Flirting with Death: Finitude, Tradition, and Leisure during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In this hermeneutic phenomenological study I explored and interpreted the lived experiences of leisure of 11 African women immigrants living in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic before the availability of vaccines. Gadamer’s theory of hermeneutic experience and Aristotle’s leisure philosophy afforded the philosophical bedrock. In-depth, online interviews were augmented with visual methods. After the initial shock of multidimensional loss as pandemic restrictions took hold, women quickly regrouped and were both courageous and resilient. They turned to their Christian faith to sustain them, making do with online services and finding solace in worship. The family circle sustained, and the home became a hive for leisure. Creative leisures were enthusiastically engaged in, and gardening, cultivating, and harvesting were essential to well-being. Through it all, the African ethic of ubuntu permeated their way of being and uplifted them even in the presence of plague and death.

Keywords:

• African immigrant women
• COVID-19
• hermeneutic phenomenology
• leisure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All participants are referred to as immigrants, no matter their status when they first arrived in Canada (Ludwig, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship

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