A phenomenological analysis of African adolescents' meaning of dagga use within changing social relations

Abstract

The meaning of dagga use within changing social relations among African adolescents is explained. At the moment the accumulated data indicates that dagga use among people of all age and race groups in Southern Africa during the pre-industrial era was not accompanied by dagga-related problems. It is assumed that today's prevalent drug 'abuse' by the youth results from their experience of who they are and the nature of the world they live in. Research participants represented three generations of Africans. Interviews were unstructed. The common experience in the use of the substance among members of the three generations (grand-parent, parent and sibling) was normlessness, purposelessness and powerlessness, accompanied by feelings of meaningless. The findings of the preliminary study pose a challenge for the traditional role of a clinician (to re-construct a person's life) and indicate a need to transform a dagga abuser's total world.