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This study examines the importance of historical memory in galvanising constructions of masculinity in Wentworth, a formerly 'coloured' township in South Durban. Semi-structured focus group discussions and individual interviews with 28 coloured men uncovered a tradition of activist masculinities in the community and also revealed the complex ways in which the apartheid project continues to shape masculinity and family life in Wentworth. We explore the intergenerational nature of masculinity by considering how two generations of men (ages 30–45 and 45–65) use memories of apartheid in their processes of identity formation. We illustrate how memories of gender under apartheid modulate across time, contributing to masculinised performances of race and identity in a post-apartheid climate. We argue that a more nuanced understanding of coloured masculinities is necessary within the literature on race and gender in South Africa, as popular perceptions of coloured men as violent, aggressive and heterosexist loom large in the South African imagination. Such stereotypes obscure the complex history of gender and race in southern Africa and disregard the diverse expressions of masculinities in coloured communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of what is known about father-child sexual communication is based on studies conducted in North America and more research into under-represented groups is needed. Our exploratory study therefore investigated sexual communication within father-son dyads belonging to a minority group in South Africa. We used a qualitative research design, and a total of 30 in-depth individual interviews were conducted with the members of 15 father-young adult son dyads. Thematic analysis of the data indicated that although both fathers and sons believed that fathers have an important role to play in the sex education of sons, the sexual communication in these dyads were mostly indirect, singular, and father-centered warnings, jokes or speeches. The men in our study would therefore benefit from interventions that equip them with knowledge and skills to function as more effective sexual communicators and educators. Furthermore, we found that limiting hegemonic masculinity ideas underpinned father-son sexual communication, which implies that interventions to empower fathers as effective sex communicators should also challenge and expand ideas and practices involving masculinity and fatherhood. We also identified context-specific issues (e.g., being mindful of how the idea of explicit sexual communication fits with local constructions of respectful father-son relationships) that need to be attended to in such interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with the association between "sounding out" and "voicing" this article begins with a tacit question of what musical metaphors might offer for thought concerning identity, and in particular the complex racial (mis-) or (dis-)identifications of so-called coloured people in South Africa. I tie the aurality of the cuckoo bird to the notion of something that pops out of invisibility and makes an irrelevant or silly kind of noise. In musical settings the cuckoo is often associated with a dissonant cacophony of multiple chiming (cuckoo) clocks and steeple bells. This offers a telling metaphor for the determination of coloured(ness) by white and black South Africans alike, for whom coloured is precisely the incomprehensible "other" whose voice cannot be heard clearly. At the same time, among so-called coloureds in South Africa, the metaphor of an internal cacophony refers to a resounding, but tragic noise created by the "sounding-out" or "voicing", i.e. the aurality, of multiple narratives of what constitutes and nullifies coloured(ness) in South Africa. In other words, the cacophonic plurality of so-called coloured voices in society speaking simultaneously against one another in terms of self-determination also seems to be speaking beyond comprehension for most other South Africans. The ironic outcome of all of this noise is an extraordinary kind of silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the author's experience of the unjust treatment of Black people during his student life in the University of Mississippi highlighting the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant movement and mulatto culture. Topics include racial politics, economic and cultural identity of African-Americans and the civil rights movement.

This article uses the extensive case records of South Africa's first child welfare society – the Society for the Protection of Child Life (SPCL) – as the means to rethink how race has been constituted within families and communities in colonial contexts. It uses the idea of an 'unmistakable trace of colour' as a way to considering the importance of doubt in the Society's case records. In a context with a long history of racial mixing, judging race from physical appearance was especially difficult: in Cape Town, there was no readily obvious difference between 'European' and 'Coloured'. The idea of colour, however, stood as a signifier for various other, apparently non-racial, markers of difference. While ideas about the family, derived to a considerable extent from the international child welfare movement, saw race as irrelevant, colour nevertheless worked as the organising thread that gave narrative and moral structure to individual case records. The story of many of these case files, therefore, is of the construction of race through languages of morality, character and respectability. The great limitation of the case file is that it was premised on the individual being made knowable as an individual, detached from its social context. Because the child was understood in the setting of the family, a social institution that was always porous, it was impossible to isolate the child from its social context. Removing children from their homes and placing them in institutional or other forms of care achieved this in practice. The case files record the complex history behind that process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, higher education has concerned itself with understanding the complex pathways to college for low-income students of color in general, and those in urban contexts in particular. This paper applies the concept of neighborhood cultural heterogeneity, defined as the presence of a wide array of competing and conflicting cultural models, to explore college aspirations and enrollment among low-income, urban youth of color. The findings, based on a five-month ethnography involving low-income students of color in a Los Angeles neighborhood, highlight diverse positive and negative neighborhood-informed messages regarding college-going. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coloured neighbourhoods of the Western Cape in South Africa, there are objects in people's homes that live in a unique historical and cultural moment. This article reports on an examination, in the neighbourhood of Cloetesville, Stellenbosch, of how these objects inside residents’ homes tell a story of a creolised people and the locations in which they are situated. In the case of Cloetesville, as in many neighbourhoods that arose from a history of forced removals, many people experience various social and economic problems. Coloured people's identities are commonly thought to rest in these problems. This article, however, seeks to suggest an alternative way of exploring coloured identity through looking at objects in households and broader living environments. Thus, I hope to provide insight into different yet distinct experiences by contributing new perspectives through looking at nostalgic and ordentlike (respectable) sentiments of belonging. Specifically cabinets in living rooms are conceptualised as repositories of such sentiments in the home, and how the objects residing in the home have the power/ability to symbolically ground their owners in the neighbourhood of Cloetesville. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explored diversity management strategies used by South African financial institutions. The sample included 72 employees (33.33% females; 39.08% Indigenous African language speakers). Of the participants, 44.45% were white, 28.57% were black, 22.22% were Indian, and 4.78% were from the Coloured population group. The participants completed focus-group interviews or individual interviews on their workplace diversity experiences and its management. Themes emerging from Atlas.ti and Tesch’s data analyses included the consensus view that effective diversity management proactively addressed cultural differences, stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, misunderstandings, communication gaps, and conflict due to organisational hierarchical levels. Organisational competitiveness is enhanced through client focused services and an employee valuing work environment. However, some of the employees also viewed diversity initiatives as costly, time-consuming, and forced on employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 is the ‘gold standard’ autism spectrum disorder observational assessment, and it is increasingly used in South Africa. However, its use is limited to English speakers, as it has not been translated into the country’s other 10 official languages. Moreover, the cultural appropriateness of this tool has not been explored in South Africa. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 was translated into Afrikaans and assessed for cultural appropriateness to the ‘coloured’ population from low-middle socioeconomic status backgrounds in the Western Cape Province. Using a mixed-methods approach, three components associated with method bias in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 were investigated: language used, social interactions and activities, and materials. An ethnographic investigation of play, social interaction and social activities was conducted in a community sample (n = 40), and the Afrikaans Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 was pre-piloted in a clinical sample (n = 7). Results highlighted unique aspects of the language (‘Kaaps’) that need to be considered during Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 administration. The social interaction demands of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 appeared appropriate, and sufficient familiarity with Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 materials and activities was found to support the use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2. Guidelines for administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 to this population were generated to improve cultural sensitivity and cultural appropriateness and to reduce method bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the sanctuary movement originally started in 1980s, which is now used to defend the rights of the immigrants in U.S. It discusses refugees taking shelters in churches to avoid persecution by the Central Americans on the U.S.-Mexico border and U.S., and how the movement is renewed to define war of criminalization on Black and immigrant communities.

Museums and historical sites are created to inform the public about our national heritage, yet the contributions of people of color are often excluded from these narratives. Even when they are included, the researchers found that students' understanding and interpretations are often different based on the racial identity of the viewer. This study should lead to a reexamination of the mechanisms for content delivery in historical sites and museums and serve as a caution for historians and history teachers. If we ignore this racialized difference and refuse to acknowledge diversity in students' racialized historical understanding, minority students' voices are excluded and majority students become miseducated about the past. This study investigated a student trip to southern Indiana where students experienced historical sites from the Underground Railroad and racial segregation. During the trip, students connected to the slave experience in different ways, reported different understandings of the history of segregation, and disrupted or reifyed the progressive (slavery to segregation to civil rights) narrative of American history. This article builds on the work on racialized historical understanding in classrooms by Epstein (Soc Edu 61:28-31, 1997; Curric Inq 28(4):397-423, 1998; Theory Pract 40(1):42-47, 2001) and moves the conversation from the classroom to the public spaces that not only tell our history but show it as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the voices of two 11th grade boys of color (one Black and one Latino), attending one U.S. urban charter school, as they describe the various ways their families supported their college going efforts. This study finds that these participants were equipped with what the author conceptualizes as college going familial capital, which describes the rich knowledge, information, inspiration and resources students of color gain from their families (nuclear, extended, and fictive kin), transferred through lessons, values, practices, and beliefs, that serve as rationale, motivation, and support for securing postsecondary educational attainment. College going familial capital was encompassed in the ways the families of participants valued college for economic betterment and emphasized its importance to participants from an early age. College going familial capital was gained when participants assessed the experiences of various family members when they considered the role of college in their own lives. Implications suggest that as educators support the collegiate aspirations of Black and Latino boys, they should consider and employ students' already existing college going familial capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has identified DNA sequence variants within genes encoding structural components of the collagen fibril, the basic structural unit of tendons, to modify the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Since the expression of these previously associated genes are regulated by cytokine and growth factor signalling pathways, the aim of this study was to determine whether variants within these cell signalling pathway genes, namely interleukin 1β ( IL-1β ), IL-6 , interleukin 6 receptor ( IL-6R ) and vascular endothelial growth factor A( VEGFA ), are also associated with CTS. One hundred and three self-reported Coloured participants, with a history of carpal tunnel release surgery (CTS) and 149 matched control participants (CON) without any reported history of CTS symptoms were genotyped for the functional IL-1β rs16944 (-511C/T), IL-6 rs1800795 (− 174G/C), IL-6R rs2228145 (C/A) and VEGFA rs699947 (− 2578C/A) variants. Only the IL-6R variant was significantly associated with CTS (p = 0.005, OR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.22–0.75). When the previously reported associated COL5A1 and BGN variants were included in the analysis, gene–gene interactions were also shown to significantly modulate the risk of CTS. In conclusion, the AA genotype of IL-6R rs2228145 was independently associated with reduced risk of CTS in a South African Coloured population. The IL-6R variant interacted with the previously reported COL5A1 and BGN variants to modulate CTS risk. This highlights that interleukin and growth factor gene variants should also be considered, in addition to the extracellular matrix proteins, for future research in determining the aetiology of CTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the problem of colourism and its effects on girls and young women. Topics discussed include the disadvantages of women with dark skin, the tendency of magazines to lighten pictures of women of colour on their front pages, effect of impossible beauty ideals on some women and men of colour in Great Britain, and the problem of skin bleaching.

This paper explores various dynamics in the relationship between life satisfaction and education in South Africa using the 2008 National Income Dynamics Survey. The results indicate a strong positive association between educational attainment and individual satisfaction with life, which is true in the overall sample and for men and women. This positive relationship also holds for Black and Coloured individuals, but is insignificant in the Asian and White samples. Evidence indicates that education is a positional good, in that people who have attained more than the mean level of education in their relevant cluster are significantly more satisfied with life compared to those possessing less than the mean education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The obesity epidemic is impacting both developed and undeveloped countries worldwide. It has only been recently that wide scale public campaigning has focused on prevention rather than intervention. Individual variations in food metabolism and energy expenditure may be responsible for much of the adiposity present amongst individuals. This article studies individual variation in relationship between lean trunk size and adiposity. Methods A mixed longitudinal growth study was conducted between 1986 and 1995 among urban and rural 'Cape Coloured' schoolchildren from the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The sample consists of 127 females and 130 males between the ages of 6 and 20 years measured 6-9 times each. Correlations between age-standardized triceps, subscapular and abdominal skinfold thicknesses and quotient indices obtained by expressing trunk length, lower limb, and upper limb lengths and bi-acromial and bi-iliocristal diameters as percentages of body height were explored for each year of growth. Results Significant correlation coefficients ( P < 0.05) between 0.087 and 0.511 were found in both males and females, between bi-acromial and bi-iliocristal indices and three skinfold thicknesses, but not between trunk and limb lengths and skinfolds. Conclusions Skeletal frame width and amount of adiposity are correlated. The correlation persists longitudinally throughout childhood and adolescence in individuals living in very poor, as well as, in good environmental conditions. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 26:151-155, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Age of Iron" has received much critical attention; most interpretations of the novel revolve around themes such as trust, the silence of the victim-figures, or the fictional treatment of real, historical events. Derek Attridge, for example, discusses the question of trust and responsibility towards the other represented in the novel by Vercueil and John; Jane Poyner analyses the connection between confession and truth, on the one hand, and the historical situation Mrs Curren lives in, on the other; Michael Neill focuses on the novel’s representativeness for the period of ‘interregnum’ in South Africa. The concept of shame as dramatised in Coetzee’s work in general and in this novel in particular has received little attention. The present article is devoted to an analysis of shame in Age of Iron, shame derived from a corrupted sense of community and justice. It will look into the effects shame causes, as dramatised in the person of the protagonist of the novel. Another concern of the following discussion consists in an analysis of the imagery the narrator’s discourse creates in order to designate moral wrongs, both individual and social. The novel teems with repulsive images evoked by the frequent use of references to insects or aggressive animals and birds, images that translate the narrator’s ample rage against the times, her sense of helplessness and abhorrence of the injustices occurring around her. The last part of the essay offers an interpretation of the narrator’s failure to burn herself and thus convert her death into a meaningful event. Rather than regarding her death as salvation facilitated by Vercueil, as Benita Parry suggests, the following reading will consider her death and the struggle preceding it as an impossibility of redemption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In post-1994, South African identity has taken centre stage in debates about diversity and its impact in a multicultural society. The coloured people of South Africa seem to have the most at stake in such debates due to the perceived ambiguity of their and others' perceptions of their identity. This article interrogates the symbology of colouredness by providing a symbolic interpretation of the meanings of the symbols of coloured identity. Through the engagement with relevant literature, the article seeks to identify the symbols of coloured identity and the multivocality of these symbols. Our argument is that a symbological approach to coloured identity opens up possibilities for a variety of meanings that move beyond the historically inherited stereotypical associations with the identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa underwent major social and economic change between 1987 and 1995. The release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990 proclaimed an end to the political system of apartheid, and the first freely elected non-White government in 1994 instigated social and economic reforms aimed at alleviating the consequences of apartheid. This paper aims to examine the impact of these socio-economic and political changes on height, weight and body mass index (BMI) in childhood and late adolescence. An analysis was carried out of longitudinal data of 258 urban and rural South African Cape Coloured schoolchildren (6-18 years old) across the transitional periods from apartheid between 1987 and 1990, to this transition between 1991 and 1993, and finally to post-apartheid between 1994 and 1995. The anthropometric measures were standardized into age independent Z-scores. Analyses of variance with repeated measures were conducted to examine the growth in height, weight and BMI across these periods. The results show a significant main effect of measurement periods on height, weight and BMI Z-scores. Across time, the subjects increased in overall size, height, weight and BMI. For all the anthropometric measures there was a significant interaction effect between measurement period and sex, but none between measurement period and SES. The average increase in height, weight and BMI across time differed significantly for girls and boys, the average z-scores being greater in girls than in boys. For boys, there was little difference in height, weight and BMI Z-scores according to SES, and little increase across periods. Girls were generally taller, heavier with greater BMI than boys, and their scores increased across the time periods. High SES girls were taller, heavier and had higher BMI than low SES girls. Across the measurement periods, BMI and weight somewhat converged between the high and low SES girls. In the discussion these differences reflecting social sex distinctions are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the Creole, a newspaper publishing in Guyana. It explores the history of the company which survived for 50 years from 1856 to 1907 despite being owned and operated by non-whites, person self-described as coloured. It analyzes extant copies of the newspaper itself as well as other historical documents to understand all the factors the enabled the paper to survive and represent black and coloured perspectives.

In this article we set out to interrogate Wicomb's David's Story as a political and historical intervention and to examine its treatment of the 'great coloured question' and the relationship between armed liberation struggle and democracy. The novel has the potential to be read as a liberal critique of the ANC's treatment of coloured people and of women in exile and in the transition to democracy, but we argue that one can only arrive at such a reading by closing down meaning within the text. The novel raises fundamental questions about the activities and cosmopolitan reach of the ANC in exile, but also about the relationship between coloured people and the greater South African whole. The novel's narrative complexity and multi-layered portrayal of ethical dilemmas, and ethnic cross-currents, should compel readers to confront the impossibility of discerning a single, simple truth about the history or the future of South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plaasroman (farm novel) of the 1920s and 1930s allowed Afrikaans writers to assert and explore a bond between the farmer and the soil, a bond that stands metonymically for the relations between culture, place and nation. This essay argues that Etienne Van Heerden's 1986 novel, Toorberg, adapts and transforms the conventions of the plaasroman genre to give voice to a complicitous critique of the consequences of Afrikaner racial exclusivity in the 1980s. As a counterdiscursive plaasroman, Toorberg reveals and works through various layers of complicity finally to offer a prophetic glimpse of the possibility of reconciliation between possessors and the dispossessed. In documenting the clannish pride, aloofness, and arrogance of an aristocratic Afrikaans family, and by showing how these qualities result in the exclusion and impoverishment of its mixed-race relatives, Van Heerden's novel maps the psychosocial underpinnings of apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses South African politics during the administration of Prime Minister D.F. Malan. It examines the government's implementation of apartheid policies and the removal of the voting rights of South Africa's Coloured population. The author also comments on South Africa's National Party, the dynamics of Malan's cabinet, and Malan's relations with Afrikaner nationalists and his successor, J.G. Strijdom. She explores South Africa's foreign policy, commenting on participation in the Korean War, hostility from the United Nations Organization (UN), and South African membership in the British Commonwealth.

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We investigate the effects of sociopolitical change on intergroup contact and social distance attitudes in South Africa, and the effect of these variables on intergroup attitudes and racial policy attitudes. The data come from secondary analysis of surveys conducted between 1991 and 2005, as well as a dedicated survey conducted in 2006. The results reveal widespread racial isolation among Black people; ambivalent attitudes to racial integration among Whites, who support integration in principle but are opposed to it personally; and contrasting outcomes of contact for Blacks and Whites. Increased intergroup contact was associated with reduced stereotyping and increased support for transformation policies among Whites but was associated with increased opposition to transformation policies among Blacks. Contrary to the predictions of contact theory, attitudes of Blacks and Whites toward Coloured and Indian compatriots were generally more negative in provinces with high levels of intergroup contact between these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two cross-sectional survey studies among majority-status White and minority-status Coloured high school students in South Africa explored the effects of crossgroup friendships on prejudice, and the affective processes (intergroup anxiety in Study 1, and intergroup anxiety and affective empathy in Study 2) underlying these effects with respect to two target groups for each sample. Crossgroup friendships were negatively associated with negative action tendencies, and positively associated with positive outgroup attitudes and greater perceived outgroup variability for both samples, irrespective of the target group. The importance of intergroup anxiety and affective empathy as mediators of these effects was also confirmed. Multigroup comparisons showed significant differences in the structural models across the two samples in both studies, and confirmed prior findings in the contact literature that contact effects are stronger for majority than minority groups. These findings are the first of their kind within the South African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Wicomb's literary figurations of coloured women (warriors) in her novel, David's story (2000), in relation to the trope of skin. As an interface between psyche and body, skin serves as a symbolic trope to discuss the interchange between self and the world, or between self and other. Through the trope of skin, my project seeks innovative possibilities for literary (and other) conceptualizations of coloured women's identities, which have typically been confined to and silenced within South African history's margins. In this way, coloured women's identities are shown to be identities in transition, as new vocabularies are slowly being constructed to articulate past and present contributions and achievements of these characteristically marginalized figures. Similarly, I analyse how coloured women's bodies come to be marked by racial and sexual differences, focussing specifically on skin as the unstable border between the body and its others, and using it as a tool to discuss the way in which coloured women's identities are represented in language. Excessive inscriptions of the body are ultimately revealed to subvert and contest homogenizing representations of coloured women within colonial and medical discourses. Because skin takes and retains marks, it signifies irreversibility. But, [...] because it not only takes and retains marks but can also erase them, it can also signify the possibility that the past might be retrievable in literal fact, in the flesh. (Connor 2001:49) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the extensive correspondence of the Griqua leader, A.A.S. le Fleur, with representatives of the South African government and the British Crown. Le Fleur's many self-help schemes often proved to be impracticable, but the author argues that previous studies which placed his struggle for recognition and respectability in the context of millenarian protest against colonial rule must be re-examined. Because of an early phase of open rebelliousness, government officials never ceased to view his activities with utmost suspicion. This article shows, however, that Le Fleur's vision of coloured socio-economic reconstruction unfolded within the given parameters of the segregationist colonial state. Although he based his influence among his marginalised followers on a loosely defined Griqua identity, he was nevertheless alert to the national and international context within which black and coloured South Africans articulated their aspirations during the turbulent 1920s and 1930s. Instead of relying on strategies of magic or 'mimicry' in order to subvert the colonial order, Le Fleur's communication with government officials and his leadership style reflected a more modern approach to South African politics in the interwar years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zoë Wicomb's novel Playing in the Light (2006) continues to address a central concern in Wicomb's earlier fiction, that of conflict between generations where the racist complicity of an older generation is addressed from the point of view of their children. Generation is, in Wicomb's work, not simply a concern for individual families but deeply connected to and reflective of the political legacy of coloured identities. 'Playing white' gains its particular meaning within the question of complicity - the association of whiteness with superiority, and the very real privilege granted to persons classified as white under the Population Registration Act. In the aesthetic theory of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer the concept of 'play' is used to address the function of the work of art. The opposition between play and seriousness is, according to Gadamer, a result of a one-sided focus on the player rather than the play itself as subject. The metaphorical use of play in the expression 'play-whites' also suggests that the game itself is what has primacy, not the players. By addressing the issue of 'playing white' through a depiction of conflicts between generations, Wicomb's novel approaches history in a manner that evokes Gadamer's concept of gleichzeitigkeit (contemporaneity) whereby history becomes present in its enactment through the work of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We investigated ethnic disparities in obtaining medical care among the 4 major ethnic groups (Blacks, Whites, Coloreds [i.e., those of mixed race], and Asians) in post-apartheid South Africa. Methods. Data for the study came from the 2002 Afrobarometer: Round II Survey of South Africa. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine differences across racial and ethnic groups in how often respondents went without medical care. Results. A total of 40.8% of Blacks and 22.9% of Coloreds reported going without medical care at some point in the past year, compared with 10.9% of Whites and 6.9% of Asians. Disparities were found not only in health but in education, income, and basic public health infrastructures. Sociodemographic characteristics and perceptions regarding democracy, markets, and civil society were similar for Blacks and Coloreds and for Whites and Asians. Conclusions. Fourteen years after the end of apartheid, Blacks and Coloreds in South Africa are still underserved and disadvantaged compared with their White and Asian counterparts, especially regarding health care. (Am J Public Health. 2008;98:2272-2277. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.127829) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly polymorphic CYP2D6 gene locus has been extensively scrutinised in the major ethnic populations, but little is known about the locus for many indigenous and unique admixed populations, including the Coloureds of South Africa. This study aimed at characterising the CYP2D6 gene locus in Coloured subjects and predict their phenotype status. CYP2D6 genotyping was performed on 99 Coloured subjects by long-range polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Testing included 25 allelic variants as well as gene duplications. Novel alleles were cloned and sequenced. A novel strategy for CYP2D7/2D6 hybrid gene detection is described. Thirteen alleles had a frequency of = 1%, three were infrequent (<1%) and 16 of the tested alleles were not detected. CYP2D6*5 had a frequency of 17.2%, one of the highest ever observed in any population. Two novel alleles, CYP2D6*64 and *65, were identified. In addition, four samples carried CYP2D7/2D6 hybrid genes, of which one matched the CYP2D6*66 allele of a resequenced Caucasian control subject. CYP2D6*66 is similar to CYP2D6*16, but its putative recombination point is further upstream. Genotyping identified three poor metabolisers (3%; predicted incidence 6.6%), and 12% of the population had an activity score of 0.5 indicative of intermediate metabolism. The Coloured population has a unique composition of alleles and a distinct frequency distribution. The preliminary data presented suggest decreased CYP2D6 activity compared with Caucasians. Follow-up studies including both genotyping and phenotyping will need to be conducted to further assess the relationship between genotype and phenotype in this population of complex ancestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces changing interpretations of the nature of Coloured identity and the history of the Coloured community in South Africa in both popular thinking as well as the academy. It explores some of the main contestations that have arisen between rival schools of thought, particularly their stance on the popular perception that Colouredness is an inherent racial condition derived from miscegenation. This essay identifies four distinct paradigms in historical writing on the Coloured people. Firstly, there is the essentialist school which regards Colouredness as a product of miscegenation and represents the conventional understanding of the identity. Secondly, instrumentalists view Coloured identity as an artificial creation of the white ruling class who used it as a ploy to divide and rule the black majority. This explanation, which first emerged in academic writing in the early 1980s, held sway in anti-apartheid circles. Opposing these interpretations are what may be termed the social constructionists who from the early 1990s stressed the complexities of identity formation and the agency of Coloured people in the making of their own identities. Most recently the rudiments of a fourth approach, of applying postmodern theory, especially the concept of creolisation, to Coloured identity have appeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1996 South African census made provision for people to be white, African, coloured, or other. Various Griqua organisations challenged this categorisation and demanded the right of their constituencies to identify themselves as Griqua. The government agreed that people could indicate whatever ethnic identity they wished on the census form and that the census counters would take cognisance of it (Diamond Fields Advertiser 1996b). In Griquatown, many people recalled the census and the young matriculant who had been employed as the census collector. He, however, commented that when people said that they were Griqua he had indicated coloured on the form, in part because there was no Griqua box to tick and in part because, having grown up in the town, it was obvious to him that these people were coloured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the treatment of the problem of representing colored people in the book "David's Story," by Zoë Wicomb. The book depicts how the figure of a pure blood in the discourse of race marks a history of shame on that body. The novel portrays the story of David Dirkse who left his wife and kids to search for his roots. A mixture of emotions is present in the novel, including happiness and sadness brought by revelation of an imperfect reality.

Presents a study which focused on political response to escalating state hegemony in late pre-apartheid and early apartheid in South Africa and the role of world history in the response. Announcement of the formation of Cape Coloured Permanent Commission as an advisory council to the government; Analysis of the comparative imagination contained within the writings of the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department movement; Existence of philosophical and organizational struggles among the South African Left.

Focuses on the Coloured soldiers in South Africa. Relationship between race, nation and citizenship; Depictions of Coloured soldiers in Rhodesia; Militarization of race.

The article explores how the concept of community has become the nodal point for political power struggles, state formation and the production of political subjectivity. The ethnographic focus of the article is on the coloured townships in Cape Town, and the ways in which the local state bureaucrats and policy makers engage with and are engaged by township politicians. The article illustrates that community is a polyvalent category, invoked by a multiplicity of political representatives. It forms the central focal point in state-endorsed participation projects; perceptions of the townships and their people are organized around it, and it is the organizing principle for local power struggles in the townships over the right to define, defend and represent the people. The article also testifies to the continued marginalization of the townships and illustrates how fraught with ambiguities the production of political subjectivity is in situations of poverty, violence and marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]