Understanding kinship care of older persons: social constructions of family preservation and survival in a South African Muslim community

ABSTRACT This study examined kinship care arrangements of older persons in a South African Muslim community. The aim was to understand kinship care in this community in the context of culturally sensitive welfare services delivery. Using a Grounded Theory approach, older persons and their caregivers living in intergenerational households were interviewed about their living and care arrangements. A societal context of family life in circumstances of a socio-historical legacy of colonialism and apartheid formed the backdrop of the research. Religion and the country’s poor socio-economic conditions emerged as important drivers of kinship care. Family preservation and survival, constructed through maintaining intergenerational living, reciprocity and mutual support, and the authoritative status of the older persons in the home, characterised this environment. Kinship care was a means of fulfilling a religious duty and living in accordance with an Islamic life. However, these arrangements occurred both in support and at the expense of the older persons. Kinship care arrangements are replicated globally in both Muslim majority countries and where Muslims live as minorities in secular societies; they are not static and are influenced by societal conditions that can impact on the lives of older persons. These findings thus have relevance for Muslim communities generally.