This article examines the internal pathways of disease transfer within two settler colonies, the United States and South Africa, whilst also considering points of transnational connection in the social, political, epidemiological, religious and cultural responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in these societies. Of particular interest in these case studies are the ways in which alternative responses to the pandemic have unfolded alongside orthodox biomedical interventions, along with their associated effects. These include conspiratorial QAnon claims and their effects on vaccine uptake, the vagaries of ingesting equine medicines and the broader landscapes within which decisions are undertaken regarding lockdowns, re-openings and vaccine hesitancy. Given the limitations on research by participant observation during the pandemic, the evidence for this study was gathered via a combination of analysis of popular culture, which was conducted by a press review, and engagement with the broader historical context within which these dynamics were unfolding.

This article offers an ethnographic account of Covid-19 infection in Venda, South Africa. During July 2021, a research interlocutor and I tested positive for the virus and embarked on a 10-day period of isolation together. During this time, we practiced steaming rituals (u aravhela) on a daily basis and observed several healing practices related to eating, drinking and observing space. For me, the anthropologist, it was a period of intense participant observation; for the interlocutor, it was a period of teaching during which he became a makeshift ritual expert and I, his apprentice. Simultaneous to our isolation, exaggerated rumours about the interlocutor’s illness circulated in the area. This article frames Covid-19 infection as a Turnerian rite of passage whilst using ethnographic evidence to illustrate weaknesses in Turner’s model. The article concludes that the rumour and ritual around Covid-19 revealed the interconnected dynamics between stability, instability and efforts to make certainty under profoundly uncertain circumstances.

"Correction." Anthropology Southern Africa, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), p. 1This article refers to:Land, law and chiefs in rural South Africa: Contested histories and current struggles

Many African societies adhere to a strong patriarchal norm as regards sexual relations, one that is unforgiving of female infidelity yet tolerates men’s extramarital affairs and even incorporates these into culture. This study reveals that, contrary to traditional assumptions defining women as a passive and powerless second sex, married women in a specific African township redefine their sexuality in ways that defy accepted cultural norms. In-depth, qualitative interviews with a sample of six Zimbabwean women — all of whom were involved in extramarital affairs at the time of the study — suggest that these women devised their own means of resistance to defy socially accepted norms and values and to become active sexual actors outside the marital domain. Some of the women also gain much-needed self-esteem from their extramarital affairs in that they experience these relationships as more egalitarian than the situations prevailing within their marriages.

This ethnographic study highlights the impact of Covid-19 border closures on the migration patterns of Zimbabwean cross-border migrants. Data in this study were collected using qualitative techniques, one-on-one telephonic interviews and social media platforms from 20 participants over a period of five months. The data were analysed using the theoretical framework of conviviality. Our findings indicate that Zimbabwean cross-border migrants managed to cross into South Africa and back despite restrictions, which suggests that border closures had a limited impact on migration. By drawing on the narratives of Zimbabwean cross-border migrants, we illustrate how migrants, goods and remittances managed to move and how social networks such as hushamwari [friendship] played a significant role in facilitating illegal border jumping, revealing the permeability and porousness of state borders to many diverse types of incursions. The closure of national borders during lockdowns highlights the differences between migrants and border jumpers, the latter of which chose to smuggle goods in novel ways, even though they possess legal documentation and economic status.

This article examines the recent rise of living museums in postcolonial Namibia, one of the most rapidly increasing forms of cultural tourism. Living museums are designed and executed by minority communities that seek to reach socio-economic emancipation by making use of what they consider their unique culture. The article examines six such living museums that have been instituted in cooperation with a Namibian–German non-governmental organisation. It approaches the living museum as a tourist bubble with an imagery that is built along the global–local nexus. The aim is to explore how the bubble is constructed and what meanings various stakeholders foster onto these cultural shows. The basic conceptual and methodological framework derives from the premises of a multi-sited ethnography. We argue that the tourist bubble constituting Namibia’s living museums enables the involved stakeholders to retain a myth of authentic Africa that is incommensurate with local performers’ everyday life. Yet a certain permeability of the bubble allows for the creative and diversified response of the local population.

This article reinterprets historical works on the history of medicine in South Africa and how present-day Afrikaner home-based healing therapies known as Boererate engage with this history. By reinterpreting historical sources, we illustrate how Boer women in concentration camps during the South African War were waging an ideological war. We argue that there is a distinction between the creolised medicines that Boer women took into the concentration camps and the body of knowledge — Boererate — that emerged from the camps after the women were released. The article brings archival research and interviews with interlocutors into conversation to show how a knowledge system like Boererate has persisted through time and become very popular in online forums and Facebook groups during the Covid-19 pandemic. The article is part of a wider project investigating Boererate in historical and diverse contemporary contexts.