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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Out of Africa: African women's rights in the cultural context
Author:Msimang, C.T.ISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Bulletin of the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research
Issue:36
Pages:121-136
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:gender relations
Zulu
women
Abstract:In surveying African women's past rights, duties, and even privileges, the author has classified women arbitrarily as follows: royal women, married women, teenage girls and maidens, and elderly women. Most of his examples come from the Zulu of South Africa, with whom he is most familiar. He first of all discusses the status of royal women, noting that they had more privileges than responsibilities and that as a result of their extraordinary initiative, quite a number of them became prominent in history. This was the case of Princess Mkabayi of the Zulus, Queen Mmanthatisi of the Tlokwa and Queen Modjadji of the Lobedu. Generally, however, Zulu women had no political power or rights, and no legal jurisdiction, although they did have social rights. The author next considers the status and rights of married women. These were regulated according to the order in which a woman was married and were maintained through affiliation or sororate marriage. Every woman in a polygamous family had a right to property, to equitable and fair treatment, and to the husband's company. Finally, the author describes the status of teenage girls and maidens, looking at the choice of a marriage partner, the role of maidens in Nomkhubulwane rituals, and courtship. The article ends with a brief mention of some of the negative consequences of the present-day breakdown of the traditional division of labour between the sexes. Bibliogr.
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