmonious South Africa. In fact, Desmond Tutu's vision of the "rainbow nation", to an extent, has been the driving force behind the policies of successive regimes in South Africa following the trauma and dispossession of the past. Since literature can also be conceived as an interpretation of society in time and space, the discourse of national reconciliation and reconstruction has found inroads in the literary and cultural productions of post-apartheid South Africa. This paper, thus, seeks to show the relationship between post-apartheid female narratives and post-apartheid politics. In other words, it verifies the contributory role of South African female writers in re-negotiating, re-conciliating and re-constructing the post-apartheid nation. In this connection, this paper is predicated on the premise that the post-apartheid South African female writer, just like her male counterpart, is also involved in the political project of nation building through political negotiation, reconciliation, and reconstruction. These writers, in their works, affirm the view that without political dialogue and reconciliation, the nation-building project in post-apartheid South Africa is a mere hoax and an exercise in futility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study explores growth barriers experienced by a sample of women subsistence entrepreneurs operating within the informal sector in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: The paper utilizes a descriptive-exploratory research approach and design relying on semi-structured interviews. A purposive sample of 45 women subsistence entrepreneurs formed the participant pool. Findings: Three main narratives emerged. First, a sense of personal contentment existed as a potential barrier for women subsistence entrepreneurs. Second, the women subsistence entrepreneurs had no expansion strategy due to their circumstances. This served as a barrier to growth. Finally, challenges emanating from the home-front served as a limit to the growth of the informal sector business. Research limitations/implications: Based on the findings, strategies are offered to assist the women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the identified barriers to the growth of the informal sector business. A limitation of the research concerns issues that accompany qualitative research. Notably, these include sampling issues. Practical implications: Based on the findings, strategies are offered to assist women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the barriers that affect their businesses. Originality/value: Given the popularity of the informal sector in emerging nations such as South Africa, the study proffers suggestions that assist the advancement of subsistence entrepreneurship, especially within the informal sector. The role of women in all this is heightened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two orphaned girls' accounts of victimization and vulnerability to child sexual abuse in their family homes. Interviews with these girls revealed a trend of neglect, adversity and processes of adultification which involved accounts of sexual abuse within their family homes. According to the data, the participants are vulnerable and they experience victimization as they are routinely sexually abused by older male relatives and non‐related men and boys inside their family homes – where they are supposed to feel safe and protected. We argue that these two young girls' experiences need to be understood as consequences of the prevailing cultures of toxic heteropatriarchal masculinities which have produced and normalized the distribution of male power over girls. The kinds of interventions required to address toxic masculinities and to insulate orphan girls from sexual abuse and neglect are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how sexually marginalised black high-school students from conservative schooling contexts in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, experience schooling. It draws on queer theories through life narratives in presenting findings from a small-scale interventionist project designed by the author. The project involved 14 participants comprising teachers, school learners and pre-service teachers. The study found that queer youth have negative experiences of schooling which range from punitive actions expressed through derogatory language to vicious reactionary hate, often expressed through violence and often perpetrated by teachers. This paper also found resist-stances from queer learners in portraying a positive self-image for themselves as a mechanism for coping with homophobia. As a way of looking forward, it locates teachers at the centre of bringing about change for the queer learners and argues for a re-education of teachers in order to tackle homophobia in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with the recent discourse on decolonization of knowledge in South Africa from a sociological perspective. It interrogates the position and relevance of both sociology and sociologists to the development aspirations of South Africa. Its basic assumption is that sociology as a discipline is invaluable to the current needs for social reformation and reconstruction in South Africa. While the relevance of sociology as a discipline consistent with unravelling the complex and complicated dynamics of social formations remains unquestioned, its value as the embodiment of social aspirations and development has been undermined by the unquestioning assumption of the superiority of knowledge systems from outside and the glaring failure to promote sociology that is both contextualized and responsive. There is no arguing the prominent role of sociology in the liberation struggles and initial encounter with imperialism; there is also no doubt that sociologists nowadays have found comfort in an uninvolving study of society and the generation of knowledge that hardly functions as an adequate anchor for the existential needs of society. This paper therefore argues for the emergence of "frontier" sociologists and sociology of relevance which interrogates knowledge from outside and critically builds conviviality between outsider and African ontologies and epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young migrant street traders are often pulled to the informal economy in South African cities in pursuit of work opportunities and financial independence. However, they often have to work long hours and endure periods of uncertainty as they hope for better futures. This article highlights the way the concept of waithood emerges in the narratives of street trading work of seven migrant youth from The Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria and Malawi in Durban, South Africa. This paper focuses on the way in which "dual waithood" – the period of uncertainty that characterises both migrant and youthful life – intersect to orient these young migrant street traders to continually strategise and pass their time. The narratives shed light on the way hope emerges in the overlapping urban spaces of work in the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores barriers to gender policy implementation arising from the narratives framing gender as a policy issue. Through examining the influence of gender policy narratives on practitioners, it challenges those who represent policy failures as the result of unsupportive cultural contexts. The paper draws on Fraser’s (1995, 2005; Fraser and Honneth, 2003) conceptualisation of recognition and redistribution to highlight tensions between three different gender policy narratives: (1) gender as instrumental for development; (2) gender as women’s rights and empowerment; and (3) gender as relations of power requiring personal transformation. Interviews with 32 gender practitioners in 26 South African non-governmental organisations and observations of meetings between these organisations show how these narratives lead to unhelpful conflicts between practitioners. These conflicts inhibit both the uptake of gender policy recommendations and collaboration between practitioners in ways that undermine efforts to address gender inequalities in the South African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uptake of contraceptive implants has declined in South Africa since their introduction in 2014, with side effects and inadequate health provider training cited as primary contributors underlying a poor community perception of implants. In this paper we explore a theme that emerged unexpectedly during analysis of our research in Cape Town that may be an additional factor in this decline: narratives of women being assaulted by robbers who physically remove the implants for smoking as drugs. Narratives were described consistently across interviews and focus groups with youth (aged 18–24 years) and in interviews with health providers, with six participants (two young people, four health providers) sharing personal experiences of robbery. While there was a range of perspectives on whether narratives are based on real experiences or are myths, there was strong consensus that narratives of implant robbery may be influencing women's decisions around implant use in Cape Town. This is a potent example of how perceptions of new products can affect uptake and offers important lessons for implementers to reflect on in planning for rollout of other health technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of 'social support' in the experience of fibromyalgia (a musculoskeletal pain disorder) in South Africa. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to collect narratives from 15 participants. Sources of social support constitute important mechanisms for coping with the illness experience of fibromyalgia. In providing a space for consultation and validation of the diagnosis of fibromyalgia, and the person living with the condition, people giving support fulfil a critical role in shaping the experience. The findings show how support from family, partners, and peers plays an integral role in the process of accepting fibromyalgia diagnosis, adapting to the demands of the condition, and seeking help from healthcare providers. The findings also show the ways in which people with fibromyalgia provide support for others with the condition, and the importance of this peer network in shaping the paths and outcomes of this illness experience. The findings of this study corroborate existing evidence that show fibromyalgia to be a complex condition to manage, due to the multiplicity, uncertainty and contestation that feature in the experience of the illness. Additionally, this study presents the challenges related to the limitations of access to healthcare in the South African context, and the utility of narrative approaches in garnering insight into the ways in which social support is harnessed in this environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, there is an underrepresentation of women in senior management positions and industries requiring "masculine"-typed duties. The study aimed to explore the gendered narratives relating to women in the Information Technology (IT) Department of a South African organisation using a feminist interpretivist framework. A qualitative design informed by feminist methodology and narrative inquiry outlined by Gilligan et al. (2003) was used for this study. Two females and four male participants participated in the study and data collection involved in-depth semi-structured interviews. The Gillian et al. (2003) approach of data analysis was used (Listening Guide). The listening guide assisted in uncovering positive and negative voices as participants spoke about their work experiences. The different voices represented in the organisation ranged from frustration, blame, resentment, silence and optimism. All of these voices represent the types of gendered narratives in the workplace of the participants. The relationships that exist among the voices are work, family and career advancement. The paper highlights that there is an expectation to perform according to the gendered script of men performing masculine tasks and women performing feminine tasks. There is a tendency to view women in the organisation as the mothers of the organisation, which reinforces the gendered script. Women who do not conform to this script may encounter social sanctions in the workplace. Gender roles should not be seen as binary in the workplace but as different and welcome versions of it. Furthermore, the current policies in the workplace are meant to bring transformation (more women, specifically of colour), but instead, there is more frustration and resentment as these policies do not emphasise the skills and merit for employment and are used as window-dressing. The paper concludes that policies that promote diversity and inclusivity are not effective if the organisational culture does not change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre‐abortion counselling may play a key role in abortion seekers' understanding of their decision to terminate a pregnancy and the subsequent emotions that they feel. In this paper, we report on a study conducted in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa concerning womxn's experiences of the pre‐abortion counselling offered as part of the implementation of the Choice of Termination Act that governs the provision of legal abortion in the country. Using a narrative‐discursive lens, the analysis revealed four micro‐narratives in which participants appreciated non‐directive and empathic counselling, as well as being provided with information. They also indicated that the counselling was upsetting and hurtful, particularly when providers drew on the awfulisation of abortion discourse to suggest that abortion leads to terrible consequences, and foetal personhood discourse to intimate that terminating the pregnancy is wrong and other alternatives (adoption, parenting) are better. The connection between these broadly positive and negative responses may lie in the dominance of anti‐abortion discourses coupled with the powerful positioning of healthcare providers as experts. The attendant disempowerment of clients within the health clinic setting may constrain pregnant people's ability to question such 'expert' information. The implications for feminist client‐centred pre‐abortion counselling are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, researchers routinely study children indirectly through adults who act as proxies for such children. The call for researchers to rather study children directly and adopt less intrusive child-friendly methodologies has become louder. The draw-and-write technique is regarded as a less intrusive child-friendly method of collecting data that can be used for this purpose. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that sought to establish the feasibility of the draw-and-write technique in exploring the resilience of children orphaned by AIDS. This study involved a convenience sample of 23 IsiXhosa-speaking orphaned children aged from 13 to 17. The participants were in grades 6 to 10 and they resided in two child and youth care centres in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. As part of the draw-and-write technique the participants were asked to make drawings of what enabled them to cope with their lives and to write short narratives in which they explained their drawings. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data and this process yielded two main themes, namely: personal protective resources and socio-ecological protective resources. The findings show that complex combinations of personal and socio-ecological resilience resources enabled the resilience of the orphaned children. The findings challenge researchers not to be oblivious to alternative child-friendly methods of research such as the draw-and-write technique when young people are the unit of analysis. The findings of this study have implications for research as well as practice in the field of education and psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unconditional cash transfers have risen in prominence for their potential to improve the health of the world’s most marginalised and bring them into a relationship with the state. Typically, challenges to accessing grants are described in terms of technical issues such as access to documents and distance to offices. This paper explores the challenges of 30 young, poor, black South African women in accessing the Child Support Grant (CSG), an unconditional cash transfer provided by the South African government. Data suggest that while there were ‘technical’ issues, young women were systematically excluded from accessing the CSG in two ways. First, women were symbolically marginalised by state officials, who humiliated them, forcing women to sit quietly and acquiesce to state power to access the CSG. Second, there were large distances for women to travel to access state services, despite these being geared to serve the poor. Rather than promoting the active citizenship of the poorest in South Africa, accessing the CSG reinforced marginalisation. Transforming this will not be achieved through technical solutions, rather the barriers to access need to be recognised as political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstetric violence is gaining recognition as a worldwide problem manifesting in a range of geopolitical contexts. While global public health attention is turning to this issue, there has been a lack of theoretical engagement by feminist psychologists with the phenomenon of obstetric violence. This paper contributes to the literature on obstetric violence via a feminist social constructionist analysis of “marginalized” and low-income South African women’s narratives of giving birth in public sector obstetric contexts. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2012 with 35 black, low-income women living in Cape Town, South Africa, the analysis focuses on obstetric violence as a relational, disciplinary, and productive process that has implications for the construction of women’s subjectivities and agency during childbirth. The findings focus on relational constructions of violence and agency in women’s narratives, including (a) the performance of docility as an act of ambiguous agency and (2) resistant bodies and modes of discipline. Framed within a Foucauldian approach to power and using the concept of assemblage, I argue that obstetric violence needs to be conceptualized as more than isolated acts involving individual perpetrators and victims. Instead, the analysis shows that obstetric violence functions as a mode of discipline embedded in normative relations of class, gender, race, and medical power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal narratives can be powerful venues for understanding human experiences. In this paper, we tell the story of Lutanyani, a Black South African multilingual teacher and author of supplemental reading materials in a marginalized South African language. Through various word images, we convey the role of language, in particular written language, in Lutanyani’s life. For Lutanyani, writing serves as ‘a healing process’ in two ways: (1) as a linguistically empowering venue that affirms and shifts his linguistic identity from outsider to insider, and (2) as a backward‐ and forward‐looking means to reconcile his past and reconstruct a message of hope for intermediate‐grade students throughout South Africa. This study has implications for classroom practices in the USA as well as development work in international settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emerged from a narrative inquiry of three female postgraduate students from three universities in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to inquire into the challenges that black female students face during their period of study. One participant was a teacher at high school, one a university lecturer and the other a curriculum specialist at a district office. Two participants managed to complete their studies and one is still busy with her doctorate. From their narratives, patterns of meaning that emerged indicated that although participants valued the knowledge that they acquired, their experience of studying at postgraduate level was nevertheless arduous. This paper exposes the joy and hardship of learning as a black female South African. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that South African youth use silence as a sign of respect and gratitude and to maintain family and kinship bonds. There has not been much research to help us better our understanding of this phenomenon. This paper explores the strategic use of silence in narratives of absent fathers collected from the Mpumalanga province. Twenty-one-hour, one-on-one, fieldworker-respondent, semi structured interviews in their local languages, were conducted with women aged 15-26 years old. Interviews were gender-matched, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated into English. Thematic, and some elements of discourse analysis, were used to analyse the data focusing on motivations behind silence in familial relationships. Findings show that motivations for upholding silence within the home were to show respect and gratitude, and avoid upsetting a bothersome mother. The dynamics of silence reported here are similar to those found in narratives of psychological distress and abuse among young South Africans. A novel theme was that of avoiding speaking with a chronically ill mother lest this made her condition worse and recovery difficult. This research suggests a need to equip young women with ways of expressing themselves within families without fear of being seen as disrespectful, ungrateful and a burden to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has documented unsatisfactory sexual and reproductive health (SRH) awareness among young people in South Africa, understanding of gender differences in access to and evaluation of SRH information is limited. This paper concerned itself with men and women's informal sources and content of SRH, and gendered divergences around accessibility, evaluation, and impact of such information. Fifty sexual history narrative interviews and twenty-five narrative interviews with women were conducted with participants purposively sampled from a range of ages, cultural and racial backgrounds, and in urban and rural sites across five provinces in South Africa. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. While young women were more likely to learn about SRH information from family members, they also reported greater regulation concerning their sexuality. This could enhance stigma surrounding women's sexuality and hinder open communication. Men predominantly learned about sex through pornography and peers, which was reported to encourage sexual prowess to the neglect of practising safer sex. Lack of adequate SRH instruction for young people as revealed through the narratives had significant and often negative implications for men and women's early safer sex behaviours. In response to these insights, recommendations are offered to strengthen informal sources of SRH awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: South Africa uses government-funded return-of-service (RoS) schemes to train, recruit and retain skilled health professionals in underserved areas. These educate health professionals locally or internationally in return for a commitment to serve in a specified area for an agreed period. While such schemes are used widely and are funded by substantial public funds, their exact makeup differs across jurisdictions, and little is known about why these differences have emerged or how they influence their effectiveness or impact on the health system. We aimed to fill these gaps through an analysis of the origins, architecture, and evolution of RoS schemes in South Africa. Methods: A multimethod research study including a policy review, a literature review, and semi-structured interviews of policymakers was undertaken between October 2020 and August 2022. The included policy documents and literature were analysed using the Walt and Gilson framework and narrative synthesis. Qualitative data were analysed using inductive, thematic analysis in NVIVO 12. Results: RoS schemes are used as a recruitment and retention strategy and a mechanism to address equity in access to medical education. Whilst there is evidence of RoS schemes existing in 1950, no evidence of beneficiaries was found in databases until 1989. The impact of these schemes is likely being limited by sub-optimal institutional arrangements and poor transparency in their design and implementation. Conclusion: Despite rigorous research methods, the origins of RoS policies in South Africa could not be established due to poor preservation of institutional memory. Opportunities to monitor the value of public investment into RoS programs are being missed and often the underlying objective of the programs has not been well-specified. Policies were found to have been developed and operate in isolation from other health workforce planning activities and thus may not be maximising their impact as a retention and training tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors reflect on how therapeutic practices wove a community of care and concern with a young man in South Africa who was at risk of anger ruling his life. A counselor and outsider witnesses participated in responding to the problems the young man and his family faced. The authors discuss the steps they took in the therapeutic journey and describe how their personal and professional lives were shaped by this collaboration. This work inspires and sustains their enthusiasm in seeking to understand how to best respond when positioned to counsel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bio-economy is characterised by aspirations of replacing the fossil-based economy with biobased energy, resources and processes; biofuels are particularly popular. This new shift comes with multiple risks and uncertainties in both industrialised and developing economies. The uptake of biofuels is inextricably linked to and legitimised by policy processes involving a complicated nexus of vested interests, political aspirations, and technological drivers, and a range of associated factors. In this paper we describe the characteristics of and contours along which two national biofuels policies in India and South Africa have been articulated and developed. In doing so we establish how a biofuels regime has gained legitimacy, becoming embedded into policy processes dictated largely through specific networks and reflective of the rationalising effect of global and local narratives. We analyse how pro-poor 'win-win' narratives gained purchase amongst different actors and in turn how they were used as a basis for biofuels policies. The case studies are, however, complex and differentiated, pointing towards sociopolitical nuances and structural subtleties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyse the cinematic representations of the 'township space' in post-apartheid South African cinema and television where the 'township space' is utilised as a central location to represent the narratives of authentic black South African stories. Cinematic representations ('place-images') of the 'township space' in post-apartheid South Africa subscribe to 'place-myths' that informed the space of the township during apartheid. Initially constructed through a process of 'othering' to suit a political ideology, the township was represented as the manageable part of modernity for 'black identity'. In post-apartheid South African filmmaking there appears to be a 'fixing' or 'freezing' of an authentic black experience within the 'township space' which serves to essentialise black identity and the black experience. Filmmakers have embarked on a project to redefine the township in post-apartheid society, but there appears to be the reiteration of 'place-images' and 'place-myths' that are historically and politically outdated. The 'cinematic township' has become 'fixed' in its visual aesthetics and fetishised in the memory and representations of South African filmmakers. I argue that the township is a space of hybridity, an in-between space reflected through the intermediate position the township occupies in relation to the urban and rural spaces. In this paper I suggest that the township space has become a fetishised cinematic trope, and that the 'cinematic township' has similarities with 'Township Art' from the 1950's and 1960's. This article also speaks to issues of representation and who can claim the rights to representation in post-apartheid South Africa (Ngugi 2000 and Axel 1999). The South African filmmaking landscape is unique because of the mix of 'white' and 'black' filmmakers. This raises questions about 'racialised Africanness' and the implications for 'African whiteness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apartheid policies and practices by means of which South Africa was formerly governed also had an ideological or mythological dimension, which functioned as its justificatory narrative. The process of replacing that narrative which needs to be undertaken in South Africa can make use, among other processes, of the re-presentations of this society by our novelists. This paper sketches something of the complex interplay between fiction, social reality, and moral-political understanding at the hand of six novels. It focuses on depictions of acts and experiences of violation as the signature of the ruthless force and after-effects of the apartheid system. It draws attention to the various, but socially meaningful workings of novelistic discourse in these texts, functioning as they do within a situation requiring profound psychic and social readjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a process of analysis and the development of representational strategies in a narrative study. It takes the reader through the often bidden steps involved in doing research, and unveils some of the problematics of narrative and voice. Within the context of rural post-Apartheid South Africa, the researchers were positioned as outsiders, border-crossing into the lives of the researched, in the name of articulating their voices. The ethical dilemmas of this kind of research are examined, as is the perspective that the researcher is positioned, not as an objective, all-seeing eye, but as a re-presenter from ‘somewhere’. The heart of the paper analyses the development of different strategies of analysis, including poetry and various mapping, graphic and matrix techniques. Representational models are developed progressively, in response to the dilemmas and complexities of re-telling ‘a’ story, and the particular challenge of capturing the contradictory, partial and fluid nature of each teacher's story. The research process culminates in a model which allows for a reading of each narrative as complex, nuanced and intrinsically ambivalent. Against the backdrop of a wider study of teacher narratives (on which this paper is based) and the policy context of education, some conclusions about the implications of narrative study for teacher development in South Africa are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need to Africanise family therapy so as to serve the interest of local communities. Western approaches to family therapy have been accused of being irrelevant to African contexts. They are seen as forming part of a dominant scientific knowledge which invalidates local folk and cultural psychologies and thereby continuing a historical tradition of oppressive colonial power relations. This paper aims at archaeologising and evaluating such criticism by situating family therapy within different fields of knowledge that have emerged historically and are currently co-existing in Africa. The advantages and disadvantages of dominant family therapy approaches in African contexts are explored by focussing on power relations between different knowledges in Africa. It is argued that many global narratives of family therapy offer congenial companionship to many local African narratives, but that family therapists should pay more attention to local spiritual and political narratives so as to attain more legitimacy and validation by local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oliver Hermanus's Skoonheid is often read as a representation of South African queer realities and political progressiveness both during and since the dissolution of apartheid. Consequently, Hermanus's contribution to the aesthetic of slowness in Skoonheid has gone largely unnoticed in the broader context of slow cinema. In this article, I examine how Hermanus, through the slow cinema conventions, urges the viewer to contemplate issues of crucial importance to human behaviour, thereby putting Skoonheid's meditative qualities on display. Drawing on Ira Jaffe's concept of expressive minimalism, Emre Çağlayan's poetics of slow cinema, and Thomas Elsaesser's observations on the virtues and demands of slow cinema, I analyse the narrative and aesthetic strategies deployed in Skoonheid within the purview of slow cinema and beyond a representation of queer sexuality. This analysis reveals that Skoonheid represents a mode of narrative-formal expressiveness distinct from, yet in dialogue with, slow cinema in its emphasis on contemplation. Principally, Hermanus finds a way to testify to some of the most urgent concerns in contemporary society through the film's contemplative approach, which draws the viewer's attention to the mystery and ambiguity of human experience. Skoonheid's contemplative approach is informed by the film's processes and experiences of alienation, incommunicability, and existentialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from ongoing research situated between architecture and film. It focuses on introducing film and its narrative formats into architectural design pedagogy at the Wits School of Architecture in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the aim of establishing a more inclusive and collaborative design studio environment. Techniques such as screenwriting and storyboards are discussed as part of a methodology for designing and representing buildings through characters' lived experiences, something I call »character-led architecture«. In this article, which is accompanied by a script that explores my own affective experience as I grappled with creating and introducing this methodology during a moment of social transformation in South Africa, character-led architecture becomes a tool for self-reflection. My research is situated in the field of narratives in the design process to contribute new knowledge to architectural pedagogy and design theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring perinatal women's experience of nonfatal suicidal behaviour (NFSB) could help illuminate the contexts in which perinatal suicide occurs and new ways to conceptualise maternal suicide prevention. Our aim was to explore perinatal women's subjective experience of NFSB in South Africa. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with seven perinatal women hospitalised following NFSB. Thematic analysis showed how poverty and gender norms shape experiences of pregnancy and highlighted the need for eco-systemic interventions for perinatal women in resource scarce environments to increase social support, assist with childcare, improve educational retention, challenge gender norms and increase paternal involvement. Pregnancy can precipitate biographical disruption by disturbing women's view of themselves and their futures. An inability to reconstruct a coherent narrative and re-imagine the future impedes the transition to motherhood and provides a context for suicide. Using the concept of biographical disruption to frame perinatal suicide, could identify novel approaches to suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper examines the autobiographical prison narratives of Ruth First, Emma Mashinini and Breyten Breytenbach. I read First's 117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation under the South African Ninety-Day Detention Law (1965), Breytenbach's The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (1984) and Emma Mashinini's Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life: A South African Autobiography (1989), through Paul John Eakin's insightful observation that ‘autobiographical truth is not fixed but an evolving content in an intricate process of self-discovery and self-creation, and … that the self that is the center of autobiographical narrative is necessarily a fictive structure’ (3). I argue that while prison narratives in general expose individual autonomy as illusory, First, Breytenbach and Mashinini's narratives specifically show that it is the space of solitary confinement that allows for the deconstruction of notions of a bounded autonomous self. These texts also help us to see that the self is not autonomous and transcendent, and that it is not constituted through a lonely process of introspection, but rather at the intersection of the material world, the individual mental capacity, and an indefinable spiritual entity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Life trajectories of children with no connections to support from their fathers have received research attention. Within this group is a sub-group who do not know their fathers and no research has attempted to understand their experiences. We present accounts of how young South Africans deal with and seek to uncover undisclosed paternity. Forty young men and women aged 16 to 22 volunteered to participate in a qualitative study on distress that was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province. All interviews were conducted in isiXhosa, following a semi-structured guide. Our findings show that interest in father identity was motivated by harsh circumstances in the maternal home, notably when financial difficulties, exclusion from critical decision making and bullying by non-biological siblings were felt. The search for father identity was pursued in solitude by some participants: their fear of elders' response restrained them from asking. Some thought that it would be interpreted as being disrespectful and ungrateful to ask 'such a question', whilst others worried that they might be victimized or, worse, thrown out by their mothers or maternal guardians. We present accounts of accidental disclosures by strangers and also inadvertent involvement in an incestuous relationship. Open and honest communication with children about their paternal identity should be promoted to prevent the currents of silence, secrecy and anxiety, and avoid unpleasant surprises for the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to disentangle the threads of the complex, interwoven fabric of apartheid sexualities, this paper draws on narratives of the Apartheid Archive Project to explore the sexualizing force of racism and the racialising force of gendered sexuality. We do this by isolating three key dynamics operating on both the material and the psychical terrains of apartheid: the construction of the black male body as physically and sexually dangerous; the white ‘neurotic’ desire for the black ‘other’, a desire shaped by the historical conditions of apartheid; and white masculine power and entitlement. Our analysis suggests that it is the very demonization of the black male body that facilitates in white females a desire for that which is terrifying and forbidden and that both dynamics are ultimately in the service of entrenching and rationalizing white male power and privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research tackles healthcare providers' experiences in conducting pre-abortion counselling sessions in circumstances where pregnant persons may request an abortion. We report on a study conducted in South Africa, in which two nurses and two counsellors were asked about how they conduct these counselling sessions. Using a synthetic narrative approach, we present these health workers' micro-narratives about their motivations for providing abortion services, the purpose of the counselling, their information-giving practices, and whether and how third parties are included in the counselling. We highlight how these micro-narratives are premised on discursive resources that problematise unintended pregnancy and abortion. These resources enable and justify directive counselling that undermines pregnant peoples' reproductive autonomy. We locate such directiveness within dominant anti-abortion discourse and call for training to reframe normative understandings of abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-apartheid, patriarchal gender relations and the violence they generate continue to contradict the promise of the Bill of Rights contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which guarantees women a range of rights. How these contradictions are represented within popular media has implications for the achievement of gender justice, for they offer ways of imagining the forms that such justice might take. One popular local publication is the Daily Sun, a tabloid newspaper. Rather than simply aligning itself with the gender status quo, as tabloids in other spaces are sometimes accused of doing, the Daily Sun attempts both to critique and to form its readers' social and gender identities as members of "SunLand", the tabloid's imagined community. Using Connell's constructive model of the gender order, and interpretive methods in line with critical discourse analysis, including lexicalisation and narrative analysis, the author analyses the tabloid's 2011 coverage of women whose non-conforming and resistant femininities challenge patriarchal gender relations in township spaces. The findings suggest that while certain forms of non-compliant femininities are condemned, others are validated and the violent masculinities they resist censored. That non-compliant femininities can be also violent is a troubling feature of SunLand's gender order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research focused on personal narratives of four school principals from different school contexts, how they experienced the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) crisis and how that experience influenced their leadership. The main question that guided the research, was how these principals made sense of their leadership during the COVID-19 crisis in their different South African contexts. International and national research confirm that policy implementtation during crisis situations is sometimes compounded by complexities and contradictions such as inappropriate policies, poor leadership and corruption, among other things. The research used a narrative inquiry, in which participants told their stories, to take a fresh look at existing ideas, which in this case is leadership in crisis situations. The research data was analysed within the broad framework of participants' lived experiences, expressed in their different contexts. The reresearch findings confirmed that principals - as departmental officials - must be policy implementers or 'conveyor belts' for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) - though under different contexts of uncertainty, fear and disillusionment during the COVID-19 crisis. This brought many challenges where principals needed to decide whether they should follow their personal feelings and experiences as the school's principal, or blindly obey the departmental creeds. The significance of these research findings is that a context-based, collaborative and inclusive leadership approach during a crisis - together with availability to modern channels of communication - could be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption has become a buzz word the world-over today. South Africa is no less affected by it than are other countries. Many counter-corruption measures have been devised from a political perspective with no visible results. This reflection is an attempt to introduce a religious intervention. The article argues that the narrative of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts: 1-11) has all the elements of corruption as we know it today as well as a decisive response to it. Redaction criticism is employed in reading the narrative of Ananias and Sapphira with particular reference to the South African counter-corruption efforts. The reading reveals that God abhors corruption, this being inferred from the 'double-deaths' of the corrupt couple. A conclusion is therefore reached that drastic action against perpetrators is imperative and that trustees of state authority who fail to act against corruption and its perpetrators do not deserve to be rewarded with office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding gang disengagement is important for the development of effective interventions. This research sought to examine how former South African gang members understand their gang disengagement. Two rounds of life history interviews were conducted with 12 former gang members. Thematic narrative analysis was used to analyze the interview data. Findings revealed that personal agency was key to the participants' disengagement, which included forming a purposive intention to change, committing to and maintaining this change, despite challenges faced, and taking personal responsibility for their pasts. It also involved actively drawing on protective resources—such as meaningful and practical support from loved ones—and prosocial identities available to them within their environments, thus illustrating how the disengagement process is an interaction between inner and outer resources. Therefore, it is imperative that gang-related interventions ensure that individuals have access to the kinds of resources that will support their disengagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is associated with maternal and infant health. However, in South Africa, where 20% to 35% of pregnant women report experiencing IPV, antenatal care rarely addresses violence. Little research has explored how clinic staff, community members, or pregnant women themselves view IPV. We conducted formative, qualitative research with 48 participants in urban Johannesburg. Focus group discussions with pregnant women (n = 13) alongside qualitative interviews with health providers (n = 10), managers and researchers (n = 10), non-governmental organizations (n = 6), community leaders (n = 4), and pregnant abused women (n = 5) explored the context of IPV and health care response. Data were analyzed using a team approach to thematic coding in NVivo 10. We found that pregnant women in the urban Johannesburg setting experience multiple forms of IPV, but tend not to disclose violence to antenatal care providers. Providers are alert to physical injuries or severe outcomes from IPV, but miss subtler cues, such as emotional distress or signs of poor mental health. Providers are uncertain how to respond to IPV, and noted few existing tools, training, or referral systems. Nevertheless, providers were supportive of addressing IPV, as they noted this as a common condition in this setting. Providers and managers considered the safety and well-being of mother and infant to be a strong rationale for the identification of IPV. Pregnant women were receptive to being asked about violence in a kind and confidential way. Understaffing, insufficient training, and poorly developed referral systems were noted as important health system problems to address in future interventions. South African patients and providers are receptive to the identification of and response to IPV in antenatal care, but require tools and training to be able to safely address violence in the health care setting. Future interventions should consider the urban South African antenatal clinic a supportive, if under-resourced, entry point for improving the health of pregnant women experiencing violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the South African government's responses to the xenophobia of 2015. As xenophobia attracted political interest from opposition within South Africa, statements from certain government officials were embedded in mixed narrative discourses, some bringing trouble while some were accountable. South Africa is a country that prides itself on its Bill of Rights and Foreign Policy that promote global peace and human rights for all which comes with a huge political responsibility. Even though the South African government had some positive responses, such interventions were not effective to curb violence against foreign nationals in the country. This study is grounded on qualitative research designs that incuded critical discourse of media reports and random interviews. Hence, the study underscores the complex dynamics of contextualisation of xenophobia and placing the South African society under international scrutiny. The government's mixed responses have led to manipulation of xenophobic tendencies among corrupt political, societal and international constituents, crumbling law enforcement systems, increasing (including illegal) migration and debilitated urban spaces, and poor communication between the central government and ordinary residents. This article concludes that, for the South African state to address xenophobia, it must firstly contextualise xenophobia and its attacks to better render suitable interventions to end xenophobia in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally the well-being of child protection social workers (CPSWs) is placed at risk by the taxing nature of their profession. In response, there have been international calls for the prioritization of CPSWs’ resilience. Despite the call to enhance the resilience of CPSWs, to date, only five research studies have explored resilience processes in CPSWs. In this article, we present findings that describe resilience-enhancing practices in the lives of 15 South African CPSWs who were considered resilient. They were recruited by means of snowball sampling and engaged in in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that the overall well-being and functioning of these 15 South African CPSWs are endangered by several occupational risk factors including work pressure, inadequate professional support, financial strain, challenges unique to CPSW such as removal of children and exposure to aggressive clients, and emotional exhaustion. Their resilience was informed by four differently weighted but interrelated resilience practices: practice- and purpose-informing creeds, support systems, constructive transactions, and accentuating the positive. These practices are potentially useful to contribute to the body of knowledge on CPSWs’ resilience as well as to the development of resilience-enhancing guidelines and subsequent intervention programmes with the purpose of protecting CPSWs globally and contributing to efficient service delivery. However, given the dynamic nature of resilience, continued explorations of CPSW resilience processes in different cultural contexts are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This mixed method study aimed to gather a contextual understanding of the perspectives of young girls in South Africa with regard to transactional sexual interactions between older men and young girls. Two major narratives of the “sugar daddy” phenomenon have dominated the public discourse on the topic. One emphasises the girls' vulnerability and experience of victimisation, whereas the other highlights their role as social agents with control in such interactions. In this study, the participants acknowledged the heterogeneity among partners in such interactions, which suggests that the phenomenon of “sugar daddies” cannot be explained by a simple narrative. The girls' experiences form a continuum based on the degree of their individual control and the extent of their vulnerability in such an interaction. Contextual factors and social norms influence decisions and experiences in these interactions. The study concludes that these relationships form part of the girls' daily experiences of structural violence as well as gender inequality and can be regarded as a symptom of broader societal structures and norms. Quantitative data investigate the mental health status of the participants, whereas an essentialist/realist thematic analysis of qualitative data explores experiences and perceptions of the girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One in three women, globally, experiences intimate partner violence (IPV). Although 80% of the world’s population resides in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), health system responses to IPV are poorly understood. In 2013, the World Health Organization released new guidelines for IPV but universal screening was not recommended in LMICs due to perceived lack of capacity and insufficient evidence. South Africa, with IPV prevalence estimated at 31% to 55%, offers a window into LMIC health systems. South African women seek health care for partner abuse, yet no guidelines exist to direct providers. This research aimed to understand how and why nurses respond to IPV. Using a descriptive design, 25 nurses from five health facilities were interviewed, generating rich narratives of provider actions. Themes were coded and analyzed. An iterative process of constant comparison of emergent data was undertaken to verify and confirm final themes. In the absence of IPV guidelines, nurses employed interventions characterized as counseling, ascertaining abuse, and referral. Nurses’ actions were motivated by fear for patients’ survival, perceived professional obligations, patients’ expectations of receiving treatment, personal experiences of IPV, and weak police responses to IPV. Findings indicated nurses were responding to IPV in a routine manner, yet comprehensive guidelines remain essential to govern and locate their actions within the framework of a public health response. South Africa yields lessons for enhancing understanding of IPV responses in LMICs, while contributing to a slim evidence base of the “how” and “why” of provider actions toward IPV in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on multi-sited ethnography that traced a dynamic network of actors (activists, policy-makers, health care systems, pharmaceutical companies) and actants (viruses and medicines) that shaped South African women’s access to, and embodiment of, antiretroviral therapies (ARVs). Using actor network theory and post-humanist performativity as conceptual tools, the article explores how bodies become the meeting place for HIV and ARVs, or non-human actants. The findings centre around two linked sets of narratives that draw the focus out from the body to situate the body in relation to South Africa’s shifting biopolitical landscape. The first set of narratives articulate how people perceive the intra-action of HIV and ARVs in their sustained vitality. The second set of narratives articulate the complex embodiment of these actants as a form biopolitical precarity. These narratives flow into each other and do not represent a totalising view of the effects of HIV and ARVs in the lives of the people with whom I worked. The positive effects of ARVs (as unequivocally essential for sustaining life) were implicit and the precarious vitality of the people in this ethnography was fundamental. However, a related and emergent set of struggles become salient during the study that complicate a view of ARVs as a ‘technofix’. These emergent struggles were biopolitical, and they related first to the intra-action of HIV and ARVs ‘within’ the body; and second, to the ‘outside’ socio-economic context in which people’s bodies were situated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]