Real Life Research Articles

What Does Country-Led Mean from Who/Where We Are on Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa Country?

ABSTRACT We invite you to join us to dig Garlaany, pipis, at Middle Head Beach, a place where Ngambaa and Gumbaynggirr Countries come together on the mid-north coast of so-called NSW, Australia. Here, digging Garlaany is a Country-led practice that brings rich embodied meaning to the re-creation of Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa knowledge. As agential beings living on stolen land, Garlaany continue to call, shift, and teach those who listen, about how knowledge is co-created through a more-than-human relationality in/as place, in/as time. Yet, what do we mean by Country-led? How might we practice it, as a collective of Gumbaynggirr and non-Gumbaynggirr people working together on stolen Aboriginal land? In this paper, we aim to articulate some of the complexities of what Country-led means for us as Yandaarra, an intercultural research collaboration whose research practice is informed by Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa Country. We invite you to join us digging Garlaany. Our digging together is offered both as part of our methodology and as a lived reality – how we come into being together through Country-led practices in our research. In this place and at this time, our togetherness at Middle Head Beach is held by Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa Country and its Custodians, who share with us the old ways to help us to something new, re-learning and remembering as healing relationships, as Yandaarra.

Virtual reality simulation for facilitating critical reflection and transformative learning: pedagogical, practical, and ethical considerations

There is growing recognition that preparing health professionals to work with complex social issues in the delivery of healthcare requires distinct theoretical and pedagogical approaches. Recent literature highlights the significance of employing simulated environments which aim to immerse learners in the experiences of diverse populations and bridge the gap between academic learning and lived realities across a diverse society. Virtual Reality (VR) is gaining traction as a promising pedagogical approach in this context. VR has been argued to offer distinct advantages over traditional educational methods by allowing learners to see the world through the eyes of diverse populations, and to learn about social injustices while immersed in a mediated environment. It also has practical benefits in its capacity to expose large number of students to these topics with relatively modest resources compared to other approaches. This debate article explores VR as an innovative pedagogical approach for facilitating critical reflection, dialogue and transformative learning about social issues in health professions education (HPE). It examines the potential affordances as well as risks and dangers of integrating VR into educational programs and highlights key pedagogical, practical, and ethical considerations. Emphasis is placed on the importance of these considerations in efforts toward ethical, safe, and respectful use of VR in educational settings. This paper contributes to the ongoing dialogue on VR simulation as an innovative approach to HPE and highlights the importance of creating conditions that maximize its educational benefits and minimize potential harms.

Parents’ and informal caregivers’ experiences of accessing childhood vaccination services within the United Kingdom: a systematic scoping review of empirical evidence

BackgroundDespite repeated calls to action and considerable attention, childhood vaccination uptake has declined for a thirteenth consecutive year in the United Kingdom (UK). Increasingly, stakeholders are advocating for research which goes beyond vaccine hesitancy and explores service accessibility in greater depth. This scoping review aims to identify and critically assess how accessibility is being conceptualised and investigated with a view to informing future research. Research, that in turn, will dictate the interventions pursued to improve vaccination coverage.MethodsA detailed search strategy was implemented across seven databases to identify research exploring parents’ experiences of accessing childhood vaccination services within the UK. The analysis explored the studies in relation to their conceptualisation of access, methodology, reported results, and recommendations for research or practice using a combination of descriptive qualitative content analysis, typologies, and frequency counts. Methods and reporting adhered to the ‘JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis’ and the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews’.ResultsForty-five studies were included in the analysis. Studies claimed to consider only attitudinal constructs (4%) or did not discuss access at all (33%) despite findings, in part, including access related issues. Remaining studies used the term access in passing or ambiguously (24%), distinguished between attitudes and access in-text (27%), and a minority of studies utilised a theoretical framework which acknowledged accessibility (13%). The focus on access to information (92% of studies) was disproportionately large compared to other domains of accessibility such as availability (11%), affordability (13%), and proximity (16%). Of the seven identified intervention studies, five were centred on information provision.ConclusionAccessibility is poorly conceptualised within most of the research conducted on childhood immunisation uptake within the UK. This, in part, is because exploring accessibility was not an explicit objective of many of the studies included in the review. It is vital that the accessibility of childhood vaccination services is given greater priority and appropriately defined in empirical research. Otherwise, researchers run the risk of limiting the scope of their findings based on their own conceptual ideas regarding the drivers of poor uptake rather than the lived reality of parents.

RACISM AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND AFRO-DESCENDANTS IN SWEDEN, BRAZIL, AND MEXICO

This article explores how racism and stigmatizing discourses and practices are articulated and normalized in colonizer and colonized countries. The research compares the cases of Sweden, Brazil, and Mexico from a combination of frameworks -- the Critical Race Theory (Walton, 2019; Ansley, 1997), the neo-Marxist concept of institutional racism and racialization (Cole, 2016 and 2020), and a decolonial framework and methodology (Fanon, 1968; Tynan and Bishop, 2022). Racism has been structural and systemic in Latin American societies since colonization when religious and royal authorities legitimated Indigenous and African slavery in the colonies. After independence, modern free republics converted religious legitimation of racism in pseudoscientific Eugenics and the invention of human races and racism continue oppressing Indigenous and African descendants. Currently structural racism continues to be the normal behavior in Western societies, not an exception. The objective of this research is to identify and compare racism reveled in behaviors and the speeches behind them in two colonized societies – Brazil and Mexico – and Sweden, a colonizing society. The question orienting the comparative research is how and in which ways racism and stigmatizing discourses and practices are articulated and normalized in colonizer and colonized countries. Understanding the main persistent trends in these societies on eugenic somatic characteristics such as hair type, body part sizes (e.g. head), as well as other collective social and religious symbols, behaviors, attitudes and cultural customs, used as discriminatory markers. The qualitative methodology includes 69 interviews and six focus groups in the three countries. Results were analyzed form a critical reflexivity about how colonialism and eugenics impact the lived experiences and realities of both groups in colonized and colonizer countries, through historic and current practices. racism has the same routes of functioning, structuring unequal relationships, distortions in the perception of the other, marginalization and suffering.

A confession of a ‘non-native’ speaker: negotiating a socially stigmatised identity

ABSTRACT This autoethnographic study explores the complex intersection of identity, language, and marginalisation as experienced by a ‘non-native’ Russian individual of Chuvash ethnicity. Through personal narrative, I trace my journey of navigating this socially stigmatised identity shaped by ideologies of language standardisation and exclusion. The study engages with co-cultural theory to analyse the strategies I employed to cope with and resist otherisation within the dominant Russian society. Additionally, it draws parallels with the global experiences of non-native speakers, particularly in the context of language-based discrimination in employment. By critically examining the role of ethnicity and language in defining ‘nativeness’, the article reveals the pervasive stigmatisation faced by non-Slavic, non-Russian individuals. The study contributes to the broader discourse on identity, offering insights into the lived realities of marginalised groups and highlighting the necessity of inclusive practices. Ultimately, it seeks to foster understanding and empathy towards those navigating complex identities in ethnically diverse societies.

Indigenous peoples, commons and the challenge of sustaining life amid capitalist land grabs

ABSTRACT The role of Indigenous peoples in the protection of the nature ‘commons’ has gained much traction worldwide. It has been suggested that Indigenous ‘environmental stewardship’ would significantly contribute to addressing the climate crisis and that ‘land tenure security’ is key to this aim. This paper critically explores these assumptions by highlighting the need for closer attention to the lived reality of Indigenous peoples and the state of the commons they inhabit, some of which have been taken over, fully or partly, by big capital, and exhibit a great difficulty to sustain life – as a result of broader capitalist trajectories.

Encountering the Postcolonial State: Development Bureaucracy and Social Transformation in Rural Pre-Independent Bangladesh, 1947–70

This article explores how the rural areas of East Pakistan—Bangladesh since 1971—experienced the postcolonial state during 1947–70. How did the rural population react when facing the state-building efforts? An exploration of this question would reveal how the state carried forward the ‘burdens’ of colonial administration and approach for governance, as well as the ways in which the pre-existing society continued to mould the postcolonial ‘state’. Focusing away from the national elites, this article investigates the dynamics among the rural population, the local elites and the development bureaucracy. The article locates power dynamics in the spatial and temporal realities of social life. Finally, the article indicates to what extent and in which ways continuities and changes occurred during the postcolonial state period (1947–70) for the rural people in pre-independence Bangladesh.

Bibliometric analysis of rehabilitation in Alzheimer's disease (2000-2023): trends, hotspots and prospects.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease that leads to insidious deterioration of brain functions and is considered the sixth leading cause of death in the world. Multiple studies have shown that rehabilitation therapy is becoming an important field of AD research in recent years. We opted for bibliometric analysis to comprehensively summarize the advancements in the study of AD rehabilitation treatment, aiming to provide researchers with current trends and future research directions. All articles and reviews pertaining to rehabilitation treatment in Alzheimer's disease from 2000 to 2023 were downloaded through Web of Science Core Collection. The results were subjected to bibliometric analysis using Microsoft Excel (2019 version), CiteSpace (6.3 R1 Advanced) and VOSviewer 1.6.20. Overall, 1,284 publications were included. The number of publications was increasing yearly. The United States has published the most publications. University of Toronto has published the most papers of all institutions. NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL REHABILITATION and ARCHIVES OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION were the journals with the most studies and the most commonly cited, respectively. Clare L is the author with the highest productivity and co-citation. After analysis, the most common keywords are mild cognitive impairment, cognitive, impairment memory and executive function indicates that cognitive impairment is the main focus of research. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive rehabilitation, and physical activity/exercise are the hotspots of research at the present stage and are likely to continue. Distinguishing non pharmacological treatments at different stages of development is a research hotspot in AD rehabilitation; Sports intervention, brain functional imaging techniques represented by brain functional connectivity, virtual reality, and quality of life are research directions that need attention.

Digital Storytelling and Young Adult Literature: A Methodological Combination for the Language Classroom

Digital Storytelling (DST) originated in the 1990s as a narrative technique highlighting ‘ordinary voices’ in order to contribute to the public media discourse. Soon it was picked up by education to capture the diverse lived realities of students. This paper presents a methodological development in the form of a combination of DST with extensive reading of Young Adult Literature in the English classroom. A scaffolded methodological approach is outlined where DST is used as a post‑reading activity which can be enhanced in any foreign language classroom.

THE BODY'S RESPONSE TO STRESS

Stress, an undeniable reality of everyday life, is a natural reaction of the body to any pressure, threat or demand that requires an intense physical or mental response. It has a positive aspect, "good stress", which can provide additional motivation to complete tasks or face challenges. On the other hand, there is also a negative aspect, excessive stress affecting physical, mental and emotional health. In my opinion, in order to be able to cope with stress, it is important to manage changes, accept failures, put our own needs first, communicate clearly and effectively, eliminate negative thoughts and take emotional risks. Deep understanding and developing stress management skills can significantly contribute to improving the quality of life of each individual

The Idea of the Integrity of Social Being in Russian Religious Philosophy

The article considers the understanding of the nature of public life as some integrity in Russian religious philosophy. It is shown that the main specificity of the way of thinking of Russian philosophers is to distinguish between the empirical reality of social life, which is the “scratching of war” of various subjects and the deep spiritual basis, historically formed and gaining mystical status in people’s minds. Attention is drawn to the fact that its content, according to the considered views of Russian thinkers, includes the spiritual foundations of the family, religious beliefs and the consciousness of the community of historical fate, which make up the meaning of cathedral life in their unity. This way of understanding the integrity of public life eliminates the orientation towards its revolutionary transformation inherent in the collectivist paradigm, since historically formed spiritual foundations oppose such aspirations and, instead of planned improvements in public integrity, can entail severe social consequences. Accordingly, rationally justified partial reforms, the orientation of which is due to the individualistic paradigm, must be consulted with those meanings that have historically developed and form the spiritual basis of social life. The category expressing the way of thinking of Russian philosophers on the integrity of public life is universalism.

‘COVID impacted my life in so many ways’: a qualitative study of the lived experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic among people of Black ethnicities living with HIV in England

ABSTRACT Objectives COVID-19 disproportionately affected people of Black ethnicities whilst also negatively affecting the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of people living with HIV. This may have been amplified by pre-existing socioeconomic marginalisation, poorer health, and structural racism. Despite being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, little is known about lived experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic within these communities. Given these disparities, this paper explores the lived experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic among people living with HIV and of Black ethnicities in England. Design This qualitative study, comprising five focus group discussions (FGDs) with people of self-reported Black ethnicity, living with HIV in the UK (n = 30). FGDs were conducted between June and August 2022. Topics covered included beliefs and attitudes about COVID-19 (including prevention), COVID-19 information sources and lived experiences. Data were analysed using a reflexive thematic approach. Results Analysis of the data generated several main themes: the collective trauma experienced by Black communities; racial bias influenced by inequitable research; conflicting COVID-19 health messages and medical mistrust; socioeconomic marginalisation including financial hardship; intersecting oppressions such as sexism and ageism; and the overall impact of living with a stigmatising condition such as HIV. Participants additionally found navigating the infodemic, being labelled ‘clinically vulnerable,’ and balancing multiple non-medical needs alongside their cultural, spiritual, and religious beliefs, challenging. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound and enduring multidimensional impacts on the lives of people of Black ethnicities living with HIV. This study reveals how socioeconomic, cultural, behavioural, and biological factors intersected to shape experiences of the pandemic within these communities in the UK. Our data illustrate the lived realities of worsening health and social inequalities due to COVID-19, while at the same time highlighting the central importance of trusted community organisations in mitigating some of these negative impacts. Trial Registration Ethical approval was obtained from the University College London Research Ethics Committee (Project ID/Title: 6698/004).

Gendered Space and Spatial Discourses in Everyday Life: Exploring The Notion of Henri Lefebvre

This paper critically engages with Henri Lefebvre’s concept of space, focusing on its gendered dimensions as experienced in everyday life. Structure on Lefebvre's argument that space is socially produced and deeply intertwined with power relations, we explore how gender operates as a crucial axis in the production of space. Through a close examination of various environments like workplaces, domestic settings, and public spaces, which highlight how spatial practices and discourses perpetuate or challenge traditional gender norms. This analysis emphasizes the lived realities of navigating gendered spaces, reflecting on how these spaces are constructed through both overt social structures and subtle everyday interactions. By integrating feminist geographical approaches with Lefebvre’s spatial theory, research focussed a nuanced perspective on how individuals experience, negotiate, and sometimes resist the gendered dynamics embedded in their environments. This research sheds light on the interplay between space and gender, showing how spatial arrangements both reflect and shape social hierarchies. The study explores the spatiality and spatial discourses in the society through various case across the country.

‘Precarious power’: Implicit infrastructures and electricity access in Witsand, Cape Town (South Africa)

For the poor residents in Witsand, an informal settlement on the periphery of Cape Town, electricity access is an everyday struggle, where households circumvent Eskom's vouchers and prepaid meters to adapt electricity to their lived realities. In this paper, we argue that in a context where Eskom electricity provision is often exclusionary, residents deploy diverse strategies to challenge this form of infrastructure violence. Drawing on over twenty months of ethnographic work, complemented with participant observations and semi-structured interviews, we demonstrate how resident-made electricity connections prove a critical and implicit part of the electricity infrastructure system. Building from a sociotechnical approach to infrastructure, we use the notion of ‘precarious power’ to explore the mix of agency and precariousness that are entangled in the everyday practices of ordinary people making electricity connections. We highlight that in improvising electricity access, residents in Witsand exercised their agency to circumvent and appropriate Eskom electricity. This paper contributes to an understanding of urban residents' everyday infrastructural experiences through an analytical frame that is neither dismissive of their agency nor celebratory of their struggles.

Svakodnevni život iz perspektive željezničke štampe Ukrajinske SSR tokom Holodomora (1932-1933)

In this article, the author studied how the local printed media of the South-Western Railways (Ukrainian SSR) reacted to the Holodomor – the artificial famine of 1932–1933. While Soviet newspapers were primarily viewed as instruments for disseminating state-approved narratives, this study argues that the local railway press serves as a valuable but often overlooked source for understanding the multifaceted realities of Soviet society during this tumultuous period. Examining the editorial mechanisms of the railway press, the article discusses the involvement of workers and farmers as correspondents. The use of „robsilkors” (workers’ and farmers’ correspondents) in reporting everyday issues and problems within the railway system highlights a dynamic interaction between the press, its readership, and the authorities. The press functioned as an information conduit to party units and law enforcement, emphasizing the so-called „self-criticism campaigns” and denunciations. Under totalitarian censorship and government control, the newspapers did not openly write about starvation and mass mortality. The press, however, inadvertently provided glimpses into the harsh realities of everyday life, especially in local publications where censorship was comparatively weaker. They unveiled details showcasing the impact of food shortages, malnutrition, and unsanitary conditions. While workers had access to canteens and a food supply system, theft and misappropriation were survival strategies. The press documented cases of intentional damage to grain cargoes and corruption in the food stamps system. Despite receiving state-provided goods, workers faced challenges with the quality of provisions and sanitary conditions in canteens. Moreover, along with covering the famine, the press actively disseminated propaganda aimed at reinforcing the divide between the working class and farmers. This contrast was evident, yet many railway workers experienced life similar to farmers, owning land and resisting state-imposed agricultural policies. The newspapers called on the railway employees to participate in the so-called „mass campaigns” in the villages, which sometimes appeared to be confiscating food from the farmers' houses. Refusal to join these campaigns could lead to the denunciation on the newspapers pages. In conclusion, this research offers a comprehensive understanding of the Soviet railway press during the Holodomor years, revealing its dual nature as a propagandistic tool and a subtle source of authentic information. By dissecting the content and contextualizing the narratives within the socio-political landscape, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of Soviet society during a period of historical upheaval.

“The Source of All My Joy and All My Stress”: Children and Childcare as Underappreciated Sources of Stress That Affect Farm Women

ABSTRACT Objective Women have always played a crucial role in agriculture through their work on the farm, caring for the family and the household, and off-farm employment. Yet, like their essential contributions to agriculture, their mental health and well-being have largely been invisible since much of the focus of the mental health in agriculture research has been on older, male farmers. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by focusing on the emotional consequences stemming from the expectations of juggling childcare responsibilities, farm work and managing the household whilst keeping children safe. Methods The data were collected via focus groups and photovoice activity with, respectively, 68 and 33 farm women from Ohio, Wisconsin, and Vermont. Results The content thematic analysis first indicates that the juggling of multiple roles along with limited support deeply impacted farm women’s wellbeing. Worries that the children could get hurt was a major source of stress. Stress and mental health issues connected to children do not lessen as they age but rather shift and become more complex. Conclusion This article highlights the implications of the lack of investment in farm women’s mental wellbeing and their lived realities of caring for children on the farm. Future research should address supply chain and affordability issues, particularly for rural childcare provision.

Thick Black women and misogynoir in the Caribbean

ABSTRACT It is well documented that thick Black female bodies are idealized in Afro-Caribbean communities. However, there is also a long and deep history of oppression of thick Black women in Caribbean spaces based on their race, gender, and body shape and size, which continues to inform the lives of thick Black women in postcolonial Caribbean societies. This paper is an exploratory, grounded analysis of thick Black women’s quotidian experiences in this dialectic, explicitly focusing on Jamaica. Using Caribbean research methodologies situated in decolonial feminist epistemologies, I explore the everyday realities of voluptuous Black women who have to negotiate white Eurocentric body discourses in contemporary Jamaican society. The study foregrounds the voices of thick Black women as they articulate their own lived realities with navigating ‘misogynoir’ in Jamaican public spaces.

Development and evaluatıon of the Turkısh mobıle real-noıse speech dıscrımınatıon test

BackgroundWhile there is a list of monosyllabic words available for use in speaking tests in our country, the list of sentences is limited. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the mobile application we developed by creating a list of 4-word sentences that are frequently encountered in daily life, well-known, and spectrally balanced, to be used in speech tests in children aged 8–12 with normal hearing. A total of 50 participants, 25 girls (mean age 9.56 ± 1.56) and 25 boys (mean age 10.60 ± 1.55) with normal hearing, aged 8–12, were included in the study. Familiarity was evaluated by listening to a list of 200 sentences consisting of 4-word sentences to 70 children in 7 geographical regions of Turkey, and the sentences that 80% of the children did not understand were excluded. A list of 60 balanced sentences was determined by performing spectral and coherence analysis of the sentences. The recording of each sentence at 80 dB, 60 dB, and 40 dB intensity levels, respectively, increased in 5 dB steps between the − 10/ + 10 signal-to-noise ratio value and was combined separately with 3 different environmental noises (classroom, shopping mall, amusement park) and uploaded to the developed mobile application.ResultsFor all participants, speech comprehension scores at 80 dB, 60 dB, and 40 dB sound intensity were lowest in the amusement park environment. Speech comprehension scores are lowest in noise levels of 40 dB in amusement park and shopping mall environments. Speech comprehension scores are lowest in noise levels of 60 dB in the classroom environment. There is a statistically significant difference between ambient noises (p < 0.05). When male and female participants are compared, it is seen that male participants’ comprehension scores in noise in the shopping mall environment are higher than female participants. There is a statistically significant difference between genders (p < 0.05).ConclusionWhen the speech in noise tests developed in the literature are examined, even though the word lists are equalized with the phonemic equalization method, they do not reflect the reality of daily life. The Turkish Mobile Speech Discrimination in Real Noise 4-Word Sentence Test that we have developed will contribute to the literature. It is recommended that future research compare the results by adding different ambient noises.

Pedagogical Perspectives of Utu: Reclaiming Primacy of African Values for Moral-ethical for Youth Development in Tanzania

Abstract The decline of moral and ethics in Tanzania especially to the youth is associated by different factors among which is the decrease in abiding by traditional values centered in utu concept. This study examined the way in which, pedagogical perspectives of utu contribute greatly in reclaiming primacy of African values for moral-ethical development of the youth in Tanzania. This study has used a desktop research study method whereby literature has been surveyed. The study argues that pedagogical perspectives of utu should be embraced for reclaiming the primacy of African values for moral-ethical development of youth in Tanzania. This study reaffirms the fact that the utu concept can stand out as a paradigm for the holistic concept of the human person and worldview that sees the reality of life as an interrelated. The moral/ethical values practiced in the light of utu on the basis of unity and brotherhood within a human family can help the Tanzanian society to recuperate a sense of national identity. Therefore, Tanzanian society today needs to cultivate, transmit, and practice utu in daily life for holistic development. The study recommends that, the utu concept which advocates the value of human dignity and identity, reminds us of the necessity of clarifying and living what we mean by “values” in education today since not all aspects of life and practice attributed to culture contain educational values worth of human dignity.

De Kaapsche Kerk, the British Empire, slavery, and the discourses of good and evil

It is a well-known history that the Dutch church in South Africa’s Cape colony up until the early 19th century had readily accommodated the institution of slavery as commonly practiced within Cape Dutch society. Slavery was not seen as “good” but generally accepted as an unfortunate reality of life. Some groups of people, particularly those of non-European heritage, were seen within this colonist society as naturally predisposed for slavery. Biblical arguments regarding examples of the non-denunciation of slavery in both Old and New Testament scriptures could easily be mustered in defence of the institution against the rare voices protesting the practice. In that sense the Cape Church was not any different from most other Christian churches in colonial societies worldwide. Yet the Cape church also had some strong antislavery statements and advocates from within its ranks since at least the first half of the nineteenth century. As seen for example in Dreyer’s collection of documents under the title, “Die Kaapse Kerk en die Groot Trek”, several high placed church leaders opposed the migration of Dutch farmers from the Cape colony in the 1830s on the basis that the migration occurred in disobedience to British colonial legislation that were effectively seen as seeking to stamp out slavery and associated practices. The Dutch farmers tended to see the British Empire as an evil empire. The Cape Church leadership, to the contrary, which by then included a number of abolitionist Scottish pastors in its ranks viewed their emigrating members, at least initially, as being in rebellion not only against the civil rulers but also against the church, and they, albeit for the most part unsuccessfully, sought to dissuade the emigrants from abandoning their chosen paths. In the subsequent decades a number of Cape Church pastors sought contact with the migrants with the intent of bringing them back into the fold. This article presents the case of a noteworthy equalisation campaigner in this regard, Rev. D.P.M. Huet. Another episode occurred later in the 19th century in the mission fields associated with the Cape Church in central Africa, Nyasaland as it was known at the time. Again, it is a well-known story that some of the early Christian missionaries in these areas, most notably David Livingstone, confronted slave traders and agitated against the practice which was still rife throughout the region during much of the 19th century. Yet, as far as the Cape Church and Afrikaners more generally were concerned, historical accounts often suggest that particularly the northern Boers were more often themselves involved in the slave trade rather than acting against it. Yet, as this article will indicate the early missionary enterprise of the Cape Church in central Africa actively engaged in anti-slavery activities with a central character in this being missionary, William Hoppe Murray who served as leader of the mission in Nyasaland for a substantial period.The article finally discusses the case of De Kaapsche Kerk (the Dutch Reformed Church in the Cape Colony) in relation to slavery and empire with reference to notions of good and evil.