Identity formation amongst immigrant traditional healers, 27 March PRESENTER: Waldemar Diener DATE: Thursday, 27 March TIME: 12:30-2pm VENUE: CCS Seminar Room, 6th floor of Memorial Tower Building, UKZN Howard College Campus Who's who? Exploring Identities amongst (Migrant) Traditional Healers in South Africa based on Commercial Ephemera in Urban Settings Waldemar Diener TOPIC: “The Power Of My Calabash Will Tell You All Your Problems Before You Say.” Urban areas in South Africa are flooded with conspicuous flyers promising penis enlargements or lottery jackpots orchestrated by traditional healers - modern desires being met with traditional means. Durban's Central Business District is an interesting point of departure for an exploratory ethnographic study which tries to map and understand various identities amongst traditional healers. Against the backdrop of increasingly negative attitudes towards immigrant Africans and indeed periodic xenophobic attacks, immigrant traditional healers in urban areas seem to contribute significantly to the definitions and identifications of “the Self” and “the Other” and the “us” and “them”. SPEAKER: Waldemar Diener is a German MA student at Aalborg University in Denmark studying Culture, Communication and Globalization. Based at CCS as a Visiting Scholar, he is currently involved in a research project on identity formations of Nigerian migrants in Durban.  Back

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