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This article analyses Zulu constructions of mental illness, as according to Zulu Psychology Masters Students from universities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, by means of Foucauldian Discourse analysis. Analysis of qualitative interviews highlighted the complexity surrounding mental illness and psychology within the Zulu culture in South Africa, and revealed various cultural constructions of the mentally ill and psychopathology that have not previously been researched. Elucidated cultural constructions of the mentally ill included constructions of the ill as a contagious diseased state; a threat to peace; a deviant; a vagrant; and a non-social being and non-functional. These constructions placed the mentally ill at the lowest strata level within society. Historically rooted discourses of the black South African's fight to be resilient, and the philosophical idea of 'Ubuntu', intersect with these constructions of the mentally ill. Furthermore, the constructions of the mentally ill are impacted by rural and urban geographic location. Also explored is the discourse of the Zulu mentally ill's oppressed subject position as the 'mad' and black. These elicited constructions and discourses of the mentally ill within Zulu communities, in South Africa, provide a basis for vital future research into the cultural relativity and nosologies of mental illness within the South African context, and wider African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubuntu was recently adopted as the first theme for the 2020–2030 global agenda for social work, and yet little research is available to explore how it is transmitted and implemented in communities. The authors present findings of a qualitative study conducted in an academic setting in South Africa, where the transmission of Ubuntu was discussed among 30 young adult 'born frees'. Students seemed to embrace principles of Ubuntu as a whole; however, economic, social and cultural strains are documented as obstacles to its pragmatic application. Implications of community engagement through service learning as a means of strengthening Ubuntu are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about the relationship between culture and gender, and the potential contradictions involved in simultaneously respecting both multicultural and feminist principles and values, have occupied an important place in theoretical discussion in the social sciences and humanities. This paper examines the relationship between gender and culture from the perspective of the psychotherapeutic encounter in a multicultural society, in this case contemporary South Africa. With the help of illustrative case material involving traumatically bereaved women who became subject to cultural ascriptions of maliciousness or murderousness, and where cultural beliefs potentially jeopardized gender rights, mental health and therapeutic recovery, the article argues that the relationship between gender and culture, viewed from a therapeutic perspective, can be seen to present complex conceptual and ethical challenges for the therapist. In addition, the structural, psychological and discursive positioning of the therapist and client in respect of warrants to speak and to accept or contest cultural constructions is recognized as implicated in particular kinds of therapeutic impasses. Both clinical and political concerns are discussed in order to illustrate the intersections between the intrapsychic and the social, as well as between the personal and the political. Two related lines of theory, that of intersectionality (derived primarily from feminist theory) and of psychoanalytic theory, are proposed and juxtaposed as a productive way of thinking about instances in which the interface between gender and culture presents particular kinds of problems in the consulting room for both clients and therapists. The necessity for a particular kind of critical self, group and cultural awareness is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a perception that soap operas are progressively infusing dominant social values and ideas while constructing and positioning indigenous cultures as peripheral and inconsistent with modernity. This article aims at ascertaining audience perceptions of and attitudes toward the construction and representation of indigenous cultures in Generations: The Legacy within the framework of indigeneity and audience reception theories. Using quantitative methodology, 350 questionnaires were distributed to a randomly selected sample. Findings showed the majority of the audience felt the soap represents indigenous cultures as the 'insignificant other' and perpetuates stereotypes about traditional indigenous groups. This process creates cultural tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, a campaign was launched by students and academics to decolonise university curricula in South Africa. As a response, we reflect on our experiences at Stellenbosch University, based on the premise that not only does our Social Work curriculum require adaptation and renewal through a process of authentication, but that a prerequisite for this process would entail a hybridisation of both a salutary authentic academic culture and curriculum. A value-driven approach guides us through this endeavour in order to create authentic values, principles and student attributes, based on a determined inventory of cultural dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing interest in South Africa's soft power in recent years, little analysis is offered on the factors that hinder the projection of such soft power. Most studies have focused on the sources and the optimization of South Africa's soft power. While this article gives a synoptic account of these sources, it offers a different perspective by engaging the constraints and contradictions that hinder and circumscribe its soft power projection. The article concludes that, in order to maximize its soft power projection, Pretoria must address the impediments that continue to undermine its power of attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights and the subsequent African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child together with the Bill of Children’s Rights and numerous other policies and regulations in many African countries have set the precedent for children’s rights to be respected and implemented across the African Continent. However, little is known about the actual advancement of children’s rights within Sub-Saharan Africa; hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the advancement of children’s rights within an African context. This qualitative study included a sample of eight respected leaders on different aspects of children’s rights, including academics; policy analysts; directors of children’s centres; legal experts; and members of national, regional, and international committees on children’s rights issues. Data were collected through individual interviews, a questionnaire and the analysis of instruments on children’s rights. The findings indicate there have been considerable improvements in terms of the development of policies and instruments concerning children’s rights. However, challenges around implementation were vividly conspicuous. It is argued here that school psychologists should adopt a social justice framework embedded within a rights based approach to promote children’s rights within the African context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a two-year study of 31 young people aged 14–20 who had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the article draws on an in-depth ethnographic account of a 17-year-old girl’s life process. It traces forms of care between adults and children within her family across several generations, exploring how social repertoires and forms of ritual pre-dating the HIV/AIDS epidemic are brought to bear on relationships compromised through death, dispersal and disappearance. Temporalities in relation to loss, the reconfiguration of the past and of imagined possible futures emerge from the account. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article compares labour migrancy and urbanization in several of the leading cities of South Africa and India. It begins by noting the pervasiveness of single male oscillating labour migration between rural areas and city employment in both societies up until the 1950s, despite fundamentally different institutional and political arrangement in each state. It highlights and explores the issues of social structure and culture in both societies, both pre-colonial and colonial, in explaining the dynamics of migrancy and urbanization, including which sections of village society migrated and with what effects. The article explores different modes of living in and adapting to urban environments, and particularly the different social trajectory of women and youth in both societies and the implications of each for social stability. It finally asks why historians and other social scientists have adopted such distinctive approaches to each society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To examine how a rural community profoundly affected by escalating rates of largely AIDS-related deaths of young and middle-aged people makes sense of this phenomenon and its impact on their everyday lives. Methods: Data were collected in Agincourt subdistrict, Limpopo Province. Twelve focus groups were constituted according to age and gender and met three times (a total of 36 focus-group discussions [FGDs]). The FGDs explored sequentially people's expectations of their lives in the "new" South Africa, their interpretations of the acceleration of death amongst the young and middle-aged, and their understandings of HIV/AIDS. Discussions were recorded, fully transcribed, and thematically analysed. Results: Respondents acknowledged escalating death rates in their community, yet few referred directly to HIV/AIDS as the cause. Rather, respondents focused on the social and cultural causes of death, including the erosion of cultural norms and traditions such as cultural taboos on sex. There are many competing versions of what HIV/AIDS is, what causes it and how it is spread, ranging from scientific explanations to conspiracy theories. Findings highlight the relationship between AIDS and other traditional diseases with some respondents suggesting that AIDS is a new form of other longstanding illnesses. Conclusions: This study points to the centrality of cultural explanations in understanding "bad death" (AIDS death) in the Agincourt area. Physical illness is understood to be a symptom of "cultural damage". Implications of this for public health practice and research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the developments attending cultural studies in South Africa. The institutionalization of cultural studies in the country is a byproduct of several debates on cultural study coming from various sources and by the inherent history of the country itself. Several school of thoughts exist which attempts to define cultural studies in South Africa including the theory which perceived it as the study of areas of culture largely ignored by other disciplines, specifically focusing on transient rather than a permanent form and the theory which viewed it as an academic site for marginal or minority discourses.

Opinion. Discusses South Africa in the global neighbourhood with the method of a cultural analysis. What the culture of South Africa has reflected; Dangers associated with the applications of the postcolonial method; Analysis of South Africa's involvement with the West; Reference to the book `The Pilgrim's Progress.'

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