Browsing by Author "Soskolne, Talia"

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    Being San' in Platfontein: Poverty, landscape, development and cultural heritage
    (2007) Soskolne, Talia; Green, Lesley
    As people are relocated, dispossessed of land, or experience the altered landscapes of modernity, so their way of life, values, beliefs and understandings are transformed. For the !Kun and Khwe people living on Platfontein this has been an ongoing process. Platfontein, a dry, flat piece of land near Kimberly in the Northern Cape, was purchased for the Kun and Khwe through the provision of a government grant in 1997. They took permanent residence there in government-built housing in December 2003. Prior to this they had had numerous experiences of relocation and strife, through a long-term involvement with the SADF that brought them from the Omega army base in Namibia, to a time of uncertainty in the tent town of Schmitsdrift, to their current settlement on Platfontein. The dry barren landscape of Platfontein suggests a very different way of life from that of hunter-gathering in Angola and Namibia. In the semi-urban context of Platfontein, basic sustenance and entry into the job market are emphasized, and this brings about changes in people's way of life and understandings, as well as in how they relate to each other and the landscape. In this context, there are certain tensions and contradictions that underlie the work of social development and cultural heritage that are the mandates of SASI (South African San Institute) in Platfontein. It is essential that projects initiated by NGOs like SASI give cognizance to the complexities of people's lives, histories and story lines. Without this, people's experiences and multifaceted stories are inevitably sidelined to create essentialist narratives that meet the imaginings of tourists and sponsors. There is no doubt that SASI works from an intention of bringing about positive transformation in Platfontein, and has done useful work in the community. The essentialist discourse of the 'indigenous', however, is a ready temptation for NGOs and the groups they represent to adopt, as it is politically expedient to do so in order to gain access to land and resources. This needs to be challenged at the level of policy so that access to geographical space or political power does not necessitate a denial of history or complexity.
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    Moving Beyond the Margins: A Narrative Analysis of the Life Stories of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Khayelitsha
    (2003) Soskolne, Talia
    Statistics about the devastating impact of the HIV virus on the African continent, where more than 23.5 million people are infected (Poku, 2001), are widely known, and are bandied about in both social and academic speak. Within mainstream biomedicine (biomedicine dominates research and regulation of the epidemic, and permeates popular understanding), the spread of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa remains relatively unproblematised, with biological and behavioural models of aetiology remaining uncontested (Crewe, 1997). However, within a wide range of disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, psychology and political science, waves of critical consciousness (postmodernism, social constructionism, post-structuralism, Marxism and feminism) are actively wearing down antiquated modes of thought that fail to take into account social constructions of the disease, and its intersection with constructions of race, gender and class, and are working to unveil the institutions and ideologies (e.g. patriarchy, capitalism, democracy) that these social discourses serve (Crewe, 1997; Durrheim, 1997; Foster, 1999; Peterson & Benishek, 2001). Of notable interest are feminist critical theorists who unpack cultural notions of disease, and seek to understand their particular impact on women’s illness experiences (Peterson & Benishek, 2001). For women, the social construction of HIV/AIDS cannot be torn apart from the oppression and regulation of women under patriarchy, and from gendered constructions of masculinity and femininity. Furthermore, feminist theorists pay special attention to the articulation between class, race and gender; black women, especially those living in Africa under conditions of incessant poverty, carry a vast burden and, when it comes to HIV/AIDS, are particularly vulnerable to projections of risk, where they are seen as ‘carriers’ of the disease, and are feared as dangerous (Fleishman, 1995; Joffe, 1999; Strebel, 1995).
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    Working with Ambivalence: Finding a Positive Identity for HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
    (2003) Soskolne, Talia; Stein, Joanne; Gibson, Kerry
    Psychoanalytic theory draws attention to the way in which a positive identity can be asserted as a defence against underlying anxieties. Focusing specifically on the South African context, this paper highlights the way in which people attempt to forge a positive self-concept in the face of a stigmatised and self threatening HIV identity. In-depth interviews were conducted with twelve women living with HIV in a black South African township. Discursive and psychoanalytic understandings were used to explore the emotional experience of HIV/AIDS and its impact on both the participants of the study and ourselves as researchers. We elucidate the process by which our interviewees vacillated between conflicting notions of health and sickness; empowerment and disempowerment; strength and weakness; purity and contagion; and death and continuity. We argue that a more resilient self can be formed through recognition of both the positive and negative implications of an HIV diagnosis. We also maintain that it is necessary to move beyond the individualizing tendencies of mainstream psychology to recognise the social context and discursive practices which exacerbate stigma and influence the experience of those living with HIV/AIDS.