Books by Rosabelle Boswell

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic, humanity has been compelled to focus on its quantifiable aspects, that is, how many people were being infected each day, how many were confined to intensive care units and how many had died. These deadly statistics created an impression that all human beings are equal and that in charting the numbers, national governments are managing the crisis. However, and as social media conversation and the work of professionals beyond government has revealed, Covid-19 has significant social and psychological impacts. It has revealed social and class divides, the vulnerability of indigenous communities and the deleterious effects of extreme, narcissistic individualism.This anthology seeks tend to the range of human emotions experienced in the early phase of the pandemic. It uncovers an inner world that rarely featured in official narratives of the day. In the early days, the narratives and feelings of those under lockdown barely made it into headline news. The anthology therefore gives voice to feelings and seeks to render audible those currently silenced. The poems suggest that all communities speak. The marginalized speak against and through oppression. They are often audible but those in power often choose not to hear them. To emphasize this divide, the poet juxtaposes the emotions of the marginalized with strident, self-focused responses to the crisis, revealing a wide spectrum of human emotions and their impacts. A quiet offering of the book is that emotions matter and can provide deep insight into individual and national psyche.

In South Africa issues of identity remain a pressing concern and preoccupation. For some, the experience of feeling that one does not belong in South Africa, especially among Africans and African descendants, appears to be intensifying. In this first collection of poems, Rosabelle Boswell speaks of the many places in which ordinary Africans born outside of South Africa try to achieve belonging. They do so in the family context, the backyard, language, the meeting, familiar landscapes and dreams. The poems also foreground the tumult of emotions that rise from the experience of exclusion and the results of pressure when one must conform. There is panic and dislocation, desperation, fear and sense of marginality when one’s work and achievements are reduced to whether one is born in South Africa or not. According to the poet, in such a context, one can only achieve true freedom from the tyranny of belonging by psychologically walking away from the expectations of those in power and putting oneself in a ‘clearing’ where flexibility, openness and newness reside. The forest of expectations remains, but we can achieve temporary respite from it by walking away now and again. The collection spans two years of writing identity in a different form, poetry.

Africa is richly blessed with cultural and natural heritage, key resources for nation building and development. Unfortunately, heritage is not being systematically researched or recognised, denying Africans the chance to learn about and benefit from heritage initiatives. This book offers a preliminary discussion of factors challenging the management of intangible cultural heritage in the African communities of Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles. These islands are part of an overlapping cultural and economic zone influenced by a long history of slavery and colonial rule, a situation that has produced inequalities and underdevelopment. In all of them, heritage management is seriously underfinanced and under-resourced. African descendant heritage is given little attention and this continues to erode identity and sense of belonging to the nation. In Zanzibar tensions between majority and minority political parties affect heritage initiatives on the island. In Mauritius, the need to diversify the economy and tourism sector is encouraging the commercialisation of heritage and the homogenisation of Creole identity. In Seychelles, the legacy of socialist rule affects the conceptualisation and management of heritage, discouraging managers from exploring the island's widerange of intangible heritages. The author concludes that more funding and attention needs to be given to heritage management in Africa and its diaspora. Rosabelle Boswell is a senior lecturer in the Anthropology Department at Rhodes University, South Africa and a specialist of the southwest Indian Ocean islands. Her research interests include ethnicity, heritage, gender and development. Boswell's PhD was on poverty and identity among Creoles in Mauritius and her most recent work is onthe role of scent and fragrances in the heritage of the Swahili islands of the Indian Ocean region.