The Struggle for Life in South Africa's Slums
The Struggle for Life in South Africa's Slums
This chapter describes the ethnographic setting for the book as a whole by painting a picture of everyday life in South Africa’s informal settlements. It introduces the reader to each of the primary ethnographic sites, as well as the central characters in the narrative. It also provides background on peoples’ ontological orientations and vulnerabilities. The chapter illustrates the profound health inequality that marks the landscape of post-apartheid South Africa and details how people cope with environmental suffering, the privatization of social services (including the introduction of pre-paid electricity and water meters), and chronic unemployment. More than anything, this chapter details the realities of contending with the mutual pandemics of poverty and AIDS.
Keywords: health inequality, urban informal settlements, indigenous healing, witchcraft, ontological vulnerability, pre-paid services, environmental suffering, poverty, HIV, AIDS
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
