Over the years, there has been much Anthropological inquiry into witchcraft and how it functions in the lives of people. Most of the research conducted in South Africa concerning witchcraft has been carried out amongst black South Africans with very little attention paid to white South Africans. Having come across a group of white, Afrikaans-speaking women who are practicing witches, I decided to investigate how they use their craft in their daily lives to make sense of their past and present. Given that white South Africans have largely escaped anthropological analysis due to privilege, I found no literature pertaining to white, Afrikaans-speaking people being connected to witchcraft. I decided to establish a historical trajectory through the existing literature and then connected my coven to this. I was also given the opportunity to be initiated and the chance to engage in becoming a witch myself. Apart from participant observation, I was able to interview the women and construct detailed life histories which were the primary sources of data that I used for this project. I found that the women primarily use their craft to make sense of their positions as Afrikaans-speaking women in post-apartheid South Africa as well as redefine their connection to nature through their gender and use it to empower themselves. This is an area that warrants much more investigation and as such I will be continuing this project into a PhD in order to explore all that which I did not have the space for in this project. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Anthropology and Archaeology / MA / Unrestricted

This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS & THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)

This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS and THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)