Nolwazi Mkhwanazi | University of Pretoria (original) (raw)
Papers by Nolwazi Mkhwanazi
Resumen En las dos u´ltimasde´cadas, enSuda´frica losnacimientos de madresmenores de 20an˜os han ... more Resumen En las dos u´ltimasde´cadas, enSuda´frica losnacimientos de madresmenores de 20an˜os han seguidodisminuyendo. El motivo de este declive se atribuye a las poli´ticas progresivas de cara´cter social yeducativo, y a reacciones ma´s complacientes por parte de las familias. En este arti´culo utilizamosdatos etnogra´ficos que se recopilaron entre 2001 y 2002 y de nuevo en 2013 con el objetivo deanalizar las percepciones y experiencias de mujeres jo´venes que han tenido hijos a una edadtemprana en los albores del siglo XXI en comparacio´n con mujeres jo´venes una de´cada ma´s tarde.Este arti´culo hace dos contribuciones principales a la bibliografi´a sobre maternidad precoz enSuda´frica. En primer lugar, permite entrever los cambios que han ocurrido con respecto a co´mo lasmujeres jo´venes han vivido el embarazo y la maternidad en la u´ltima de´cada. En segundo lugar,considera los cambios no solamente con relacio´n al tiempo sino tambie´n con respecto a los cambiosimportantes desde ...
Anthropology Southern Africa
The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health
Africa
This article uses the accelerated saturation initiative (ASI) Soka Uncobe, which took place in th... more This article uses the accelerated saturation initiative (ASI) Soka Uncobe, which took place in the kingdom of eSwatini in 2011 and 2012, to comment on HIV humanitarian health interventions in Africa. Soka Uncobe, the first ASI on voluntary medical male circumcision, aimed to circumcise 80 per cent of all HIV-negative men aged fifteen to forty-nine years over a twelve-month period. Using written and verbal accounts, I draw attention to the dreams and hopes behind the design of the initiative. I also highlight the dynamics of the implementation of Soka Uncobe, and, in doing so, I chart the path to its ultimate failure by showing the reluctance of the implementation partners (based mainly in the global North) to take seriously what have now become well-known critiques of why humanitarian interventions fail. Ultimately, I suggest that, despite having the potential to produce some critical results, Soka Uncobe was no different from previous transnational humanitarian health interventions...
Wellcome Open Research
This letter seeks to synthesise methodological challenges encountered in a cohort of Wellcome Tru... more This letter seeks to synthesise methodological challenges encountered in a cohort of Wellcome Trust-funded research projects focusing on sexualities and health. The ten Wellcome Trust projects span a diversity of gender and sexual orientations and identities, settings; institutional and non-institutional contexts, lifecourse stages, and explore a range of health-related interventions. As researchers, we originate from a breadth of disciplinary traditions, use a variety of research methods and data sources. Despite this breadth, four common themes are found across the projects: (i) inclusivity, representations and representativeness, (ii) lumping together of diverse groups, (iii) institutions and closed settings (iv) ethical and governance barriers.
Culture, Health & Sexuality
Ageing and Society
As the world undergoes rapid ageing, informal support from friends and relatives is becoming espe... more As the world undergoes rapid ageing, informal support from friends and relatives is becoming especially important among older adults in middle- and low-income countries, where formalised social protections may be limited. We use new data from a cohort of adults aged 40 and older in rural South Africa to explore how receipt of emotional support differs by gender and marital status. Our findings suggest that women are more likely to get emotional support than men and have more sources of support. Moreover, women are more likely to get emotional support from relatives, whereas men are more likely to get support from friends. In regard to marital status, married people are more likely to get emotional support and have more sources of support than people who are not married. However, separated/divorced and widowed people are more likely to get emotional support from relatives and have more sources of non-spousal support than married people. These findings point towards gaps in informal s...
Medical Humanities
Eh!woza is a public engagement initiative that explores the biomedical and social aspects of tube... more Eh!woza is a public engagement initiative that explores the biomedical and social aspects of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa. The project is a collaboration between scientists based in an infectious disease research institute, a local conceptual/visual artist, a youth-based educational non-governmental organization (NGO) and young learners from a high-burden TB community. The learners participate in a series of interactive science and media production workshops: initially presented with biomedical knowledge about TB and, in later sessions, are trained in creating documentary films and engage with ideas around visual representation. The participants are encouraged to make use of this newly acquired knowledge to tell stories from their chosen communities in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town. Through its engagement with the complex manner in which TB is experienced, framed and understood by biomedical scientists, young people, and those who have been affected by the disease, Eh!wo...
Global health action, 2017
Data from many high- and low- or middle-income countries have linked exposures during key develop... more Data from many high- and low- or middle-income countries have linked exposures during key developmental periods (in particular pregnancy and infancy) to later health and disease. Africa faces substantial challenges with persisting infectious disease and now burgeoning non-communicable disease.This paper opens the debate to the value of strengthening the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) research focus in Africa to tackle critical public health challenges across the life-course. We argue that the application of DOHaD science in Africa to advance life-course prevention programmes can aid the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and assist in improving health across generations. To increase DOHaD research and its application in Africa, we need to mobilise multisectoral partners, utilise existing data and expertise on the continent, and foster a new generation of young African scientists engrossed in DOHaD.
South African Review of Sociology, 2013
AIDS Care, 2016
HIV and AIDS have impacted on social relations in many ways, eroding personal networks, contribut... more HIV and AIDS have impacted on social relations in many ways, eroding personal networks, contributing to household poverty, and rupturing intimate relations. With the continuing transmission of HIV particularly in resource-poor settings, families and others must find new ways to care for those who are living with HIV, for those who are ill and need increased levels of personal and medical care, and for orphaned children. These needs occur concurrently with changes in family structure, as a direct result of HIV-related deaths but also due to industrialization, urbanization, and labor migration. In this special issue, the contributing authors draw on ethnographies from South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, andby way of contrast-China, to illustrate how people find new ways of constituting families, or of providing alternatives to families, in order to provide care and support to people infected with and afflicted by HIV.
Medical Anthropology, 2015
In the growing number of publications in medical anthropology about sub-Saharan Africa, there is ... more In the growing number of publications in medical anthropology about sub-Saharan Africa, there is a tendency to tell a single story of medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior. The heavy reliance on telling this singular story means that there is very little exposure to other stories. In this article, I draw on five books published in the past five years to illustrate the various components that make up this dominant narrative. I then provide examples of two accounts about medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior in Africa that deviate from this dominant narrative, in order to show the themes that alternative accounts have foregrounded. Ultimately, I make a plea to medical anthropologists to be mindful of the existence of this singular story and to resist the tendency to use its components as scaffolding in their accounts of medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior in Africa.
Agenda Empowering Women For Gender Equity, 2011
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2006
In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were do... more In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were dominant from the 1980s to 2003 in South Africa. By providing a comparison with some of the research in the United States and in England, the author draws attention to the similarity in the representations of teenage pregnancy in South Africa and in the latter countries. The strengths and weaknesses of each research school are discussed. The author then provides an alternative representation of teenage pregnancy substantiated by reference to her own research in the township of Khwezi East, South Africa.
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2005
The revised ethical guidelines and principles of conduct for anthropologists in Southern Africa o... more The revised ethical guidelines and principles of conduct for anthropologists in Southern Africa offer suggestions for the anthropologist's relations with and responsibility to research participants. Reflecting on the provision of sexuality education, I draw critical attention to the premises that underlie these guidelines, in particular those underpinning what the principles of conduct describe as a commitment to 'local understandings of respect and dignity'. In doing so, the paper reflects on the discrepancies between ideals and practices.
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2006
In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were do... more In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were dominant from the 1980s to 2003 in South Africa. By providing a comparison with some of the research in the United States and in England, the author draws attention to the similarity in the representations of teenage pregnancy in South Africa and in the latter countries. The strengths and weaknesses of each research school are discussed. The author then provides an alternative representation of teenage pregnancy substantiated by reference to her own research in the township of Khwezi East, South Africa.
Resumen En las dos u´ltimasde´cadas, enSuda´frica losnacimientos de madresmenores de 20an˜os han ... more Resumen En las dos u´ltimasde´cadas, enSuda´frica losnacimientos de madresmenores de 20an˜os han seguidodisminuyendo. El motivo de este declive se atribuye a las poli´ticas progresivas de cara´cter social yeducativo, y a reacciones ma´s complacientes por parte de las familias. En este arti´culo utilizamosdatos etnogra´ficos que se recopilaron entre 2001 y 2002 y de nuevo en 2013 con el objetivo deanalizar las percepciones y experiencias de mujeres jo´venes que han tenido hijos a una edadtemprana en los albores del siglo XXI en comparacio´n con mujeres jo´venes una de´cada ma´s tarde.Este arti´culo hace dos contribuciones principales a la bibliografi´a sobre maternidad precoz enSuda´frica. En primer lugar, permite entrever los cambios que han ocurrido con respecto a co´mo lasmujeres jo´venes han vivido el embarazo y la maternidad en la u´ltima de´cada. En segundo lugar,considera los cambios no solamente con relacio´n al tiempo sino tambie´n con respecto a los cambiosimportantes desde ...
Anthropology Southern Africa
The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health
Africa
This article uses the accelerated saturation initiative (ASI) Soka Uncobe, which took place in th... more This article uses the accelerated saturation initiative (ASI) Soka Uncobe, which took place in the kingdom of eSwatini in 2011 and 2012, to comment on HIV humanitarian health interventions in Africa. Soka Uncobe, the first ASI on voluntary medical male circumcision, aimed to circumcise 80 per cent of all HIV-negative men aged fifteen to forty-nine years over a twelve-month period. Using written and verbal accounts, I draw attention to the dreams and hopes behind the design of the initiative. I also highlight the dynamics of the implementation of Soka Uncobe, and, in doing so, I chart the path to its ultimate failure by showing the reluctance of the implementation partners (based mainly in the global North) to take seriously what have now become well-known critiques of why humanitarian interventions fail. Ultimately, I suggest that, despite having the potential to produce some critical results, Soka Uncobe was no different from previous transnational humanitarian health interventions...
Wellcome Open Research
This letter seeks to synthesise methodological challenges encountered in a cohort of Wellcome Tru... more This letter seeks to synthesise methodological challenges encountered in a cohort of Wellcome Trust-funded research projects focusing on sexualities and health. The ten Wellcome Trust projects span a diversity of gender and sexual orientations and identities, settings; institutional and non-institutional contexts, lifecourse stages, and explore a range of health-related interventions. As researchers, we originate from a breadth of disciplinary traditions, use a variety of research methods and data sources. Despite this breadth, four common themes are found across the projects: (i) inclusivity, representations and representativeness, (ii) lumping together of diverse groups, (iii) institutions and closed settings (iv) ethical and governance barriers.
Culture, Health & Sexuality
Ageing and Society
As the world undergoes rapid ageing, informal support from friends and relatives is becoming espe... more As the world undergoes rapid ageing, informal support from friends and relatives is becoming especially important among older adults in middle- and low-income countries, where formalised social protections may be limited. We use new data from a cohort of adults aged 40 and older in rural South Africa to explore how receipt of emotional support differs by gender and marital status. Our findings suggest that women are more likely to get emotional support than men and have more sources of support. Moreover, women are more likely to get emotional support from relatives, whereas men are more likely to get support from friends. In regard to marital status, married people are more likely to get emotional support and have more sources of support than people who are not married. However, separated/divorced and widowed people are more likely to get emotional support from relatives and have more sources of non-spousal support than married people. These findings point towards gaps in informal s...
Medical Humanities
Eh!woza is a public engagement initiative that explores the biomedical and social aspects of tube... more Eh!woza is a public engagement initiative that explores the biomedical and social aspects of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa. The project is a collaboration between scientists based in an infectious disease research institute, a local conceptual/visual artist, a youth-based educational non-governmental organization (NGO) and young learners from a high-burden TB community. The learners participate in a series of interactive science and media production workshops: initially presented with biomedical knowledge about TB and, in later sessions, are trained in creating documentary films and engage with ideas around visual representation. The participants are encouraged to make use of this newly acquired knowledge to tell stories from their chosen communities in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town. Through its engagement with the complex manner in which TB is experienced, framed and understood by biomedical scientists, young people, and those who have been affected by the disease, Eh!wo...
Global health action, 2017
Data from many high- and low- or middle-income countries have linked exposures during key develop... more Data from many high- and low- or middle-income countries have linked exposures during key developmental periods (in particular pregnancy and infancy) to later health and disease. Africa faces substantial challenges with persisting infectious disease and now burgeoning non-communicable disease.This paper opens the debate to the value of strengthening the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) research focus in Africa to tackle critical public health challenges across the life-course. We argue that the application of DOHaD science in Africa to advance life-course prevention programmes can aid the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and assist in improving health across generations. To increase DOHaD research and its application in Africa, we need to mobilise multisectoral partners, utilise existing data and expertise on the continent, and foster a new generation of young African scientists engrossed in DOHaD.
South African Review of Sociology, 2013
AIDS Care, 2016
HIV and AIDS have impacted on social relations in many ways, eroding personal networks, contribut... more HIV and AIDS have impacted on social relations in many ways, eroding personal networks, contributing to household poverty, and rupturing intimate relations. With the continuing transmission of HIV particularly in resource-poor settings, families and others must find new ways to care for those who are living with HIV, for those who are ill and need increased levels of personal and medical care, and for orphaned children. These needs occur concurrently with changes in family structure, as a direct result of HIV-related deaths but also due to industrialization, urbanization, and labor migration. In this special issue, the contributing authors draw on ethnographies from South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, andby way of contrast-China, to illustrate how people find new ways of constituting families, or of providing alternatives to families, in order to provide care and support to people infected with and afflicted by HIV.
Medical Anthropology, 2015
In the growing number of publications in medical anthropology about sub-Saharan Africa, there is ... more In the growing number of publications in medical anthropology about sub-Saharan Africa, there is a tendency to tell a single story of medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior. The heavy reliance on telling this singular story means that there is very little exposure to other stories. In this article, I draw on five books published in the past five years to illustrate the various components that make up this dominant narrative. I then provide examples of two accounts about medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior in Africa that deviate from this dominant narrative, in order to show the themes that alternative accounts have foregrounded. Ultimately, I make a plea to medical anthropologists to be mindful of the existence of this singular story and to resist the tendency to use its components as scaffolding in their accounts of medicine, health, and health-seeking behavior in Africa.
Agenda Empowering Women For Gender Equity, 2011
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2006
In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were do... more In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were dominant from the 1980s to 2003 in South Africa. By providing a comparison with some of the research in the United States and in England, the author draws attention to the similarity in the representations of teenage pregnancy in South Africa and in the latter countries. The strengths and weaknesses of each research school are discussed. The author then provides an alternative representation of teenage pregnancy substantiated by reference to her own research in the township of Khwezi East, South Africa.
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2005
The revised ethical guidelines and principles of conduct for anthropologists in Southern Africa o... more The revised ethical guidelines and principles of conduct for anthropologists in Southern Africa offer suggestions for the anthropologist's relations with and responsibility to research participants. Reflecting on the provision of sexuality education, I draw critical attention to the premises that underlie these guidelines, in particular those underpinning what the principles of conduct describe as a commitment to 'local understandings of respect and dignity'. In doing so, the paper reflects on the discrepancies between ideals and practices.
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2006
In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were do... more In this article the author identifies three schools of research on teenage pregnancy that were dominant from the 1980s to 2003 in South Africa. By providing a comparison with some of the research in the United States and in England, the author draws attention to the similarity in the representations of teenage pregnancy in South Africa and in the latter countries. The strengths and weaknesses of each research school are discussed. The author then provides an alternative representation of teenage pregnancy substantiated by reference to her own research in the township of Khwezi East, South Africa.