Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2022)

Agentive Intertextual Insertions: (Re)presentation of Albinism in Nwelezelanga: The Star Child’s Subtext

https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v11i1.193
Spemba Spemba
Mkwawa University College of Education and Stellenbosch university

Corresponding Author(s) : Spemba Spemba

spembawamama@yahoo.com

Journal of Humanities & Social Science (JHSS), Vol. 11 No. 1 (2022)

Abstract

The relationship between African traditional healers (sangomas) and persons with
albinism is contradictory. Sangomas are rumoured to fuel the narrative that body parts
of persons with albinism have magical powers, and so can be harnessed and used by
quick wealth-seekers. That narrative has claimed lives and agency of many albinos.
There is, however, an emerging trend for sangomas to revert this narrative through
media. A good example is Unathi Magubeni, a South African practicing sangoma, who
has authored the novel: Nwelezelanga: The Star Child (2016), on the topic. Borrowing
from critical ideas on intertextuality, disability studies and agency, this study analyses
Magubeni’s subtext to ascertain its activism on albinism. The study conducts an
intertextual analysis of the novel to find out how the text (de)humanises persons with
albinism, and whether it resists or affirms various perceptions and stereotypes
regarding albinism. It argues that intertexts in the novel ambivalently (re)signify beliefs,
stereotypes, and perceptions regarding albinism and persons with the condition.

Keywords

disability, traditional healing, albinism, intertextuality, agency
Agentive Intertextual Insertions: (Re)presentation of Albinism in Nwelezelanga: The Star Child’s Subtext. (2022). Journal of Humanities & Social Science (JHSS), 11(1). https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v11i1.193
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Agentive Intertextual Insertions: (Re)presentation of Albinism in Nwelezelanga: The Star Child’s Subtext. (2022). Journal of Humanities & Social Science (JHSS), 11(1). https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v11i1.193
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