Deconstructing Characterizations of Rape, Marriage, and Custom in South Africa: Revisiting The Multi-Sectoral Campaign Against Ukuthwala

Abstract

A critique of multi-sectoral responses to the customary practice of ukuthwala (the isiXhosa term for abduction for purposes of marriage) in South Africa highlights attention to gendered tropes pertaining to marriage, custom, and sexual assault. Karimakwenda deconstructs how, in its inflexible framing of customary practice, the multi-sectoral campaign against violent forms of ukuthwala lacks historicization and silences women’s narratives. By obscuring historical and locally-embedded linkages between marriage practices and rape, the myopic campaign energizes collective anxieties around representations of violence within Black communities, and fuels misconceptions surrounding marital rape. This critique contributes to debates about gender, violence, and state power by offering a counter-narrative to simplified characterizations of sexual violence and custom.

Staying with the Culture Struggle: The African Union and Eliminating Violence Against Women

“…There is confusion and disagreement over what constitutes marriage, over the notions of forced, child, and early marriage, whether they happen within the participants' communities or not, and the harm and benefits of marrying young (Schaffnit et al 2021). Oversimplifying social factors as generic "culture" or "tradition" has so far not proved to be effective for policymaking (Karimakwenda 2020).…”

“…Western feminist and development discourses tend to reproduce an ahistorical and unchanging notion of “culture,” of which non-Western and non-Christian Others are victims (Mohanty 1988; Abu-Lughod 2013). This discourse has given birth to an image of powerless “third world women” living in pathological “cultures of violence” (Abu-Lughod 2013; Karimakwenda 2020; Sangari 2005). There is a hyper-focus on culture and social norms in women’s rights interventions, to the point that harmful traditional practices and violence against women become inseparable in policy language.…”