Exploring the sense of belonging of Setswana–speaking older women in Ikageng who were forcibly relocated during apartheid

[摘要] The social displacement enforced by the South African Group Areas Act between1954 and 1955 was understandably experienced as a destructive process with physical andemotional consequences arising from various types of losses, separation and feelings ofhelplessness. Although the forced removals affected all the people in the community - also inlater years and generations, it seems as if older people are affected the more as they stillremember the losses they experienced when they were removed from their homes and theircommunities, when their heritage and their culture were displaced. The sense of belongingbeing experienced by older people, who were subjected to these forceful removals, istherefore unclear. In this study the sense of belonging is defined as the effective participation,involvement, contribution and emersion of people when relating to their social, physical,spiritual, emotional and cultural places. In this study older (aged 60 and above) Setswanaspeaking residents of Ikageng, a community just outside Potchefstroom in the North WestProvince, South Africa, who were also forcibly relocated from Kloppersville to Ikageng, 10kilometers away from Kloppersville, were asked to identify places that are important to themin Ikageng and to describe the meanings they attach to these places. In the research, no oneidentified any places of importance in Ikageng, instead throughout the research they kept onreferring to their lives in Kloppersville, their former place of residence, the place where theywere forcibly removed from �?giving purpose and direction to this study and leading to thequestion: What are the experiences related to the sense of belonging of Setswana speaking older women who were forcibly relocated during Apartheid in South Africa? The olderpersons' experiences of their sense of belonging in the place where they were forciblyrelocated to must be understood in relation to the past.A qualitative research approach was used and a narrative research design followed.Two sets of data were gathered and are reported on in this article that focuses on thenarrations of 11 older Tswana people from the Day Care Centre for the Aged in Ikageng.Narrative data collection and analysis, as well as a variety of qualitative research methodsand media, were used to collect data. These include: focus group discussions, the Mmogo–MethodTM, videos, audio, photographs and observational notes. The thematic analysis oftextual data, narrative–oriented inquiry as well as visual data, established trustworthiness ofthis research through crystallization.By drawing on the deeper symbolic meaning derived through the use of the MmogomethodTM,the study has revealed that the sense of belonging is a relational phenomenon thatcannot be understood in absence of the different relational environments. In an Africanculture the relationship with the current environment resonates with the effects that historicalprocesses, structural abuses, discrimination, racism and devaluation had on individuals whoselives have been uprooted. This study has shown that the older women have a micro–organicrelational sense of belonging to the place of relocation and not to the whole context and otherrelational environments and that they revealed more sense of belonging towards the placewhere they were relocated from.

[发布机构] North-West University