Harriet Ngubane (11 November 1929 – October 2007), formerly known as Harriet Sibisi, was a South African social anthropologist best known for her work on Zulu belief systems. Though educated in England, Ngubane spent the latter years of her career as a professor at the University of Cape Town. She represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004.
Harriet Ngubane | |
|---|---|
| Member of the National Assembly | |
| In office May 1994 – April 2004 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 November 1929 Inchanga, Natal Province Union of South Africa |
| Died | October 2007 (aged 77) |
| Political party | Inkatha Freedom Party |
| Spouse | Jethro Sibisi |
| Relations | Ben Ngubane (brother) |
| Children | 7, including Sibusiso Sibisi |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Natal University of Cambridge (PhD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Social anthropology |
| Notable works | Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine (1977) |
Early life and education
editNgubane was born on 11 November 1929[1] in rural Inchanga near Pietermaritzburg in the former Natal Province.[2] She was the third eldest of six siblings, among them former cabinet minister Ben Ngubane.[2][3] She was raised on a Roman Catholic mission but in a Zulu family.[2][4]
After matriculating at St Francis College in Mariannhill, she earned a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in anthropology at the University of Natal,[2] where she was mentored by Eileen Krige.[4] She taught part-time at her former high school while studying at the university's Durban campus.[2] She later studied social anthropology on a scholarship at Cambridge University, where she completed her PhD in 1972.[2][4]
Academic career
editAfter completing her PhD, Ngubane returned to the University of Natal, where she worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Social Research. However, her professional prospects in South Africa were hindered by apartheid laws, and Ngubane spent a year in Birmingham, England as William Paton lecturer at Selly Oak.[4] She received the Ioma Evans-Pritchard Fellowship in 1974 and spent another year at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she revised her PhD thesis for publication.[4] Thereafter she was a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in 1975 and a Ford Foundation research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of 1976.[5]
Ngubane's doctoral thesis was published as Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine (1977), an influential ethnographic study of conceptions of health and illness among the Nyuswa-Zulu.[2] The book argued that Zulu conceptions of bodily health were closely related to notions of spiritual health and social wellbeing.[4] Another central interest of Ngubane's research was social change, including as a result of colonialism and apartheid, and its effects on Zulu belief systems and cultural practices.[4]
From 1978 to 1984, Ngubane worked for the United Kingdom Ministry of Overseas Development in Swaziland,[4] and in 1985 she was an adviser to the United Nations's International Labour Office on policy regarding women's issues in Lesotho.[5] In 1988, she returned to South Africa to become a professor of social anthropology at the University of Cape Town.[5][3] Upon her return to South Africa, which coincided with the beginning of the country's democratic transition, she became involved in land reform activism and policy,[3] including as a member of the Advisory Commission on Land Allocation, to which she was appointed by President F. W. de Klerk in 1991.[5]
Post-apartheid career
editIn South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Ngubane was elected to represent the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly.[2][6] She served two terms, gaining re-election in 1999.[1] In later years, she was involved in the design of Freedom Park[2][7] and continued her academic research, which became increasingly political in the late 1990s.[4]
Personal life and death
editNgubane was married to Jethro Sibisi. They had seven children together, one of whom is Sibusiso Sibisi, a former chief executive officer of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.[2] Ngubane published under her married name, Harriet Sibisi, for the early years of her marriage, but later went by her maiden name in a conscious identification with Zulu custom.[4][8]
She died in October 2007 after a lengthy illness.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b "General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Vol. 408, no. 20203. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 11 June 1999. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ngidi, Sandile (28 October 2007). "Harriet Ngubane: Formidable Social Scientist and Scholar". The Times. Retrieved 11 May 2023 – via Pitzer College.
- ^ a b c "Ngubane, Harriet". The O'Malley Archives. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Geatrell, Anna. "Harriet Ngubane: Zulu woman anthropologist". University of Oxford. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Harriet Ngubane". South African History Online. 12 April 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ South Africa: Campaign and Election Report April 26–29, 1994. International Republican Institute. 1994. Retrieved 13 April 2023 – via Yumpu.
- ^ Young, Graham; Vosloo, Piet (2020). "Isivivane, Freedom Park: A critical analysis of the relationship between commemoration, meaning and landscape design in post-apartheid South Africa". Acta Structilia. 27 (1): 85–118. doi:10.18820/24150487/as27i1.4. hdl:2263/76706. ISSN 2415-0487. S2CID 225712478.
- ^ "Body and mind in Zulu medicine: An ethnography of health and disease in Nyuswa-Zulu thought and practice". CAB Direct. Retrieved 11 May 2023.