The historiography surrounding the position of African women in the towns is to some extent contradictory, with some historians arguing that town women’s lives were ruled by a pervasive vulnerability and the constant threat or reality of rape, harassment, theft and brutal attacks, making them nothing more but ‘passive victims,’[21] while others argue that moving to the town gave women a marked independence and the ability to assert control over their social and sexual lives.[22] It is clear, however, that in these unfamiliar territories, the seemingly contradictory traits of vulnerability and independence could easily go hand in hand, but also that their positions varied according to the town in which they lived, their character and the way in which they chose to make a living. Those who made the move to the towns have frequently been applauded for their bravery and strength of character, though this was certainly not the case at the peak of their migration, when the notion of women no longer being dependents was a fearful one to both the indigenous male population and to the colonial administrators.[23] During the twentieth century, town women were widely stereotyped as immoral, irresponsible and promiscuous, with the men in most towns referring to those who were single or ‘unattached’ as prostitutes or as ‘loose.’[24] Women from Basutoland, or modern day Lesotho, formed a disproportionately large component of the female migrant population and acquired this lurid reputation more so than any other migrant group, with their own men folk agreeing with the police and native commissioners about Basotho women’s immoral behaviour.[25] It is suggested by Deborah James that the readiness to portray women in this light suggests more about men’s desire to control women then their actual experiences.[26] Given the vehemently sexist nature of the South African state, James is most likely right to a degree; however the widespread practice of prostitution among young township women cannot be overlooked, and is a feature of feminine urban culture that shall be explored further in a later section. This engagement in prostitution and the women’s supposed promiscuity was often blamed for the violent sexual treatment of women in the towns, and was used as an excuse by those who wished to abduct women and sexually assault them.[27] Away from the protection of their families and husbands, women in the towns were exposed to men’s sexual violence on a horrific scale, and were terrorised by youth gangs such as the tsotsis. School girls and attractive women were particularly vulnerable, and in 1955 the situation was so bad that in a report in The Star newspaper Councillor Lewsen commented that:
Wives and young girls are raped in the streets and on their way home from work. Some are even raped in their own homes in front of their families, who are too terrified to report to the police for fear of victimisation[28]
Evidence such as this paints a bleak picture of African urban culture and the experiences of African women, whose rape was treated as a minor offence by the colonial authorities, in stark comparison to that of white females, for which a black man could be sentenced to death for.[29] Nevertheless, as has already been suggested, even in this frightful environment town women did develop a high degree of independence and staked their claim for equality far more strongly than those in the rural reserves.[30] Some women took this sense of independence more seriously than others, learning knife and fighting skills in order to defend themselves. These women, described as ‘fierce and lawless’ by a witness from Basutoland,[31] were generally those who brewed beer or owned shebeens and thus needed to protect their living, though a minority assumed a ‘masculine’ identity with the purpose of ‘taking on the tsotsis at their own game’ and forging some control over the direction of their sexual lives.[32] Therefore it is clear that within a violent, oppressive urban culture, many women were incredibly vulnerable and subject to assertions of male power far worse than they had experienced in the countryside. Despite this, however, women who moved to the towns were able to exert a certain degree of power over their fellow African men, largely due to their ability to earn an independent income.
The forms of employment and money-earning strategies that African women were able to access in the towns played a central role in shaping the developing African urban culture. Unsurprisingly, the ever present racist and sexist attitudes meant that black women had virtually no access to formal kinds of employment, and so they engaged overwhelmingly in the informal sector and domestic service jobs. There were a small exception, however, who were formally employed in jobs such as teaching and nursing, and a smaller number still who made names for themselves in the entertainment industry, though for the vast majority jobs such as these were a million miles away from their everyday practices of beer brewing, prostitution and street selling. [33] Basotho women in particular were renowned for their beer brewing techniques, and by the 1930s had acquired a reputation for brewing the strongest ‘poison’ on the Rand due to their ability to brew particularly potent versions of indigenous beers such as skokiaan and joala.[34] Home brewed beers such as these were sold to African men in shebeens; ‘illicit liquor dens’ that became central to African social life in the towns, by the notorious shebeen queens who were well known in their day for being strong, commanding women.[35] During the first few decades of the twentieth century beer brewing provided a largely unchallenged source of income for newly urbanised African women, but with the amendment of the 1923 Urban Areas Act in 1937, compelling local authorities to establish municipal monopolies over the production and sale of beer, women’s already very limited access to making a living was severely threatened.[36] From this point on, a tumultuous and ongoing battle began between the police and the urban women, who were not prepared to let their independence go without a fight. With Judith Gay’s investigation into the economics of brewing in the 1970s revealing that women brewers could earn up to four times the amount of domestic servants, it is not surprising that the police faced a strong wall of resistance.[37] The fact that beer-brewing was now against the law had a pronounced effect on the African culture in the towns, with the centre of African social life and simple recreation now being classed as criminal activity. This development also affected the position of women in the towns, as now they were not only at threat from the attacks of drunken men, but were also under constant attack from the police and the authorities, who were often just as brutal towards the women as most township men, and who, according to Bernstein, were not unknown to sexually assault or even rape the women whom they arrested.[38] Once again, however, these strong women were not merely passive victims in these assaults on them and their incomes; female beer brewers, especially those from Basutoland, were widely regarded by both the authorities and the common townsmen as cleverer than the average African women for their abilities to dodge the police, manipulate the law and corrupt native constables.[39] Many shebeen queens had their own deals with the police, and in townships such as Alexandra black policemen would not arrest black women for beer brewing as they were customers themselves. Instead, black policemen would warn the women when they were going to be accompanied by white policemen who would not hesitate to arrest them.[40] Another income generating activity that helped to shape female culture in the towns, and that often went hand in hand with beer brewing or waitressing in shebeens, was prostitution. As a result of the migrant labour system, the towns were full of lonely, domestically incompetent men away from their wives, and thus there was a great demand for this type of work, to the extent that most women working as prostitutes could exercise significant leverage over the men they were working for. To this end, it is clear that prostitution was ‘not without rewards,’ and by the early twentieth century Basotho women were known to be leaving Basutoland specifically for a life of prostitution in the South African towns. [41] The state’s reaction to prostitution was different to that of beer brewing, as while women beer-brewers were seen to have a deteriorating effect on township life, black prostitution was seen to prevent the emergence of ‘the Black Peril’ by satisfying black male lusts, and so it was a relatively easier way to make a living.[42] Despite these differing reactions to African women’s money making activities, the police were less concerned with stopping either activity than they were with ‘taxing’ them through constant raiding and fining. These incessant attacks on black commercial enterprises resulted in the police being regarded as the persecutors rather than the protectors, and thus helped to feed the ever growing conflict between African town dwellers and their white oppressors.[43]
Sectors such as domestic service and industry were not reserved solely for men and white women for the duration of the twentieth century though; with the erosion of informal jobs through state regulations and the increased proletarianisation of the African people, black women were eventually drawn into such jobs as a source of cheap labour during the mid-century period. While domestic service was a highly exploitative job at the very bottom of the occupational hierarchy, women’s entry to it granted them an entry point into the colonial economy, thus providing an escape route from oppressive cultural practices such as prostitution.[44] Entry into the industrial labour market had similar results, promoting economic independence through legal and respectable means. Entry into this sector was considerably slower though, with African women representing only one percent of the industrial labour force in 1946 and again in 1954.[45] African women were the last group to enter into the industrial market, and so were the weakest and poorest paid sector within the workforce; a result, Bozzoli argues, of African women’s resistance to, and subsequently delayed, proletarianisation.[46] While it is clear that some women did resist formal jobs as a result of their greater earning power in the informal sector, this argument seems fairly simplistic in that it presents African women in the townships as being able to dictate their own occupation and resist the forces of capitalism; actions which surely would not have been possible in the oppressive colonial society in which they lived. Therefore women’s culture in the towns was heavily influenced by their inability to access formal employment, and thus their frequent involvement in illicit, oppressive practices. This exclusion was not wholly negative, however, with practices such as beer brewing and prostitution enabling women to establish themselves in the towns before moving on to jobs in the formal sector when society allowed.
Outside of the labour market, the leisure activities women chose to partake in influenced and became part of their emerging culture. A dominant aspect of African leisure activity was singing and dancing, tribal forms of which were brought to the towns by a plethora of ethnic groups with different musical styles.[47] Singing and dancing provided more than mere entertainment for the various immigrant communities among the townships, often helping them to cope with adjusting to the new urban environment as well as providing a further form of resistance against the colonial state. African songs often expressed oppositional sentiment and represented the immigrants’ rejection of a government-imposed ethnicity. They were also adopted by the various women’s political groupings during their protests, which were apparently ‘rich in song and symbolism.’ Songs such as ‘We women shall enter,’ and ‘Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, let us be one thing,’ are said to have instilled bravery and even recklessness in women taking part in political resistance.[48] Dances, too, became a central feature of African women’s cultural life. Forms such as Kiba, a traditionally male genre practiced widely on the Rand, developed a strong female version in the less restrictive environment of the townships.[49] The Famo dance was also widespread and became strongly linked to the sexual permissiveness and promiscuity of the shebeens and their queens. This dance became renowned for its lewdness, which is unsurprising in light of Coplan’s description of it:
Women made shaking and thrusting movements with their shoulders, hips and bosoms, while lifting their flared skirts. The dancers wore no underwear but instead ‘had painted rings around the whole area of their sex’[50]
Therefore songs and dance were used by African women to express both their resistance and their sexual freedom in the towns; both of which became dominant aspects of their culture.
African towns’ women also joined various social organisations during their leisure time, which helped to build solidarity among single females. A greater range of organisations were available to women in the towns, with the majority being offered by Christian missionaries who denounced practices such as polygamy and bridewealth and promised greater personal autonomy to women.[51] Known as Manyanos, separate women’s Christian organisations were sought out by newly urbanised women who were struggling to cope with town conditions and were seeking a release from the isolation of heading a family under conditions of poverty.[52] These organisations effectively placed women in a network of peer support, which unquestionably helped them to establish friendships and solidarities with their fellow town women. Christian youth groups also played a prominent part in the lives of many young township girls, with groups such as the Sunbeams and the Girl Guides becoming very popular. Christian groups, however, did not necessarily mean ‘pure’ members, and it was common for those engaging in beer brewing or prostitution to join them. Therefore, groups such as these were not at conflict with their members’ other cultural practices, but rather allowed a more sociable culture to develop among the African women.
Christianity was generally practised a lot more enthusiastically by females than it was by males, with the girls’ groups mentioned above enjoying a great deal more success in the townships than their equivalent boys’ groups such as the Boy Scouts.[53] This was largely due to the gang culture that dominated most urban boys’ lives, but which also affected the developing culture of township women. The violent treatment of women by gangs has already been considered, but the position of women in this subculture and the effects that involvement with it had on the very much separate culture of urban women are of central importance. The adoption of extreme ideas about masculinity by urban gangs such as the tsotsis, the Amalaita and the Russians had pronounced effects on women who became involved in gang culture, the majority of whom did so as ‘molls;’ gangsters’ girlfriends. The beauty and quantity of a gangster’s girlfriends were of crucial importance, and having children at a young age also helped to define them as ‘men,’ thus former tsotsi Norris Nkosi expressed great pride in having fathered a child at the age of sixteen with his fifteen year old girlfriend during an interview with historian Clive Glaser.[54] Though women often had little choice in whether they became a ‘moll’ or not, and were frequently treated brutally by their boyfriends who made them conform to the social customs of their subculture, women who became involved with gangsters nevertheless gained some considerable benefits. So long as a woman accepted that she belonged to her boyfriend, she would enjoy a high standard of living, presents of food and clothes and, most importantly, protection from the harassment of other gangsters.[55] Women who were engaged in the youth subcultures in this way were less affected than those who were drawn into the criminal activities of the gangs. These women were known as noasisas, and were used by the gangs as scouts, shoplifters and decoys. They were also used to distract the shopkeepers from thefts, as in the case of Stololo, a noasisas remembered by a former gang member. Stololo would flirt with shopkeepers, and then scream that they were trying to rape her, allowing the tsotsis to get away with the till during the commotion. Some women were involved in inter-gang fighting in the same way as the men, though they would only fight other women and are described by Glaser as a ‘side-show.’[56] At least one Witwatersrand gang had a woman’s wing, however, which would have affected the culture of those involved enormously. These women, who were part of the Berliners of Sophiatown, fought alongside their male gang members and even wore the gang’s tattoo of a swastika.[57] While the women’s wing of course fell under the command of the male gang, engagement in this sort of violent activity undoubtedly shaped the emerging African culture, adding yet more criminality and violence to the lives of township women.
One of the most influential aspects of town women’s lives was their active resistance and involvement in various political organisations. The move to the towns presented women with stresses that were not present in the countryside, which brought them into conflict with an ideology that continued to define them as passive, domestic and apolitical.[58] With the explosive anti-pass protests, enthusiastic trade union activity and a generally increased political awareness among many of the township women, from the 1950s onwards they proved to their male oppressors that this was no longer the case. Women’s political organisations, such as the African National Congress Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women, not only fought for the rights of both blacks and women, but also ‘thrust into the forefront of the political scene women of exceptional gifts and strong personalities,’ and thus raised the status of all women within the national liberation movement.[59] This sudden acceleration of women’s political activity was a result of economic changes which loosened the constraints on women’s position and thus enabled them to organise more effectively, but was also largely due to provocation. The imposition of passes on women by the newly elected Nationalist Government in the 1950s sparked fierce resistance from the African towns’ women, as it put the independence they had fought hard for at stake.[60] Various women’s groups fought a decade long battle against the Afrikaner government, staging peaceful protests all over the country, but most prominently in Pretoria where the Prime Minister was based. The first of these protests took place in 1955 and was attended by 2,000 women, but by the following year, on the 9th August, which has since been designated ‘Women’s Day,’ 20,000 women are said to have arrived in Pretoria to protest against the pass laws. Though the women were forbidden to hold processions, they persisted by going to the Union Buildings in small groups to present the Prime Minister with a petition, a copy of which can be seen at the end of this paper, but of course he was never ‘available’ to see them.[61] Women’s sudden expressions of militancy and independence both amazed and shocked men who witnessed their protests, and their fight against passes has since been described as ‘one of the most vociferous and effective protest campaigns of any at the time.’[62] While passes were eventually enforced over an unwilling African female population, Walker is right in her above statement in that it took the government eleven years to impose their restrictions, and that women enjoyed greater mobility rights than men well into the 1980s.[63] When reference book units reached Johannesburg in the latter part of 1958, and were met with fierce resistance in the form of a civil disobedience campaign by the ANC Women’s League, nearly 2,000 women were arrested but continued to protest, this time in the form of song. The black magazine Drum described the arrests and subsequent crammed prisons as being like a ‘festival’ with the hoards of arrested women singing and dancing.[64] Events such as these demonstrate the bravery and strength of character of South African women who participated in political resistance against their Nationalist government, and are also very telling about African urban culture at this time. It is clear from the vast amount of protests that African women were no longer happy to submit to their white, male oppressors without a fight, and that the culture in which they lived had instilled in them the confidence and independence to let this be known. Therefore it is clear that female African urban culture also had a distinct political edge that played a prominent role in many women’s lives.
Throughout the twentieth century, then, increasing numbers of black women migrating to the South African towns made the development of an especially female African urban culture inevitable. As a result of the sexist, racist and elitist society in which they lived, African women were forced into illegal occupations, abusive relationships, gangsterism and political protest, as well as having either the threat or reality of sexual violence inflicted upon them on a frequent basis. All of these prescribed experiences combined with women’s own actions, such as joining women’s organisations, adapting rural songs and dances and engaging in political activity, to shape the urban culture in which African women lived. Westernised gender roles had a pronounced effect on this culture; through European missionaries’ denunciation of the position of women in traditional African society and their ensuing mission to impose domestic ideologies, women who lived in the towns were in many ways simply transferred to a similarly oppressive position in an unfamiliar setting. The destruction of family structures, largely as a result of the migrant labour system, had the effect of relieving women from oppressive rural systems and encouraging their migration to the towns, where a sense of freedom and increased independence could be sought. Nothing was guaranteed, of course, and while some women immigrants may have enjoyed an increased standard of living relatively free from direct male control, this was certainly not the case for those harassed by the tsotsi or persecuted by the police. Therefore it is clear that female African urban culture emerged under a set of sometimes contradictory factors, and that it was ultimately the hugely sexist, racist and oppressive apartheid state under which they lived that shaped the culture of African women in the towns.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Bernstein, H., For Their Triumphs and For Their Tears: Women in Apartheid South Africa (1985, London)
The Federation of South African Women, The Women’s Charter, (Johannesburg, 1954) available at: , [Online] accessed on 11th November 2009
Petition presented to the Prime Minister, The Demand of the Women of South Africa for the Withdrawal of Passes for Women and the Repeal of the Pass Laws, (Pretoria, 1956) available at: , [Online] accessed on 10th November 2009
Secondary Sources
Bonner, P.L., ‘“Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?” Liquor, Prostitution and the Migration of Basotho Women to the Rand, 1920-1945’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London)
(1993)
Bonner, P.L. ‘ Journal of Southern African Studies, 21:1 (1995), pp 115-129
Bozzoli, B., ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ , 9: 2 (1983), pp. 139-171
Bozzoli, B., Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy, and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983 (1991, London)
Cock, J., ‘Domestic Service and Education for Domesticity: The Incorporation of Xhosa Women into Colonial Society,’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London)
Epprecht, M, “This matter of women if getting very bad”: Gender, Development and Politics in Colonial Lesotho (2000, South Africa)
pp 47-67
Glaser, C., Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935-1976 (2000, Oxford)
James, D., 'Musical Form and Social History: Research Perspective on Black South African History,' Radical History Review, 46:7 (1990), pp. 309-19
James, D., Songs of the Women Migrants: Performance and Identity in South Africa (1999, Edinburgh)
Kynoch, G., Journal of African History, 41:2 (2000) pp 267-290
la Hausse, P., Journal of Southern African Studies, 16:1 (1990), pp 79-111
Maylam, P., Journal of Southern African Studies, 21:1 (1995), pp 19- 38
Walker, C., Women and Resistance in South Africa (1982, Nottingham)
Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, Cape Town)
Walker, C., ‘Gender and the Development of the Migrant Labour System c. 1850-1930: An Overview,’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London)
Appendix A- (copy of original petition form), Union Buildings, Pretoria, 9 August 1956
[1] P. L. Bonner, ‘“Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?” Liquor, Prostitution and the Migration of Basotho Women to the Rand, 1920-1945’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London) p 222
[2] C. Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa (1982, Nottingham) p 128
[3] J. Cock, ‘Domestic Service and Education for Domesticity: The Incorporation of Xhosa Women into Colonial Society,’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London) pp 76-92
[4] B. Bozzoli, ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ , 9: 2 (1983), p 149
[5] Bozzoli, ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ p 161
[6] Ibid, pp 161-2
[7] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 151
[8] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 11
[9] Cock, ‘Domestic Service and Education for Domesticity,’ pp 76-88
[10] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 146
[11] C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, Cape Town) p 17
[12] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 234 and Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and For Their Tears, p 15 are just two examples
[13] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 15
[14] P. L. (1993) p 170
[15] M. Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad”: Gender, Development and Politics in Colonial Lesotho (2000, South Africa) p 81
[16] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 236
[17] Ibid, p 234
[18] D. James, Songs of the Women Migrants: Performance and Identity in South Africa (1999, Edinburgh) p 70
[19] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” pp 82-3 and Bonner, P.L. ‘ Journal of Southern African Studies, 21:1 (1995), p 188
[20]P. Maylam, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21:1 (1995), pp 31-2
[21] C. p 60
[22] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 83
[23] B. Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy, and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983 (1991, London) p 155
[24]P. la Hausse, Journal of Southern African Studies, 16:1 (1990), p 101 and Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 85
[25] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 231
[26] James, Songs of the Women Migrants p 47
[27] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 249
[28] Lewsen, Article from The Star, 8th November 1955, cited in Glaser, ‘The Mark of Zorro, p 59
[29] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 53
[30] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 3
[31] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 85
[32] Glaser, ‘The Mark of Zorro, p 60
[33] Ibid, p 53
[34] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 223 and Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 84
[35]Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 72
[36] Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 223
[37] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 86
[38] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 53
[39] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 84
[40] Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng, pp 159-60
[41] Epprecht, “This matter of women if getting very bad,” p 83
[42] Ibid, p 89
[43] G. Kynoch, Journal of African History, 41:2 (2000) p 270
[44] Cock, ‘Domestic Service and Education for Domesticity,’ pp 92-6
[45] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 127
[46] Bozzoli, ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ pp 163-4
[47] D. James, 'Musical Form and Social History: Research Perspective on Black South African History,' Radical History Review, 46:7 (1990), p 313
[48] Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng, pp 191-2
[49] James, 'Musical Form and Social History,’ pp 2-3
[50] D. B. Coplan (1985), cited in Bonner, ‘Desirable or undesirable Basotho women?’ p 248
[51] C. Walker, ‘Gender and the Development of the Migrant Labour System c. 1850-1930: An Overview,’ in Walker, C. (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (1990, London) p 191
[52] Bozzoli, ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ p 165
[53] C. Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935-1976 (2000, Oxford) p 107
[54] Glaser, ‘The Mark of Zorro, p 50
[55] Ibid, p 55
[56] Ibid, p 54
[57] Ibid, p 60
[58] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 3
[59] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 87
[60] Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng, p 168
[61] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, p 88
[62] Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa, p 125
[63] Bozzoli, ‘Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies,’ p 167
[64] Bernstein, For Their Triumphs and Their Tears, pp 96-7
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