Life & Times of Magda A: Telling a Story of Violence in South Africa

How to write about violence? Most recent anthropological works have dealt with this question in terms of either political economy, narratives, or performance. Using J. M. Coetzee'sLife & Times of Michael Kas a pre‐text, an ethnological inquiry into violence is proposed through the biography of a young South African woman. The reconstitution of her life story through informal interactions and in‐depth interviews embedded in long‐term research in her home community attempts to inscribe her life in its times, in other words, to articulate an experience of extreme poverty and sexual abuse and later of living with HIV and becoming involved in AIDS activism with the historical condition of apartheid and its aftermath. Taking seriously the young woman's perspective on her biography implies both epistemological and ethical issues. As it unfolds through her narrative, relocated in its social context, her story can be read as the progressive appropriation of an imposed fate, the slow shift from subordination to subjectification and, finally, a form of political education to violence.