Fuentes de datos, método de estimación y calidad de los datos

services.

3.1. Social work services in the hospital and community.

3.2. Findings related to how the clan experienced social work services in the hospital and the community.

3.3. The African clans’ suggestions regarding how they would like to be assisted by social workers in a culturally congruent manner when raising their children with DS.

4. The social workers’ opinions regarding the level of congruence between the social work services rendered to African clans raising children with DS and the needs of these clans, as well as their suggestions for the improvement of social work services to these clans.

4.1. Social workers’ experiences of working with African clans with regard to services and reception of such services.

4.2. How social workers manage the lack of fit between social work practice and the contextual realities of the African clans.

4.3. Social workers’ suggestions for improvement of social work services rendered to African clans raising children with DS

Theme 1: The nature of the African clan raising children with DS

The nature of the African clan raising children with DS as a major theme consists of two sub-themes that were explored. These sub-themes were as follows:

The first sub-theme related to the identity and included clan names, clan praises and totems. The second sub-theme related to clan structure, functioning, culture and tradition. The sub-themes have proven to exert considerable influence on how the clan dealt with the experience of raising a child with DS such that without a proper understanding of their influence, one would have not fully understood the clan’s dealings with DS.

Sub-theme 1.1 Identity of the African clan raising children with DS

Through the use of the ecosystems lens, the researcher viewed the African clan raising a child with DS as a system made up of various interrelated and interdependent sub- systems as indicated by Ambrosino et al. (2012:50). The clan system is in itself viewed as a sub-system of a broader social system forming part of a bigger cosmic system found in a space made up of various natural, spiritual, social, political and economic systems. All these sub-systems are connected and related according to the African worldview (Ani, 1994:24). For example, the participants interviewed as members of African clans conveyed information that seemed to suggest that their clan identities, including clan kinships and totems, were following a patrilineal kinship system. They all explained their clan names and membership to the clan through a paternal line. None of the participants traced their clan or kinship identity through the maternal line, unless in exceptional cases such as when the parents were not married. This is consistent with Meiser et al. (2008:439) and Penn et al. (2010:12)’s assertion that African families follow a patrilineal kinship system. However, it was found not to be entirely true but partially correct. Relating to the research data, the existence of patrilineal kinship lineage amongst African clans raising children with DS was reflected by the participants’ consistent reference to the paternal side of the clan as defining clan identity. For instance, the data confirmed that married couples would always derive their clan identity from the husband’s paternal clan side if the husband’s mother was

married and, if the husband’s mother was never married, the husband will then adopt the maternal grandfather’s surname. Conversely, a single-parent household would derive its identity from the woman’s paternal clan side and, if the woman’s parents were never married, she would derive her household identity from her mother’s paternal side of the clan (use maternal grandfather’s surname). One unmarried mother had this to say about what she considered household and clan identity:

“sefane se rekwa ka dikgomo….nna ke mokgakga le banaka ke bakgakga….ntle le

ge ditswile shakeng.” (a surname or family identity is bought with cattle…I remain ‘mokgakga’ (clan name)…until such time that I am married (bride price paid usually using cattle).

However, contrary to the assertion made by Meiser et al. (2008:439) that, African clan follows a patrilineal kinship, the findings of this study reveal evidence of both patrilineal and matrilineal kinship amongst Africans. Although clan identity is derived from the paternal side, the maternal side of the clan seems to exert an equally important influence in what seemed to be complementarity rather than binary oppositions. It appears that kinship arrangements within the traditional African clan system cannot be fully understood without the maternal side. The maternal side is still viewed as part of the clan system. Therefore, the two are seen as mutually inclusive to the effect that you cannot fully comprehend one without the other. One of the participants had this to say about the nature of kinship networks in her clan:

“Although our identity comes from our fathers’ side of the clan, our clan comprises both our fathers’ and mothers’ clans…”

The researcher deduced that within the traditional African family context, patrilinealogy and matrilinealogy are like two sides of the same coin. Using the ecosystems theory, one could view them as sub-systems within a unified and integrated clan system. The participants reported that their maternal side of the family forms part of what they considered their clan and emphasized that marriage is viewed as an extension of a clan where the bride’s clan joins in with the groom’s clan to become one big clan system. As eloquently put by one of the participants from the clan interviews:

“… in our culture marriage is an extension of a clan through a merger with another clan to become one big clan system. Without marriage, even if people live together and have children they are not considered part of one clan system and their different clans are not joined to form one clan, but once lobola is paid, the two clans become one and we cannot consider one side without the other... the children will have brothers and sisters from both sides of the father and mother. When ceremonies and rituals are conducted, both sides of the clans must be represented”

The data shows that siblings linked to one mother together with their offspring form a critical subsystem within the broader clan system and relations. In the Shangaan ethnic group, there is distinction between different sibling sub-systems as comprising ‘xinwana tatana’ (siblings traced from paternal side) and ‘xinwana manana’ (siblings traced from the maternal side). This means that children of a father and his male siblings become siblings (brothers and sisters) and similarly children of female siblings become siblings (brothers and sisters). This has been confirmed by literature on traditional African family systems reaffirming that in some African tribes traditional leadership and spiritual inheritance follow a matrilineal lineage (Nyathi, 2005:26). This means that siblings who trace their sibling relationship through their being born to mothers who are siblings are viewed as heirs to the throne as they share royal blood and can succeed or inherit traditional leadership.

A further example of matrilineal influence on kinship revealed through this study is the practice of witchcraft and traditional healing, which is believed to be transmitted and inherited through the maternal line. Its inheritance is said to be linked to breastfeeding such that children sharing the same breast are all guaranteed such inheritance from one generation of siblings down to grandchildren along a maternal line. Consequently, when an allegation of witchcraft is made against one member of the clan, all siblings and progeny from a maternal line are implicated, the participants revealed. One member of the clan had this to say about inheritance:

“kuna vuxaka bya xinwana manana ni vuxaka bya xinwana tatana… iswa ndyangu wunwe kambe swihambanile. Vamakwavo va xinwana tatana iva makwavo kambe avaloyi swinwe… vamakwavo wa xinwanamanana vamame rinwe, valoya swinwe. Aswendli unwani ava noyi unwana avahava vuloyi hikuva vamame vele rinwe, xiritano

xintu xa hina” (There is both matrilineal and patrilineal kinship relations… in one clan,

but they differ. Paternal siblings are siblings, but they cannot share witchcraft traits... but maternal siblings fed and shared one breast, share witchcraft traits. It is impossible for one to be a witch while the other is not because they were fed these traits through the breast. That’s what our customs says).

The participants reported that the nature of clan relations along the maternal line carries the same weight and meaning as those existing amongst siblings related along paternal lines. At times the maternal line is much stronger than the paternal one. For example, the participants had these to say:

“… the children of my husband’s brothers are my children’s siblings…but my sister’s children are also my children’s siblings.. they are all brothers and sisters and part of the clan…”

“I live with my sister and her children… we are all part of the clan.”

“Mpho (child with DS, pseudo name used to protect child’s identity) is not my biological child, but my sister’s… she is my child, she lives with me and my other children, we are part of one clan.”

“Although our family extends from the father to the mother’s side, it is easier to live with my sister and her children than my husband’s brothers and their children…the bond is stronger on the maternal than the paternal side.”

Although some clans did not mention the relationship between the paternal and maternal side of the kinship as forming part of their kinship system during the course of the interview, their biographical details attested to it. In one household they had clan members related and linked to the clan through the paternal line and others linked to the clan through a maternal lineage. All these people were regarded as part of a clan. This then reflects a lived reality or their existential condition, according to Sithole (2016b:182) where he says that the existential conditions of Africans should be engaged from the ‘ontological zero point’—which means that they should be understood from their lived experiences and their form of living that is reduced to non-

existence (lack of ontological density), but possessing the ability to emerge. For instance, in theory, there is no matrilineal kinship amongst Africans as it is in western families, but a closer analysis of the existential conditions or lived experiences of African clans raising children with DS reveals otherwise: indeed the matrilineal kinship does exist and exert strong influence within the African clan context. Essentially, the above finding on the co-existence of patrilineal and matrilineal kinship reaffirms the collectivist and integrated cosmos within the African worldview and philosophy where everything is connected and interlinked, but such reality is denied by mainstream scholarship. At the same time it represents one of the inherent strengths in the African clan system as explained by Cummins et al. (2006:42) and Zastrow (2004:60).

A similar argument is made within the Afrocentric circles about the connection and complementarity between the sexes or genders. A male is not seen in isolation to a woman, but connected and thus making it impossible for one to have more power and oppress the other (Ani, 1994:95). Actually, Ani (1994:95) argues that men, no matter how much power they might have, may never live and sustain themselves entirely without women, and women too cannot be without men. The findings are in keeping with the seminal theorization of the African cultural thought and worldview by Ani (1994:95) when she proclaimed that contrary to the dichotomous and splitting European view, the African worldview with its cosmic view of reality is unifying and integrative, seeing everything as connected. She further explains this in terms of a universal principle of complementarity or twinness which creates wholeness and establishes equilibrium, cooperation, balance and harmony as illuminated by the ecosystems theory. This is indeed an opportunity and strength inherent in the African philosophy and worldview which may otherwise be viewed as a challenge in a Eurocentric context (Meiser et al., 2008:441).

It is therefore understandable that Eurocentric scholars such as Meiser et al. (2008:441) view certain elements of the African clan system in isolation and opposition to other elements of the system. This is indeed consistent with the splitting view of the European cultural thought and behavior, but alien to the unifying African cultural essence and worldview. The social constructionism as a theory that views knowledge as being constructed rather than discovered provides a useful tool of analysis in trying to understand how the African worldview and its underlying philosophy as socially

constructed. Thus, the African worldview as a social construct is also constantly and continuously subjected to various forces that influence and shape it in some ways. The various forces that influence it are illuminated through the ecosystems theory.

Similar to western societies, marriage as a socially constructed institution is an important marker and initiator of the institution of family and its expansion (Russell, 2003b:12; Siqwana-Ndulo, 1998:408). The data show that without marriage, the identity of an unmarried young woman with children and by implication that of her children would not change in the context of traditional African families. Below are some of the responses attesting to this:

“…in our culture marriage is an extension of a clan through a fusion with another clan to become one big clan. Without marriage, even if people live together and have children they are not considered a clan and their clans are not joined to form one clan, but once lobola is paid, the two clans become one and we cannot consider one side without the other.”

“Without lobola… the biological father cannot be recognized… the ancestors of both families are not united and therefore the father or his family, have no say in the affairs of the child or the child’s mother...”

“I am not married… I use my father’s surname and my children too use my father’s surname. The children are part of my family and they belong to my parents and the elders.”

The findings show that this practice is not limited to clan identity or clan, but includes unification of ancestors and spirituality between the clans. It also goes a long way as a significant condition for any kind of interaction and relationship, including the allocation of power and authority over the affairs of the individuals concerned in the African clan context. For instance, when a child is born with DS to an unmarried mother, her own clan reserves authority and control over what is done with the child’s condition without any regard for the biological father and his clan. This extends to naming practices of the clan, traditional practices, cultural and spiritual rituals, and any other action that may be required in relation to the child’s medical condition. All these remain an

exclusive domain of the maternal clan’s control through her father as head because the clans are not yet connected spiritually through a marriage ritual that brings the two clans together as seen with the verbatim accounts cited above.

The participants went on to stress the importance of knowing and understanding one’s own clan, its totem and being able to recite praises of one’s own clan. A common feature amongst the tribes and ethnicities in this study is the fact that their totems are animals. The participants appear to hold the clan name, its totem and clan praises in high regard. This is confirmed by at least sixty eight (68) of the seventy one (71) clans from the focus group and clan interviewees who highlighted the importance of knowing one’s own clan name and totem as well as the ability to recite praises of one’s clan. As eloquently put by one participant:

“Go bohlokwa gore re tsebe le go kwishisha gore rena Bahwaduba re dikgomo…ka maoto eya raga ka dinaka eya hlaba” (it is crucial that we know and understand who we are as a clan. Our clan name is ‘Bahwaduba’ and our totem is cattle, it butts or gores with its horns, and kicks with its legs)

The above member of a clan highlighted the significance of the symbolism embedded in their clan totem. They reported that its significance is in the enactment of the characteristics and deeds associated with cattle in the African context, which includes its high value in society, its usefulness in feeding and serving as an instrument of production of valuable products for the family including ploughing in the traditional African agrarian society. Thus, they emphasised that the ‘Bahwaduba’ or ‘Kgomo’ (the cattles) as they are commonly known are expected to resemble the same characteristics in their behavior patterns and conduct.

An unmarried, but cohabiting Motswana woman with a partner and children gave her paternal family’s clan name when describing her family identity as follows:

‘Ka moano re bokgabo- bo Kgabo Mokgatla e ja borekhu’ (we are monkeys feeding on tree gum).

The unmarried, but cohabiting Motswana lady knew the clan name and totem, but she could not recite praises of the clan. However, she knew that this was all important for her to know her family identity.

Another Shangaan family known as Mahlabane is part of the Mangwane clan. The Mangwanes originate from Swaziland also known as ‘KaNgwane’. This particular Shangaan family knew clearly what its clan name means including its praises and totems. The family reported that its totem ‘Mangwa’ refers to a Zebra. This translates into Ngwane in Swati, hence formerly known as ‘KaNgwane’. The clan includes surnames such as Mkhwanazi, Hlomela, Tshabangu and they always conclude their clan praises as follows:

“…Ngwane ya malandzela, Mswati, Ngwane le nhle” (a Zebra, a descendent of

Malandzela which is their great ancestor from whom they descended, a Swati, a beautiful zebra).

When asked to explain further, the father in the family who is considered head of the household said that a Zebra is clever, clean and beautiful, so are the Mangwanes as per their clan praises. The expectation is that the Mangwanes as Zebras should follow what the zebras are doing.  An interesting observation in this regard was the fact that males, particularly older men in the clan were more knowledgeable about the clan identity than their female counterparts. They were able to name the clan and totems as well as recite the praises. However, females were particularly good at reciting their own maiden family’s clan praises.

Another Shangaan family interviewed was the Makhubele family and their clan name is ‘vaGwena’ (plural) and ‘mGwena’ (singular) from ‘Ngwenya’ which is a crocodile. Their totem is a crocodile. Like crocodiles, the family sees itself as strong and dangerous. The family members regard themselves as fighters. They reported:

“We Makhubeles are crocodiles…the greatest, most brave, dangerous and most feared creatures under the water…we are not cowards… we are not fearful.” (then the aunt recited the clan praises…).

Again, only the elder male of the family was able to give most of the information whilst the women and children seemed to be less informed. Except for the aunt who was able to recite the clan praises. On follow-up the family emphasized that the clan name and