South Africa's "Rainbow People", national pride and happiness
- Moller, Valerie, Dickow, H, Harris, M
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Dickow, H , Harris, M
- Date: 1999
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010751
- Description: Since the first free elections were held in April 1994, South Africans are popularly known as the ''rainbow people''. The paper inquires whether South Africans who experienced pride in their nation in the first years of democracy also perceived a greater sense of subjective well-being. It is proposed that national pride in post-apartheid South Africa might be fused with or work through self-esteem to lift levels of happiness. The paper traces the history of the new integrating civil religion of the rainbow people and the acceptance of the rainbow as a political symbol of unity among the diverse people of South Africa immediately after the 1994 elections and two years later. The proposed link between national pride and happiness was explored with data from two independent national surveys, the 1995 South African World Values Survey conducted by Markinor and a June 1996 MarkData syndicated omnibus survey. The study found that the appeal of the rainbow as political symbol was inclusive of all groups in society and that feelings of national pride and support for the rainbow ideal were positively associated with subjective well-being. As indicated by intensity and frequency measures, the majority of South Africans were proud of their country and could name a national achievement that inspired pride. Better-off South Africans tended to be happier and more satisfied with life but less proud, while the poor were less happy but fiercely proud of their country. Results suggest that belief in South Africa’s ''rainbow nation'' ideal may have assisted in boosting happiness during the transition to a stable democracy, thereby preventing alienation among the losers under the new political dispensation. Supporters of the ideal of the rainbow nation were more optimistic than others about the future of their country.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Dickow, H , Harris, M
- Date: 1999
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010751
- Description: Since the first free elections were held in April 1994, South Africans are popularly known as the ''rainbow people''. The paper inquires whether South Africans who experienced pride in their nation in the first years of democracy also perceived a greater sense of subjective well-being. It is proposed that national pride in post-apartheid South Africa might be fused with or work through self-esteem to lift levels of happiness. The paper traces the history of the new integrating civil religion of the rainbow people and the acceptance of the rainbow as a political symbol of unity among the diverse people of South Africa immediately after the 1994 elections and two years later. The proposed link between national pride and happiness was explored with data from two independent national surveys, the 1995 South African World Values Survey conducted by Markinor and a June 1996 MarkData syndicated omnibus survey. The study found that the appeal of the rainbow as political symbol was inclusive of all groups in society and that feelings of national pride and support for the rainbow ideal were positively associated with subjective well-being. As indicated by intensity and frequency measures, the majority of South Africans were proud of their country and could name a national achievement that inspired pride. Better-off South Africans tended to be happier and more satisfied with life but less proud, while the poor were less happy but fiercely proud of their country. Results suggest that belief in South Africa’s ''rainbow nation'' ideal may have assisted in boosting happiness during the transition to a stable democracy, thereby preventing alienation among the losers under the new political dispensation. Supporters of the ideal of the rainbow nation were more optimistic than others about the future of their country.
- Full Text:
Southern African Journal of Gerontology, volume 8, number 1, April 1999
- Ferreira, Monica (editor), Moller, Valerie, HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Authors: Ferreira, Monica (editor) , Moller, Valerie , HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Gerontology -- South Africa , Older people -- Care -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:8078 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012912
- Description: [From Editorial] Several contemporary building blocks of African gerontology are used in the papers in this number of SAJG. First, Madzingira draws on 1990s' demographic data sources to examine selected levels, patterns and trends of population ageing in Zimbabwe. She briefly outlines implications of population ageing for socio-economic development in the country, and highlights critical areas such as the future of the family as a safety net for elders, inadequate social-security measures, health care provision, trends in consumption of goods and services, and the ageing population structure in the rural areas. Although based on a descriptive modernization theory model, the paper reflects the continued usefulness of the theory in highlighting the effects of structural lag, but avoids a reliance on stereotypes. Staying in Zimbabwe, Mupedziswa takes up feminist issues and critiques the plight of older female informal-sector traders and their gender-based cumulative disadvantage. The author pertinently and sympathetically examines the women's diminished access to power across the lifespan and their dilemma as they become increasingly frail. Refreshingly, he approaches his investigation from a political economy perspective, and considers the interdependence of this gender-differentiated age cohort and the social structure. Moving to Ghana, Adeku in his paper examines socio-demographic factors in the marital status of older persons. His findings highlight the greater proportion of widows in the older population, which gender differential he explains is a function of both a high mortality rate in older men and remarriage. He also specifically examines gender-based inheritance and other wealth transfer patterns - and hence uses both social exchange theory and political economy theory concepts for explanation, as well as draws on feminist theories to analyse the situations of the older women. Staying in Ghana, Darkwa gives his views on the health-care needs and challenges of older Ghanaians who reside in rural areas. Again, the author addresses a political economy issue, and makes suggestions on how the government could bridge the urban-rural health gap and improve both preventive and curative health-care service delivery to the vast majority of the older Ghanaian population which lives in the rural areas. He also introduces an intriguing notion of the role that communication technology can play in the future provision of health care to Africa's elderly. Finally, revisiting demographic and health transitions in Africa, their implications and related issues, Adamchak reviews the World Health Organization's 1997 report on Ageing in Africa, authored by Nana Araba Apt in Ghana. Adamchak evaluates this "overview" report and its relevance, and examines some of the historical and contemporary African gerontology building blocks with which the report is constructed.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ferreira, Monica (editor) , Moller, Valerie , HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Gerontology -- South Africa , Older people -- Care -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:8078 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012912
- Description: [From Editorial] Several contemporary building blocks of African gerontology are used in the papers in this number of SAJG. First, Madzingira draws on 1990s' demographic data sources to examine selected levels, patterns and trends of population ageing in Zimbabwe. She briefly outlines implications of population ageing for socio-economic development in the country, and highlights critical areas such as the future of the family as a safety net for elders, inadequate social-security measures, health care provision, trends in consumption of goods and services, and the ageing population structure in the rural areas. Although based on a descriptive modernization theory model, the paper reflects the continued usefulness of the theory in highlighting the effects of structural lag, but avoids a reliance on stereotypes. Staying in Zimbabwe, Mupedziswa takes up feminist issues and critiques the plight of older female informal-sector traders and their gender-based cumulative disadvantage. The author pertinently and sympathetically examines the women's diminished access to power across the lifespan and their dilemma as they become increasingly frail. Refreshingly, he approaches his investigation from a political economy perspective, and considers the interdependence of this gender-differentiated age cohort and the social structure. Moving to Ghana, Adeku in his paper examines socio-demographic factors in the marital status of older persons. His findings highlight the greater proportion of widows in the older population, which gender differential he explains is a function of both a high mortality rate in older men and remarriage. He also specifically examines gender-based inheritance and other wealth transfer patterns - and hence uses both social exchange theory and political economy theory concepts for explanation, as well as draws on feminist theories to analyse the situations of the older women. Staying in Ghana, Darkwa gives his views on the health-care needs and challenges of older Ghanaians who reside in rural areas. Again, the author addresses a political economy issue, and makes suggestions on how the government could bridge the urban-rural health gap and improve both preventive and curative health-care service delivery to the vast majority of the older Ghanaian population which lives in the rural areas. He also introduces an intriguing notion of the role that communication technology can play in the future provision of health care to Africa's elderly. Finally, revisiting demographic and health transitions in Africa, their implications and related issues, Adamchak reviews the World Health Organization's 1997 report on Ageing in Africa, authored by Nana Araba Apt in Ghana. Adamchak evaluates this "overview" report and its relevance, and examines some of the historical and contemporary African gerontology building blocks with which the report is constructed.
- Full Text:
Southern African Journal of Gerontology, volume 8, number 2, October 1999
- Ferreira, Monica (editor), Moller, Valerie, HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Authors: Ferreira, Monica (editor) , Moller, Valerie , HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Gerontology -- South Africa , Older people -- Care -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:8079 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012913
- Description: [From Editorial] The papers included in this special issue highlight some of the issues of elderliness and old age in Africa outlined above. Using different disciplinary approaches, the papers should appeal to age-old researchers in varied fields. In a discussion of old age and ageing in pre-industrial Africa, Sagner moves away from the rather simplistic images of old age which still beset many African gerontologists. Drawing on the Xhosa-speaking peoples in the 19th century he argues that the experience of later life was shaped by gender, kinship and "class" differences as well as by biographical factors, making for a variety of later-life experiences. He points out that old age was not a clear-cut period of life with unique demographic, economic or social characteristics/ conditions, set apart from earlier life phases. However, he notes that (deep) old age was firmly tied to religious and metaphysical beliefs. He argues that loss of bodily functions in (deep) old age was hardly stigmatizing as the loss was socially constructed as a sign of increasing other-worldliness. By linking old age with superhuman agency, the ideological hegemony of old age remained unbroken, despite bodily decline, even though the latter could herald loss of this-worldly status and, finally, abandonment in the bush. Moller and Sotshangaye discuss contemporary relations between Zulu grandmothers and grandchildren in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. Though the grandmothers whom the two authors interviewed expressed deep concern about losing the respect of their grandchildren, in the eyes of the latter old age is, surprisingly, not denigrated as a possible source of moral guidance. Moller and Sotshangaye point out that strains in the grandmothers-grandchildren relationship are located in the rapidly changing social context which easily tends to outdate the elders' teaching, rather than in the intergenerational politics of the family per se. Paradoxically, however, macro-social changes have also led to a re-strengthening of the grandmothers' moral authority. The paper also shows that successful ageing- in the sense of one's personal happiness in old age - is, at least partly, relational defined. , Moving northwards up the subcontinent to Mozambique, da Silva records the results of a case study on the situation of older people who had to cope with several long-standing wars and natural disasters in their lifetimes. She analyses the repercussions which endured displacements, forced migrations and other war-related life-course experiences had on the lives of today's elderly, both at the personal and social level. In detailing social policy propositions she reminds us that there is a fundamental divergence between how older people are represented in some authoritative discourses and the social reality of old age. To overcome the prevailing negative representations of old age is of utmost practical importance, as the problematicity image encourages non-participatory government approaches and hinders thus the empowerment of the elderly. Turning to a methodological plane, Mommersteeg details some of the problems - and advantages - which the use of interpreters in qualitative research settings entail. In keeping with a hermeneutic approach, he shows that the interpreter is in fact a culture broker, rather than a mere provider of a linguistically correct translation. Mommersteeg's paper illustrates very well that interviews which are mediated through interpreters are not dialogically but triologically constituted, as are their "products" - the storied voices of the interviewees. In her article, Coetzee reports on exploratory field research in an old-age centre outside Bloemfontein in South Africa's Free State province. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews she finds that elderly residents experience old age negatively. Though this subjective reality partly reflects the residents' difficulties in adjusting to their ageing bodies, it is mainly grounded in her subjects' difficulties to construct a framework within which their present position in the world could be instilled with personal/social meaning. Coetzee' s paper stresses both the relevance of a life course perspective and a gender-sensitive approach to the study of old-age experience.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ferreira, Monica (editor) , Moller, Valerie , HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Gerontology -- South Africa , Older people -- Care -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:8079 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012913
- Description: [From Editorial] The papers included in this special issue highlight some of the issues of elderliness and old age in Africa outlined above. Using different disciplinary approaches, the papers should appeal to age-old researchers in varied fields. In a discussion of old age and ageing in pre-industrial Africa, Sagner moves away from the rather simplistic images of old age which still beset many African gerontologists. Drawing on the Xhosa-speaking peoples in the 19th century he argues that the experience of later life was shaped by gender, kinship and "class" differences as well as by biographical factors, making for a variety of later-life experiences. He points out that old age was not a clear-cut period of life with unique demographic, economic or social characteristics/ conditions, set apart from earlier life phases. However, he notes that (deep) old age was firmly tied to religious and metaphysical beliefs. He argues that loss of bodily functions in (deep) old age was hardly stigmatizing as the loss was socially constructed as a sign of increasing other-worldliness. By linking old age with superhuman agency, the ideological hegemony of old age remained unbroken, despite bodily decline, even though the latter could herald loss of this-worldly status and, finally, abandonment in the bush. Moller and Sotshangaye discuss contemporary relations between Zulu grandmothers and grandchildren in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. Though the grandmothers whom the two authors interviewed expressed deep concern about losing the respect of their grandchildren, in the eyes of the latter old age is, surprisingly, not denigrated as a possible source of moral guidance. Moller and Sotshangaye point out that strains in the grandmothers-grandchildren relationship are located in the rapidly changing social context which easily tends to outdate the elders' teaching, rather than in the intergenerational politics of the family per se. Paradoxically, however, macro-social changes have also led to a re-strengthening of the grandmothers' moral authority. The paper also shows that successful ageing- in the sense of one's personal happiness in old age - is, at least partly, relational defined. , Moving northwards up the subcontinent to Mozambique, da Silva records the results of a case study on the situation of older people who had to cope with several long-standing wars and natural disasters in their lifetimes. She analyses the repercussions which endured displacements, forced migrations and other war-related life-course experiences had on the lives of today's elderly, both at the personal and social level. In detailing social policy propositions she reminds us that there is a fundamental divergence between how older people are represented in some authoritative discourses and the social reality of old age. To overcome the prevailing negative representations of old age is of utmost practical importance, as the problematicity image encourages non-participatory government approaches and hinders thus the empowerment of the elderly. Turning to a methodological plane, Mommersteeg details some of the problems - and advantages - which the use of interpreters in qualitative research settings entail. In keeping with a hermeneutic approach, he shows that the interpreter is in fact a culture broker, rather than a mere provider of a linguistically correct translation. Mommersteeg's paper illustrates very well that interviews which are mediated through interpreters are not dialogically but triologically constituted, as are their "products" - the storied voices of the interviewees. In her article, Coetzee reports on exploratory field research in an old-age centre outside Bloemfontein in South Africa's Free State province. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews she finds that elderly residents experience old age negatively. Though this subjective reality partly reflects the residents' difficulties in adjusting to their ageing bodies, it is mainly grounded in her subjects' difficulties to construct a framework within which their present position in the world could be instilled with personal/social meaning. Coetzee' s paper stresses both the relevance of a life course perspective and a gender-sensitive approach to the study of old-age experience.
- Full Text:
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