The Role of African Spirituality in the Provision of Kinship Care in the South African Context

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

How do kinship care deal with rebellious children?  Are kinship care providers as effective as one's own parents? 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thank you very much for reviewing this manuscript. I have done the suggested corrections. Please see the attachments.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I congratulate the author on the choice of the issue of his work. The topic of foster care for orphaned children is important and topical not only in the context of African culture, but also in communities belonging to other cultural circles. However, foster care systems for orphaned children in Western countries are quite similar and are already well recognized in various scientific studies. The author of this study undertook an original research problem expressed in the question: how does African spirituality nurture kinship care in South Africa, and what benefits does it bring to children and youth in kinship care? The research methodology is briefly described and does not raise any major concerns. The scope of the qualitative research conducted is small. It is good that the author honestly indicated that the research was conducted in Robbinsdale, a rural community in South Africa's Mpumalanga province. The research material includes interviews with 21 people from 15 families. This is not impressive material, but for the use of one article it is sufficient. In my opinion, the purpose of the study was accomplished and well presented in the manuscript.

However, one critical remark is necessary, and it concerns the conclusions. The conclusions are too sparse, as they contain only three sentences, one of which is a statement borrowed from Bhagwan. This is far too little for an article in a prestigious scientific journal indexed in SCOPUS. I recommend that more synthetic conclusions be drawn showing the actual value of African spirituality in kinship care. The idea is to show the value of spirituality in its concrete manifestations, which were analyzed in the article. In addition, from the point of view of religious praxeology, it would be good to formulate some postulates about the future practice of foster care for orphaned children in African culture.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking time to review this manuscript. I have done the suggested corrections. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf