Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)
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Item Mogaga: Play, Power and Purgation(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Magogodi, Kgafela Golebane; Law-Viljoen, BronwynIn street parlance, or iscamto, mogaga refers to the face of confrontation. In Sekgatla, a dialect of Setswana, mogaga is a name for a potent plant used in rituals of “social purgation” (De Graft, 2002: 26-27). This study focuses on the element of go gagaola or the act of triggering mogaga through a fusion of poetic incantations,1 song, dance and “spirit embodiment” (Ajumeze, 2014: 78). Go gagaola, the act of activating mogaga, hinges on agit-prop-mechanics that enable the elimination of botheration or the purging of domination. Does ritual drama have the power to alter material conditions? This and other questions about play-making as a scaffold which holds up a combination of spiritual elevation and political rebellion drive this enquiry. How do we expel botheration using the power of play? As it appears, ritual drama and guerilla theatre have the same framework as acts of “spiritual realism” (Mahone, 2002: 270). Guerilla theatre, like ritual drama, is also a system of change. Plotting the adventures of Phokobje and Phiri, I have found great resources in spiritual traditions such as malopo/malombo of Bakgatla/Bapedi and VhaVenda as well abaNgoma of Ba-Nguni. Mapping the journeys of characters in Chilahaebolae led to unexpected forays into astronomy – bolepa dinaledi in Setswana. People’s Experimental Theatre, Malombo Jazz Makers, Dashiki, Mihlothi, Malopoets and others who accentuated the connection between ritual and rebellion. Through this enquiry I make an offering to the decolonial project and the community of scholars, artists, astronomers and iZangoma who have been silenced by the settler-colonial canon through epistemic violence, massacre, and incarceration. These musings about mogaga play-making recasts theatre as the locus of confrontation and a tool for purging botheration. Going beyond “the banal search for exoticism” (Fanon, 1967: 221), I trace the bloodline of resistance theatreItem Transgender Character Representation and the Gender Binary: Theorizing a Philosophy for Transgender Character Construction in Video Games.(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Bowler, Keagan Benjamin; Cloete, StephenTransgender characters in video games are often met with negative opinions by the largely heteronormative playerbase which, like in other media, results in a wider negative opinion on transgender people and subjects in reality. In exploring a personal identification with Celeste, I formulate a philosophy concerning the gender binary norm and its role in perpetuating harmful ideas. This philosophy manifests as both an ideology and platformer video game questioning what gender means to story and character. Through exploring gender, metaphor, queerness and game design, a philosophy is constructed to create a transgender character and video game story in a positive light.Item South African Audiologists’ Perceived Knowledge, Views and Reported Practice in the Realm of Fall Risk Screening with Older Adults(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Van Rie, Kayla Jade; Kanji, Amisha; Naudé, AlidaBackground: Falling in older adults has contributed significantly to injury and loss of life worldwide, thus, warranting the development of fall screening and prevention measures. Audiologists routinely evaluate older adults and are also key role players in balance disorders. The effectiveness of FRS and prevention is believed to depend on the healthcare professional's level of knowledge and practice in fall prevention. Little is however known about South African (SA) audiologists’ views, perceived knowledge, and practice in the realm of fall risk with older adults. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the perceived knowledge, views and reported practices of SA audiologists in the realm of FRS with older adults. Method: A mixed methods approach with a sequential triangulation design was utilised. The participants recruited for this study were SA audiologists who were registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) and had experience with older adults. The systematic review was used to inform the data collection tools. The data was then collected via online surveys and online interviews. Purposive sampling was used as the survey Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link and interview invitations were distributed via email to the SA Association of Audiologists (SAAA) and, the National Speech Therapy and Audiology databases and was also distributed via audiology-specific social media platforms. One hundred and six (n=106) participants completed the online survey and eighteen (n=18) participated in the online interviews. Data from the survey was analysed using descriptive and correlation statistics, and a deductive thematic analysis was used for interview data. Results: The research study findings indicated a strong motivation among audiologists to learn more about supporting older adults at risk of falling, as almost 100% (n=102) expressed a desire for further training. Notably, the results showed that 83% (n=88) of participants XVIII believed that audiologists lacked sufficient training in FRS during their undergraduate curriculum, aligning with their perception of limited knowledge in conducting FRSs. In light of these results, it is, however, encouraging that 68% (n=73) of participants believed that audiologists had an important role to play in FRS and 58% (n=62) believed that it should be within the audiologist’s scope of practice. Ninety percent (n=95) of participants believed that incorporating FRS would change clinical practice and may provide the profession with an opportunity for expansion. Several challenges which could influence the perceived feasibility of the implementation of FRS clinically were reported, including the need for additional training (80%; n=85), lack of time (48%; n=51), difficulty collaborating with multidisciplinary team (MDT) members (38%; n=40) and discomfort with the vestibular portion of their scope of practice (38%; n=40 ). Currently, it appears that very few audiologists are conducting FRSs with older adults. The results clearly suggests an opportunity for audiologists to expand their current perceived scope of practice, enhancing their role in preventative audiology. Conclusion: Overall, this study found that SA audiologists viewed embracing the implementation of FRS positively. A lack of perceived knowledge and anticipated challenges were reported to limit the implementation of FRS clinically.Item The impact of childhood trauma on intimacy: A literature review exploring Drama Therapy techniques for intimacy recovery in adult relationships.(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Magee, Kathryn; Thibedi, Linda (Mdena)This research paper explores how Drama Therapy techniques may be used for intimacy recovery in adult relationships in the context of childhood trauma. The immediate and long term consequences of childhood trauma are multifaceted and vary significantly. However, studies indicate that exposure to trauma during childhood adversely impacts brain development, which may disrupt other developmental processes as well as an individual’s capacity to form and maintain intimate relationships in adulthood. Intimacy is a vital element of relationships in that it provides a framework for communication and connection on various levels. Despite correlations between the two notions, research pertaining to the treatment of trauma with the intention of fostering intimacy is limited. Similarly, in the Drama Therapy field, there is little evidence indicating how the discipline could be adapted with the specific intention of fostering intimacy in relationships. Through an integrative literature review method, research pertaining to the impacts of childhood trauma, how childhood trauma influences intimacy, and predominant trauma treatment approaches and their effects, were explored. This informed an analysis of various Drama Therapy approaches, which may be useful in dealing with childhood trauma and fostering healthy relationships. From the literature examined, Drama Therapy may serve as a versatile tool for emotional regulation, narrative exploration, vulnerability and sharing, and transformation and empowerment, which all have the potential to foster intimacy in relationshipsItem Encountering apartheid publics: an essay film on Hendrik Verwoerd as public symbol 1958-1966 and implications for counter-publics today.(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-11-10) Effendi, Karima; Louw, Lieza; Kenny, BridgetThe policies of separate development under Verwoerd created the material conditions for apartheid and capitalism to thrive, but it's the hypothesis of this project that the pomp and ceremony, the suit, his speeches and performative statecraft, created the affective conditions for his thinking to make its way from the past into our present-time. This is a discursive inquiry that draws on political theory, psychoanalysis, feminist theory and essayistic film theory to explore how the slipperiness of apartheid discourse makes it impossible to counter it on its own terms. Verwoerd symbolised a pernicious ‘covering over’ of irreconcilable ambiguities in apartheid discourse that was used to construct and stabilise whiteness against ‘other’ constitutive subject formations. The second part of the creative project is an essay film, Verwoerd’s Smile, that uses an ‘apartheid’ and colonial archive to attempt to show up its own discriminatory logic. The film’s failure in doing this has a productive value that is instructive for understanding how the cloak of invisibility that shrouds whiteness from being seen doing its work, also protects it from being dismantled. Understanding this has implications for radical projects concerned with undoing apartheid.Item Child and Adolescent Mental Health in South Africa: Experiences of Black Psychologists(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Seboka, Kanelo; Amod, ZaytoonThis study explored the experiences of Black psychologists working with children and adolescents within the South African context. The purpose of this investigation was to shed light on these experiences, whose insights could contribute to teaching and training as well as to policy developments in relation to child and adolescent mental health in this country. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed for this study. Individual, semi-structured interviews with ten Black psychologists who are registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) was the primary data collection method, analysed using thematic data analysis. Eight themes were identified: Perceptions of Psychology and Mental Health; Systemic Influence and Understanding; Parent/Caregiver Psychoeducation; Inter-Professional Collaboration; Professional Competence; The ‘Black Culture’ and Context; Indigenous Knowledge and Practices and Mental Health Resources and Policies in South Africa. Findings indicated the need for promotion of the following aspects: mental health psychoeducation to eliminate negative health-seeking behaviours, professional inter collaboration and overall child and adolescent mental health. Findings further indicated the need for more cultural diversity in psychology training programmes as well as the prioritisation of child and adolescent mental health in government policies. Based on this, it is recommended that schools/clinics be reliable sources of mental health information; inter-professional training that has cultural relevance be offered at tertiary level; and for promotive and intervention programmes to be implemented in schools as a form of psychosocial support for the learners, teachers and the broader community.Item Exploring the relationship between job demands, resource, and psychological well-being: A study in the hospitality and tourism industries(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Marks, Joshua Blaine; Donald, FionaIdentified as a key factor contributing to elevated levels of individual performance and thus organisational performance, ensuring ideal levels of individual psychological well-being has grown increasingly important within organisations, especially following the onset and recession of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the pandemic having receded, its initial impact left lasting effects on various industries, particularly the tourism and hospitality industries as these industries saw a drastic reduction in workforce size and revenue generated. This has prompted the implementation of nationwide recovery efforts; however, these have been found to be primarily aimed at addressing the financial and economic impacts of the pandemic with minimal consideration for addressing the psychological impacts of the pandemic. This study aimed at evaluating the current state of individual psychological well-being of individuals working in the tourism and hospitality industries in South Africa. Given the broad nature of the psychological well-being construct, attempts to evaluate it in the work context have proved difficult. Hence it is for this reason that this study evaluated psychological well-being with reference to the experience of work engagement and burnout, as these constructs have been conceptualised as indicators of psychological well-being. Therefore individual psychological well-being was assessed through the exploration of the potential relationships between various job characteristics and the experience of work engagement and burnout. The sample consisted of 65 participants from organisations within the tourism and hospitality industries in South Africa. Participants were required to complete a questionnaire that comprised of a demographic information section, the Job-Demands Resources Scale (JDRS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Health Services Survey (MBI-HSS), and the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). The results generated indicated the presence of significant, weak to moderate relationships between the variables of interest, with few exceptions. Furthermore, the significant regression models generated by the analysis provided insight into the relative contributions of the chosen job characteristics to the experience of work engagement and burnout. The results were discussed within the broader literature on the concepts of job demands and job resources, and the experience of work engagement and burnout.Item Shifts, Changes and Continuities in Heritage Commemoration and Memorialisation of the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville Massacre: 1960-2010(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Ngoaketsi, Joseph Mairomola; Lekgoathi, S.PThe Sharpeville Massacre was a key turning point in modern South African history. The massacre ended the non-violent civil rights-style political activism and flickered three decades of armed confrontation with the colonial apartheid regime. Most importantly, it became the catalyst for the declaration of apartheid as a crime against humanity by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1966. However, most of the studies on the massacre focus mainly on documenting the events of that day, and very little has been written about the historical re-presentations of the shooting beyond this. This study, therefore, aims to fill the lacuna in the re-presentation and observance of this event. It does so by not only complementing the existing literature but also looking at an area that has been grossly neglected, namely the diverse ways in which the killing has been observed over a period of five decades, starting from the 1960s to 2010. The study employs discourse analysis as well as critical and in-depth analyses of published secondary, historical and archival sources, including newspaper reports and commentaries on the 21 March Sharpeville Day commemorations. These sources are complemented by a large spread, and wide range of biographical sources, unstructured interviews, testimonials, informal discussions, and conversations with key local heritage activist respondents. The focus group consists of members of the Khulumani Support Group at the Sharpeville branch. The findings and conclusions of this study derive from observations of the anniversary commemorations of the massacre by ethnographic participants. The study utilises several theoretical frameworks, while the Life Narrative Interpretative theory of oral history lays the basis for this research venture. As the findings of this thesis bear out, the application of this theory converges oral history and collective memory studies. Other theories used in this study include Maurice Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory, which is located in nostalgia, individual testimony, oral history, tradition, myth, style, language, art, popular culture, and physical landscape. Émile Durkheim’s performance or ritual theory postulates that the past is represented and relived through rituals, and the relationship between the past and the present takes the form of a dramatic (re)presentation. The study observes that cultural rites conducted during memorialisation processes and annual observances of the Sharpeville massacre are marked by human arrangements of performances or viii ritual remembrances. The transitional justice theoretical discourse is applied in the study’s analysis of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission - a socio-political initiative devoted to fact-finding, reconciliation and memory culture. It concludes that memorialisation processes and rituals are communal reflexes for survivors of the Sharpeville Massacre and families of the victims. Contrary to assertions by notable Sharpeville Massacre historians, this day was not observed between 1964 and 1984, despite an international commemorative tradition that developed beginning from 1966. The study observes that during the 1960s, the Human Rights Society, an affiliate of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), commemorated Sharpeville Day even at the height of state repression. It demonstrates that it was the Black Consciousness Movement family of organisations that popularised the commemoration of Sharpeville Day, calling it Heroes Day during the 1970s. The observance of this day took the form of church services, cemetery visitations and political rallies. The study notes that with the formation of the Congress Movement-aligned civic structure in the form of the United Democratic Front, Sharpeville Day was used as a platform to openly defy the apartheid government and undermine its institutions. The 1990s was a period of political transition in South Africa, and the study analyses commemorations of the Sharpeville Massacre during this decade. In the context of the unbanning of liberation movements, observances of this day took place in a more politically tolerable landscape. During the first half of this decade, commemorations of Sharpeville Massacre revealed the deep-seated political and ideological differences between the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress former liberation movements turned political parties in the early 1990s after their unbanning. The study observes that this day was used during this period to garner support for the upcoming elections in 1994. Following the establishment of the Government of National Unity, the hegemonic impulses of the African National Congress overrode long-held traditions of how Sharpeville Day was observed. The study highlights that from the year 1995, 21 March started to be observed as an official public holiday, later transforming into Human Rights Day, instead of being a solemn commemoration, as was the case before the democratic dispensation. The study further observes that during this decade, court-like restorative justice bodies, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created a theatrical environment for victims of gross human rights violations. The ritualistic oral testimonies of those who appeared constituted a ix memorialisation process. Lastly, the study reveals that post-1994, Sharpeville commemorations possess distinct characteristics at the core of which are distortions of history, the watering down of other narratives and contributions, selective amnesia and the silencing of other voices on the part of the governing party. There are further contestations, grand narratives, commemorations, counter commemorations and counter-narratives regarding the memory of Sharpeville by both the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress. In terms of material culture, the study highlights how this tangible feature of Sharpeville’s memory is characterised by official memorials and counter-memorials.Item Experiences of Thabazimbi Resident Mine Employees Regarding the Perceived Effects of Mining Activities within their Community. The case of Amandelbult Mine in Limpopo, South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Ditshego, Mashiatshiti Johanna; Dube, NkosiyaziSouth Africa’s mining industry has historically been at the heart of the nation’s economy also taking into consideration the country’s high-ranking spot as one of the leading naturally rich resource countries within the world. In reality, the mining industry has played a key part in contributing to the country’s economic growth, and it remains South Africa’s most watched financial segment. However, the mining industry has experienced a major turmoil, since it also brings along socially unintended circumstances within the communities that they operate in, for example an increase of informal settlement, spontaneous mine closures, and the perpetuation of fights inside traditional houses. As much as there are several studies done within the South African mining sector, studies looking into the experiences and perceived effects of mining activities in communities where these mining companies operate are very limited within the South African literature in Occupational Social Work. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to close this gap, as it aims to explore the experiences of Thabazimbi Resident Mine Employees Regarding the Perceived Effects of Mining Activities within their Community. The study was qualitative in nature, with a case study used as the research design. The target population was mine employees residing in Thabazimbi. Purposive sampling was used to recruit (10) mine employees and (2) key informants in the community to be participants for the study, with a semi-structured interview guide employed as a research instrument. Data for the study was collected using face-to-face individual interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Findings indicate that mining activities had both positive and negative experiences for the resident employees. Thabazimbi resident employees suggested some recommendations that can be implemented to mitigate the negative effects that they raised in the findings. Recommendations are made in relation future research.Item Locality Shaping the Institution: Genesis Connection Youth Skills Multimedia, Riverlea, Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Pather, Jodie; Ntombela, Nontobeko; Khan, SharleneFollowing the rich history that community art centres have had in South Africa, this research questions how locality may ideologically shape community-based arts institutions and have a bearing on how they operate and what they have access to. Specifically, this study looks at the community-based arts organisation, Genesis Connection Youth Skills Multimedia (Genesis), in Riverlea, Johannesburg. This research report is carried out to ascertain the extent to which Genesis and the work that they do is influenced by their home community of Riverlea, and how this locality may affect or determine their curriculum, programming, and access to funding. Through episodic interviews, I explore the significance of locality to community-based art centres as is experienced directly by facilitators of different initiatives. The first chapter in this report deals with an overview of scholarship on community art centres; defining and contextualising them, including a historical overview of community art centres that have existed in Johannesburg. Locality, as a concept and its associated literature as related to community art centres is discussed and incorporates perspectives from facilitators working in the field. The second chapter presents a historical overview of the area of Riverlea and builds on the description from Chris Van Wyk’s autobiographical work Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (2004), as a way of complementing, enriching and humanising the academic perspectives on the area of Riverlea. These upfront chapters provide the context for the birth of Genesis, and the terrain that it operates in. Lastly, the third chapter looks at the funding landscape that has sustained community-based arts in South Africa, with specific attention paid to government-funded community-based arts centres, alongside a discussion of how Genesis is funded. The purpose of this is to establish an understanding of the accessibility of funds for arts organisations, what their unique challenges may be, as well as to highlight the sustainability of government-funded organisations in comparison to that of self funded organisations, such as Genesis