Migration’s Role in Rising Obesity among Women of Zulu Ethnicity in Durban, South Africa

This article proposes to investigate perceptions on how migration is contributing to the rise of overweight and obesity mainly among female staff and students of Zulu ethnicity at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban. Through a cultural anthropology lens, this article interrogates the perceptions against the backdrop of rural-urban migration, and vice versa. From a public health perspective, both trends of overweight and obesity contribute significantly to the prevalence of nutrition-related, noncommunicable diseases (NR-NCDs) and chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDLs). Vignettes illustrate the findings, based on the following theoretical underpinnings. Since no single theory explains the above phenomena adequately, the theories applied are the acculturation theory; critical medical anthropology; postmodern feminism and structural symbolism. This article thus aims to help explain, from an ethnographic perspective, why in terms of problems with obesity Zulu women are among the worst affected in South Africa (after the US and the UK).