Connected Lives: Families, Households and Care in South Africa edited by Professors Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Lenore Manderson is finally here. This means that I am officially a published Anthropologist – let me go update my CV! It seems like a lifetime ago when I was navigating the public health section of my university’s medical campus in search of the venue that they had organised for the Families, Households and Care Workshop. I just remember feeling really intimidated about being one of the youngest (and least credentialed) people in the room so I mostly kept quiet and kept to myself while trying to learn as much as I can. My favourite part about being involved in workshops and conferences is seeing how people working in similar areas of research can be gathered together to think together about what a collective contribution to knowledge production can look like and then being part of that process over time; editing and communicating for years until everything is has been checked off the list and all that’s left is to receive the copies from the publisher. Here is more information about the book:
Connected lives: Families, households, health and care in contemporary South Africa, illustrates the changing constitution and the variability of households, fluid understandings of family, and the impact of these in the context of life changes and health problems. Through 29 case studies of people of diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, class, sex and gender, of varying ages and from both urban and rural backgrounds, the authors explore the household as a site for the production of health and care. The book illustrates the impact of economic, demographic and social changes on households and families, and considers how these factors influence everyday life, health, wellbeing and care in contemporary South Africa. This book will interest those in global public health, anthropology, and population and demography studies.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to cancel the physical book launch and find a way to create a virtual one instead. So, here is the book launch, a series of 1 minute long videos from each author. My case study was drawn from my Master’s research on compensated (“blesser and blessee”) relationships. My summary is below:
You’ll notice that the Youtube page that the videos are hosted on reads Medical Health Humanities Africa. It is an African network of medical and health humanities academics, artists, healers and activists that Professor Mkhwanazi has been involved in creating – if that sounds like you, you can check out the website and join. And, you can purchase Connected Lives: Families, Households and Care in South Africa here.
Thank you, Nolwazi and Lenore, for believing in my work and helping me to shape my contribution into something worth publishing!
Lebohang Masango 