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The National Wellbeing Index in the IsiXhosa Translation: Focus Group Discussions on How South Africans View the Quality of Their Society

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Abstract

The International Wellbeing Index covers two complementary measures, the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The focus group study reported here tested the understanding of the NWI when translated into isiXhosa, a language spoken by 6 million South Africans, or 16% of the country’s population. A challenge for the NWI in measuring national well-being is the tendency for meaning to get ‘lost in translation’ in the wording of the instrument, owing to the disparities that exist between levels of living in developed and developing nations. The focussed discussions with native isiXhosa speakers conveyed the different shades of meaning associated with the six domains that make up the NWI. The isiXhosa keywords for the domains of social conditions, the natural environment, national security, and management of the country’s affairs (government) were readily understood, but discussants asked for further clarification of keywords for the domains relating to the economy and business. Conversations showed up the close link between personal and national well-being: discussants drew upon their personal and parochial life experiences along with their knowledge of current affairs to evaluate the nation’s quality of life. They described the social contract between citizens and their government to create a ‘caring society’ that promotes well-being across key domains of national life. Many of the reference standards used to evaluate national well-being were ones postulated to influence personal well-being (Michalos A.C, Social Indicators Research 16(4): 347–413 1985 ). The study also pointed to a potential problem for longitudinal studies if the bipolar satisfaction scale, formerly used to measure the International Wellbeing Index’s PWI and NWI, is changed to a unipolar one. Findings from this pilot study confirm the potential of the NWI as a tool for measuring national well-being cross-culturally.

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Notes

  1. Our choice of phrasing was designed to emphasise satisfaction with ‘governance’ rather then the institution of government. We considered governance to be the more readily understood concept in the South African research context. Moreover, for cross-national comparison purposes with Algeria, we wished to match the South African phrasing with the one used in the Algerian national wellbeing study (see Acknowledgements relating to this joint research project). Algerian respondents are asked: ‘How satisfied are you with the way the affairs of the country of Algeria are handled?’ (Tiliouine et al. 2006, p. 9).

  2. This composition of focus groups matched the one used in the twin study conducted on the Personal Wellbeing Index in the isiXhosa translation (Møller et al. 2015), which had provided reasonable demographic distribution even in a small sample.

  3. The scale used in the 2012 SASAS survey conformed with the International Wellbeing Group guidelines set at that time.

  4. There is a widespread popular perception in South Africa that the child support grant, introduced in 1998, has created a perverse incentive that has boosted teenage pregnancy. The grant, originally meant to boost nutrition of pre-school children up to age 7 (Lund 2008), was gradually extended to beneficiaries up to the age of 18 years. Demographic and economic studies conclude that the belief in a ‘perverse incentive’ is a misperception as the grant is well targeted and recipient children and households have gained health and other benefits (e.g. Case et al. 2005; Makiwane and Udjo 2007; Makiwane 2010).

  5. South Africa’s world-renowned Kruger National Park, established in 1898 to protect the wildlife of the lowveld, is an international tourist destination that attracts close on 1.5 million local and foreign visitors each year.

  6. The construction of over three million so-called RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses for poor households is a post-apartheid South African success story. The proportion of black African households living in formally built houses has increased from 52.5 to 75.4% over the past twenty years (Cronje 2015, p. 1).

  7. Foreign business people in Grahamstown include chiefly sub-Saharan Africans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and Chinese.

  8. In 2008, competition between local and foreign business people led to xenophobic attacks against foreigners that claimed over 60 lives across South Africa. In January 2015, a new wave of attacks on foreigners started in KwaZulu-Natal Province and spread to other cities across the country but not to Grahamstown. However, later in the year, starting on 21 October 2015, 300 immigrant-owned spaza (convenience) shops across Grahamstown’s townships were broken into and looted by mobs over a period of two days. The attacks had been triggered by rumours of body-parts murders in Grahamstown. Police investigations dismissed the rumours (Maclennan 2015).

  9. The older adults did not rate the business domain, which they claimed was beyond their ken. Their average NWI score is thus based on five domains.

  10. One discussant did not give ratings.

  11. Toyi-toyi is a dance that is used in political protests in South Africa.

  12. Most NWI studies have shortened the original wording of the domain relating to ‘how the country’s affairs are managed’ to ‘the government’.

  13. The theory as outlined by Alex Michalos in a 1985 paper posits seven ‘perceived discrepancies’ that survey respondents use when evaluating their current situation: how one’s situation at present compares with those of significant others, to one’s best situation in the past, to what one expected to have by now, to what one expects to have in future, and to what one deserves and what one needs. The 7th perceived discrepancy, between what one has and what one wants, serves as the mediator between all other perceived gaps and one’s net satisfaction. (Møller 2015).

  14. Tiliouine et al. (2006) reported the use of this convention in the Algerian well-being study.

  15. Members of a vigorous new black political party, launched in 2013 by an expelled ANC youth leader, go by the name of Economic Freedom Fighters. The EFF contested the 2014 national elections to become the third-largest party in both houses of the South African parliament.

  16. Statistics South Africa’s annual household survey does include feedback to policy makers on satisfaction with select public services, such as health. The annual SASAS survey tracks South African attitudes and opinions over time to give voice to ordinary South Africans on issues of national importance. Results are reported in short, concise and accessible articles to inform government and the interested public. Some 70 SASAS reports have appeared in the HSRC Review series since 2003. http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/review.

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Acknowledgements

The study was conducted with generous incentive funding from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), Grant 84343, as part of the cooperative research programme on Quality of Life in South Africa and Algeria: A Multi-Method Approach (NRF Grant UID 77926). Views expressed are those of the researchers and should not be attributed to the NRF or others.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Valerie Møller & Dalindyebo Zani

  2. Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery Programme, Human Sciences Research Council, Durban, South Africa

    Benjamin J. Roberts

Authors
  1. Valerie Møller
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  2. Benjamin J. Roberts
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  3. Dalindyebo Zani
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Correspondence to Valerie Møller.

Appendices

Appendix 1

1.1 National Wellbeing Index (NWI): isiXhosa translation

Isalathiso sempilo yesizwe

Ndithanda ukukubuza imibuzo ethile malunga noMzantsi Afrika jikelele.

  • Ungathi waneliseke kangakanani bubomi eMzantsi Afrika nje bubonke?

  1. 1.

    Waneliseke kangakanani yimeko yozoqoqosho eMzantsi Afrika?

  2. 2.

    Ingaba waneliseke kangakanani yimeko yommandla wendalo eMzantsi Afrika?

  3. 3.

    Ingaba waneliseke kangakanani ziimeko zentlalo eMzantsi Afrika?

  4. 4.

    Ingaba waneliseke kangakan*-ani yindlela imicimbi yelizwe elawulwa ngayo eMzantsi Afrika?

  5. 5.

    Waneliseke kangakanani lurhwebo eMzantsi Afrika?

  6. 6.

    Waneliseke kangakanani lukhuseleko lwelizwe eMzantsi Afrika?

Old bipolar NWI rating scale: end and mid-point anchor labels

0 Andanelisekanga kwaphela, 5 Phakathi, 10 Ndaneliseke ngokupheleleyo

New unipolar NWI rating scale: end-anchor labels

0 Akukho kwaneliseka kwaphela, 10 Ndaneliseke ngokupheleleyo

Appendix 2

See Table 2.

Table 2 Sample characteristics
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Møller, V., Roberts, B.J. & Zani, D. The National Wellbeing Index in the IsiXhosa Translation: Focus Group Discussions on How South Africans View the Quality of Their Society. Soc Indic Res 135, 167–193 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1481-4

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