Practising de-assemblage : upcoming black artists on the South African scene 2008-2014

Abstract

Reading Bhantu Steven Biko s I write what I like (1978) for the first time as an undergraduate student was challenging. I write what I like, a selection of Biko s writings published between the years 1969 and 1973, contains, amongst others, the articles Black Souls in White Skins? (1970a), We Blacks (1970b), Fragmentation of the Black Resistance (1971a), The Definition of Black Consciousness (1971b) and Black Consciousness and the Quest for True Humanity (1973). Such articles express the core of Biko s call for black consciousness. Biko wrote on Blackness post-1960, in the period marked by the banning of black political parties and the imprisonment of their leaders on Robben Island. This was a time, according to Biko (1971a:63), when no one could speak for black opinion in South Africa. Biko saw the imprisoned political leaders as having managed to assemble the black population of South Africa as a unit. His call was a call to those discriminated against and oppressed by the apartheid system to maintain this assemblage (Biko 1970a, 1970b, 1971a, 1971b, 1973) and resist all attempts at fragmenting their resistance, namely: fighting separately for certain freedoms and gains (Biko 1971a:42). What was certain to me in my first reading of Biko, as it still is in a re-reading of his work, is that South Africa is a geographical space Biko and I share, but that the dynamics of the times at which we inhabit(ed) it seem different. Biko speaks to a world of unions: African Student Association (ASA); African Students Union of South Africa (ASUSA); African National congress (ANC); Pan African Congress (PAC); University Christian Movement (UCM); National Union of South African Students (NUSAS); University of Natal Black (UNB); South African Student Organisation (SASO) and University Bantu Council (UBO) . The impact of some of these unions have spanned decades; others have disintegrated. as a social phenomenon. · To determine caregivers views on contributing factors of malnutrition among children who are benefiting from the Child Support Grant. · To explore the challenges experienced by caregivers who receive the Child Support Grant. · To make recommendations for combating malnutrition among children under the age of five who are beneficiaries of the Child Support Grant. Ten caregivers whose children were diagnosed with malnutrition while benefiting from the Child Support Grant and were given treatment at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic hospital in 2015, were purposively selected to form the sample of the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from the participants. The main conclusions drawn from the research findings were that caregivers experienced economic challenges mainly due to unemployment and lack of reliable sources of income. These identified challenges were the main contributing factors of malnutrition among children who are under the age of five benefiting from the Child Support Grant. The study was also concluded with some useful and relevant recommendations from the caregivers responses on how to mitigate malnutrition among children who are under the age of five benefiting from the Child Support Grant. One of the crucial recommendations drawn from the findings of this research study was that more information sessions to caregivers regarding malnutrition should be conducted regularly at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic hospital.