Browsing by Author "Saffer, Margot"

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    Gogo the sangoma : an initiation into biography writing
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2010-12) Saffer, Margot; Van Niekerk, Marlene; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is a study in the field of life writing. It is a biography. It also tracks the relationship between Gogo, an elderly Christian Xhosa sangoma (sacred specialist / ‘traditional healer’), and her would-be biographer. Both are women, both are South African, but like many South Africans, their race, religion, age, level of education, and class has separated them. This thesis tells of how the project of the one to tell the story of the other brought the two women together, but also highlighted their differences. As a black person, Gogo was disadvantaged during apartheid South Africa, working in domestic labour, one of the few careers available to her. As a woman in the milieu of African Traditional Religion, she was downtrodden by the patriarchal society in general - and her father and husband in particular. This situation was overlaid by the repression of both the Christian missionaries who, upon settling the land, dominated its peoples and their faith; and further, the Afrikaner Nationalist government’s theological justification of apartheid laws. It is through religion that Gogo was oppressed, but it is also through religion that she gained her power. It was one of her employers, whom Gogo describes ‘like a sister’, who encouraged Gogo to follow her calling into traditional healing, which she had avoided most of her life. Gogo returned to the tradition that oppressed her, but this time as mouthpiece of the Ancestors. The thesis draws on the ‘Tribal Politics’ theories of postmodern sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman. He proposes that within today's ‘imagined tribal communities’, we appeal to ‘experts’ to approve our ‘self-constitution’ – we construct our own identities from available models of identity. She has become an expert within her own community. Her ‘sacredness’ lends her status in an environment where New Age spirituality is a growing ‘imagined tribal community’ from within which indigenous cultures are being respected and resanctified by the descendants of colonialists, Christian Missionaries, and apartheid supporters. To tell her story, the author conducted over twenty interviews with Gogo, over two years. She travelled to Gogo’s hometown of Zastron in the Free State Province. This dissertation is Gogo’s biography. It tells of her hometown, her family of origin, her working life, her relationships and her children. As a psychology student, the author was interested in an indigenous tradition of physical, social, spiritual, and psychological healing. From a feminist psychological standpoint, she felt Gogo’s story of overcoming oppression should be given a voice. The author discusses theories of life writing, most specifically Paul J. Eakin’s theory of relational biography. He states that one’s life story is simultaneously the story of all the people in one’s life. This is not dissimilar to the South African notion of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (we are people because of other people). Beyond this, though, as proposed in feminist psychology, and the theory of observer effect - the life story is also affected by the person listening to and recording it. Despite the literature, the author learned that the process of recording a life is more difficult than she anticipated. She dealt with other players in her subject’s life. She had to discern fact from fantasy. She had to trust and be trusted. This dissertation tells of the relationship between the author and Gogo, the biographer and her subject. This is a discussion of attempting to build and maintain a relationship of equality. More than Gogo’s narrative, it is the author’s initiation into the process of life writing, with its assumptions, intentions, problems, theories, interpretations, setbacks and ultimate conclusion.