Narratives on Alcohol Dependence in the Family in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Parenting, Family Care and Adolescence in East and Southern Africa

“…While there has been a consistent research focus in southern and east Africa on understanding how chronic, life-threatening illness affects children's roles and responsibilities, little attention has been paid to the role of alcohol or drug dependence. One small-scale South African study documented adult women's recollections of spending their adolescence coping with hunger and looking after parents (who had passed out or been beaten up), leading to the assertion of high rates of early drinking as a way of coping amongst adolescents, and the subsequent inter-generational transmission of addiction and violence (Jacobs & Jacobs, 2013). It also identified a similar code of silence around alcohol use as has been documented for HIV/AIDS, resulting in substantial efforts on the part of adolescents to maintain the impression that all was well in the family, even to the point of agreeing to parent demands to deny social workers' entry to the home.…”

‘We have to start showing who is boss now’: Constructing methamphetamine use and users in the South African print media

“…Coupled with other apartheid social policies, such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (preventing marriages across the racial ‘categories’), the Immorality Amendment Act (further preventing any sexual contact between the races), and the group of Acts known as the Pass Laws (requiring ‘black’ citizens to carry a ‘pass book’ that authorised their entrance into the city, and which was used in the enforcement of curfews), the apartheid system forcefully broke the community, familial, and interdependent ties that had hereto defined many people’s lives. Having a ‘very destructive consequence to family structure’ (Jacobs and Jacobs, 2013: 1), the forced removals not only displaced people, but broke apart their support structures and networks (often constituted by systems of patronage and by extended family networks). Into this void, as has been shown in numerous other instances across the world, stepped criminal activity, gangsterism, and drug use (Jacobs and Jacobs, 2013).…”

“…Having a ‘very destructive consequence to family structure’ (Jacobs and Jacobs, 2013: 1), the forced removals not only displaced people, but broke apart their support structures and networks (often constituted by systems of patronage and by extended family networks). Into this void, as has been shown in numerous other instances across the world, stepped criminal activity, gangsterism, and drug use (Jacobs and Jacobs, 2013). While the destruction of District Six has played a prominent role in official post-apartheid narratives of liberation, the consequences of these events, consequences felt to this day, continue.…”

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in South Africa

“…In families and communities faced with alcoholism there is a "concerted silence" and collective agreement to 'keep up the appearance' to ensure that it appears from the outside as if nothing is wrong (Jacobs et al, 2013). This code of silence and alcohol abuse in families/communities might have led to the belief that some communities have 'a culture of drinking'.…”

“…Jacobs and Jacobs investigated alcohol dependence in the family in the post-apartheid South Africa and concluded that individuals often drink to get drunk so as to reduce negative and painful experiences (Jacobs & Jacobs, 2013). In alcohol dependent family systems or communities, the void is commonly filled with alcohol.…”