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This is an extraordinary contemporary account of witchcraft and
witch-hunting in the modern world. A powerful ethnographic study of
witch-hunting in 1980s South Africa - a period of rapid social
change - this book demonstrates the extent to which witchcraft must
be seen, not as a residue of 'traditional' culture but as part of a
complex social drama which is deeply embedded in contemporary
political and economic processes. Isak Niehaus provides the context
for this fascinating study of witchcraft practices. He shows how
witchcraft was politicised against the backdrop of the apartheid
state, the liberation struggle and the establishment of the first
post-apartheid regime, which all affected conceptions of
witchcraft. Niehaus demonstrates how the ANC and other political
groups used witchcraft beliefs to further their own agenda. He
explores the increasingly conservative role of the chiefs and the
Christian church. In the process, he reveals the fraught nature of
intergenerational and gender relations. The result is a truly
insightful and theoretically engaged account of a much-studied but
frequently misunderstood practice.
Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa reconstructs the
biography of an ordinary South African, Jimmy Mohale. Born in 1964,
Jimmy came of age in rural South Africa during apartheid, then
studied at university and worked as a teacher during the
anti-apartheid struggle. In 2005, Jimmy died from an undiagnosed
sickness, probably related to AIDS. Jimmy gradually came to see the
unanticipated misfortune he experienced as a result of his father's
witchcraft and sought remedies from diviners rather than from
biomedical doctors. This study casts new light on scholarly
understandings of the connections between South African politics,
witchcraft and the AIDS pandemic.
The Bushbuckridge region of South Africa has one of the highest
rates of HIV infection in the world. Having first arrived in the
area in the early 1990s, the disease spread rapidly, and by 2008
life expectancies had fallen by 12 years for men and 14 years for
women. Since 2005, public health facilities have increasingly
offered free HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy)
treatment, offering a degree of hope, but uptake and adherence to
the therapy has been sporadic and uneven. Drawing on his extensive
ethnographic research, carried out in Bushbuckridge over the course
of 25 years, Isak Niehaus reveals how the AIDS pandemic has been
experienced at the village-level. Most significantly, he shows how
local cultural practices and values have shaped responses to the
epidemic. For example, while local attitudes towards death and
misfortune have contributed to the stigma around AIDS, kinship
structures have also facilitated the adoption and care of AIDS
orphans. Such practices challenge us to rethink the role played by
culture in understanding and treating sickness, with Niehaus
showing how an appreciation of local beliefs and customs is
essential to any effective strategy of AIDS treatment. Overturning
many of our assumptions on disease prevention, the book is
essential reading for practitioners as well as researchers in
global health, anthropology, sociology, epidemiology and scholars
interested in public health and administration in sub-Saharan
Africa.
The Bushbuckridge region of South Africa has one of the highest
rates of HIV infection in the world. Having first arrived in the
area in the early 1990s, the disease spread rapidly, and by 2008
life expectancies had fallen by 12 years for men and 14 years for
women. Since 2005, public health facilities have increasingly
offered free HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy)
treatment, offering a degree of hope, but uptake and adherence to
the therapy has been sporadic and uneven. Drawing on his extensive
ethnographic research, carried out in Bushbuckridge over the course
of 25 years, Isak Niehaus reveals how the AIDS pandemic has been
experienced at the village-level. Most significantly, he shows how
local cultural practices and values have shaped responses to the
epidemic. For example, while local attitudes towards death and
misfortune have contributed to the stigma around AIDS, kinship
structures have also facilitated the adoption and care of AIDS
orphans. Such practices challenge us to rethink the role played by
culture in understanding and treating sickness, with Niehaus
showing how an appreciation of local beliefs and customs is
essential to any effective strategy of AIDS treatment. Overturning
many of our assumptions on disease prevention, the book is
essential reading for practitioners as well as researchers in
global health, anthropology, sociology, epidemiology and scholars
interested in public health and administration in sub-Saharan
Africa.
Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa reconstructs the
biography of an ordinary South African, Jimmy Mohale. Born in 1964,
Jimmy came of age in rural South Africa during apartheid, then
studied at university and worked as a teacher during the
anti-apartheid struggle. In 2005, Jimmy died from an undiagnosed
sickness, probably related to AIDS. Jimmy gradually came to see the
unanticipated misfortune he experienced as a result of his father's
witchcraft and sought remedies from diviners rather than from
biomedical doctors. This study casts new light on scholarly
understandings of the connections between South African politics,
witchcraft and the AIDS pandemic.
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