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Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa

Disseration(MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2025.

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Other Authors: Gogo, Safiyya
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2026
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Gogo, Safiyya
author_browse Gogo, Safiyya
author_facet Gogo, Safiyya
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Disseration(MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2025.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-07-01T04:09:02.517Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2026
publishDateRange 2026
publishDateSort 2026
publisher University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/107750 Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa Gogo, Safiyya u19210109@tuks.co.za Mkhwanazi, Nolwazi Silinda, Zilungile Nqobile UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Obstetric violence Black women South Africa Radical black theory Anti-black violence Disseration(MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2025. This research project provides a critical reading of South African obstetric violence literature. Using radical Black theory, it analyses the frameworks that leading South African and locally based non-South African scholars use to theorise obstetric violence against Black women in the country’s reproductive healthcare settings. I argue that applying radical Black Theory to this literature reveals a gap in the frameworks used by these influential, highly cited, scholars’ – these frameworks fail to capture and account for the gratuitous nature of the violence that Black women are exposed to in these settings. These scholars established that in South Africa, Black women are disproportionately vulnerable to obstetric violence as compared to women from other racial groups. However, they position gender as the primary conceptual category in their theorisations of this vulnerability, modifying it through secondary considerations of race. By adopting the integrative literature review as research methodology and by employing key concepts from radical Black Theory – i.e. social death, gratuitous violence, and natal alienation – in this thesis, I demonstrate how this gendered approach misrecognises obstetric violence as contingent rather than gratuitous. This prevents these scholars’ frameworks from being able to recognise that anti-Black violence is foundational to and constitutive of modern obstetric care institutions. Demonstrating the structural continuity of the historical appropriation of Black women’s reproductive capacities in contemporary obstetric violence, this project proposes that radical Black Theory offers an alternative framework that captures the gratuitous nature of obstetric violence against Black women. Political Sciences MA (Political Sciences) Restricted Faculty of Humanities SDG-03: Good health and well-being SDG-05: Gender equality 2026-01-30T12:48:43Z 2026-01-30T12:48:43Z 2026-04-20 2025-11-12 Dissertation * A2026 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/107750 10.25403/UPresearchdata.31209046 en © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Obstetric violence
Black women
South Africa
Radical black theory
Anti-black violence
Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title_full Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title_fullStr Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title_short Gratuitous violence: radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in South Africa
title_sort gratuitous violence radical black theory and obstetric violence against black women in south africa
topic UCTD
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Obstetric violence
Black women
South Africa
Radical black theory
Anti-black violence
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/107750