Peer-reviewed article
“No Vows for Cows” in Rural South Africa
Lisa Wiebesiek ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5This study describes a research project in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where 15 girls used a participatory video method called cellphilm to express their views on early and forced marriage in their community. The researcher analyzes a cellphilm the girls created to understand the social and material reasons that support this practice. The study argues that listening to girls themselves gives valuable insight for creating better policies and programmes on early and forced marriage. It highlights the girls' own complex understanding of the issue rather than testing a specific intervention.
Key points
- Participatory visual methodology (cellphilm) was used with 15 girls in a rural KwaZulu-Natal community.
- The cellphilm focused on early and forced marriage practices in their community.
- The girls demonstrated nuanced understanding of social and material factors sustaining the practice.
- Three key learnings were identified from the cellphilm process.
- The author argues such methods can inform more responsive, relevant, sustainable, and effective policy and programming.
Limitations
The abstract does not provide details on the specific findings or content of the three key learnings, nor does it describe how representative the 15 girls are of the broader community.
Abstract
Abstract Drawing on data generated during my doctoral study that involved using participatory visual methodology to work with 15 girls in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, I describe and discuss a cellphilm produced by them that focuses on early and forced marriage in their community. I demonstrate how such methodology can enable girls and young women to communicate effectively their complex and nuanced understandings of such marriage and the social and material factors that influence continued support for it. I identify three key learnings drawn from the cellphilm and argue that learning about this practice from those affected by it is invaluable to the design of policy and programming that addresses early and forced marriage in ways that are responsive, relevant, sustainable, and effective.