Grassroots literacy and the written record: Asbestos activism in South Africa[Note 1. I wish to thank Theresa Lillis and Carolyn McKinney ...]

This article uses two key terms – ‘grassroots literacy’ and the ‘written record’ – to examine writing produced by the Asbestos Interest Group ( AIG ), a community organization in Kuruman, South Africa. The article considers the formation of the AIG 's grassroots literacy in terms of the unequal distribution of semiotic resources in a stratified world system, with particular attention to how the allotment of the means of representation enables and constrains the capacity of texts to move across social locations. The article analyzes how the AIG negotiates the paperwork of state, legal, and medical bureaucracies in compensation cases for asbestos‐related disease. It examines how the AIG 's grassroots texts, such as monthly reports and handwritten/drawn maps, manage or not to circulate translocally, to take on semiotic mobility by making the AIG 's interests known in the written record. Lekwalonyana le, le dirisa mareomagolo a mabedi – ‘go ruta baagi go buisa le go kwala’ le ‘rekoto e e kwadilweng’ – go lekola mokwalo o o tlhagisitsweng ke Abestos Interest Group ( AIG ), mogatlho wa set haba kwa Kuruman, Aforika Borwa. Lekwalonyana le, le sekaseka go tlhamiwa ga go ruta baagi go buisa le go kwala ke AIG go ya ka go aba ga tiriso ya didiriswa tsa matshwao ka mokgwa o o sa lekalekaneng mo bathong go lebeletswe thata mokgwa wa go aba ka kemedi e e kgotshang le go thibela bokgoni ba dipolelwana tse di kgonang go fitlhelela batho mo ba nnang. Lekwalonyana le, le sekaseka mokgwa o AIG e buisanang le tiro ya dikwalo tsa puso, tsa semolao le maparego a boitekanelo mo go neeleng ditlhapiso mo dikgetseng tse di amanang le abesetose e e tlholang bolwetsi jwa mafatlha. [Setswana]