Speech and Song at the Margins of Global Health by Steven P. Black

Author:Steven P. Black [Black, Steven P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813597751
Google: lfL8ygEACAAJ
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2019-01-15T03:21:54+00:00

A Visit to Baba Shangane

It is May 2008 when I hire Amahle as a research assistant. She is unmarried, without children, and unemployed, so she has time to spare and welcomes the income. In addition, she and her sister, Zethu, have already welcomed me into their family, inviting me to their house and to their parents’ rural home several times. Amahle has a keen eye for details. She is patient in answering questions about seemingly obvious topics (obvious to her but obscure to me), and she has an ability to take a step back from her own cultural standpoint to see things from a more anthropological perspective. Over a period of a few weeks, we begin to establish a pattern: on two weekdays, I drive to Amahle and Zethu’s township home with my laptop, two pairs of headphones, and an audio cord splitter. We spend two hours transcribing and translating. Amahle does not know how to type, so we divide the transcription session in half. During the first hour, she types. This slows the transcription process down significantly but allows Amahle to work on her typing skills. This will result in her acquiring a new skill that will benefit her after I leave South Africa. During the second hour, I type. Often after the transcription session she, her niece, and her nephew (Zethu’s son) spend some time playing with the typing program, “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing,” and we end up doing various other activities—eating lunch, going shopping so Amahle can take advantage of the availability of a car, or going to one of Amahle’s friend’s homes.

In July, Amahle and Zethu’s mother falls ill. She moves from their rural area home to stay with the sisters in the township to be cared for by the family and to have easier access to medical care. One day when I arrive for our transcription session, neither Amahle’s mother nor another of Amahle’s sisters are at the house. A Christian faith healer, Baba Shangane, has asked to see her mother. Amahle asks if I can drive to Baba Shangane’s house to pick up her mother and sister. Shangane lives in an informal settlement adjacent to the township. We get in the car and drive down a township road that takes us toward Siphesihle’s house (where choir rehearsals are held). Amahle asks me to make a right turn into what looks like a dirt parking area for a small roadside pub. I carefully nudge the compact car up over the curb of the road and onto the dirt area. At this point, I notice a concrete strip that begins just behind the bar, threading its way along the edge of a precipitous hillside and around a corner. This concrete strip is not very different from a large concrete drainage ditch—perhaps it once was one. We follow the narrow road around the bend, and a different world appears. A number of cinderblock homes are perched precariously on the hill, surrounded by shacks constructed of corrugated iron or cardboard and tarps.

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