Constructing the self in later life: The life story of Selaelo Thias Kgatla (1949–)

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Constructing the self in later life: The life story of Selaelo Thias Kgatla (1949–)
 
Creator Landman, Christina
 
Subject — Thias Kgatla; Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa; Leadership; Oral History; Lebowakgoma; Polokwane
Description On 15 April 2014 the author conducted an interview with Selaelo Thias Kgatla (then 64) by means of a prearranged interview schedule to revaluate a life review. Kgatla’s years of academic and ecclesiastical involvement leading to his ordination as the minister of the Polokwane Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa at the age of 47 were considered. However, the focus was on the last 18 years before his retirement, which was to happen in December 2015. This period commenced with his ordination in 1997 and covered his involvement in church leadership as Assessor and later Moderator of the Northern Synod (since 1999) and as Moderator of the General Synod (since 2005), as well as his appointments as professor at the University of Limpopo in 1997 and at the University of Pretoria in 2010.In freezing this interview into the academic account given here, oral history and methodological sensitivities are considered. The interviewee’s ownership of his life review is acknowledged; his construction of the self as a coherent story of church leadership is respected; and the characteristics of remembering in later life are pointed out reverentially.The life review with Kgatla was expanded with interviews from colleagues and congregants of his choice who confirmed the construction of his life story as one of relationship and resistance. Finally, the author gives a concluding overview of aims achieved in the article in terms of oral methodology and the contents of a life review in which the interviewee constructed his life as a church leader on the interface between resistance and relationship.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2016-11-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v72i1.4210
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 72, No 1 (2016); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4210/8783 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4210/8782 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4210/8784 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4210/8711
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Christina Landman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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