Loneliness of older black South African women subjected to forcible relocation

Abstract

Background: A cohort of older black South African women, forcibly relocated during apartheid, has grown old in these places. Even after 50 years, residents in a rural township expressed no connection to place and ruptured intergenerational relations. Their sense of community was based almost exclusively on their links with others who shared their history of relocation.Objective: This article seeks to understand loneliness of a group of older women who have been rendered vulnerable by longstanding exclusion from community, services and material resources. We use loneliness as a metric for exclusion from social relations.Methods: Sixteen Setswana-speaking women in Ikageng, a township in North West Province of South Africa (age 61–73), participated in the Mmogo-method® and open-ended interviews. Textual data were analyzed using thematic analysis, visual data analysis of elements and symbolic representations of loneliness.Results: Loneliness is a powerfully unpleasant experience of not being able to interact with other people in general, or more specifically as a result of the loss of particular people (including spouses, parents and children) and isolation provoked by the impact of relational interactions and group dynamics. Loneliness was mitigated by socializing and gathering for traditional activities, performing spiritual rituals, and keeping busy individually or with others, thus reinforcing a core theme that any social interaction alleviates loneliness.Conclusions: Even though loneliness is powerfully unpleasant, it is an expression of the importance of social interactions formed in a particular context. In the face of longstanding societal exclusion and disconnection from community, social connections are central to identity and to survival.

A Conceptual Review of Loneliness in Adults: Qualitative Evidence Synthesis

“…Perhaps representing an advance in understandings of loneliness, six studies in this review proposed what we would refer to as multidimensional models of loneliness [29,37,63,69,82,94]. Multidimensional models of loneliness in studies of older people reflected the influence of interactions between relationship quality, becoming and being old, personal troubles/personality traits, and sickness on feelings of loneliness [29,37,94].…”

“…There were groups or contexts where the feeling of disconnection associated with social loneliness took specific forms. Cultural difference was reported as a potential source of social loneliness in older population groups [69,82]. For international students, the absence of intimate personal connections combined with a lack of cultural fit created 'cultural loneliness', a version of social loneliness generated by the absence of their cultural and linguistic settings [112].…”

“…In these models, social loneliness intertwines with emotional loneliness in complex ways revealing loneliness to be deeply or intensely felt, potentially hidden or masked, and diverse in experience. In two studies, the complexity of social loneliness was explored in terms of cultural difference and diversity [69,82]. Social loneliness was conceptualised as embodied and culturally nuanced in terms of physical, emotional, and spiritual expression [69].…”

“…Social loneliness was conceptualised as embodied and culturally nuanced in terms of physical, emotional, and spiritual expression [69]. Disrupted cultures and communities were linked with diverse cultural experience of loneliness [82]. Severe mental illness (SMI) had the effect of reducing or changing social networks even though many people with SMI desired to have greater social networks [93].…”

Psychological Adjustment and Guidance for Ageing Urban Women

“…Urban elderly women who have participated in the work, after retiring, due to their leading activities and social roles have changed. Moving from a work unit to a family, its social relations and living environment are more unfamiliar than before, plus children "leaving the nest", make them "lonely and lonely" (Botterill et al, 2016 ; Roos et al, 2019 ). The sense of loss makes them feel psychologically lost.…”