Death in Slow Motion: Funerals, Ritual Practice and Road Danger in South Africa

Lee, Rebekah

doi:10.1080/00020184.2012.702965

Cited by 32 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The Bajaj is an active participant in the conflict between drivers and city administrators. As in other conflicts over the regulation of motorized vehicles (Bürge ; Lamont ; Lee Rollason ; Truitt ), Hawassa's city administrators and drivers bring issues of speed, safety, traffic, and mobility to debates concerning regulation and markets. Beyond this, the particular characteristics of the Bajaj, as an inexpensive, flexible, and labor‐dependent transportation technology, determine the dimensions of conflicts between administrators and drivers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing three-wheeled motorcycle taxis in urban Ethiopia: States, markets, and moral discourses of infrastructure

Mains

Kinfu

2017

American Ethnologist

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Taxi drivers in Hawassa, Ethiopia, have come into conflict with government administrators over the strict regulation of their three‐wheeled motorcycle taxis, known as Bajaj. Their conflict with the government is best conceptualized not through a state‐market binary but in relation to competing moral discourses concerning modernity, reciprocity, and the right to a livelihood. Such discourses are mediated by the particular characteristics of the Bajaj, an inexpensive, flexible, and labor‐dependent transportation technology. These discourses have emerged in a context in which urban Ethiopians and their social networks act as the infrastructure that enables cities to function. The encounter between these social networks and vital technologies such as the Bajaj is fundamental to the politics of infrastructure.

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confidence: 99%

Governing three-wheeled motorcycle taxis in urban Ethiopia: States, markets, and moral discourses of infrastructure

Mains

Kinfu

2017

American Ethnologist

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“…Any death that occurs outside one’s home is a source of distress to those in charge of bringing back home the spirit of those who have died. 9 Contemporary literature on this subject deals with violent traffic dynamics that lead to fatal losses in South Africa, demanding from relatives and acquainted fellows of the deceased an extra effort to ritually bring him or her back home (Bähre, 2011; Lee, 2012). Other writers highlight the working conditions of nurses who, despite public health protocols, need to respect kin members who want to enter intensive care premises where their relatives have passed away with burning herbs ( impepho ) to fetch them and bring them home (Jiyane, 2014).…”

Section: A History Called Homementioning

confidence: 99%

“…What he, his father, and his children were going through could not be a coincidence or an isolated case. As other authors have written, ‘[a]pocryphal stories abound – of road accidents involving the corpse in transit, and of road accidents caused by the spirits of those improperly buried – which inscribe a type of malevolent agency onto the dead body’ (Lee, 2012, p. 196). Their suffering and Sesi’s were surely deeply connected.…”

Section: A History Called Homementioning

confidence: 99%

Land as Home in South Africa: The Living and the Dead in Ritual Conversations

Borges

2020

Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy: A triannual Journ

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Apartheid segregated not only the living, but also the dead. Taking a wedding ritual as its departure point, the article explores the conversations between the living and the dead taking place in a redistributed farm in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Conviviality between the living and the dead challenges the idea of pecuniary compensation as an adequate land reform policy insofar its beneficiary population expands to the infinite, including those now alive, the living who have already died, and those yet to be born. If these ritual conversations suggest that the past and future are experiential moments beyond what is lived today, it would appear our duty to devise alternatives to the linear, flat, and cumulative narratives that currently dominate our academic work and our political practice.

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“…The drivers are exhausted, often drunk, and every year they cause numerous fatal accidents. According to the minister of transport, the death toll during Christmas 2010 alone was 1,551 (Stokes 2011; see also Lee 2012). Although these deaths are not all caused by taxis, taxis do play a pivotal role in the lack of safety and are a cause of frustration for their passengers and fellow road users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Trickle-Up Economy: Mutuality, Freedom and Violence in Cape Town's Taxi Associations

Bähre¹

2014

Africa

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Mutuality is at the heart of the continued violence and inequality in South Africa. This historical and anthropological analysis of Cape Town's taxi associations reveals how mutuality has become strongly connected with violence and economic marginalization. The breakdown of apartheid led to new mutualities along the rural–urban divide, which resulted in taxi wars between ‘urban insiders’ and ‘rural outsiders’. After liberation from apartheid, mutuality within Cape Town's taxi associations became a central issue in government policy and commercial interests, which contributed to taxi associations becoming mafia-like organizations. This analysis reveals that taxi owners today find themselves in a trickle-up economy characterized by: violent and shifting mutualities; the embrace of illegality and informality as being vital to doing business; and strong economic intervention by the state.

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Death in Slow Motion: Funerals, Ritual Practice and Road Danger in South Africa

Cited by 32 publications

References 32 publications

Governing three-wheeled motorcycle taxis in urban Ethiopia: States, markets, and moral discourses of infrastructure

Governing three-wheeled motorcycle taxis in urban Ethiopia: States, markets, and moral discourses of infrastructure

Land as Home in South Africa: The Living and the Dead in Ritual Conversations

A Trickle-Up Economy: Mutuality, Freedom and Violence in Cape Town's Taxi Associations

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