University Botswana Journals
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SPIRITUALITY AND SPIRITUAL CARE IN NURSING PRACTICE: A CASE OF BACHELOR OF NURSING SCIENCE PREPARED NURSES IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFHistorically, nursing care evolved as a vocation in the religious milieu for those who were freed from self– preoccupation by knowledge of God’s love. The spiritual heritage of nursing origin, having been eroded by secularization, technology and materialism, is now gaining popularity as a component of holistic care. Without spiritual care, health care remains unbalanced and this makes holistic care a dream too far to reach. Spiritual care provides attention to the feelings of patients. The common feelings include, but not limited to, desire for love, faith, trust, and other inspiration that provides meaning and purpose for existence. According to literature, patients indicate desire to have their spiritual needs to be met during illness, nurses also acknowledge that patients as spiritual beings are in need of spiritual care. Researcher’s view is that, nurses find it difficult to conduct spiritual assessment or to meet patients’ spiritual needs and this may possibly be due to lack of knowledge. This report is a part of a larger mixed method study conducted to explore knowledge and attitudes of nurses about Spirituality and Spiritual care in one of the cities in Botswana.. A qualitative approach was used on a focus group of 15 baccalaureate nurses involved directly with patient care in 24 hour operating clinics in one of the cities in Botswana. A purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents while a semi structured interview was used to collect data.
Using Atlas ti software for qualitative analysis, themes that emerged from participants’ direct codes revealed that nurses lacked education on spirituality and spiritual care. Asked if they experienced any challenges for offering spiritual care, nurses became more focused on other concerns such as environmental stressors which included lack of medical equipment and poor staffing. Patients’ religious and cultural practices were cited as delaying attendance to modern health care. Personal barriers, burnout, stress and compassion fatigue were some of the issues raised by nurses. Findings revealed that, disabling environment and compassionate fatigue was a major cause for failure to provide spiritual care. Provision of supervision, support and mentoring of staff are strategies essential for alleviation of stress and burnout that prevents nurses from offering spiritual care to patients. Health care system policies and Stakeholders need to embrace the spiritual welfare of patients and health care providers
GEO-HISTORICAL RE-APPROPRIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: ZULU IDENTITY AND THE STRUGGLE FOR MEMORIAL SPACE
Get PDFPost-apartheid South Africa saw a shift from a one-sided glorification of the past by whites to a more balanced historical representation of the heroes and events that landmarked the shaping of the country. When Nelson Mandela was elected, people in KwaZulu-Natal acknowledged the imbalance in the distribution of tokens from the past, such as monuments and Lieux de mémoire, as Nora (1997) puts it, and decided something had to be done about it. Yet, if the unveiling of some of the Zulu monuments went smoothly, others were marked by problems most of which had to do with human representations. This article argues that the difficulties encountered regarding the portrayal of Zulu kings such as Shaka kaSenzangakhona or Dinizulu kaCetshwayo were triggered by a misconception of what a “Zulu” ought to be and more particularly because of what might be considered as sterile competition with “European” style monuments. This analysis seeks to shed light on the way the aftermath of apartheid was dealt with in KwaZulu-Natal, and the geo-political implications and impact of the debates that surround the construction of various “Zulu identities” within a globalising world
The Best Interests of the Child Principle in Botswana
Get PDFThe objective of this article is to interrogate and assess the development and application of the principle of the best interests of the child in Botswana. After a brief discussion of the principle at the international and regional levels, the article will then assess how courts in Botswana have applied this principle in various aspects of private law. These areas include, among others, custody, maintenance, adoption and access rights for unwed fathers. The article will show, through a discussion of decided cases, that the best interests of the child principle had permeated all aspects of child law even prior to the country’s enactment of the Children’s Act of 2009 and subsequent accession to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
TEACHING FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN BOTSWANA JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS: PROGRESS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
Get PDFThis paper aims to examine the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language in Botswana’s Junior Secondary schools since its inception in 2001 through an evaluation of progress made and the challenges faced so far. The paper thoroughly studies the objectives of teaching French in Botswana, the type of training received by teachers as well as the correlation between teacher action and learners’ performance. This is done through the use of classroom action video observations and interviews of eight in-service teachers and four student teachers of French in Junior Secondary schools. Documents related to the teaching and learning of French are also analysed. Findings obtained from classroom observations reveal that, despite the progress achieved in the area of teacher training and professional development, the main objective of teaching French, which is the development of learner’s communicative competence, and its implementation do not correlate. There is as a result need to discard the generalist approach to teaching, learning and teacher training and adopt a contextualized approach, in order to reinforce the relevance of French language teaching to developing globally competitive citizens in Botswana.
 
THE CASE FOR LOCALIZATION IN THE GROWING STUDY OF MANDARIN CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (CFL) IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to analyse current trends in the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a special focus on Botswana, and to map objectives, achievements and challenges. The paper finds that planners and decision-makers in government and the education sector as well as individual learners have embraced the study of Mandarin because of its perceived potential to deliver development opportunities. However, the paper also identifies inconsistences and gaps between stated national and individual objectives of Mandarin Chinese teaching and learning and the actual offering. In particular, the paper highlights concerns related to curriculum design, curriculum delivery and local human capacity development. The paper posits that the fast roll-out of Mandarin Chinese instruction in many African countries with assistance from China should stimulate the development of localized curricula and local expertise in the teaching of Mandarin Chinese and not detract from such efforts. Botswana is in an excellent position to spearhead such localization efforts since the country has developed a strong foundation in Mandarin Chinese instruction at the tertiary level
DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN BOTSWANA PUBLIC SECTOR
Get PDFThis assignment is a scrutiny of how Botswana (Democratic State), a politically stable country for the first time since independence terminated contract for essential services section in Government abruptly, due to conditional salary increase of 5% increase, hence Trade Unions proposing an increase from 16% to 13.8%, this was during Lt General Ian Khama Seretse Khama’s presidency. Failing to reach consensus, employees resorted to national strike which took eight weeks. "Ignorance of the law excuses not" and "ignorance of the law excuses no one" respectively; essential services employees, In terms of the Trade Dispute Act 2003, Cap 28: 02, (Laws of Botswana) every party to a dispute of interest has the right to strike or lockout if all the requisites of a lawful strike prescribed by the Act have been met. Even though every employee has the right to strike, it was argued that the industrial action by some of the employees was unlawful as they are classified as essential service employees. Therefore, the above statement abrupt essential services workers to strike, despite employee’s grievances. In this scenario, the unions have to be blamed for not assisting the essential workers to understand the repercussion of (strike) consequences of crossing the law’s path “ignorance of the law excuses not” and “ignorance of the law excuses no one” respectively
ISSUES SURROUNDING DISCLOSURE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Get PDFDisclosure of child sexual abuse can be an explosive and traumatic event for the child and the people who are intended to absorb the information. Described as a process of telling an adult about an incident of child sexual abuse, disclosure can be difficult to initiate as it involves a topic that is difficult and rarely openly discussed. A worldwide social problem, child sexual abuse is any sexual activity perpetrated against a minor by threat, force, intimidation or manipulation. The paper examined the range of factors associated with disclosures of child sexual abuse and strategies that can be employed by health care providers when dealing with issues related to disclosure of abuse.
Original research, systematic reviews and reports on disclosure of childhood sexual abuse were used to examine the problem. Factors that impact disclosure of child sexual abuse were examined looking at individual and developmental factors, family dynamics, community and the cultural-societal level factors. Sexual abuse undermines the psychological wellbeing of individuals and has long-term deleterious mental health effects. Healthcare professional are among the first responders to child sexual abuse. Issues around disclosure were interrogated and information yielded suggested strategies to facilitate disclosure. Specific practice guidelines for dealing with children and families that have experienced CSA are recommended. Future studies should focus on cultural difference that impact on the phenomena of disclosure
 
MOBILITY AND CULTURAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN AMA ATA AIDOO’S ANOWA
Get PDFThis paper examines the historiographical drama of Anowa, with a focus on the cultural, socio-economic, and spiritual specificities of the world that the characters inhabit and attempt to traverse. Ama Ata Aidoo elaborates in this play translocal practices and beliefs about metaphysical forces, specifically those that have an impact on the modern mobile African subject’s trajectories. The paper posits that in Anowa, Aidoo re-positions the autochthonous, re-maps the cultural frontier, and re-claims the space for Africa’s spiritual economies. It argues that by re-inscribing the cultural practices and beliefs onto the figures of Anowa and Kofi Ako, the playwright demonstrates that for the modern transnational and/or mobile African subject, roots and routes are intrinsically bound. The main insight of the paper is that the spatial assertions about practices of autochthony are connected to African teleologies of progress, and that these work in tension and in tandem with the temporal realities of global neoliberal capitalism
State Accountability in Botswana
Get PDFIn light of the importance that attaches to state accountability in modern governance, the paper evaluates the extent to which the state can be held to account for its decision-making in Botswana. It first proposes a tool by which to measure the quality of state accountability in states which purport to be constitutional democracies such as Botswana. Applying the tool, the paper finds that quality of state accountability in Botswana could be enhanced, for example, through better accommodation of socioeconomic rights under Botswana’s constitutional framework