Ability in disability enacted in the National Parliament of South Africa

Abstract

This anthropological study describes how disabled activist and politicians transcend race segregation, exclusions, discrimination and make disability and ability in disability real in the eyes of the nation. Based upon interviews with 15 parliamentarians with disability (MP) and participations observation in the National Parliament, between 2005 and 2006, this article disentangle inclusion/ exclusion in a particular historical context and situate the role disabled politicians in building a new South Africa. In post-apartheid, exclusion is linked to ‘disadvantage communities’. These new political positions created can be traced back to the introduction of ubuntu as connected with disability and ability in new nation, as well as the association between physical disability and the structural disabilities associated with the apartheid regime. Such political narrative strategies served to create a new broad relational understanding of disability, bringing new political capital to people with disabilities and interconnect disability in the new nationhood.

Keywords:

• post-apartheid South Africa
• diversity
• reconciliation
• human rights
• disability politics/classification
• reasonable accommodation
• ability/disability
• social life
• inequalities

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the politicians and activists in South Africa, for their time, trust, allowing me to take part in their work, and wanting to be part of this work. Gro Ween for making my English readable and maintaining a partner role. Associate Professor Emeritus Benedicte Ingstad and Professor Paul Wenzel Geissler for reading and commenting on the manuscript throughout the process. Colleagues at Section of Medical Anthropology and Medical History, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo for their comments. Part of this work has also been presented at the Yale University: Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association: Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 years of Interdisciplinary (2009). Norwegian Research Council for funding this project.

Notes

1. This anthropological study has been approved by the ethical committee at University of Cape Town, The department of Social Anthropology. The material collected from the National Parliament is based on repeated interviews with MPs in 2005;−;2006. They all gave consent. The finished text has been approved before the end of publishing. Original names do not appear. The author/researcher takes full responsibility for the whole text. This anthropological study run out of a broader interdisciplinary research between University of Cape Town, Department of Health Science, DPSA, University of Oslo, Institute of Health and Society, Section of Medical Anthropology and SINTEF, Oslo. The research Living Conditions among People with Disabilities in Eastern and Western Cape 2004;−;2005 were approved by the medical ethical committee, and were funded by the Norwegian Research Council and South Africa Research Foundation.

2. The anthropological material on which this article is based was gathered during a total of 12 months of fieldwork between 2004 and 2007 using multi-sited ethnographic methods. I was interested in the ways that these politicians made sense of their situations and the content of their political engagement. I moved between places, media, organizations, health institutions and households, between the elite and grassroots experts, and between people living in poor settings. The very heart of the design for this multi-sited ethnography was following these politician's connections, associations and relationships (Marcus 1995). The intention was to bring the various locations and contexts into the same frame of study. For this research, I conducted repeated in-depth interviews with 15 leaders and politicians, participated in hearings in the National Assembly in the National Parliament, attended three workshops, three conferences and 20 local as well as national public gatherings, imbizo, where disability awareness is publicly celebrated (including National/International Day of Persons with Disabilities). I also followed politicians with disabilities throughout their everyday life, at work and at home. The working language was English, and I used the same people I was interacting with as interpreters if this was needed. Many of these people I have known since 1999–2001, revisiting after the first fieldworks in South Africa in 1995–1996.

3. The slogan ‘Nothing about us without us’ has been taken up by the South African disability movement. ‘Nothing about us without us’ was first used by David Werner (1998) in describing the development of innovative technologies in developing countries. The term has since been used as a slogan within the Disability Rights Movement, especially in the USA, and it is also strongly visible in South Africa. It is about power to the people and the demand for control; the quite militant and revolutionary message is that politically active people with disabilities are beginning to proclaim that they know what is best for themselves and their community. Since people with disabilities have needs, this creates dependency and furthers the dependency when people are born into powerlessness, poverty, degradation and institutionalization. ‘Nothing about us without us’ points towards these power relationships with active representations (Charlton 1998).