Family biography, fertility and memory-making in an AIDS-affected South African site

Abstract

The critical challenges of AIDS and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa impact the ways in which memories are articulated and family and fertility histories ultimately constructed. This article considers three life histories written in the course of ethnographic work on women's childbearing conducted intermittently between 1998 and 2014, and typical of other histories in the same peri-urban locale. Personal accounts of a mother and her two daughters initially centre on domestic strife and adversity – and the family as a whole is represented as struggling and disunited. In the aftermath of the death of one of the daughters from AIDS in 2001, the memories and discourse are subtly reworked by the two women in ways that are meant to counteract stigma, reclaim dignity and defend the family. The paper focuses on reproductive dynamics and memory-making in a hardship-driven and AIDS-affected setting and on the ethnographer's endeavours in witnessing, interviewing and making sense of people's ‘intent’ and ‘the urge to forget, to go on living’.

Keywords::

• family biography
• life history
• memory
• traumatic experiences
• AIDS
• fertility in South Africa

Notes

^1. All names referred to are pseudonyms used to shield the identities of women and men who prefer to remain anonymous.

^2. Bridewealth refers to the money and goods (and cattle on occasion) that grooms pay to families of brides to secure a customary marital union. If this is not paid, the union is usually regarded as ‘informal’.

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa.