Significance of Topaze by Marcel Pagnol from structuralist theory perspective

Abstract

There is limited literature about the fertility industry of assisted reproduction in the African context, partly because of the assumption that such markets and technologies are unsuitable for and unavailable in low-resource settings. However, with neo-liberalisation of healthcare and the rise of private-sector corporate hospitals, some countries in this region have become hubs for reproductive travel. Patients may fly to Kenya, Ghana and Uganda for surrogacy, and to South Africa for “egg safaris”, to get matched with South African gamete (egg and sperm) providers. More recently, there is the growing trend of white Afrikaner South African women flying to different parts of the world to provide their eggs and fulfil the need for making (white) babies for cheap in the global fertility market (Pande and Moll 2018). I argue that though the media and medical professionals frame these women as “naïve or greedy girls”, the frame of “biolabour” offers a far more complex lens for understanding their roles and responsibilities. Three key themes emerge: altruism and/or ambivalent maternity, responsible repropreuneurship, and cosmopolitan competency. As bio-labourers, the women find an opportunity to combine an act of responsible altruism with the opportunity for adventure. Bio-labour becomes a passport to see the world and become a global citizen. While a move away from the victim narrative to one of chosen (bio) labour challenges gendered assumptions, it also brings attention to the multiple forms of gendered risks and responsibilities embedded in these bio-markets.