A survey research design was employed to explore the relationship between negative addiction to running and running commitment, through the construct of running enjoyment, amongst black, Zulu-speaking runners. Translated versions of the Biographical Information Questionnaire (Leask, 1997), Negative Addiction Scale (Hailey & Bailey, 1982), and Running Enjoyment Questionnaire (Basson & Macpherson, 1998) were administered to an opportunity sample of 79 Zulu-speaking runners, drawn from athletic clubs in the Durban and Pietermaritzburg regions of KwaZulu-Natal. On the basis of their negative addiction scale scores, runners were assigned to either a high (n = 23), moderate (n= 35), or low addiction group (n= 21). Multiple correlation analyses, parametric and nonparametric analysis of variance procedures, factor . analyses, and multiple regression procedures were used to examine the relationship between running dependence, the four sources of running enjoyment, and demographic variables. Significant relationships were found between running dependence and all four sources of running enjoyment. Further, the length of running history , the importance given to running by the participant, perceived fitness levels, and the number of Comrades marathons run were shown to play a role in both running dependence and commitment processes. For Zulu-speaking runners, both intrinsic and achievement running enjoyment sources were found to be more motivating than either extrinsic or nonachievement factors. Extrinsic and achievement factors were found to be more motivating for Zulu-speaking runners compared to Macpherson's (1998) sample of white runners. These results were discussed with reference to the literature on running dependence, running commitment, and cultural influences on motivation. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1981.

This study examines the sacred dance in the Nazaretha Church and Isaiah Shembe's hymns as “agency” and not “response” (Coplan, 1994: 27). A number of studies on the Nazaretha Church and Isaiah Shembe posit that Shembe created his popular texts (especially the sacred dance) as a response to colonialism and the oppression of black people. In countering such a proposition I argue that in exploring the sacred dance we need to look at the motivation for members to participate in the dance. With that view in mind, I examine the sacred dance and the hymns as examples of a popular culture which is both „transnational‟ and „transglobal‟, to use Hofmeyr‟s terms (2004). This is because it is common in the Nazaretha Church that members taking part in the sacred dance claim to be doing so on behalf of their dead relatives, as it is believed that ancestors are able to participate in those dances through the bodies of their living relatives. In return, those in the ancestral realm will reward the living performers by offering them „blessings‟. In the Nazarite Church, and through performances like the sacred dance, the physical and spiritual worlds are perceived to be integrated. I therefore examine these hymns and performances as examples of popular culture “that is more than sub- or trans-national, [that] is trans-worldly and trans-global” (Hofmeyr, 2004: 9). In other words, I examine the sacred dance as performances and the hymns as texts whose audience is not only living people but also people in heaven. This means my study goes beyond the view that Nazarite performances are rituals of empowerment for the members, a majority of whom are economically, socially and politically marginalised (Muller, 1999), to look at them as significant on their own account. In undertaking the abovementioned task, I examine these hymns and performances in relation to “oral testimony of their significance to the people who [perform] and [listen] to them” (White, 1989: 37). Oral testimony of dreams and miracles suggests that Nazarite members who take part in the sacred dance do so primarily because of the imagined relationship between the individual and divine power. As Mbembe states, “it is the subject‟s relation to divine sovereignty that serves as the main provider of meanings for most people” (2002: 270). I argue that Nazarite members take part in the sacred dance mainly as an attempt to “manage the „real world‟ on the basis of the conviction that all symbolisation refers primarily to a system of the invisible, of a magical universe, the present belonging above all to a sequence that opens onto something different” (270). / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This study examines the similarities and differences between the historical background and the current performance of Hindu and Zulu funerals and associated ceremonies. After presenting an account of the historical development of the Hindu and Zulu communities in South Africa, a chronological account of the performance of each of these funeral ceremonies are presented. This account includes a detailed description of the rituals performed when a person is on his/her death bed, the actual funeral ceremonies and the post death rituals and ceremonies associated with ancestor veneration. The incidence and significance of The Anthropology of Geste and Rhythm in each of these ceremonies are demonstrated according to the theory of Marcel Jousse. The Hindu and Zulu ceremonies are then analysed and interpreted to demonstrate an individuals life crises which Van Gennep called the "Rites of Passage" and distinguishes three phases: separation, transition, and incorporation. The discussion accounts for the transmission of traditions over generations, and which demonstrate the anthropological and psychobiological nature of memory, understanding and expression as evident in the performance of Hindu and Zulu funerals and ceremonies and the manner in which the ancestors are venerated in South Africa. The research was undertaken mainly in Kwa-Zulu Natal. However to fill research gaps in the Hindu investigation a study was undertaken in some parts ofIndia as part of the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Programme. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This study investigated isiZulu-speakers' conceptions of morality. The relationship between concepts of the self and morality was also explored, as were influences of gender, family and community on moral reasoning. Fifty-two participants of both genders were interviewed. The sample was drawn from urban, peri-urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The participants were invited to tell a story involving a moral dilemma they had experienced in their lives. The resulting narratives were analyzed using an adapted version of the Relational Method, an analytic procedure developed by Gilligan and her colleagues (e.g. Brown & Gilligan, 1991) to analyze narratives of real life conflict. Respondents considered morality to be a state of connection or equilibrium between the person, other people, and his or her social milieu. Connection is characterized by caring, just and respectful relationships among people and everything to which they stand in relation. Immorality, which is characterized by relationships devoid of care, justice and respect, results from a breakdown in social and communal relationships. Conceptions of morality were found to be dependent on respondents' understanding of the self. The view that morality is characterised by connection was associated mainly with the communal or familial self. However, tensions were also noted between competing concepts of the self within the person, namely the communal and independent selves. These tensions complicated respondents' choices in the face of moral conflict. Gender was also found to influence moral reasoning: in the face of moral dilemmas involving gender, men were concerned with the preservation of their masculine identities, while women found themselves positioned powerlessly by culturally defined narratives of femininity. These results are discussed with reference to traditional African philosophical frameworks and dialogical theory. The implications of the study to psychological theory, social science research ethics and health-related intervention policies are highlighted. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

This thesis. entitled 'ETHNICITY AS IDENTITY AND ETHNICITY POLITICALLY MOBILISED: SYMBOLS OF MOBILISATION IN INKATHA'. presents two major contributions. The first is a discussion of ethnicity that not only draws the distinction between the phenomenon in its mobilised political form. on the one hand. and on the other ethnicity as social identity presenting life stories through which individuals live part of their social existences. but also follows through the theoretical and policy implications. The implications of this distinction suggest ways in which the issue of -ethnicity can be approached within attempts to avoid the conflictual dimension. The second is a study of the manner in which political mobilisation of Zulu ethnicity has occurred. especially during the 19708 and 1980s. through the Inkatha movement. The case study effectively illustrates the manner in which politicised ethnicity functions. in defining a rigid interpretation that allows little flux and movement within. and from and into the ethnic camp. The author integrates the theoretical discussion of the issue of ethnicity and ethnic social identities with comparative and empilrical material drawn nationally and internationally as well as from the extensive cue study of the mobilisation practices of the Inkatha movement and its leadership. In the theoretical approach the complex nature of all identities. and of ethnicity specifically, is stressed, arguing for the multiple experiences of what is presented as homogeneous within ethnic mobilisation. Ethnic identities are gendered, and subject to the effects of class, age, and 'race' distinctions. Ethnicity is, furthermore, much more flexible than would appear to be the case from such mobilisation. It is in this flexibility that an approach to resolving 'ethnic conflict' lies. Within ethnic mobilisation the stress in the interpellations addressed at ethnic subjects is on rigidity, lnflexibility, and single and centralised interpretations. These elements are illustrated through the case study of Inkatha operating from within the previous KwaZulu bantustan. Themes and approaches within the discourse of mobilisation employed to mobilise a regional population into Inkatha are examined. and set against the background and effects of social, political and economic factors. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

African encounter with the Bible is different from their encounter with Christianity. This thesis looks at different stages of African reception and appropriation of the Bible in African prophecy. The appropriation of the Bible by Africans is important to look at because it allows them to use their own thought pattern in order to understand the Word of God. Isaiah Shembe (1870-1935) is one of the AlC's prophets who sought to revitalize his Zulu community after the dispossession of their cultural identity in the name of Christianity. He did .. this through his different hermeneutical interpretation of imibhalo eNgcwele (Holy Scriptures) and through his maintenance and revival of social customs. When missionaries came with the Bible in Africa there also came with them colonialists and it is evident that the two went together. Africans did not only see the Bible as a tool for western colonialism but also as a book of numinous powers. However, it was not long before Africans realized that there was nothing wrong about the "Book" because when they could read it for themselves they realized that the Book portrays a life that is similar to theirs. The researcher sought to separate the Bible from Christianity in order to understand different stages of the reception of the Bible in Africa. This thesis, then looks at the appropriation of the Bible in African prophecy. It argues that in African prophecy the Bible is used to renew African society. This is done by examining and contrasting the material of two Zulu prophets Isaiah Shembe and George Khambule. These two prophets who emerge in the time of the destruction of the Zulu society have a religious experience that sought to restore and renew Zulu community. This is seen in the way they interpreted and enacted the promise of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation among their communities. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006. / Draper, Jonathan A.

In the last four decades social scientists have been preoccupied with the process of modernisation and development. Theorists who emphasised a normative perspective distinguished between value systems relating to individuals they termed urban-based and modern, and those they classified as rural-based and traditional. Research for this dissertation was undertaken in order to study value systems as they relate to the development process, and in particular to test assumptions underlying the modernisation theory. Data were collected in two stages; semi-structured, focused group discussions were held in two marginal rural areas of KwaZulu, and personalised interviews were conducted within metropolitan Durban by means of a predesigned questionnaire. Results were content-analysed in order to examine values within the broad categories of work, the family and leadership within the community. In addition, a factor analysis was applied to the urban survey data to assess general patterns of value orientations. The results of the study did not support the widely held views of modernisation theorists, namely that traditional values are not compatible with modern values, that they are mutually exclusive and in conflict with each other. It was found that traditionalism and modernism, as defined by modernisation theorists, were compatible, and coexisted and permeated both rural- and urban-based people. Although traditional reactions appeared to dominate in the sphere of the family, in terms of work and leadership no clear distinction was evident, and the traditional and modern were closely interrelated. In addition, a simple rural-urban continuum of values did not emerge. On the basis of the findings and of criticisms directed at the modernisation theory in general, it was recommended that further research be undertaken in order to develop a more appropriate theoretical framework for development in South Africa. An holistic approach, incorporating not only the existing values of people but also broader factors which impinge on such values, need be taken into consideration in future explanations of underdevelopment and development planning. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 1990.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2000.