Grandmothers of the sea: Stories and lessons from five Xhosa ocean elders

Francis, Buhle; McGarry Dylan K

Title: Grandmothers of the sea: Stories and lessons from five Xhosa ocean elders
Creator: Francis, Buhle
Creator: McGarry Dylan K
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2023
Date: 2023
Type: text
Type: book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433926
Identifier: vital:73010
Identifier: ISBN 9781003355199
Identifier: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003355199-12/grandmothers-sea-buhle-francis-dylan-mcgarry
Description: We surface a historical, political, spiritual, economic and cultural analysis made by five Xhosa Grandmothers based in the Eastern Cape, regarding their entangled relationship with the Ocean. A nuanced, complex relationship with the ocean and the politics of natural resource management in South Africa emerged from our interviews, as scholar-activists, with these Grandmothers, and this chapter attempts to explore how a gendered upbringing, with its associated roles and responsibilities, have created a unique relationship with the ocean that must be understood in all its nuanced and complex facets. We explore how the identities and values of these Xhosa Grandmothers are relationally entangled with the ocean and politics of South Africa, and explore the deep ecological knowledge that they hold, yet is shamelessly ignored. Through their own renderings, we unpack the rich understanding of marine species, customary rights, ocean policy and governance practices that impact, impede and complicate their lives. Working with first-hand accounts (stories translated from Xhosa), the Grandmothers provide a nuanced and brazen analysis of the status quo of ocean governance, ocean literacy and policy. They unpack what interventions are needed, and call for a response that recognises Grandmothers as central to South Africa’s wellbeing, a health that sits precariously with the complex realities of older women’s entangled and diverse vulnerabilities. Finally, the firsthand accounts and analyses made by the Grandmothers, offer a politically rigorous contribution to the field of hydrofeminism, one told in their own way, using their own idiomatic rendering, with their own metaphors and figurations.
Format: 14 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Language: English
Relation: Francis, B. and McGarry, D., 2023. Grandmothers of the sea: Stories and lessons from five Xhosa ocean elders. In Hydrofeminist Thinking With Oceans (pp. 173-186). Routledge
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)

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