The illegitimate and the illegal in a South African City: The effects of apartheid on births out of wedlock

Journal of Social History

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 610-635

  Burman, Sandra ^a   Van Der Spuy, Patricia ^a  

^a Centre for Socio Legal Research   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030099646     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh/29.3.613     Document Type: Review

References (59)

1. The project, on changing patterns of illegitimacy in South Africa, is being conducted at the Centre for Socio-Legal Research at the University of Cape Town.
2. C. Saunders, "Africans in Cape Town in the Nineteenth Century: An Outline," in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds), Studies in the History of Cape Town, vol. 2 (Cape Town, 1980), 32. However, according to official figures, in 1899 there were estimated to be only some 1,600 Africans within the actual Cape Town municipal area.
3. Between 1901 and 1925 African areas of housing were not defined as falling within the municipal boundaries and were not included in the "Coloured" figures for Cape Town. From 1925 the African townships were tabled separately, but Africans living in Cape Town were included in the "other than European" or "Non-European" category which was used from 1925 for Cape Town.
4. While abortion and infanticide no doubt played some role in reducing the illegitimacy ratio, the incidence is impossible to quantify. Court records suggest that relatively few made use of these options. See S. Burman and M. Naude, "Bearing a Bastard: The Social Consequences of Illegitimacy in Cape Town, 1896-1939," Journal of Southern African Studies 17 (1991): 379, 387.
5. The Civilized Labour Policy of 1924, which privileged White labour over Non-White, forced Coloured and African unskilled labourers out of work: D. Pinnock, "From Argie Boys to Skolly Gangsters: the Lumpen Proletariat Challenge of the Street-Corner Armies in District Six, 1900-1951," in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds), Studies in the History of Cape Town, vol. 3 (Capetown, 1984), 135.
6. E.g., report of the Select Committee on the Regulation of Wages (Specified Trades) Bill (SC4-1917), 22-3: evidence of H. Beynon, Labour Officer.
7. M. Adhikari, "Let Us Live for Our Children": The Teachers' League of South Africa, 1913-1940 (Cape Town, 1993), 16.
8. Ibid,. 154.
9. S. Patterson, Colour and Culture in South Africa: A Study of the Status of the Cape Coloured People within the Social Structure of the Union of South Africa (London, 1953), 147-52.
10. A. G. Weiss, "The Cape Coloured Woman: within an Industrial Community and at Home," (M.Soc.Sc. Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1950), 44-5.
11. In the nineteenth century at the Cape racial categories gradually came to predominate over earlier distinctions. European, Hottentot, Kaffir, Coloured (also known as Mixed), and Malay all came into common currency. Asiatic became another category as Chinese and Indians were brought into the country. In the course of the first half of the twentieth century the term 'Kaffir' was replaced by Native.
12. This Act divided the population into three categories: White, Coloured, and Native. The Group Areas Act of the same year introduced a fourth provisional group: "any group of persons which is ... declared to be a group." In terms of this, a proclamation, No. 123 of 1967, divided the Coloured category in South Africa into seven sub-categories: Cape Coloured, Cape Malay, Griqua, Chinese, Indian, other Asiatic, and other Coloured; and the General Laws Amendment Act of 1968 subsequently validated this.
13. The Nationalist government initially came to power in 1948 with only the most slender of majorities, but (partly by dint of redelimiting the constituencies) proceeded to increase its majority with every subsequent election.
14. For a description of the proclamation of Group Areas in Cape Town, see J. Western, Outcast Cape Town (London, 1981), chapter 5.
15. Centre for Intergroup Studies, Group Areas, Occasional Paper No. 7 (Centre for Intergroup Studies, University of Cape Town, 1983), 12-14.
16. A. Younge, "Housing Policy and the Housing Shortage in Cape Town: 1942-1980," Africa Perspective 21 (1982).
17. The Theron Commission Report (1976: paragraph 4-13), as cited in Centre for African Studies, Group Areas, 16. Professor Erica Theron, who chaired the Commission, proved to be an unexpectedly outspoken critic of government policies on the Coloured people.
18. Centre for Intergroup Studies, Group Areas, 17.
19. Theron Commission Report, chapter 9.
20. D. Pinnock, The Brotherhoods: Street Gangs and State Control in Cape Town (Cape Town, 1984), 56-8.
21. Ibid., 57-8.
22. Western, Cape Town, 81-3.
23. However, the fact that both White and Coloured ratios also rose considerably in this period may indicate that the widespread demonstrations that took place in 1986, a year of revolt by the youth and considerable social insecurity, also found expression in ways other than violence. The ratios may also have been slightly affected by the removal of most of the disabilities of illegitimate children, as a result of the passing of the Children's Status Act in 1987. For the details of legal changes, see B. Clark and B. van Heerden, "The Legal Position of Children Born Out of Wedlock," in S.Burman and E. Preston-Whyte (eds), Questionable Issue: Illegitimacy in South Africa (Cape Town, 1992), 36-63.
24. C. Saunders, "From Ndabeni to Langa," in C. Saunders (ed), Studies in the History of Cape Town, vol. 1 (Cape Town, 1979), 199.
25. F. Wilson, Migrant Labour (Johannesburg, 1972), 73.
26. S. Jones, Assaulting Childhood: Children's Experiences of Migrancy and Hostel Life in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1993), 131-3.
27. Figures from Hansard 2, 1968, 409, given by J. MacRobert, "'Ungodinwa Nangomso - Don't Get Tired Tomorrow': A History of the Black Sash Advice Office in Cape Town 1958 to 1980," (MA Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1993), 78.
28. Figures from Hansard 2, 1968, 409, given by J. MacRobert, "'Ungodinwa Nangomso - Don't Get Tired Tomorrow': A History of the Black Sash Advice Office in Cape Town 1958 to 1980," (MA Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1993), 78.
29. We attempted to control the ratios by examining them against the figures for unmarried African women in the child-bearing years, and the age of first marriage. However, official statistics for illegitimate births and unmarried women were not compiled using comparable racial categories for most of the period. Age of first marriage figures were not compiled for Africans. The issue of whether the illegitimacy statistics are misleading in including de facto marriages in the early stages of bridewealth payment has been extensively canvassed in the light of what written sources are available, and research interviews. Unfortunately this is not a question looked at by earlier writers, and available studies on other parts of South Africa are not necessarily a guide: Xhosa requirements on how much bridewealth must be paid before a marriage is considered to have taken place have until recently been stricter than those of, for example, the Tswana or Sotho. Research interviews indicate that current procedure in collecting statistics would probably exclude virtually all births from the illegitimacy statistics where any bridewealth had been paid. See S. Burman, "The Category of the Illegitimate in South Africa," in Burman and Preston-Whyte, Questionable Issue, 21-35; S. Jones, "Marriage Transactions among Xhosa in a Country Township, Past and Present," preliminary draft of paper in preparation, 1993; cf., J.L. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, "The Management of Marriage in a Tswana Chiefdom," in E. J. Krige and J.L. Comaroff (eds), Essays on African Marriage in Southern Africa (Cape Town, 1981), 29-34.
30. We attempted to control the ratios by examining them against the figures for unmarried African women in the child-bearing years, and the age of first marriage. However, official statistics for illegitimate births and unmarried women were not compiled using comparable racial categories for most of the period. Age of first marriage figures were not compiled for Africans. The issue of whether the illegitimacy statistics are misleading in including de facto marriages in the early stages of bridewealth payment has been extensively canvassed in the light of what written sources are available, and research interviews. Unfortunately this is not a question looked at by earlier writers, and available studies on other parts of South Africa are not necessarily a guide: Xhosa requirements on how much bridewealth must be paid before a marriage is considered to have taken place have until recently been stricter than those of, for example, the Tswana or Sotho. Research interviews indicate that current procedure in collecting statistics would probably exclude virtually all births from the illegitimacy statistics where any bridewealth had been paid. See S. Burman, "The Category of the Illegitimate in South Africa," in Burman and Preston-Whyte, Questionable Issue, 21-35; S. Jones, "Marriage Transactions among Xhosa in a Country Township, Past and Present," preliminary draft of paper in preparation, 1993; cf., J.L. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, "The Management of Marriage in a Tswana Chiefdom," in E. J. Krige and J.L. Comaroff (eds), Essays on African Marriage in Southern Africa (Cape Town, 1981), 29-34.
31. We attempted to control the ratios by examining them against the figures for unmarried African women in the child-bearing years, and the age of first marriage. However, official statistics for illegitimate births and unmarried women were not compiled using comparable racial categories for most of the period. Age of first marriage figures were not compiled for Africans. The issue of whether the illegitimacy statistics are misleading in including de facto marriages in the early stages of bridewealth payment has been extensively canvassed in the light of what written sources are available, and research interviews. Unfortunately this is not a question looked at by earlier writers, and available studies on other parts of South Africa are not necessarily a guide: Xhosa requirements on how much bridewealth must be paid before a marriage is considered to have taken place have until recently been stricter than those of, for example, the Tswana or Sotho. Research interviews indicate that current procedure in collecting statistics would probably exclude virtually all births from the illegitimacy statistics where any bridewealth had been paid. See S. Burman, "The Category of the Illegitimate in South Africa," in Burman and Preston-Whyte, Questionable Issue, 21-35; S. Jones, "Marriage Transactions among Xhosa in a Country Township, Past and Present," preliminary draft of paper in preparation, 1993; cf., J.L. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, "The Management of Marriage in a Tswana Chiefdom," in E. J. Krige and J.L. Comaroff (eds), Essays on African Marriage in Southern Africa (Cape Town, 1981), 29-34.
32. By Sandra Burman, conducted as part of earlier studies on family patterns in Cape Town.
33. Describing the situation at the end of the 1960s, the anthropologists Philip and Iona Mayer wrote: "the object of inspection (a practice now almost obsolete) was to discourage girls from indulging in full sexual intercourse as against ukumetsha, external intercourse. In ukumetsha - intercourse 'between the thighs' as Xhosa say - the girl is not supposed to take off her undergarments, and her technical virginity should be safe." (P. Mayer and I. Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen: Conservatism and the Process of Urbanization in a South African City [Cape Town, 1961, 2nd edn 1971], 253.)
34. R. Levin, Marriage in Langa Native Location, Communications from the School of African Studies, University of Cape Town (Cape Town, 1947), 9.
35. Ibid., 30. The fine mentioned was the customary law fine for seduction.
36. Ibid., 31-2.
37. Ibid., 32.
38. M. Wilson and A. Mafeje, Langa: A Study of Social Groups in an African Township (Cape Town, 1963), 13-81.
39. M. Hunter, Reaction to Conquest: Effects of Contact with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa (London, 1936, 2nd edn 1961), 477.
40. See note 30.
41. Hunter, Reaction to Conquest, 481-2.
42. Mayer and Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen.
43. "The People known as ... 'Red people' ... are the traditionalist Xhosa, the conservatives who still stand by the indigenous way of life, including the pagan Xhosa religion. 'Red' Xhosa are not just a few picturesque survivals: on the contrary, they are a flourishing half of the Xhosa people today, ... The antithetical type, ... 'School' people ... are products of the mission and the school, holding up Christianity, literacy and other Western ways as ideals. 'School' people ... are not just town people or people under town influence. The town Xhosa do in a broad sense belong within the 'School' category, but theirs is a separate branch of School culture with a flavour all its own.... Red Xhosa rustics and School Xhosa rustics, both attached to their own distinctive ways of life, are oth faced with the need to make adjustments in town." (Ibid., 4.)
44. "The People known as ... 'Red people' ... are the traditionalist Xhosa, the conservatives who still stand by the indigenous way of life, including the pagan Xhosa religion. 'Red' Xhosa are not just a few picturesque survivals: on the contrary, they are a flourishing half of the Xhosa people today, ... The antithetical type, ... 'School' people ... are products of the mission and the school, holding up Christianity, literacy and other Western ways as ideals. 'School' people ... are not just town people or people under town influence. The town Xhosa do in a broad sense belong within the 'School' category, but theirs is a separate branch of School culture with a flavour all its own.... Red Xhosa rustics and School Xhosa rustics, both attached to their own distinctive ways of life, are oth faced with the need to make adjustments in town." (Ibid., 4.)
45. Ibid., 252-3.
46. Ibid., 254. This picture of uninhibited sexual relations was confirmed by Pauw's research in East London in the early 1960s, and research in Johannesburg in the 1950s. B. A. Pauw, The Second Generation: A Study of the Family Among Urbanized Bantu in East London (Cape Town, 1963, 2nd edn 1973); L. Longmore, The Dispossessed: A Study of the Sex-life of Bantu Women In and Around Johannesburg (London, 1959).
47. Ibid., 254. This picture of uninhibited sexual relations was confirmed by Pauw's research in East London in the early 1960s, and research in Johannesburg in the 1950s. B. A. Pauw, The Second Generation: A Study of the Family Among Urbanized Bantu in East London (Cape Town, 1963, 2nd edn 1973); L. Longmore, The Dispossessed: A Study of the Sex-life of Bantu Women In and Around Johannesburg (London, 1959).
48. Ibid., 254. This picture of uninhibited sexual relations was confirmed by Pauw's research in East London in the early 1960s, and research in Johannesburg in the 1950s. B. A. Pauw, The Second Generation: A Study of the Family Among Urbanized Bantu in East London (Cape Town, 1963, 2nd edn 1973); L. Longmore, The Dispossessed: A Study of the Sex-life of Bantu Women In and Around Johannesburg (London, 1959).
49. Personal Communication: Department of the East London Medical Officer of Health.
50. There are, of course, many other factors which fall outside the ambit of a study of Cape Town but which could have influenced the figures in East London to some extent, and not all towards a reduction: for example, the method of collecting or compiling the statistics; changes in maternity facilities available to Africans within the city limits; a particularly influential church movement favouring total sexual abstinence; an increase in town in the proportion of "Red" people, particularly "Red" girls better instructed in traditional methods of avoiding pregnancy; a change in the number of illegal abortions; a decline in the total number of legitimate births in town, either from married couples having smaller families or married women going to their husbands' rural families to give birth, which would be increasingly likely if the proportion of "Red" migrants from nearby areas rose as a result of influx control, as foreseen by the Mayers (Townsmen or Tribesmen, 70). In the light of some of these possible influences, the decline of the East London figures is all the more remarkable.
51. E.g., Black Sash Advice Office Reports, Athlone Advice Office; P. F. Reynolds, "Men Without Children," Carnegie Conference Paper No. 5, Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa, 1984.
52. For a fuller discussion of the legal complications introduced into family relationships by influx control, see M.L. Dixon, Do Blacks Have a Right to Family Life?, Occasional Paper 1 (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1981); S. Burman, "The Interaction of Legislation Relating to Urban Africans and the Laws Regulating Family Relationships," Acta Juridica (1984).
53. For a fuller discussion of the legal complications introduced into family relationships by influx control, see M.L. Dixon, Do Blacks Have a Right to Family Life?, Occasional Paper 1 (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1981); S. Burman, "The Interaction of Legislation Relating to Urban Africans and the Laws Regulating Family Relationships," Acta Juridica (1984).
54. For a full discussion of the collection methods and reliability of the illegitimacy statistics for Cape Town in the 1980s and 1990s, see Burman, "The Category of the Illegitimate."
55. E.g., H. Bradford, "Herbs, Knives and Plastic: 150 Years of Abortion in South Africa," (paper presented at the Africa Seminar, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1990), 14: "During the 1976 uprising in Cape Town, one of the students' demands was 'Everybody get pregnant or we'll be wiped out' - and birth control was on the boycott list together with Bantu Education."
56. Making exact comparisons of illegitimacy ratios for the various South African cities has been impossible, given varying provision of maternity facilities, and hence accuracy in collecting the statistics, as well as such regional differences as which African areas fell within the city limits, how far the city was from where the local African population regarded as home, and where local women, especially married ones, were expected to give birth. For a discussion of factors encouraging illegitimacy which are common in urban African communities, see E. Preston-Whyte and M. Zondi, "African Teenage Pregnancy: Whose Problem?" and E. Nash, "Breaking the Cycle: Psychiatric Aspects of Illegitimacy," both in Burman and Preston-Whyte, (eds), Questionable Issue.
57. One indication of this is the steadily rising number of street children in Cape Town. In May 1985 there were approximately three hundred (W. Scharf, M. Powell and E. Thomas, "Strollers - Street Children in Cape Town," in S. Burman and P. Reynolds (eds), Growing Up in a Divided Society: The Contexts of Childhood in South Africa [Johannesburg, 1986], 262.) Three years later this figure had risen to over six hundred (Weekend Argus, 1 July 1989) and to approximately 2,500 in 1995 (Peninsula Times, 1 Feb. 1995). In both 1985 and 1989 about ten per cent of these children were girls.
58. However, the problem is so vast that the economy could not at present bear the costs of adequate maintenance grants even for all needy illegitimate children. See e.g. C. Simkins and T. Dlamini, "The Problem of Supporting Poor Children in South Africa," in Burman and Preston-Whyte, (eds), Questionable Issue, 64-76. Solutions will therefore require radical rethinking. See S. Burman, "Capitalising on African Strengths: Women, Welfare and the Law," in S. Bazilli (ed), Putting Women on the Agenda (Johannesburg, 1991).
59. However, the problem is so vast that the economy could not at present bear the costs of adequate maintenance grants even for all needy illegitimate children. See e.g. C. Simkins and T. Dlamini, "The Problem of Supporting Poor Children in South Africa," in Burman and Preston-Whyte, (eds), Questionable Issue, 64-76. Solutions will therefore require radical rethinking. See S. Burman, "Capitalising on African Strengths: Women, Welfare and the Law," in S. Bazilli (ed), Putting Women on the Agenda (Johannesburg, 1991).