Do stories of people with disabilities matter? Exploration of a method to acknowledge the stories of people with disabilities as valuable oral sources in the writing of social history

Radikobo Ntsimane

School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Oral history has been used as a valuable tool for the recording of the neglected history of the ordinary people. Since the 1980's, oral historians in South Africa have engaged recording the histories of the black people, the poor, the women, the children, migrant labourers and of the immigrants. What is glaringly absent from the recorded histories in the last thirty years are the voices of the people living with disabilities. This article attempts to propose a methodology on how oral history practitioners can go about recording the histories of people with disabilities. The article acknowledges the long history of cultural and religious discrimination, the lack of vocabulary and the education on how to understand the various disabilities and how best to record stories of people with disabilities in a non-prejudiced manner.

“Full text available only in PDF format”

Works consulted

Breutz, P-L 1989. History of the Batswana. Ramsgate: Dr. P.-L. Breutz.         [ Links ]

Denis, Philippe 2000. "Introduction" in Denis, P (ed.), Orality, memory and the past: listening to the voices of black clergy under colonialism and apartheid. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications.         [ Links ]

Field, Sean 2006 Beyond 'healing': trauma, oral history and regeneration. Oral History 34(1), 31-42.         [ Links ]

Landman, Christina 2009. Township spiritualities and counseling. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion, Unisa.         [ Links ]

Larson, Elizabeth 1998. Reframing the meaning of disability to families: the embrace of paradox. Social Science and Medicine 47(7), 865-875.         [ Links ]

McComark, Noellel, 2010 Using oral history interviews to understand the experience of having a child who is profoundly disabled. Paper read at the IOHA Conference in Prague, Czech Republic.         [ Links ]

Ngoetjana, Lucas 2007.The legacy of Mama Grace Meiki Masuku: an embodiment of African heritage. Mafikeng: North West parks and Tourism Board.         [ Links ]

Ntsimane, Radikobo 2008. Why should I tell my story? Culture and gender in oral history, in Dens, P & Ntsimane, R (eds.), Oral history in a wounded country: interactive interviewing in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.         [ Links ]

Setiloane, Gabriel 1986. African theology: an introduction. Johannesburg: Skotaville.         [ Links ]