“We Can’t Hide”: Reframing Shame About Dis/ability in Rural Namibia

• In Event: Roundtable Session 84
  In Roundtable Session: Human Capacity Building in Africa and in the Caribbean

Abstract

Children with dis/abilities in Namiba are known to face obstacles to exercise their human right to education. The body of literature cites a range of culprits; yet voices of parents of children with dis/abilities are often missing in the literature. Looking at the notion of parents’ shame as a reason of exclusion and drawing from Disability Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and sociocultural theory, this research provides a counter-narrative by foregrounding parent perspectives. Findings of this study indicate that parents do not hide their child with dis/abilities, but rather protect them. Parents were found to encourage their child to navigate “safe” places within the village and participate in gendered and age appropriate tasks, while protecting the child from unsafe places and people.

Author

• Margaret Bartlett, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee