Language and Education: Photovoice Workshops and the !Xun and Khwe Bushmen

ABSTRACT

Photovoice is a participatory research tool that facilitates the hearing of marginalised communities to instigate social change. Many Bushmen are concerned about the maintenance of their language and culture, while their educational needs are not being met. As these individuals often profess to feel unheard, photovoice workshops aim to bring such voices out into the open, with the resulting visual images often providing more powerful and emotional messages than script alone. Workshops were facilitated within the !Xun and Khwe communities at Platfontein in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The aim was to elicit the views and concerns of participants regarding indigenous language and education to facilitate seminar presentations, and publications, made more powerful through the use of visual images coupled with captions written by participants. This study is an evaluation of how these workshops were received by the participants.

KEYWORDS:

• Photovoice
• participatory research
• language and education
• Bushmen
• social change
• !Xun and Khwe
• indigenous

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the workshop participants and the !Xun and Khwe people for allowing me access to their communities and facilities. I am grateful to Julia Dammann and the South African San Institute for support and logistical help, to Itunu, and also to my supportive colleagues who commented on this article. I am indebted to my Afrikaans-speaking colleagues who one again provided free translation services and my wonderful hosts in Kimberley.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The term Bushmen has been used rather than San, as it is the term of choice among most South African Bushmen with whom I work.

2 Many of the authors cited in this paper provide more theoretical and/or critical analyses of photovoice—intellectualising the process. Essentially, however, the beauty of photovoice lies in its accessibility. This paper, therefore, aims to provide a valuable analysis that is accessible to both researchers and community members, to enable communities to decide if photovoice is an appropriate tool for their needs, and if so, to facilitate self-implementation.

3 While longer photovoice workshops are desirable, day-long workshops have also been documented (see Healy and Fitzgibbon 2019).

4 Funding for the seminar and workshops was provided by the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, South Africa.

5 Dr Grant has been working with South Africa’s San communities since 2006. Since 2009, as a member of Professor Tomaselli’s Rethinking Indigeneity Project, she has periodically designed and coordinated participatory workshops with !Xun and Khwe community members (see Grant and Dicks 2014).

6 Itunu Bodunrin is a member of the Rethinking Indigeneity Project working with the !Xun and Khwe communities since 2009. At the time of the workshops he was a PhD Candidate at the University of Johannesburg. He has since been awarded his PhD.

7 Julia Dammann works for the South African San Institute—an NGO based in Kimberley.

8 Five participants had agreed to attend the workshop; however, one was called into work so could not participate.

9 Kimbeley saw protesters take to the streets over poor service delivery and municipal irregularities relating to social housing applications and electricity tariffs (L. Daniel. 2018. “Violent protests cause mayhem on the streets of Kimberley”, The South African. July 12. https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/watch-violent-protests-cause-mayhem-on-the-streets-of-kimberley-video/).

10 The 3Ws can help participants think about their photographs. They are (1) What do you see? (2) What does it mean to you? (3) What can we do about it (de Lange and Mitchell 2017)?

11 The SHOWED technique can generate discussion and encourage reflection and consideration: (1) What do you See or how do we name the problem? (2) What is really Happening? (3) How does the story relate to Our lives? (4) Why does this problem exist? (5) How might we become Empowered now that we have a better understanding of the problem? (6) What can we Do about it (Wang 1999)?

12 Of the 10 participants, 8 completed the questionnaire in full, 1 only partially completed it, while the remaining person did not complete it at all.

13 The questionnaires were compiled by the author in English and translated by Afrikaans-speaking colleagues free of charge.

14 Notably, following the seminar, the representative contacted the seminar’s academic advisor for information regarding indigenous communities that are in need of indigenous language learning support. He was provided with the information and appropriate contact details—the outcome is still awaited.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to acknowledge and thank the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) of South Africa, and Prof K. G. Tomaselli's Rethinking Indigeneity Project, housed in the Department of Communication, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. The NIHSS provided funding support to the Rethinking Indigeneity Project to organise the “Rethinking Khoe and San Indigeneity, Language and Culture in the Transformation of School and Tertiary Education in South Africa” seminar (Project Reference Number: WG01724), through which these workshops were funded.