This essay has emerged through my research engagements with life history as a research method in anthropology. It is based on the life events of a woman artist. The past few decades have brought an explosion of cultural criticisms and also explorations of women’s creative expressions across cultures. Some of the queries addressed are, how do external forces shape the creativity of female artists. Also, how do creative women respond to such forces? Creative women, then, have a unique relationship to their cultural contexts, as well as to the creative genre to which they respond. This essay also delves into myths related to insanity and women. It discusses creativity, as a mode of engagement with rigid social structures.

Keywords

Life history; Women; Creativity; Body psyche; Insanity; Myths; Anthropology.

Background

In most African countries, the elderly face challenges that affect their health and wellbeing and are more pronounced because of the systemic factors of inadequate health care, food insecurity and the general care. Increasing population of the elderly persons in Uganda is raising concern than ever before. The purpose of this paper to ascertain care available to the rural elderly persons and their role as carers for their grandchildren and implications on their wellbeing.

Methods

This was a qualitative study conducted among the rural elderly aged 60 years and above in eight purposively selected district that included Lira, Nebbi, Kampala, Luwero, Pallisa, Jinja, Mbarara, and Ntungamo. The study sample consisted of 101 elderly person from whom in-depth interviews were conducted. Data was analysed using qualitative thematic content analysis.

Results

Rural elderly in Uganda face a lot of constraints that include access to healthcare and information, poor economic status, food insecurity and poor nutrition, and poor accommodation and housing conditions. Two broader themes emerged inductively from the analysis that include care available for the rural elderly and providing care to grandchildren. These themes generated several subthemes. Taking care of grandchildren crippled the elderly and reduced the economic benefits. That said some rural elderly were happy and felt fulfilled to care of the grandchildren despite the lack of resources.

Conclusion

The rural elderly in Uganda are living in doleful conditions with limited care and support. They need care but are the providers of care to the grandchildren. They are frails and may not afford to provide adequate care. They care for grandchildren many of whom are orphans and vulnerable yet they themselves need care. It is important the government and the community re-enforce this care not to put strain on elderly. The rural elderly unique challenges necessitates special targeting and mobilization of resources at the household, local, district and national levels.

Keywords

Grandparents; Care; Orphans; Grandchildren; Skip-generation; Uganda.

Background: Excess adiposity is a chronic condition that contributes to non-communicable
disease (NCD) related morbidities, mortalities and causes public health problems.
Objectives: The objectives of the present community based cross-sectional study were to assess
the prevalence of overweight and obesity and its socio-economic and demographic concomitants
among a group of Karbi women of Assam, Northeast India.
Material and Methods: The study was carried out among 600 Karbi married women aged 20-49
years in Karbi-Anglong district of Assam, Northeast India. Height and weight were recorded
and body mass index (BMI= weight (kg)/ height2
(m2
)} was calculated. The prevalence of
overweight (BMI≥23.00-24.99 kg/m2
) and obesity (BMI≥25.00 kg/m2
) were assessed using
the Asian-Pacific population reference cut-offs. Data on the socio-economic, demographic and
lifestyle variables were collected using a pre-structured questionnaire.
Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 17.33% and 14.33%, respectively.
Binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis showed that age at the time of interview, family size,
≥4 number of dependent children, alcohol consumption, tobacco use and monthly per-capita
income were the significantly risk factors for both combined overweight-obesity and obesity
independently (p<0.05). Step-wise multiple logistic regression showed that age at the time of
interview (30-39 years) (p<0.01), consumption of alcohol (p<0.05) and use of tobacco (p<0.05)
remain the significant risk factors for combined overweight-obesity; and age at the time of interview
(30-39 years) (p<0.01), monthly per-capita income (p<0.05) and number of dependent
children (p<0.01) for obesity.
Conclusion: Prevalence of overweight and obesity is emerging as a public health issue among
the indigenous Karbi women of Assam. The results suggest that increase in age, alcohol consumption,
tobacco use, number of dependent children and family income were the major predictive
variables that increases the prevalence of excess adiposity. Appropriate healthcare strategies
and intervention programmes are required to reduce subsequent complications of excess
adiposity in this population.