Mary Louisa Cappelli

The Collapse of Mud Living Economies in Bessie Head’s Serowe the Village of the Rain Wind

Bessie Head’s ethnographic reportage in Serowe: The Village of the Rain Wind is an important historical document to locate the collapse of sustainable communities and reproductive generation. In this essay, I argue that Head’s ethnographic reportage at this historical intersection at the cusp of neoliberalism chronicles how international, national, and regional politics in collusion with transnational pharmaceutical companies undermine women’s reproductive bodies and family structures. The result is the reproductive collapse of tribal communities and the absorption of indigenous peoples into the global capitalist economy.