African Marriage Counselling and the Relevance of Western Models of Counselling (original) (raw)
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Guidelines for Marriage Counselling with Zulu Couples
Alternation: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa, 2019
This article is based on doctoral research examining the need for and the process required for indigenizing marital therapy to be more applicable to Zulu couples, and recommends best practice guidelines for marriage counsellors, particularly those from a different culture, or those who have received training in western Eurocentric theory and practice. Four specific values of Zulu culture were indicated as being important when counselling Zulu people. These included basing the counsellor's epistemology on communality as occurs with Ubuntu (Nyaumwe & Mkabele 2007); needing to practice hlonipha or respect (Rudwick & Shange 2009) and assisting the couple to include hlonipha in their relations with one another; it is also recommended that the counsellor explores spirituality with the couple and examines the practices that enhance feelings of belonging. These four cultural elements can be incorporated into counselling services when working with Zulu people as outlined in this article.
STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2021
Divorce is a painful and traumatic experience that disrupt the lives of people. Research has shown that the phenomenon of divorce among black South Africans is escalating on a yearly basis. This is accompanied by both emotional, spiritual and psychological effects which impact on the well-being of people. Furthermore, divorce is understood as a disruption of normal life and it also threatens the stability and sustainability of social institutions. As the article is written from a context of pastoral care and counselling, it acknowledges the existence of other forms of care beyond the boundaries of the Christian ministry of healing. The indigenous African martial therapy plays a vital role in black African communities in strengthening marital bonds and its longevity. Even though this African model has been disrupted by the wave of industrialisation and urbanisation, the article argues that its methods of healing, counselling and mediatory role are necessary for African people and in ...
Marriage as an end or the end of marriage? Change and continuity in Southern African marriages
2016
Marriage used to be widespread and common throughout Southern Africa. However, over the past decades marriage rates have substantially declined in the whole region. Marriage has changed from a universal rite of passage into a conspicuous celebration of middle class lifestyles. Bridewealth or lobola remains important and is supplemented by a plethora of new rituals and expenditures. Yet, despite marriage’s recent turn towards exclusivity, the institution nevertheless continues to be an important frame of reference for most people. The contributions in this special issue explore reconfigurations of marriages and weddings in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia through the last decades. While there are numerous anthropological studies on marriage in Southern Africa for the period up to the 1980s, a remarkable paucity of studies has to be noted for the time since then. The ethnographic and comparative findings on Southern African weddings and marriages compiled in this special issue pick up an important anthropological legacy and stimulate future research and theorising.
Indigenous Marital Therapy: A Case of Botswana
2017
Botswana has a long history of indigenous marital therapy. This indigenous therapy is embodied in the indigenous philosophy of motho ke motho ka batho (I am because we are). This philosophy promotes togetherness, connectedness, collectiveness, compassion, love and harmony and the building of sustainable relationships among families. The paper explores some of the indigenous therapeutic marital approaches used during wedding ceremonies amongst them, songs, proverbs and group counselling. It also argues that these indigenous marital approaches build family relations and are a continuous source of therapy for the married couple; in addition to relieving women from marital stress and maintaining strong family relationships even after the marriage has ended.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 2017
The purpose of the study was to investigate the views of stakeholders on the influence of traditional marriage counselling among couples in Kabwe urban in central province in Zambia. The study sought to establish views on level of awareness on existence of traditional marriage counselling services; factors that might have contributed to the rise in incidences of divorce and participants’ views on traditional marriage counselling as a strategy for reducing rate of divorce. A descriptive survey design was used. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative techniques were used in the collection of data. The qualitative techniques involved use of interview and Focused Group Discussion guides while, quantitative data was collected through use of questionnaires. The sample comprised 99 participants. The findings revealed that majority of the participants were aware of the existence of traditional counselling services and felt that such services had the potential of providing viable knowledge and information on marriages. It was however evident from the views of participants that there were social factors that had led to high rate of divorces despite availability of traditional marriage counselling ranged from; male dominated social structure; infidelity and unfaithfulness; intrusion of the in-laws; communication breakdown and spouse; lack of respect for each other. The participants further felt that socio-economic factors such as unemployment; drunkenness; husband taking way family earnings to other women; wives earning more than husbands, had led to increased rate of divorce despite the existence of traditional counselling. With regards to participants’ views on traditional counselling being a strategy for reducing rate of divorce, some of them felt that; traditional counsellors were not trained to provide formidable counselling services in a multicultural set up such as urban areas. On the whole, the study revealed that traditional counselling although had the potential of sustaining marriages and could help to reduce rate of divorce, it did not have significant influence on marriage couples in urbanized social environment. The study recommended organizations such as Ministry of Gender; Zambia Police Victim Support Unit; legal fraternity; churches and Alangizi Association of Zambia (Traditional Marriage Counselling Association) to work together in order to reduce the rate of divorce among married couples in the study area. Keywords: Views; Counselling; Traditional Counsellors: Stakeholders; Married Couples; Divorce; Ubuntu - African collectivism
Social Work
Development of knowledge on how to support marriages cross-culturally is necessary to inform appropriate solutions, especially for South Africa, where practical marital challenges amongst Black African married couples who are considered to be high risk are noted. The focus of this narrative literature-informed overview is to provide an appraisal of existing and most effective national and international marriage enrichment (ME) programmes, couples theories and social work models as the basis for the possible development of a culturally-appropriate ME programme for Black African married couples. Findings reveal, among other things: 1) there are no culturally-appropriate and empirically evaluated ME programmes beneficial to Black African married couples in SA; 2) appropriate theory is necessary and available for integration; 3) theories recognise marriage as a system, and therefore acknowledgement of various societal structures is fundamental; 4) existing empirically tested and effective programmes supporting couples theories and social work models are suitable to be adapted to the specific context.
African Marriages in Transformation: Anthropological Insights
In this article, I will outline central transformations of African marriages and link these changes to four broad anthropological approaches which I label as metanarratives. I use the term ‘metanarrative’ to stress the rather high degree of coherence within these four anthropological interpretative frameworks. Similarly, James Ferguson applies the concept of a ‘metanarrative’ to analyze the way anthropologists among others have perceived and constructed ‘modernity’ and ‘urbanization’ in the Zambian Copperbelt (Ferguson 1999:14-17). I will start with British social anthropology and classify this approach as a first metanarrative centering on the leitmotif of the stable African marriage. The metanarrative of the stable African marriage is only one line of thinking that is prominent in African ethnography. There are at least three other influential metanarratives framing the work on African marriages during the 20th century, i.e. the metanarrative of the destruction of ‘the’ African marriage and family system and the (more unspecific) metanarrative of change of African marriage and family systems. Finally, the fourth and most recent metanarrative used to interpret transformations in African marriages highlights fluidity and flexibility of African marriages. In the final section of my article I will discuss the possible emergence of a new metanarrative that aims at understanding the dramatic increase in wedding costs and the parallel decline in marriage rates, especially in Southern Africa.
Marriage Practices and Intercultural Communication: The Case of African Communities
Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies
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Greener Journal of Social Sciences, 2014
The study investigated the perceptions of the Chegutu Town community on marriage counselling, using different modes of counselling, namely, traditional counselling, pastoral counselling, counselling by police officers from the Victim Friendly Unit and professional counselling. The researchers targeted the population of married couples in Hintonville Low Density Suburbs, a location that is situated in Chegutu Town in Zimbabwe. A sample of 30 married respondents comprising 17 married men and 13 married women of various ages ranging from 21 years upwards who had plus/minus eleven years of experience in marriage, were conveniently selected. The descriptive survey and structured questionnaires with closed and open ended questions were used to collect data. A pilot study was carried out to ensure validity and reliability of the research instrument. The study findings revealed that married couples generally have a positive perception on all the four modes of counselling. However, of the above mentioned modes of counselling, the community in question prefers pastoral counselling most because of the spiritual guidance associated with it. The community also supports traditional counselling though some married couples are of the view that elders are too harsh, unlike pastoral counselling and professional counselling. The results also suggest that the community is not fully conversant with professional counselling as evidenced by the low rate of respondents who prefer professional counselling as compared to pastoral counselling and traditional counselling.