Abstract
Chapter 1 stands as the introduction to the book. It gives an overview of the content of the book, introducing core concepts and contexts related to the research. The author provides an overview of the research setting, a support group for African migrant women in Cape Town, South Africa, and discusses her motivations for engaging in such a project. She provides an overview of the methodology, methods, and processes on which the research is based. She sets the scene for opening up critical questions about the hegemonic language of trauma and argues for a broadening of the concepts ‘victim’ and ‘trauma’. This discussion provides intellectual scaffolding for making sense of the collective narratives which follow in the rest of the book. The author concludes with a brief summary of the chapters to follow.
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Notes
- 1.
The term ‘wendy house’ is used in South Africa to refer to a small house structure made out of wood.
- 2.
‘Muti’ is a term for traditional medicine in Southern Africa. It usually consists of herbs and other natural products such as parts of trees or plants and is prescribed by African traditional healers.
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van Schalkwyk, S. (2018). Narrative Landscapes of Female Sexuality: Introduction. In: Narrative Landscapes of Female Sexuality in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97825-3_1
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