JENDA: A JOURNAL OF CULTURE AND AFRICAN WOMEN STUDIES ISSN: 1530-5686 Issue 7 (2005)

Catherine Ndinda and Korwa Adar

Abstract

This paper discusses the interaction of nationalist and feminist goals in South Africa.[1] It traces the pursuit of feminist objectives of African women and White women in South Africa and illustrates how feminist goals took a secondary position until nationalist objectives had been achieved. The divisive nature of feminism becomes evident in the racialised nature of the suffragist movement which, although claimed to fight for the rights of women, was contented with the disenfranchisement of Black women and men. The pursuit of black women’s rights occurred alongside the pursuit of their nationalist goals. The cases of India and Ireland suggest that feminist goals have always had to wait until the achievement of nationalist goals. Although the need to address feminist goals was recognised early in the liberation movement, it is only after the transition to democracy in 1994 that we see progressive legislation and policies addressing feminist concerns. As this paper argues, achieving feminist objectives needs to move from paper to practice.

Introduction

The nature of the nationalist and feminist goals in South Africa as elsewhere in the world has been changing. In examining the nationalist goals in South Africa, one must bear in mind that there have been different kinds of nationalism defined along racial lines. Nationalism in South Africa took a racial character in that Afrikaner nationalism aimed at liberation from British dominance and the need to achieve white privilege at the expense of the rights of the African majority. With the formation of the Union of South Africa in which the British and Boer Republics united to form the Republic of South Africa, all Blacks (Africans, Coloureds and Indians) lost the remaining political rights they had. This saw the formation of various Black organisations all fighting for the liberation of their people from white supremacist rule. African nationalism was driven by the need to repossess what had been illegally appropriated by the white minority. In the pursuit of nationalist goals feminist goals were also articulated though their achievement seems to have come after the nationalist goals.

The article aims to examine how nationalist goals have either facilitated or obstructed the pursuit of feminist goals by focusing on African nationalism in South Africa. It focuses on the ANC as the dominant movement that represented African nationalism and examines women’s position within the movement and how women articulated their nationalist and feminist goals. Briefly citing the examples of India and Ireland the article goes on to highlight the interaction of nationalist and feminist goals in South Africa and how this has shaped the status of women. Finally, it concludes by highlighting the issues that emerge from the discussion.

African Nationalism

When one thinks of African nationalism in South Africa, the name that immediately comes to mind is the African National Congress (ANC). However it should be noted that African nationalism was represented by various organizations such as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Nonetheless, the ANC often comes up because it is the party that appeared to represent the diverse interests of a wide cross-section of the South African society. The discussion in this article therefore, makes reference to the ANC as embodiment of South African Black[2] nationalism.

When the ANC was founded in 1912 it mainly comprised of Africans, but with time it joined with the Indian congress and the South African Communist party (Walker 1990a, 9). The aim of the ANC was to establish a democratic government where all people regardless of race, creed, or religion would have equal opportunities. This was not favored by the white minority who were privileged by the apartheid regime. The ideals of the ANC which stood for liberty, majority rule and equality, were diametrically opposed to those of the Nationalist Party (NP) that represented White supremacy. The aim of the NP was to protect White privilege through racial discrimination and segregation. Inequality was the hallmark of the apartheid policies and laws formulated under the Nationalist rule.

The African National Congress

In 1910 the union of South Africa was formed (Walker 1990a). This comprised of the Cape, Transvaal, Natal, and Orange Free State (OFS). The union was based on white supremacy and it laid the foundation stone for white male hegemony over South Africa. That the union was a men’s affair is illustrated by the fact that only white men and some Black men in the Cape who met the requirements of property ownership and education, had voting rights. Neither white nor Black women had the franchise (Walker 1990b, 314).

In South Africa as elsewhere, the suffrage movement was led by mostly White English-speaking middle class women such as Olive Schreiner. In Ireland, the suffragist movement was led by Protestant and unionist women just as in Britain and the United States. Suffragists in South Africa were campaigning for their rights as white women and not just as women. White men held the view that it was unnatural for women to participate in politics and those women who dared to were perceived as eccentrics at best, dangerous subversives or lunatics at worst. The hostility shown to the women suffragists is encapsulated in the words of the Natal Mercury, which on reporting on the public meetings held by the women commented that “We hope the women suffragists have enjoyed their picnic in Durban, but we do not think the political effect of their visit can have rewarded their endeavors, and we cannot pretend that we have any regrets at their non-success” (Walker 1990b, 327).

Although the suffragist movement is presented as a White women’s affair, it is worth noting that during this period, the question was not simply the enfranchisement of women only but also the disenfranchisement of Blacks. That African women were much concerned about issues that affected their gender is demonstrated by the account of one African woman, Charlotte Maxeke, a leader who worked and organized fellow women to address social and political issues that confronted their community (Wells 1991, 16). Yet, when suffragist movement invited African women such as Charlotte Maxeke to address their meetings, the issues raised by these women were not received as political but rather welfarist (Walker 1990b, 329). It was the material conditions of their existence that caused them to organize as women and advocate for the improvement of these. Among the African politicians, women’s suffrage was not an issue while their own voting rights were not guaranteed. During this period only a small section of African men in the Cape had voting rights. The suffrage issue was not viewed as just a feminist issue but one that affected a whole race.

White women were granted the franchise in 1930 but this was the expense of the African men at the Cape who lost it (Walker 1990b, 314). With the enfranchisement of white women all Africans lost the franchise. It became clear that the suffragist movement did not represent the interests of all women in South Africa but only those of White women. It was a racist movement that championed the cause of white women and blatantly disregarded the rights of all Black (used in the inclusive sense to refer to Africans, Indians and Coloureds) women and men. From this point onwards it became evident that class and race interests interacted to shape the nature of political consciousness in South Africa and nature of the African nationalist movement. This in itself signaled the long-lasting differences in the feminist concerns of African and White women in South Africa.

The enfranchisement of white women and the disenfranchisement of all Africans, men and women, deepened the rift between African women and white women. Before African women could demand their own rights, the voting rights of all Africans had to be guaranteed. African women were driven into political activity not by issues that affected them as women but rather by the issues that affected their race as a whole. These issues included the appropriation of land, through the Land Act of 1913 in which Africans were left with seven percent of the land while the rest reverted to the White minority (Wells 1991, 4); the introduction of the Urban Areas Act which introduced the pass system aimed at controlling the movement of Africans into urban areas and which also introduced segregated housing policies in urban areas (Morris 1981). The promulgation of the Native Administration Act of 1927 recognized customary marriages and bride-wealth. Women married under customary law were regarded as minors and as Walker indicates, “In Natal, the legal position of African women was even worse, since the Act preserved the code of customary law that had been adopted in 1891, turning African women into perpetual minors, regardless of their marital status and age (Walker 1990c, 185). It is against the background of political repression that the black women’s movement took shape to fight for the liberation against white supremacy in South Africa.

Various nationalist organizations, such as the ANC, the South African Communist party of South Africa (SACP) and the trade union movement welcomed the participation of women. However, it should be noted that women in these organizations were relegated to the periphery. While the ANC was opposed to its exclusion from the decision making process in the country, it had no problem with excluding women from that very process. In fact, it was only in 1943 that the ANC came out in full support of a universal suffrage that included women (Walker 1990b, 315).

The relegation of women to the periphery of their organizations does not imply that women did not make any contributions to the nationalist movement. As early as 1913, women in the Orange Free State (OFS) protested against the imposition of pass laws (Wells 1991, 30). In the OFS, both African men and women were required to carry passes pertaining to a whole range of issues some of which included, stand permits, residential permits, visitor permits and seeking work permits among others. Such a myriad of permits severely restricted the mobility of Africans thereby limiting their economic opportunities. However African women were the most oppressed by the pass laws. According to the OFS municipality by-laws, no ‘native’ women were supposed to be found in the OFS municipality unless they were employed by the European settlers (Wells 1991, 12-13). Wells (1991) argues that the aim of requiring that all women who worked for Whites in Bloemfontein to carry permits was to ensure that African women got into the domestic service of Whites. The analyst goes on to note that “when pass laws were strictly enforced, housewives and workers in the informal sector suffered most. They were often unable to meet the requirements for a pass or service book, because they did not work for Whites” (Wells 1991, 13). The insistence by local authorities on the control of African women’s movement into urban areas did not stop their migration. In 1913 Women in the Orange Free State rose up in protest against influx control policies which aimed at imposing the pass system on them (Walker 1990c, 185).

The 1913 women’s protest against pass laws was a feminist endeavor in that it united them in the fight against their own oppression as women regardless of their class differences. The profile of the protestors indicated that “Many of these women were the wives of the educated township elite. They resented passes particularly because they were treated differently than their husbands. The Free State, like other provinces, exempted men of high educational or economic status from pass laws, but their wives did not share this privilege. Consequently, the town’s elite black women joined forces with the poorest and most unskilled workers to lead the anti-pass campaigns of 1913” (Wells 1991, 16). The importance of the 1913 women’s protest is a mark of black women’s organizing around feminist and nationalist goals in South Africa. Wells (1991) notes that the 1913 campaign against pass laws drew the attention of the ANC to women’s issues and resulted in the formation of the Bantu Women’s League (BWL) in 1918, the forbearer of the ANC-Women’s League. According to Wells, “This was the first political organization of black women at a national level. The BWL immediately acted on the issue which had brought the women together- passes. When the government threatened to extend passes to women in the Natives Urban Areas Bill, Charlotte Maxeke called on women to renew resistance to passes. In 1918 she led a BWL deputation to see Prime Minister Botha about the pass laws in the Orange Free State . . . Botha repeatedly assured Mrs Maxeke and other SANNC leaders that he had no intention of making women carry passes” (Wells 1991, 35). Nationalist and feminist goals from 1913 onwards were pursued simultaneously. However, as this essay shows, arguments were often advanced that feminism was in itself a divisive force as long as nationalist goals remained unachieved.

From 1913 onwards, various attempts were made by local authorities to impose the pass system on women, but it was not until the Afrikaners through the Nationalist Party took over, and institutionalized racial discrimination and segregation in what became known as apartheid. Throughout the colonial period successive governments had sought to control the movement of African women, by 1930, both African men and women were prohibited from moving to the urban areas through the amendment of the Urban Areas Act of 1923 and its subsequent amendments in 1930 and 1937 (Wells 1991, 38; Morris 1981, 23-24). In addition to controlling the movement of Africans who sought employment in urban areas by requiring them to have permission from their local authorities, women faced more restrictions. According to Walker “Women were subjected to an additional constraint that underscored their legal dependence on men: in order to receive the necessary permission, they had to furnish proof that their husband or father had been resident and continuously employed in town for more than two years and that accommodation was available for them (Walker 1990c, 186). Pass laws were devised as a way of controlling the mobility of Africans from the reserves. The pass book was a form of identification but what made it most detestable was the information that it had to provide; pass books had to include where the holder lived, where he/she was employed, whether the taxes had been paid and other information that was meant to ensure total control by the apartheid regime (Ramphele 1993, 17). Passbooks had to be produced at all points of contact with officials and could be used to control every aspect of life.

While it was not until 1952 that African women had to carry passes the document was the more oppressive to women because it contained a section for consent by the district commissioner, and for the father, male guardian or husband to allow women to work or live in another district (Walker 1990c, 186; Wells 1991, 39). This was not African but rather a racist manoeuvre by the regime that gave African men power over African women. By requiring African women to get approval from their male relatives and male authorities to travel to the cities, the apartheid regime institutionalized the oppression of African women and put them under the mercy of African men. Women were constantly harassed and abused by police for failing to carry passes. It is against such injustice against them as race and as women that African women protested.

The widespread resistance to the introduction of passes gained momentum on 9th August 1956 when women from different organizations marched to the Union Buildings (the seat of the government) to demonstrate against the imposition of the reference books but there was no government official to receive their demands. Women from every corner of the country, with babies strapped on their backs, listened to the protests delivered by their leaders. The significance of the women’s march was encapsulated in the feminist slogan composed for the occasion, “Strijdom, you have struck a woman you have struck a rock” (Walker 1990b, 329). The women’s march was the first march of its type where South African women—including White women—united to champion a feminist cause, the abolition of passes for women.

That the women’s protest was both a feminist and nationalist concern is indicated by the statements issued by the Federation of South African Women, “Women are not afraid of suffering for the sake of their children and their homes. Women have an answer to the threats to their families and their future. Women will not face a future imprisoned in the pass laws. Women will fight for the right to live and move freely as human beings (Walker 1990b, 329). Women were not involved in the nationalist movement as wives but rather as mothers. Their aim was to protect the family institution that had already been severely disrupted by numerous influx control policies already in place. The women argued that the family would be irreparably destroyed as the introduction of passes for women meant that if at any time both parents were arrested for pass offences, their children would be left destitute. While motherhood in Western societies is associated with submission and passivity, this cannot be said to be the case in African societies as illustrated by the women’s protest in defense of the family institution (Walker 1990b, 329).

Two years before passes for women were introduced the apartheid government had in 1950 passed the Group Areas Act which defined where people lived along racial lines (Morris 1981, 42). This was the first institutionalised form of apartheid city planning, an endeavour that saw the reorganisation of the urban landscape, the uprooting of whole communities from their homes and the resettlement of these in new environments, all in the name of enforcing racial segregation. With the enactment of the Group Areas Act of 1950 people were displaced from areas which were subsequently declared for Whites only, for example, Cato Manor in Durban, District Six in Cape Town and Sophia Town in Johannesburg. According to Hart, “Implementation of the Group Areas Act has seen the destruction and remaking of countless urban landscapes and the displacement of many thousands of …people from their homes, communities, and local environments (Hart 1990, 124). The compensation given to some of the people was below the market value of their properties. Women and men who had been renting houses in the areas that were affected by removals were neither compensated nor resettled along with the property owners. Compensation considered only the loss of the immovable property and therefore lodgers were not considered as having lost any property. The displacement through the removals led to a sense of dislocation and the violent way in which these were carried out resulted in the loss of personal belongings for which residents (owners and lodgers) were not compensated. In Durban, the enforcement of the Group Areas Act resulted in the clearance of various settlements, including Cato Manor, where the process began in 1958 was complete by 1965. About 6,062 shacks were cleared and some 82,826 residents settled in the newly established townships of Kwa Mashu and Umlazi (Maasdorp 1984, 39). Although both men and women suffered the indignity of forced removals, women bore the brunt of homelessness as the conditions of relocation and residence in urban areas were largely biased against them.

Writing about the clearance of Cato Manor and the conditions for relocation to Kwa Mashu Ian Edwards (1996) notes that “a woman could only acquire domicility rights to live in Durban if she had been born in the city or had been formally employed by one employer for ten years or by various employers for fifteen years” (Edwards 1996, 121). To qualify for accommodation in Kwa Mashu, the resettlement area, individuals had to be household heads in addition to having legal rights to live in the city. According to Edwards (1996), women who had no domiciliary rights could acquire them through marriage. Widows, divorced, or separated women who had no children did not qualify for family accommodation to the relocation area, Kwa Mashu. Such measures meant that single women were excluded from access to housing and childless women automatically lost their housing on the death of their husbands (Morris, 1981). Women were not considered household heads unless they had formal employment and were legally emancipated. They had to turn from their self-employment in the informal sector where they sold beer, and turn to formal employment “lawful occupations” (Edwards 1996, 122) if they wanted residence in the city. The relocation to Kwa Mashu added to the financial problems of those who qualified for the housing as the cost of accommodation was high.

Apartheid, which lasted for more than 40 years in South Africa, was a system of racial discrimination with Whites being the most privileged and Africans being the most disadvantaged (Tomlison 1998, 138). African men were oppressed by the apartheid regime, but African women were most oppressed and examples of their greater level of oppression abound (Hassim 1991, 68). African men could get employment in the cities, but the movement of African women was restricted through laws and regulations. In 1964, a total ban was placed on the entry of African women into the urban areas outside the reserves except on a visitor’s permit. Only women who were already in employment and those who had the rights of residence could stay in urban areas but others could only come to the cities as contract workers (Morris 1981, 74). Such regulations excluded African women from the cities which had better economic opportunities than the reserves. Worse was the fact that while oppressing all African women, distinction was made between the married and unmarried women. Married women had more privileges in that wives and children of African men who qualified for urban residence were not required to live in labor depots like the single women. The aim of confining single women in labor depots was to be able to track their movement and deport them back to the rural areas if they failed to secure employment. Walker (1990c) argues that such control measures on the movement of African women failed since they were not required to have work permits.

The African women who found their way into the cities were considered illegal aliens by the authorities and therefore were not provided with accommodation. Due to their limited earning capacity most women could not afford rental housing provided in the African townships (Dawood 1998, 30). They had to provide for their own accommodation in the form of shacks on the city peripheries, where basic infrastructural facilities were lacking. Some found accommodation in single sex hostels (Hannsman 1993, 22). Others had no choice, but to live with their male relatives in overcrowded male hostels (Ramphele 1991, 17). It is out of this context of racial and gender oppression that African women, especially those in urban areas, emerge with greater housing needs than other social categories in South Africa.

The oppression of Africans who were perceived as the subaltern despite being the most populous group in South Africa brought about a political consciousness among African women who joined hands to fight the common enemy (the white supremacist government). At this point they protested not simply as women but as part of the oppressed group. The political activism of African women during this time should not be construed as aimed at maintaining patriarchal power. Although African women were involved in the nationalist struggle from the beginning, issues that affected them as a gender took a back seat as long as the national goals remained unmet. As in other nationalist struggles, women’s issues would be addressed after the nationalist goals had been met. This seems to have been the trend that was taken by the Irish nationalist movement in granting the franchise to the Irish women (Ward 1993).

For the Irish nationalists, national goals had to be met first before issues of women’s rights could be considered. Following the enfranchisement of women in 1922, there was no progressive legislation in Ireland for women. A key issue arising from Ward’s (1993) analysis of the Irish suffragist movement is that women are always told to wait till the revolution has come in order to claim their rights. Both in Ireland and India (Ward 1993; Forbes 1982, 534) the women’s movement lost after the national question had been resolved. In India women continued grappling with issues of poverty and illiteracy after independence.

Just like the nationalist movement in Ireland, the nationalist movement in India put nationalist goals before issues of gender (Forbes 1982, 534). For the Indian nationalists, women’s issues would be considered after British hegemony had been uprooted in India. However these promises by Indian politicians were long coming. Even with the achievement of independence in 1947, women’s concerns still occupied a back seat (1982, 536). In fact women were not included in the national development plans. The feminist concerns of Indian women such as education, eradication of poverty and equality of opportunities for all Indian women were not addressed by the nationalist movement but by the women’s movement itself.

The Interaction of Nationalist and Feminist Goals in South Africa

The main goal of the nationalist movement in South Africa was the dismantling of white hegemony and the establishment of a democratic order. “One of the legacies of apartheid was the discrimination against women” (Cock 1991, 28) The classical socialist view holds the view that the transition to socialism is the way to eliminate gender oppression (Hassim 1991, 72; Tong 1989, 191). Taking such a position implies that while the struggle for liberation continues, women’s concerns are likely to be subsumed under the broader nationalist agenda. However, the socialist feminist position slightly differs from that of the classical socialists. The position women’s issues take in nationalist movements is likely to influence the development strategies adapted after liberation.

The ANC being aware of the assumptions held was careful to note that “The experience of other societies has shown that the emancipation of women is not a by-product of struggle for democracy, national liberation or socialism” (Cock 1991, 20). Women within the ANC went on to stress that gender equality had to be addressed in its own right within the broader democratic movement in general, and within the ANC in particular. Some analysts were of the view that women’s issues would not be sufficiently addressed within the broader nationalist movement if there was not a strong women’s movement. A strong women’s movement would ensure that women’s issues were not reduced to insignificance in the face the nationalist demands. The argument was that women’s demands would be met if they organized independently of the nationalist movement.

Political parties such as the ANC saw the focus on feminist concerns while apartheid was still intact as a strategy to keep both black men and women under oppression (Walker 1990b, 314-315; Hassim 1991, 68). Focusing on feminist concerns when a whole race was under oppression was not feasible. Ending feminist oppression would be meaningless while racist oppression remained intact. The nationalist goal of dismantling apartheid had to be achieved first for it affected all aspects of black people’s lives.

While some analysts would account for women’s oppression and seek solutions based on the various theoretical frameworks (liberal, Marxist and radical feminism) women’s problems are more complex than is apparent from the face value. Using one of the theoretical frameworks to try and understand women’s problems would be insufficient. Marxist feminists perceive class relations and the capitalist system as underlying women’s subordination (Tong 1989, 64). Oppression is perceived as deriving from a system that benefits from women’s exploitation On the other hand; liberal feminists attribute women’s oppression to socialization into a range of roles and the way these roles are reinforced by a culture that views women as different from men. For radical feminists, men are the source of women’s problems (1989, 61). Socialist feminists contend that the factors such as class, gender or race are not autonomous and are inadequate on their own in accounting of the subordinate position of women in society. Instead socialist feminism sees such factors (race, gender, class) as interacting to shape women’s experiences (1989). Women’s problems according to the socialist feminists may be understood in terms of factors such as race gender, ethnicity and religion and not in terms of one particular factor.

Notwithstanding, the value of these grand theoretical frameworks for explicating women’s oppression, it is important to understand women’s problems in South Africa. Women’s subordination derives from social structures, be they in religion, politics, economics or ideology. The structures that generate women’s experiences of oppression depend on the society under analysis. In the case of South Africa, women’s experiences have been shaped by their involvement in the liberation movement, their race, gender, culture and work, among other factors (Hassim 1991, 69). Women who played key roles in the liberation movement were relegated to the periphery after the national goals had been achieved. An example is Winnie Mandela, whose significance as a leader in the liberation movement has been reduced by the male controlled press, because of mistakes that were made during the struggle. As a result the press has demonized her in a sexual way. It should also be remembered that the work and experience of South African women in the liberation movement is not written by official historiographers.

Essentialism goes with nationalist notions. For instance in Ireland it was assumed that for one to be Irish they had to be Catholic. Forbes (1982) examines what it means to be an Indian woman. The notion of what it is to be an Indian woman negates the dynamism of change and this amounts to unwarranted generalization. Feminism challenges the essentialist notions that often go with nationalism. From the analysis of women’s positions in Ireland after independence and that of women in India, one issue seems to emerge. That is, the invisibility of women on the post-revolutionary state. In the post-colonial theory, the subaltern, subordinate or ‘other’ is shown to have been disempowered by colonialism. The subordinated as a result responded and reacted together in the fight for liberation. Women as one group of the subaltern have contemporaneous resistance at the time of oppression. Forms of strength may emerge due to oppression. To be the subaltern can lead to the development of a different, androgynous mix and this appears to have been the case during the struggle for liberation in South Africa.

With the transition to democracy in 1994, the progressive legislation and sectoral policies, it would be expected that the position of African women has been radically changed. Yet rampant poverty and the violation of women’s rights reinforce the notion that the achievement of nationalist goals does not automatically lead to gender equality or the attainment of feminist goals. Though the goal of national liberation from apartheid has been achieved, feminist goals are yet to be achieved. Women continue to suffer oppression in various ways and this entails that the feminist struggle to liberate women from the various forms of oppression in South Africa has to continue. Feminist concerns in South Africa border on meeting the physical needs of the women such as poverty alleviation, addressing violence against women and their reproductive rights. Development planning in the new South Africa has to address these issues if feminist concerns are to be met.

In thinking about feminist goals in South Africa one has to bear in mind that the South African society is diverse and therefore the needs of women differ in terms of their race and class, among other variables. One cannot talk of liberating women from the kitchen while it is true that most women in South Africa have no kitchens. The issues that the feminist movement in South Africa has to deal with are material. They relate to the physical well being of the majority of women for example, poverty, access to education, shelter and other basic necessities. Poverty among women in South Africa can largely be attributed to the legacy of apartheid that discriminated against African women in all aspects, and especially with regard to the access to economic opportunities.

There are issues that relate to the equality of opportunities within the job market. The highly skilled African women have certainly benefited from the progressive legislation and policies. However, majority of African women, with low levels of education and skills remain at the bottom strata of society, with about forty eight percent earning a monthly income of R500 or less (Statistics South Africa, 2000). It is not sufficient for the rights of women to be enshrined in the constitution. These rights must be seen to be applied in the lived experiences of all women in South Africa.

Housing is recognised as a fundamental human right, and the South African government has since 1994 provided the opportunity for low-income households to access housing through a once-off capital subsidy (Adler & Oelofse 1996, 118; Department of Housing (DOH 1998, 9). The housing subsidy is designed such a way that it provides a housing opportunity but not a complete housing unit. The subsidy is adequate to provide infrastructural services and a core unit. The assumption behind the design of the subsidy is that households are likely to improve on the existing structure over time as funds become available. In essence, the design of the subsidy provides households with the opportunity to engage in incremental housing.

Yet the ability of households to meet their housing needs vary in terms of race, gender and class. Historically, access to housing in South Africa has been determined by race (Tomlinson, 1998, 138). President Mbeki in the State of the Nation Address on 8th February 2001 noted that about eighty four percent of the poor in South Africa are Africans (Mbeki, 2001). While the racial composition of poverty is given prominence, the feminisation of poverty in South Africa is obfuscated by the lack of gender differentiated data in population surveys; as President Mbeki stated, “Further disaggregation of the economic figures . . . would show that the most disadvantaged in our country are Black women” (Mbeki 2001). Mbeki’s view was corroborated by the 1996 Census, which showed that about one third of White women and two thirds of White men earned more than R3500 per month. In contrast, only one in twenty of Black women or men fall into the same income category (R3500 and above) (Statistics South Africa, 1996). In terms of gender, female-headed households comprise the majority of the poor. Poverty can therefore be seen to have a strong racial and gender dimension in South Africa, with African women being the most vulnerable. In terms of access to housing, it implies that most of those in need of housing are Africans and women in particular. Yet, given their weak economic position, the question that arises is whether women within the current design of the housing subsidy are able to incrementally improve their housing conditions.

Women are either unemployed (Statistics South Africa 2000) or self-employed in the informal sector in which their incomes fluctuate according to seasons (Ndinda 1997, 45). The October Household survey 1999 shows that unemployment rates among economically active women (32.3 percent) are higher than among men (22.7 percent) (Statistics South Africa 2000). However the rate of unemployment among economically active African women is highest (35 percent) compared to all other social categories (Statistics South Africa 2000). Due to their low and unsteady income flows, banks are often unwilling to extend credit to women as they are seen as a high credit risk group and this becomes an obstacle in accessing housing finance (Ndinda, 2002, 5).

Recent research (Ndinda 2002, 370) suggests gender differences in the consolidation of subsidy housing in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) are evident. Female-headed households in case studies done in KwaZulu-Natal, improved two rooms only while among male-headed households the number of rooms improved was five and above. The main constraint to accessing housing finance among the women was cited as low income while the men cited the lack of access to credit. Furthermore, most women depended on hired builders for their construction unlike the male-headed households in which there was a relatively higher proportion of houses built by their members. Thus the low subsidy residual in some of the areas, coupled with costs of hiring labour for house construction meant that female-headed households drained the few resources in accessing the starter unit and in some cases in improving the wattle and daub structures. This suggests that although incremental housing as advocated in government policy may be appropriate in certain contexts, variables such as gender, type of household and age of household members influence its success. The achievement of nationalist goals provided the space for the formulation of gender sensitive policies and legislation supportive to feminist goals. However, as the case of housing shows, factors such as lack of credit and entrenched patriarchal gender ideology continue to constrain women’s access to shelter, among other basic needs. Examples of gender sensitive policies include the Domestic Violence Act of 1998; Recognition of Customary Marriages 1998; Child Maintenance Act and Abortion Act among others).

Violence against women continues to confront women and children. Cock (1991) indicated that about 1000 women were raped per day and that sixty percent of all South African men battered their wives (Cock 1991, 29). Despite the passing of the Domestic Violence Act in 1999, violence against women and children continues unabated. Wife battering is not frequently reported because it is assumed that some amount of violence against women is normal. Rape violates the rights of a woman over her own body. South Africa currently has one of the highest rape incidences in the world. The incidences of rape are recorded in terms of the number of women raped per minute. Existing statistics suggest that about 51,249 rapes were recorded in 1999 and 52,860 in 2000 (Khan 2002). Khan points out that the rate of rape increased by twenty-eight percent from 1994 to 2001 (2002). This shows the extent to which women’s rights are violated and violence remains an issue of concern to women in South Africa. Although the nationalist goals have largely been achieved, the achievement of feminist goals remains a far cry from what is envisaged in the South African constitution and successive legislation.

Whereas in the West the family has been seen as a tool of oppression, it is one of the institutions that the legacy of apartheid denied African women. With African men working in the mines and only visiting their homes once a year, the African family was irretrievably changed. Some of the men that went to work in the mines never returned and instead adapted to urban life and married urban women. Women left to care for the homesteads in the rural areas also found their way to the urban areas where they too eked out a living through domestic work and informal sector activities such as brewing beer, selling fruits and vegetables among other activities. Walker (1990c) notes that the migrant labor system radically altered the internal relationships and social institutions of Africans in the rural areas of South Africa. The migrant labor system put the family under severe test as the relationship between the sexes and generations were altered by the wage economy. Unlike before when seniority was based on social position and age, the wage economy meant that recognition and prestige were bestowed on those with income. Whereas women enjoyed status by virtue of their age and seniority in marriage, the wage economy relegated them to the bottom of the social strata as they were not drawn into the mining economy. The long absence of men from their homes led to the breakdown of marriages, illegitimacy and lack of respect for elders as income now gave status to the young men who were drawn into the mining economy. Walker illustrates the impact of the system on the African family by posing that

While the migrant labor system tied the male migrant’s long-term security to his rural home, thereby increasing the importance of the marital relationship to him, the prolonged absence of men from their wives and children strained the emotional and economic bonds holding the family together. Women accustomed to fending for themselves were less inclined to submit to the authority of their husbands on his infrequent visits home. . . . New, female-centered family forms were beginning to emerge in both the rural and urban areas. (Walker 1990c, 193).

As a result of the migrant labor system, the African family became fragmented and even collapsed. South African women need to reclaim this institution that was destroyed by the migrant labor system. Addressing feminist goals in South Africa must include the protection of the family institution from capitalist disruption as was the case in the migrant labor system.

The nationalist goals of liberation from the nefarious apartheid regime appear to have been achieved. Yet feminist goals which were given a back seat as long as the struggle lasted remain unresolved. The achievement of feminist objectives requires the participation of women in the decision making process. Participation in the decision making process implies that women’s views have to be considered in national planning. This can be achieved if women are represented at every level of decision making in the country.

From the examination of the nationalist movement in South Africa, it becomes apparent that feminist goals have often taken a secondary position in the face of national goals. The trend internationally has been to give priority to national objectives before considering feminist objectives (Forbes 1982; Ward 1993). Feminist goals are often sidelined once the national objectives have been achieved. Though a lot has been done to ensure that women’s rights are enshrined in the South African constitution, a lot remains to be done to ensure that what is in the statute books is translated into practice.

The achievement of national goals in South Africa did not imply that the feminist goals were automatically met. Feminist concerns remain unresolved despite promises that these would be addressed once the national objectives had been achieved. These concerns include poverty alleviation, violence against women, the reproductive rights of women and HIV/AIDS. Feminist goals need not only target the public sphere in seeking to improve the position of women. Feminists in South Africa should seek to change the power relations between men and women both in the public and private sphere. This may be achieved if women take a proactive role in fighting for their rights and making the society aware of the factors that constitute women’s oppression, for example through gender awareness campaigns.

Conclusion

From the preceding discussion on the interaction of nationalism and feminism in South Africa as in Ireland and India, certain issues seem to emerge. Factors such as race and class come into play when one brings in a discussion of feminism and its interaction with nationalism. The enfranchisement of white women saw the disenfranchisement of all Africans and this spurred the beginnings of African nationalism. For once, African men regardless of ethnicity became united in the struggle for liberation from white domination.

In Ireland, India and South Africa, women’s issues took a secondary position as long as the national goals remained unmet. In all these countries as in other developing countries, it was assumed that the attainment of national liberation would automatically lead to the achievement of feminist goals. The experience of Ireland and India shows that women’s issues were forgotten in the post-revolutionary era. After the transition to democracy in South Africa, several gender-sensitive legislation and policies were passed. However these did not translate directly into equality or equity due to various barriers already mentioned and women continue to grapple with poverty, unemployment, and violence.

In South Africa, the argument during the liberation struggle was that bringing feminist concerns before the achievement of liberation would be divisive. After the establishment of the democratic order, the rights of women were enshrined in the constitution. Though, a major achievement compared to other democracies, what is in the statute books remains to be translated into the lived realities of women in South Africa. The feminist goals largely remain unmet, and these issues include, equal access to higher education, violence against women and the reproductive rights of women, among others. If these goals are to be achieved, there is need to recognize the diversity that exists among women in terms of race and class, and to target the most vulnerable groups of women. Some of the measures that need to be taken to address the feminist concerns such as access to shelter, employment and income include providing access to credit. Other measures should include human rights education to enlighten citizens on their rights and help create tolerance for others, and the imparting of entrepreneurship skills among informal sector traders, majority of whom are women, to run their businesses efficiently and profitably.

It appears that wherever nationalist goals interact with feminist goals, nationalist goals take precedence over feminist goals. Feminist goals have always been subordinated to nationalist goals. If this situation is to be rectified, women need to be involved in the decision making process on issues that affect them. Governments must also be forced to honor their promises to women. Feminist scholars, activists and decision-makers must continue sensitizing fellow women and men to the need to address gender inequalities in society. Some of the useful strategies that feminist scholars would be for instance to press governments to produce gender-sensitive budgets, gender-differentiated data in assessing the impact of development programmes and pressurizing governments to recognize international declarations on the recognition of human rights as women’s rights too. This can be achieved through strengthening the democratic structures within the countries.

References

Adler, T & Oelofse, M. 1996. The Housing Subsidy Scheme. In S. Rubenstein & K. Rust (eds). A Mandate to Build. Cape Town: IDASA.

Bazili, S (ed) 1991. Putting Women on the Agenda, Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

Casale, D. 2004. What has the Feminisation of the Labour Market 'Bought' Women in South Africa? Trends in Labour Force Participation, Employment and Earnings, 1995-2001. Cape Town: University of Cape Town, Development Policy Unit.

Cock, J. 1991. “Putting Women on the Agenda.” In Susan Bazili, ed. Putting Women on the Agenda. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

Dawood, S. 1998. “A Comparative Study of Two Durban-based Single-Sex Hostels From the 1950s –1970s. University of Natal, Masters Dissertation.

Department of Housing. 1994. White Paper on Housing: A New Policy and Strategy for South Africa. Pretoria: Department of Housing.

Department of Housing. 1998. Annual Report 1998. Pretoria: Government Printers.

Edwards, I. 1996. “Cato Manor, June 1959.” In Paul Maylam & Iain Edwards (eds.), The People’s City: African Life in Twentieth-Century Durban. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

Forbes, G. H 1982. “Caged Tigers,” WSIF vol. 5. no.6.

Hansmann, R. J. 1993. “Women and Inner City Housing: The Case Study of Thokoza Hostel.” University of Natal: Unpublished Masters Thesis.

Hart, D. 1990. “Political Manipulation of Urban Space: The Razing of District Six.” In S. Jeppie & C. Crain, ed. The Struggle for District Six Past and Present. Cape Town: Buchu Books.

Hassim, S. 1991. “Gender, Social Location and Feminist Politics in South Africa,” Transformation, 15, 65-82.

Khan, Z. 2002. A Local Solution for a Local Problem. Mail and Guardian [Online] Saturday, August 17, 2002. Johannesburg: Mail & Guardian. (http://www.mg.co.za/l1.jsp). Retrieved on August 17, 2002.

Maasdorp, Garvin & Haarhoff, Errol, eds. 1984. Housing Policy in Conditions of Rapid Urbanisation. Durban: Economic Research Unit. University of Natal.

Maasdorp, G & Haarhof, E. eds. 1984. Housing Policy in Conditions of Rapid Urbanisation. Durban. University of Natal, Economic Research Unit.

Maharaj, Z. 1991. “Subversive Intent: A Social Theory of Gender,” Transformation 23, 40-54.

Maylam, P. 1996. “Introduction: The Struggle for Space in Twentieth Century Durban.” In Paul Maylam & Iain Edwards (eds.), The People’s City: African Life in Twentieth-Century Durban. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

Mbeki, T. 2001. State of the Nation Address of the President of South Africa at the opening of Parliament, 2001. Cape Town, 9 February 2001 [ online] (http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/2001/tm0209.html) Retrieved On 3 March 2001.

Morris, P. 1981. A History of Black Housing in South Africa. Johannesburg: South Africa Foundation.

Ndinda, C. 2002. “Women’s Participation in Housing Delivery: The Extent of Empowerment in Post-1994 with Specific Reference to Case Studies in KwaZulu-Natal,” PhD Diss., Durban. University of Natal.

Ndinda, C. 1997. “Coping Strategies of women Micro-Enterpreneurs: the Case of Women Curio Sellers of the Durban Beachfront.” University of Natal: Masters Dissertation.

Ramphele, M. 1993. A Bed Called Home. Cape Town: David Philip.

Statistics South Africa. 2000. October Household Survey 1999. [online]. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. (http://www.statssa.gov.za/ Statistical releases .html). Retrieved On November 13, 2000.

Tong, R. 1989. Feminist Thought. London: Unwin Hyman.

Tomlison, M. R. 1998. “South Africa’s New Housing Policy: An Assessment of the First Two Years, 1994-96.” International Journal of Regional Research.

Walker, C. 1990a. Women and Resistance in South Africa. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip.

Walker, C. 1990b. Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945. Cape Town: David Philip, 313-345.

Walker, C. 1990c. “The Women’s Suffrage Movement: The Politics of Gender, Race and Class.” In Cheryl Walker, ed., Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945. Cape Town: David Philip, 168-196.

Ward, M. 1993. “Suffrage First-Above All Else.” In A. Smyth Irish Women’s Studies Reader. Dublin: Attic Press.

Wells, J. 1991. We Have Done with Pleading: The Women’s 1913 Anti-Pass Campaign. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

Notes

Citation Format:

Catherine Ndinda and Korwa Adar. “The Interaction of Nationalist and Feminist Goals With Reference to the South African Liberation Movement” JENDA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: Issue 7, 2005.

Copyright © 2005 Africa Resource Center, Inc.