We assessed the emergence of a South African identity among Black, Colored (mixed ancestral origin), White (predominantly English speaking), and Indian adolescents participating in a birth cohort study called "Birth to Twenty" in Johannesburg, South Africa. We examined young people's certainty of their self-categorization as South African, the centrality of their personal, racial and linguistic, and South African identities in their self-definition, and their perceptions of South African life and society today. These results reflect a historical opportunity for full citizenship and national enfranchisement that the end of Apartheid heralded for Black and Colored individuals. Black and Colored youth tend to be more certain about their South African-ness, have a more collective identity, and have a more positive perception around South Africa. In contrast, White and Indian youth are less certain about their South African-ness, have a more individualistic identity, and have a less positive perception about South Africa today.

This study examined South African youths' perceptions of religion during a period of social and economic transition. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 Black South African youth (age 18) living in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area. Data were analyzed in a manner consistent with grounded theory methodology and structural coding. Beliefs about the function of religion were captured by the following themes: provides support, connection to the past, moral compass, promotes healthy development, and intersections between African traditional practices and Christian beliefs. Themes are discussed and directions for future research are presented. In addition, applications of the current research and implications for promoting youths' resilience are offered.

This paper described a corpus of 104 books separated from a larger collection of African Langaguge books. The books were catalogued into a standard library and archival metadata. A subset was digitised and cleaned. The books were then divided into five subsets and compared against each other and the entire Corpus. We have also created tables of collocates, words frequencies. We also performed basic statistics on those words(see tables in the appendix). We speculated that the Corpus as a whole could be roughly used as a general language register. We also give some examples of the characteristics of the genre subsets. The paper aims to introduce the Corpus to NPL researchers and offer it for further research.

AbstractBackgroundThis paper reports on the findings of a qualitative Phenomenologically inclined investigation of the views of adolescents in Soweto (n=13) regarding religious belief and perceptions of peer influenced risk behaviour. We present an in-depth investigation of this particular theme, using data from a broader qualitative study (n=59) conducted within the Birth to Twenty longitudinal study on religion and public participation in Soweto. MethodologyAll completed interviews (n=56) were analysed by a narrative coding process and by automated word searches using a MAX QDA programme focusing on risk behaviours and religious youth services. Thirteen interview transcripts were identified as containing strong themes on the relationship between religious adherence and risk behaviour and were selected as case studies for discussion in the present paper. ResultsThe findings are presented in four sub-themes: 1) descriptions of church-based structures and activities in Soweto; 2) descriptions of partying in relation to religion; 3) managing multiple roles, and 4) the role of religion in consolidating self-identity. DiscussionA prominent theme in the discussion is the practice of young adolescents of articulating the social worlds of the church and the party in mutually exclusive terms, in which allegiance to their religious beliefs was given primary importance. The deference to their religious beliefs enabled the study participants to come to terms with their own performance in the face of the crises engendered by their encounter with non-religious peer influences. ConclusionFuture research should focus on these moments of crisis in order to further understand how religious adherence influences decision-making in different social contexts. Further studies in this regard can inform a continuing process of information sharing between religious groups and public health bodies towards recognizing the public health benefits of adolescent religious involvement

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