Books
Challenges for Anthropology in the 'African Renaissance': A Southern African Contribution, 2002
Co-authored with Robert Gordon, Contact authors
REVIEW: "This collection of papers is significant for anthropology in southern Africa and indeed, the continent as a whole. [At last we have some manifestation] of the considerable anthropological energy which is generated at such conferences - and an indication of the nature and import of the deliberations. ... Those who contributed include a cross-section of both postgraduate students and more established anthropologists and they hail from several African countries and from further afield. Contemporary and burning issues facing the region and the continent receive critical attention throughout. This volume will serve both as a bench mark and a pointer for future anthropological enterprise." Michael de Jongh, President, Anthropology Southern Africa.
Dealing with Disorder: Traditional and Western Medicine in Katutura, Namibia, 2003
Contact author or Rüdiger Köppe Verlag Köln: Germany
Dr. Debie LeBeau has a Ph.D. from Rhodes University, South Africa. Dr. LeBeau's Ph.D. dissertation is entitled, "Seeking Health: the Hierarchy of Resort in Utilisation Patterns of Traditional and Western Medicine in Multi-cultural Katutura, Namibia". The work is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with African traditional healers and their patients, although quantitative data are also analyzed. Her dissertation examines cultural beliefs and psychological processes that influence traditional health seeking behavior among Namibia's various cultural groups. Given the fact that multi-ethnic urban studies on African traditional medicine are not the norm, and that no one theoretical paradigm can explain all of human social (macro-level) and individual (micro-level) behavior through the juxtaposition of place and time; she has developed a theoretical model which combines both macro-level and micro-level explanations to create a health-seeking model on hierarchies of resort.
This book focuses on a model for the hierarchy of resort between western and traditional medicine. Sub-themes evaluate ethnic differences in illness aetiology and factors which influence urban patients' traditional health care utilization. In Katutura, where there is significant mixing of Namibia's four main ethnic groups, there has also been a great deal of cultural mixing, borrowing and consolidating of traditional health beliefs. Patients in Katutura exhibit cross-cultural health seeking behavior, which makes a wider range of treatment options available.
REVIEW: "The book provides an excellent overview of issues surrounding traditional and Western health care in postcolonial Namibia and presents LeBeau’s own research, which [...] reflects the complexities inherent in the topic. [...] The analysis of survey data may be cumbersome, but other raw data–specifically, the case studies used as examples in the text and the more detailed accounts in the appendixes–provide a rich layer of complex information and allow the informants’ stories to be heard in their own words. In these ways, Dealing with Disorder offers both an interesting account of health-seeking behaviors in a modern pluralistic context and a valuable transparency regarding the creation of anthropological knowledge through fieldwork."
Catherine Collett, African Studies Review, 47/3, 2004 pp. 201-202
Taking Risk, Taking Responsibility: An Anthropological Assessment of Health Care and Risk Behaviour in Northern Namibia, 2000
Contact Author
This anthropological research focused on health and risk-taking behavior in the ethnically Owambo areas of northern Namibia using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research was conducted by the Department of Sociology, University of Namibia and funded by Service de Cooperation et d'Action Culturelle de l'Ambassade de France. The resulting publication, Taking Risk, Taking Responsibility: An Anthropological Assessment of Health Care and Risk Behaviour in Northern Namibia by Debie LeBeau, Tom Fox, Heike Becker and Pempelani Mufune, indicates that there are specific social and cultural constraints to more widespread use of condoms as well as social external determinants such as poverty, migrancy, alcohol abuse and a degree of fatalism within the population, all of which influence the spread of HIV. The document demonstrates that socio-cultural sexual beliefs and behaviors such as the marked social inequality between men and women, sexual violence within relationships, and perceptions of manhood as an excuse for promiscuity influence sexual risk-taking.
CORRIDORS OF MOBILITY: Mobility and HIV vulnerability factors in four sites along transport corridors in Namibia, 2008
Research for International Organization of Migration
This research examines key areas of HIV vulnerability and risk-taking versus areas for HIV help-seeking behavior through the cognitive perceptions of migrants, mobile and associated populations using qualitative data collection methods such as a mapping exercise. Informants were asked to map HIV vulnerability factors such as bars and truck stops, as well as HIV preventive factors such as available health care services, location and availability of condoms, and sources of sexual health information. This research was funded by the International Organization of Migration (IOM), Partnership on HIV/AIDS and Mobile Populations in Southern Africa (PHAMSA) and conducted through the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
This ebook, based on the aforementioned research, found that mobile populations in Namibia include fishermen, truck drivers, uniformed government officials, and informal cross-border traders. They are vulnerable to HIV because they report a high frequency and number of sexual partnerships with local populations and sex workers. Most mobile people meet sexual partners at nightclubs and bars located in and around towns. An additional contributing factor to HIV vulnerability is men who refuse to use condoms. The movement of people across the Namibian border, as well as their proximity to neighboring countries, makes the Katima Mulilo and Oshikango areas of high vulnerability. The majority of HIV risk-taking occurs in nightclubs and bars in town between sex workers and these temporary residents.
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Structural Conditions for the Progression of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Namibia, 2004
Contact author
This was an anthropological exchange research program between the Department of Sociology (UNAM), the Centre for African Studies (CNRS/EHESS), the Centre for Research on Public Health Issues (University of Paris 13) and the Department of Community Health, University of Witswatersrand (WITS); with research funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. The findings from this research indicate that migration and gender inequality are significant contributing factors to the spread of HIV in southern Africa.
Women's Property and Inheritance Rights in Namibia, 2004
Co-authored with Eunice Iipinge & Michael Conteh
This five region nationwide study on women's property and inheritance rights examines social-psychological forces that function to maintain women's lower social and economic position vis-à-vis men through the manipulation of material culture. The research found that one of the challenges faced by women in contemporary Namibian society is women's unequal access vis-à-vis men to property, which in turn limits women's ability to strive for gender equality within both their personal and social spheres of life. The lack of ability to manipulate property through the use, ownership and disposition of property limits women's economic choices and causes women to be economically dependent on men. The findings from this research have been utilized by government and policy makers to examine social and cultural contributing factors when drafting laws to protect women's rights to property. This was a collaborative project between the Department of Sociology, the GTRP at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), with funding from USAID.
Beyond Inequalities 2005: Women in Namibia. 2nd edition
Co-authored with Eunice Iipinge
One of the most significant areas of progress on gender in Namibia since 1996/7 has been government policies and programmes, including the establishment of the national gender machinery, the ratification of international instruments and national policies, as well as progressive gender-related law reform. The first section of this publication focuses on post-Beijing legal reforms. Although law reform is a key step in institutionalising women's equality, changing laws and government policies alone neither guarantees women's protection of their human rights nor ensures that gender based discrimination is eliminated at all levels of society. Indeed, gender specific law reforms may, initially, lead to higher levels of gender-based violence because some men may perceive women's rights as a loss of their own rights. This is not to say that law reform should not be instituted, but that law reform alone cannot effect changes in the social and cultural realities within which women live. Changing attitudes and behaviour is important in effecting gender-equality.
An Investigation into Namibian Ex-fighters Fifteen Years after Independence, 2005
Research for PEACE Centre, Namibia
This ebook investigates the post-independence situation of those who fought on both sides of the Namibian liberation war. The findings are being used to develop community based, empowerment driven interventions aimed at improving the quality of life for ex-fighters and their families. The research was funded by the Brot fuer die Welt. Data from this research indicate that 15 years after the Namibian war for independence, ex-fighters still exhibit symptoms of long-term psychological distress with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The findings indicate there is a correlation between the life circumstances of ex-fighters and their lack of resilience to traumatic war experiences, with resiliency being linked to a number of protective factors such as the socio-economic situation of the survivors, their socio-political environment, their social support networks and their cognitive processes. It is argued that in the case of Namibian ex-fighters, long term psychological distress is different from a simple PTSD diagnosis because the survivor has almost invariably gone almost two decades without seeking treatment. Moreover, during this time, the ex-fighter has also been exposed to additional social and psychological stressors which, for a person not suffering from long-term psychological distress would only have a fleeting impact, but for a sufferer of long-term psychological distress, each life incident could reduce the survivor's resilience to trauma as well as triggering ‘flashbacks’.
Multi-party Democracy and Elections in Namibia, 2005
co-authored with Edith Dima
This research was undertaken for the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) on issues relating to the 2004 local, regional and national elections in Namibia. This publication reports that Namibia is still a country with political and ethnic divisions, as well as a general lack of understanding and acceptance of democracy. These factors could be a potential obstacle to democratic consolidation. However, there are also positive attributes for the consolidation of democracy such as Namibia's high literacy rates, high levels of trust in elected representatives and a strong belief that the democratic process is responsive to the needs of the people. To continue to consolidate democracy, Namibia will have to face voter apathy, rising rates of tolerance for other forms of government and plummeting voter confidence in the very officials they have elected. This report concludes that one of the best ways to consolidate democracy is through civic and voter education, which should be an ongoing process that reinforces citizens’ as well as politicians’ demand for democracy. In addition, there are certain groups that are either marginalized from the democratic process or on the brink of marginalization. These groups require special attention to ensure that all Namibians participate equally in the democratic process.
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