'Because it's Our Culture!' (Re)negotiating the Meaning of Lobola in Southern African Secondary Schools

Abstract

Ansell N (2001) ''Because it's our culture!' (Re)negotiating the meaning of lobola in Southern African secondary schools ' Journal of Southern African Studies 27(4)

Geographies of education and the significance of children, youth and families

“…Holt (2007) differs somewhat in her reading of Butler, but similarly shows how children's sociability within schools reproduces (dis)ability as an identity positioning. By contrast Ansell (2002) is unusual in that while she too draws on Butler she does so in a rare example of research concerned with gender identity construction in schools in the global South (see also Ansell, 2001). Much of the emphasis in these studies, which construct schools as 'spaces distinct from, but embedded within, the contexts of everyday life' (Ansell, 2002: 180), is on the consequences of these performances of identity for young people in the here-and-now.…”

The Shadow of Indebtedness: Bridewealth and Norms Constraining Female Reproductive Autonomy

“…Ethnographic data, however, suggest that despite two centuries of European involvement and vast changes in women's traditional positions (particularly since World War II), the practice remains widespread (Ansell 2001;Chireshe and Chireshe 2010;Wojcicki et al 2010). Ethnographers describe the practice in Eastern (Goldschmidt 1974;Prazak 2006), Southern (Dekker and Hoogeveen 2002;Mwamwenda and Monyooe 1997), Central (Ardener 1962;Richards 1950), and Western (Bawah et al 1999;Frost and Dodoo 2010;Isiugo-Abanihe 1994a) Africa.…”

The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice

“…Some customary laws have also abandoned the requirement of brideprice; for example, Zimbabwe did so in 1982. For those where brideprice still occurred, the financial responsibility increasingly fell directly to wage-earning grooms rather than to their extended lineage (Ansell, 2001). In China, because of the marriage laws prohibiting transfers, marriage payments declined during the collectivist period, but some research suggests their resurgence in the 1980s, particularly in rural areas (Harrell, 1992).…”

“…In theory, brideprice could be interpreted as explicit recognition and valuing of women's productivity and contribution to marriage; in practice, it often serves to limit women's control over their bodies. Both sexually and in terms of their labor, brideprice has long been linked to domestic violence, owing to women's fear of returning to their natal home without being able to repay the brideprice (Ansell, 2001). African women's rights campaigners advocate the abolishment of the practice, and have linked it to the spread of AIDS, since brideprice as payment for sexual rights leads to women's loss of say in sexual protection and frequency (Wendo, 2004).…”