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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is too investigate whether race moderates the relationship between job characteristics (job demands and job resources) and negative and positive WHI (work-home interaction) in a sample of white and African South African police members. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed to African (n=197) and white (n=222) ranked police members in the North West Province of South Africa. Hierarchical multiple regression and moderated multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Findings – The results showed that race had moderating effects on the relationship between the positive spill-over of mood and overload, as well as the relationship between the positive spill-over of skills and overload. No interaction terms were found significant for the relationships between job characteristics and negative time-based WHI, or for the relationships between job characteristics and negative strain-based WHI. It is therefore concluded that race does not moderate the relationship between job characteristics and negative WHI. Practical implications – The paper will raising awareness among police members and police management about the effect of job characteristics on WHI. This can provide a platform from which to start addressing issues that could decrease police stress. Originality/value – This paper shows that although South Africa is working towards uniting all South Africans as a nation, differences between race groups should still be acknowledged and addressed appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In African culture, widowhood is frequently accompanied by rites that must be carried out by the widow. Widows are compelled to carry out these rites and may not feel comfortable executing them since they involve violence. The minority who dares to refuse to participate can face serious consequences because they are persecuted by their families and society. Research shows that widows suffer from fear and coercion, stigmatisation, dehumanising experiences, movement and social restrictions, and exposure to harmful traditional practices. This article examines violent aspects of widowhood rites within the South African context. A qualitative study that examined oppressive structures and how they impacted social injustice and the marginalisation of widows was employed. The data were collected from a purposeful sample of widows in Gauteng province, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from 28 widows, which were then subjected to thematic analysis. Our findings showed that widows were subjected to painful widowhood rites, which were frequently performed against their preferences. The rites affected them both physically and emotionally. The article recommends that policies be put in place to safeguard the rights of widows and protect them from exploitative cultural beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antjie Krog's autobiographical novel A change of tongue presents a diversified conglomerate of different genres and parts. One of the major thematic focal points is the evident aim of the I-narrator/protagonist to reconstitute her identity as a white Afrikaans woman so as to establish her claim to belong, as a 'post-white' African, to the land and its aboriginal people. This paper investigates this intent through an analysis of the depiction of the physicality of the novel's main figures, and especially that of the I-narrator. This analysis, in turn, reveals a significant tendency towards mythicising, which highlights some of the problematic of the text, along with the inner contradictions inherent in the I-narrator's desire to be assimilated unquestionably and legitimately into the new socio-political context of her country. It will be shown that her attempt to re-write her personal white identity into a native African one leads to the individualistic and subjective misrepresentation of an established historical reality and context by mythicising it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interrogates the continuing emphasis on personal sources of resilience; it also amends the inattention to the protective factors and processes (PFPs) that support the mental health resilience of African emerging adults. To that end, we report a study that explored which PFPs distinguished risk-exposed South African 18- to 29-year-olds with negligible depression symptoms from those who reported moderate to severe symptoms. Using an arts-based approach, young people volunteered the PFPs they had personally experienced as resilience-enabling. An inductive thematic analysis of visual and narrative data, generated by young people self-reporting high exposure to family and community adversity (n = 233; mean age: 24.63, SD: 2.43), revealed patterns in the PFPs relative to the severity of self-reported depression symptoms. Specifically, young people reporting negligible depression symptoms reported a range of PFPs associated with psychological, social, and ecological systems. In contrast, the PFPs identified by those reporting more serious depression symptoms were mostly restricted to personal strengths and informal relational supports. In the interests of youth mental health, the findings direct society's attention to the criticality of facilitating young people's access to a composite of resources rooted in personal, social, and ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study follows up on a prior review of empirical research on African marital relationships (scientific dissemination, thematic focus, and methodology), and presents a summary of the results of empirical studies conducted in Africa (2000–2018) on psychological processes and patterns in conjugality. Forty-one empirical studies, performed predominantly in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, were analyzed. The main themes identified were related to three categories: (1) conjugality, motivation and well-being; (2) marital quality, satisfaction and stability; (3) marital violence. The results indicate that marriage is an important life goal in most African societies, especially for women and that certain conditions linked to high-risk sexual behaviors, HIV and conjugal violence play an important role in the dynamics of marital relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

More often than not, academics of African descent—from the continent, the diaspora, or other parts of the world—have been trained in Western and Middle Eastern-oriented disciplines that espouse the race paradigm. Imbued with race theory, they seek spiritual, social, and political solutions to critical race issues, in some cases unwittingly maintaining the cultural structure of the dominant group from which the construct arises. This article highlights the creation of race and race identity by European, Indo-Aryan (white), and Middle Eastern (Semitic) men and women, sanctified by religious ideals that advanced their societies and stigmatised Africans, based on the melanin content of their skin. In these cultural orientations, the blackest-skinned women, men, and children are devalued, debased, and demonised. Race is used as a cultural strategy for fabricating human history and distinctions, shaping thinking, behaviours, and exploits that continue to have deleterious, far-reaching consequences for dark-skinned people across the world. In the light of this critical dilemma, and from an Afrocentric perspective, this article interrogates whether Black academicians in non-African and African cultures can shed the cultural constraints of race as identity, and understand the development of cultural identity as the basis of more progressive ideas regarding humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The aim of the present study was to examine migration- and socioeconomic-related influences on obesity among African migrant adolescents in Melbourne, Australia. Methods Anthropometric data were collected from 99 parents and 100 adolescent offspring who also completed questionnaires eliciting demographic, socioeconomic and migration data. Multiple linear regressions were used to assess the relationship between migration- and socioeconomic-related factors and adolescent body mass index ( BMI). Results Only gender and parental BMI were associated with adolescent BMI after adjusting for adolescent age, adolescent gender, religion, parental BMI, parental education level and annual income. Boys (β = −1.45; P < 0.05) had lower BMI than girls. Parental and adolescent BMI were positively associated (β = 0.11; P < 0.05). In examining migration-related factors and adolescent BMI, after adjusting for gender and parental BMI, parental acculturation patterns and pre-migration life environment were associated with adolescent BMI, explaining, respectively, 6.5 and 4.0% of the variance in BMI. An integrated parental acculturation pattern was negatively associated with adolescent BMI (β = −0.17; P < 0.05) while adolescents whose parents came from rural areas had a higher BMI (β = 1.48; P < 0.05) than those whose parents came from urban areas. Adolescent acculturation patterns and length of stay in Australia were non-significantly associated with their BMI. Conclusions Gender, pre-migration life environment and parental acculturation patterns seem to influence the prevalence of overweight and obesity among African migrant adolescents. Culturally competent obesity prevention programmes targeted towards African adolescents should consider these aspects in their design and delivery; however, further research is required to determine their relative contributions to African adolescent obesity in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012 flame-grilled chicken company, Nando's, released a 52-second advert showing people of various races and ethnicities vaporising into thin air, one after the other, leaving a lone San Bushman wearing axaiwho declares: ‘I'm not going anywhere. You f*#@ng found us here.’ Broadcasters SABC, DStv and etv initially banned the advert, citing fears of a xenophobic backlash. In 1996, former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who was deputy president at the time, delivered what has become known as the ‘I am an African’ speech at the adoption of the South Africa Constitution Bill. In the speech Mbeki appears to codify ‘Africanness’ into a consciousness not just of history, but a shared history. The conceptual reach of his speech seems to imply that everyone who may share South Africa's history is somehow South African and African. This article argues that the Mbeki speech and the Nando's advert, taken together, draw attention to the simultaneousrichnessandpovertyof citizenship in South Africa, and the potential benefits and contradictions of claiming citizenship in the sense preferred by the two texts. The context is supplied by a sampling of 22 randomly selected online comments centering on the censored advert. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background South Africa is experiencing epidemiological transition, with the burden of chronic diseases increasing. Stroke is currently the second leading cause of death in South Africa; however, limited data are available on incidence, prevalence and resulting disability. Quantifying the epidemiological parameters and disease burden is important in the planning of health services. Aims To synthesize the data surrounding stroke in South Africa and calculate disability adjusted life years attributable to stroke in South Africa in 2008. Methods We undertook a systematic review to identify studies on the prevalence and mortality of stroke in South Africa. We used the DisMod program to calculate missing epidemiological parameters, in particular incidence and duration. Using these values, we calculated the burden of disease in years of life lost ( YLL), years lived with disability ( YLD) and disability adjusted life years ( DALY). Results Data on prevalence and mortality of stroke in South Africa are scarce. We estimate there are 75 000 strokes in South Africa each year, with 25 000 of these fatal within the first month. The burden of disease due to stroke in South Africa was 564 000 DALYs. Of this, 17% is contributed by YLD (14-20% in sensitivity analysis). Conclusions This study provides information on prevalence, incidence and disease burden of stroke at the national level in South Africa. The results of this analysis will enable further work on priority setting and health service planning for primary and secondary prevention of stroke in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within health-care settings, culturally competent practice presupposes an understanding of the socio-cultural meanings attached to illness and disability and the people who are likely to be consulted with respect to providing health care and restoring well-being. Large numbers of South Africans are known to consult with traditional healers in preference to or in conjunction with western, allopathic health-care professionals. The present study represents a secondary analysis of data from various studies conducted on Black African, Muslim, Hindu and Chinese traditional healing systems in South Africa. Common themes that emerged from the analysis included the attribution of illnesses and disorders to spiritual factors, punishment and superstitious beliefs. Treatment approaches included the use of natural substances, prayer and rituals, and procedures that were designed to restore equilibrium. The participants also articulated their views on medical pluralism, collaboration between western and traditional health-care practitioners, and reasons why people consulted with traditional healers. The findings are discussed in terms of their ethical implications for social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Ecology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay argues that the work of Jean and John Comaroff on the early nineteenth-century missionary encounters in southern Africa, particularly their notion of 'long conversation,' remains very relevant to post-apartheid issues in South Africa. To this effect I offer a reading of three ethnographic snapshots from my fieldwork at the University of Fort Hare, to show that post-apartheid conversations over the transformation of social institutions continue to draw their symbols from the nineteenth-century models studied by the Comaroffs. The essay also raises questions that the new context of late twentieth-century South Africa imposes on the analytical scheme of the Comaroffs, ending with implications of using their concept of conversation in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the use of flexible work practices in wholly owned South African (SA) companies with that in foreign-owned companies. Data were obtained from questionnaire results of a study conducted by Horwitz and Franklin (1996) of flexible work practices in SA organizations. The questionnaire was used as part of a collaborative research project involving three countries (Brosnan et al., 1996). It was found that SA-owned companies use certain flexible work practices to a lesser extent than foreign-owned companies. This was found to be the case particularly in the use of numerical forms of flexibility, such as sub-contractors/consultants and the use of temporary employees. Use of subcontractors/consultants and temporary staff agencies was found to be the greatest in partially foreign-owned companies. A larger proportion of foreign-owned companies have lower labour costs than do SA-owned companies. This has, however, not been as a result of the greater use of flexible work practices. Foreign-owned companies make more joint decisions with unions than do SA-owned companies when changing work practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]