The study builds a case for future growth of transformative travel in South Africa driven by Cultural Creatives, the new silent class of conscious consumers in a quest for personal transformation ...through authentic and immersive tourist experiences. The main objective of the study was to identify preferred activities and experiences of Cultural Creatives in Soweto which is expected to drive the future growth of transformative tourism in South Africa. This qualitative study was based on 20 semi structured interviews with international tourists visiting Soweto in the period 3 January to 30 March 2018. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic content analysis was carried out in identifying tourist activities and experiences most closely aligned to emerging themes of transformative tourism as: individual experiential walking through the township; living as the locals do; and dining with the locals. The results validate the need for clear alignment of South African destinations’ offerings with Cultural Creatives’ transmodern values and worldviews in facilitating the future growth of transformative tourism in South Africa.
From a socio‐anthropological study focusing on maternal body weight perceptions and dietary practices towards infants living in Soweto (South Africa), we studied how lay sociocultural traits may lead ...to early childhood obesity. Most mothers tended to socially value and normalize fatness. This propensity led mothers, particularly older women at home, to adopt high‐calorie feeding practices towards infants, although some mothers tended to question these lay norms. Further works must consider how lay (emic) sociocultural norms in African townships can contradict biomedical (etic) messages, conveying for the community thinness as the acceptable standard, and may expose infants to early obesity.
Morris Isaacson High School in Jabavu, Soweto, has often been described as the epicentre of the June 1976 Uprising. It has become a focal point for memorials and annual commemorations. Few South ...Africans know anything else about the school. This paper argues that, while the school did in fact play an important role in the Uprising, it has a longer and possibly more important history as an educational institution catering to often extremely poor, working class families in the heart of Soweto. I discuss Morris Isaacson in historical memory, including an analysis of the filming of Sarafina! and conclude that in educational terms, Morris Isaacson has been much neglected. Astute leadership and committed alumni in recent years have managed to leverage the school's political fame to attract state and private sponsorship. But this material assistance has not entirely resolved the school's problems, which are mostly rooted in the deeper deprivation of its neighbourhood.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most prevalent form of interpersonal violence experienced by women in South Africa. A study conducted with young women from South Africa, aged 13 to 23 years, ...estimated that 42% experienced physical violence from their intimate partners. The subtle and nuanced social dynamics of IPV are less understood owing to little qualitative research on this subject. This study qualitatively explored how young women perceive and experience IPV. Participants were recruited through snowballing from townships in Soweto, outside Johannesburg. In-depth, face-to-face, and semistructured interviews were conducted with seven young women aged 15 to 20 years. The discourse analysis was implemented to understand participants’ construction of IPV. Participants reported direct experiences of IPV and indirect through exposure to interparental and interpersonal violence. Findings indicate a progressive shift of perceptions from absolute tolerance of relationship violence to rejection. However, victim blaming and relegating relationship violence to the private realm still existed. Essentialisation of masculine qualities such as anger was used to construct and understand men’s use of violence. Young women highlighted infidelity, pregnancy, and sex demands from their partners as reasons for them being subjected to IPV.
South Africa is concurrently experiencing epidemiological transition with diseases of lifestyle on the increase, while still burdened by poverty related diseases. Chronic diseases of lifestyle such ...as CVD are rapidly becoming major causes of death in developing countries and by all predictions, will continue rising.(4,7,8,9) Of concern is the fact that in developing countries, CVD is occurring in younger individuals than in the developed countries and as the epidemic evolves, the poor are affected the most in both developed and developing countries.(1) The Heart of Soweto (HOS) study aimed to investigate and describe this emerging problem of CVD, and especially heart disease, amongst the urban African population in Soweto, who presented for the first time to a tertiary-care centre. Overall we found multiple challenges to the community of Soweto and surrounding regions from a combination of high levels of modifiable CV risk factors (with the exception of lipid disorders) and surprisingly high levels of advanced and deadly forms of heart disease affecting predominantly younger cases and women. Lessons learned from the HOS include, (1) building partnerships, (2) establish clear objectives with achievable goals, (3) think big and assume nothing, (4) provide an enabling environment, (5) be innovative and (6) never compromise on quality. The prevention of CVD other chronic diseases of lifestyle, as well as the management thereof, needs to be a multidisciplinary effort with all the necessary healthcare workers involved, implemented at the primary, as well secondary level. Our goal is the development of specific community based intervention programmes directed towards prevention and management of chronic diseases of lifestyle in Soweto and to document the aetiology, presentation and management thereof. Our data collection will be not only meaningful for the population in Soweto, but also in other areas of South Africa and the broader Africa. It will be indicative of any urban African population in transition.
This article takes news coverage of the Soweto uprising of 1976 as a case study to demonstrate the influence of South Africa and Britain on the media in post-colonial Zambia. In part, this can be ...accounted for by the growing popularity of Radio Republic of South Africa (RSA) among listeners in Zambia, particularly in regions that were on the front line of the liberation struggle. RSA defended the actions of the South African police, as did the BBC World Service. Remarkably, Zambia's own press and broadcast services also took a similar line at times, thanks to their reliance on Reuters news agency, which, in turn, made uncritical use of South African government sources. However, by reading news content in the light of audience research data, it is argued that, in other ways, Zambian independence represented a meaningful departure from the colonial past. Decolonisation enabled the development of a more pluralistic culture of news consumption, a trend further encouraged by an international boom in transistor-radio sales with short-wave capability. Zambia's news culture also illustrated the limits of one-party rule. Although Kenneth Kaunda sought to emulate the stifled atmosphere of the Northern Rhodesian media, it proved impossible in the changed circumstances of the later 1960s and 1970s.
Sex workers have long been considered a high-risk group for HIV infection, but to date little quantitative research has explored the association between HIV risk and exchange of sex for material gain ...by women in the general population. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of such transactional sex among women attending antenatal clinics in Soweto, South Africa, to identify demographic and social variables associated with reporting transactional sex, and to determine the association between transactional sex and HIV serostatus. We conducted a cross-sectional study of women seeking antenatal care in four Soweto health centres who accepted routine antenatal HIV testing. Private face-to-face interviews covered socio-demographics, sexual history and experience of gender-based violence. 21.1% of participants reported having ever had sex with a non-primary male partner in exchange for material goods or money. Women who reported past experience of violence by male intimate partners, problematic substance use, urban residence, ever earning money, or living in substandard housing were more likely to report transactional sex, while women who reported delayed first coitus, were married, or had a post-secondary education were less likely to report transactional sex. Transactional sex was associated with HIV seropositivity after controlling for lifetime number of male sex partners and length of time a woman had been sexually active (OR=1.54, 95% CI: 1.07, 2.21). Women who reported non-primary partners without transactional sex did not have increased odds of being HIV seropositive (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.75, 1.43). We conclude that transactional sex may place women at increased risk for HIV, and is associated with gender-based violence, substance use and socio-economic disadvantage. Research, policy and programmatic initiatives should consider the role of transactional sex in women's HIV risk, with attention to the intersecting roles of violence, poverty, and substance use in shaping women's sexual behaviour.
This paper has two aims: to explore approaches to the measurement of children's daily travel to school in a context of limited geospatial data availability and to provide data regarding school choice ...and distance travelled to school in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa. The paper makes use of data from the Birth to Twenty cohort study (n = 1428) to explore three different approaches to estimating school choice and travel to school. First, straight-line distance between home and school is calculated. Second, census geography is used to determine whether a child's home and school fall in the same area. Third, distance data are used to determine whether a child attends the nearest school. Each of these approaches highlights a different aspect of mobility, and all provide valuable data. Overall, primary-school-aged children in Soweto-Johannesburg are shown to be travelling substantial distances to school on a daily basis. Over a third travel more than 3 km one way to school, 60% attend schools outside of the suburb in which they live, and only 18% attend their nearest school. These data provide evidence for high levels of school choice in Johannesburg-Soweto, and that families and children are making substantial investments in pursuit of high-quality educational opportunities. Additionally, these data suggest that two patterns of school choice are evident: one pattern involving travel of substantial distances and requiring a higher level of financial investment and a second pattern involving choice between more local schools, requiring less travel and a more limited financial investment.
Dateline Soweto documents the working lives of black South African reporters caught between the mistrust of militant blacks, police harrassment, and white editors who--fearing government ...disapproval--may not print the stories these reporters risk their lives to get. William Finnegan revisited several of these reporters during the May 1994 election and describes their post-apartheid working experience in a new preface and epilogue. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995. Dateline Soweto documents the working lives of black South African reporters caught between the mistrust of militant blacks, police harrassment, and white editors who--fearing government disapproval--may not print the stories these reporters risk the.
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