Where have the midwives gone?: everyday histories of Voetvroue in Johannesburg

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dc.contributor.authorBotes, Tamia
dc.date.accessioned2022-12-21T09:45:09Z
dc.date.available2022-12-21T09:45:09Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.departmentDepartment of Anthropology
dc.descriptionA research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Anthropology to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2021
dc.description.abstractAt the heart of a complex network of knowledge sits the Voetvrou—a black autonomous midwife who looks after the health of and nurtures new life in her community. She mentors others in these practices and in this way, shares her knowledge across communal lines. But who is the Voetvrou? What is her history? What constitutes being a Voetvrou? How does one come to be a Voetvrou? Harriet Deacon (1998) identifies a broad shift in power relations between medical men and black autonomous midwives in the nineteenth-century Cape Frontier. These relations were underpinned by growing racialism at legal and institutionalised levels, and effectively squeezed black women out of the practice of midwifery—hence their apparent disappearance from public archives from 1865, onwards. However, these black autonomous midwives have not disappeared. This research asks, where have the midwives gone? To this end, I used semi-structured in-depth interviews and archival research to explore where the midwives have gone. I conclude that these women have been part of a living archive, continuing their practices in the margins of power. They are essential to networks of care in Eldorado Park. The Voetvrou escapes the discourses of medical anthropology and Indigenous Knowledge systems. My research attempts to re-insert her into these discourses.
dc.description.librarianTL (2022)
dc.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/33916
dc.language.isoen
dc.schoolSchool of Social Sciences
dc.titleWhere have the midwives gone?: everyday histories of Voetvroue in Johannesburg
dc.typeThesis
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