Epistemic Responsibility and Community Engagement in Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift

Goutam Karmakar; Rajendra Chetty

doi:10.4312/elope.20.2.65-79

Authors

Goutam Karmakar Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University
Rajendra Chetty University of the Western Cape

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.20.2.65-79

Keywords:

HIV/AIDS, epistemology, responsibility, awareness, community engagement

Abstract

HIV/AIDS has pervasively affected the health and well-being of South African women, as evidenced by their exacerbating mortality rates over the decades. Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift (2008) is a critical intervention in this regard because, in focusing on the death of a young black woman owing to her infection with HIV/AIDS, it critiques the overarching and ingrained patriarchal ideologies that are hindering the treatment and prevention of this disease. The article seeks to examine Magona’s text as uncovering the lack of appropriate knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and the silencing of South African women in the articulation or dissemination of this disease-related knowledge. The article argues that Magona’s text emphasizes the delinking of taboos and highlights the necessity of the South African community’s engagement at micro and macro levels regarding HIV/AIDS. This engagement reflects an epistemic responsibility that is crucial to reducing the dreadful impact of this illness from both cultural and structural perspectives.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Rajendra Chetty, University of the Western Cape

References

Abrahams, Naeemah, Rachel Jewkes, Lorna J. Martin, Shaanaz Mathews, C. Lombard, Lisa. Vetten, and Carl Lombard. 2009. “Mortality of Women from Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa: A National Epidemiological Study.” Journal of Violence and Victims 24 (4): 546–56. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.24.4.546.

Abrami, Philip C., Robert M. Bernard, Eugene Borokhovski, David I. Waddington, C. Anne Wade, and Tonje Persson. 2015. “Strategies for Teaching Students to Think Critically: A Meta-Analysis.” Review of Educational Research 85 (2): 275–314. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314551063.

Alonzo, Angelo A., and Nancy R. Reynolds. 1995. “Stigma, HIV and AIDS: An Exploration and Elaboration of a Stigma Trajectory.” Social Science & Medicine 41 (3): 303–15.

Bennie, Andrew, Demelza Marlin, Nick Apoifis, and Rhiannon L. White. 2021. “‘We Were Made to Feel Comfortable and… Safe’: Co-creating, Delivering, and Evaluating Coach Education and Health Promotion Workshops with Aboriginal Australian Peoples.” Annals of Leisure Research 24 (1): 168–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2019.1622430.

Berger, Barbara E., Carol Estwing Ferrans, and Felissa R. Lashley. 2001. “Measuring Stigma in People with HIV: Psychometric Assessment of the HIV Stigma Scale.” Research in Nursing & Health 24 (6): 518–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.10011.

Bhakuni, Himani. 2023. “Epistemic Repair in Global Health: A Human Rights Approach towards Epistemic Justice.” BMJ Global Health 8 (8): e013544. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-013544.

Cameron, Edwin. 2005. Witness to AIDS. Cape Town: Tafelberg.

Carel Havi, and Ian James Kidd. 2014. “Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare: A Philosophical Analysis.” Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy 17 (4): 529–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-014-9560-2.

Clyde, Jerremie V., and Glenn R. Wilkinson. 2019. “Rhetorical Replay and the Challenge of Gamic History: Silencing the Siren Song of Digital Simulation.” In Emerging Technologies in Virtual Learning Environments, edited by Kim Becnel, 170–86. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Publishers.

Comber, Barbara, and Anne Simpson, eds. 2001. Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classrooms. New York: Routledge.

Damşa, Crina I., Paul A. Kirschner, Jerry E. B. Andriessen, Gijsbert Erkens, and Patrick H. M. Sins. 2010. “Shared Epistemic Agency: An Empirical Study of an Emergent Construct.” The Journal of the Learning Sciences 19 (2): 143–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508401003708381.

El Kassar, Nadija. 2018. “What Ignorance Really Is. Examining the Foundations of Epistemology of Ignorance.” Social Epistemology 32 (5): 300–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2018.1518498.

Facione, Peter A. 1990. Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction (Research Findings and Recommendations). Newark, DE: American Philosophical Association.

Fassin, Didier, and Helen Schneider. 2003. “The Politics of AIDS in South Africa: Beyond the Controversies.” BMJ 326: 495–97. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7387.495.

Fernández-Fernández, Claudia. 2021. “Epistemic Awareness as the Main Concept.” In Awareness in Logic and Epistemology [Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science 52], 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69606-1_2.

Fricker, Miranda. 2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goldstein, Rena Beatrice. 2022. “Epistemic Disadvantage.” Philosophia 50 (4): 1861–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-021-00465-w.

Gowes, Amanda. 2022. “Rape is Endemic in South Africa. Why the ANC Government Keeps Missing the Mark.” The Conversation, 4 August, 2022. https://theconversation.com/rape-is-endemic-in-south-africa-why-the-anc-government-keeps-missing-the-mark-188235.

Hale, Dorothy J. 2007. “Fiction as Restriction: Self-Binding in New Ethical Theories of the Novel.” Narrative 15 (2): 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2007.0010.

Heggen, Kristin Margrethe, and Henrik Berg. 2021. “Epistemic Injustice in the Age of Evidence-Based Practice: The Case of Fibromyalgia.” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8: 235. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00918-3.

Hookway, Christopher. 2010. “Some Varieties of Epistemic Injustice: Reflections on Fricker.” Episteme 7 (2): 151–63. https://doi.org/10.3366/epi.2010.0005

Jewkes, Rachel, and Naeema Abrahams. 2002. ‘‘The Epidemiology of Rape and Sexual Coercion in South Africa: An Overview.’’ Social Science and Medicine 55 (7): 1231–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00242-8.

Karris Maile Y., Karine Dube, and Alison A. Moore. 2020. “What Lessons It Might Teach Us? Community Engagement in HIV Research.” Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS 15 (2):142–49. https://doi.org/10.1097/COH.0000000000000605.

Kemp, Amanda, Nozizwe Madlala, Asha Moodley, and Elaine Salo. 1995. “The Dawn of a New Day: Redefining South African Feminism.” In The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective, edited by Amrita Basu, 131–62. Boulder: Westview Press.

Kidd, Ian James, and Havi Carel. 2017. “Epistemic Injustice and Illness.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 34 (2): 172–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12172.

Kidd, Ian James, José Medina, and Gaile Pohlhaus. 2017. “Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice.” In The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, edited by Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr., 1–9. Abingdon: Routledge.

Langton, Rae. 2010. “Review: Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing by Miranda Fricker.” Hypatia 25 (2): 459–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2010.01098.x.

Lugones, María C. 2003. Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Luke, Allan. 2000. “Critical Literacy in Australia: A Matter of Context and Standpoint.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 43 (5): 448–61.

Magona, Sindiwe. 2008. Beauty’s Gift. Johannesburg: Kwela Books.

Mason, Lucia. 2010. “Beliefs about Knowledge and Revision of Knowledge: On the Importance of Epistemic Beliefs for Intentional Conceptual Change in Elementary and Middle School Students.” In Personal Epistemology in the Classroom: Theory, Research, and Practice, edited by Lisa D. Bendixen and Florian C. Feucht, 258–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Matheson, Jonathan, and Kirk Lougheed. 2022. “Puzzles Concerning Epistemic Autonomy.” In Epistemic Autonomy, edited by Jonathan Matheson and Kirk Lougheed, 1–18. New York: Routledge.

McKinnon, Rachel. 2016. “Epistemic Injustice.” Philosophy Compass 11 (8): 437–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12336.

McLaughlin, Maureen, and Glen L. DeVoogd. 2004. Critical Literacy: Enhancing Students’ Comprehension of Text. New York: Scholastic.

Medina, José. 2013. The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and the Social Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.

Morrell, Ernest. 2009. “Critical Research and the Future of Literacy Education.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 53 (2): 96–104. https://doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.53.2.1.

Morrell, Robert, Rachel Jewkes, and Graham Lindegger. 2012. “Hegemonic Masculinity/Masculinities in South Africa: Culture, Power, and Gender Politics.” Men and Masculinities 15 (1): 11–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X12438001.

Mthembu, Sethembiso-Promise. 2022. “My Body, My Womb, My Rights, My Decisions: Feminist Advocacy to Seek Justice for HIV Positive Women Who Are Victims of Forced Sterilisations in South Africa.” Agenda 36 (3): 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2022.2138768.

Mudd, Sasha. 2013. “Epistemic Autonomy: A Criterion for Virtue?” Theory and Research in Education 11 (2): 153–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878513485181.

Muukkonen, Hanni, Minna Lakkala, and Kai Hakkarainen. 2005. “Technology-Mediation and Tutoring: How Do They Shape Progressive Inquiry Discourse?” The Journal of the Learning Sciences 14 (4): 527–65. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls1404_3.

Nzioka, Charles. 2010. “The Social Meanings of Death from HIV/AIDS: An African Interpretative View.” Culture, Health, and Sexuality 2 (1): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/136910500300831.

Paavola, Sami, and Kai Hakkarainen. 2005. “The Knowledge Creation Metaphor – An Emergent Epistemological Approach to Learning.” Science & Education 14: 535–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-004-5157-0.

Palanee-Phillips, Thelsa, Helen V. Rees, Kate B. Heller, Khatija Ahmed, Joanne Batting, Ivana Beesham, et al. 2022. “High HIV Incidence among Young Women in South Africa: Data from a Large Prospective Study.” PLOS ONE 17 (6): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269317.

Pant, Ichhya, Sonal Khosla, Jasmine Tenpa Lama, Vidhya Shanker, Mohammed AlKhaldi, Aisha El-Basuoni, Beth Michel, Khalil Bitar, and Ifeanyi McWilliams Nsofor. 2022. “Decolonising Global Health Evaluation: Synthesis from a Scoping Review.” PLOS Global Public Health 2 (11): e0000306.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000306.

Puddifoot, Katherine, and Marina Trakas. 2023. “Epistemic Agency and the Generalisation of Fear.” Synthese 202 (1): 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04222-2.

Radoilska, Lubomira. 2020. “Revisiting Epistemic Injustice in the Context of Agency.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23: 703–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10138-4.

Santana, Marie-Anne, and Barbara L. Dancy. 2000. “The Stigma of Being Named ‘AIDS Carriers’ on Haitian-American Women.” Health Care for Women International 21 (3): 161–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/073993300245230.

Shober, D. 2013. Climbing Higher: The Literary Life of Sindiwe Magona. Cape Town: David Philip.

Simbayi, L., K. Zuma, A. Cloete, S. Jooste, S. Zimela, S. Blose, N. Wabiri et al. 2015. The People: Living with HIV Stigma Index: South Africa 2014: Summary Report. South Africa: Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, and the South African AIDS Council.

Soldati-Kahimbaara, Kulukazi. 2012. “Immersive and Counter-Immersive Styles of Writing AIDS in Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift and Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead: A Didactic Approach to Writing AIDS.” Kritika Kultura 18: 162–76. https://doi.org/10.13185/kk2012.01812.

Thomas, Kylie. 2014. Impossible Mourning: HIV/AIDS and Visuality after Apartheid. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press.

Townsend, Dina Lupin, and Leo Townsend. 2021. “Epistemic Injustice and Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American Human Rights System.” Social Epistemology 35 (2): 147–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2020.1839809.

UNAIDS. 2022. “Global HIV & AIDS Statistics – Fact Sheet.” UNIAIDS. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet.

UNAIDS. 2023. “FACT SHEET 2023: Global HIV Statistics.” UNIADS. https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/UNAIDS_FactSheet_en.pdf.

Ward, Cynthia V. 1995. “The Radical Feminist Defense of Individualism.” Faculty Publications 100: 871–99. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/100.

Willis, Ellen. 1984. “Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism.” Social Text (9/10): 91–118.

Woods, Tim. 2013. “South African Literature in the Time of AIDS.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 48 (2): 305–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021989412473098.

Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1991. “The Citizenship Debate: Women, Ethnic Processes and the State.” Feminist Review 39 (1): 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1991.40.