Tradition and Domestic Struggle in the Courtroom: Customary Law and the Control of Women in Segregation-Era Natal

Abstract

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Marriage and Bridewealth (Ilobolo) in Contemporary Zulu Society

“…With the advent of colonialism, the development of the migrant labor system and the extension of the money economy recast the generational basis of ilobolo (Welsh 1971; McClendon 1995; Hunter 2010). After 1846 the hut tax was introduced in Natal, forcing young men into migrant labor to maintain their fathers’ homestead by paying taxes.…”

In The Land of the Chiefs : Customary Law, Land Conflicts, and the Role of the State in Peri-Urban Ghana

“…He furthermore shows the ''contrast between the informality, the flexibility, the ''political'' bargaining quality and the unpredictability of dispute settlement and the precision of the norms which will be quoted by members of the same society'' (Allott 1977: 10). Under colonial rule, it was mainly the African ruling groups of male elders who were able to put their morality forward as 'custom' and whose claims were countenanced by courts and administrators (Chanock 1989: 179, 184;McClendon 1995). Although Ndulo claims that this 'male elderly bias' has not fully disappeared in the post-colo-nial period, the protection of farmers' usufructuary rights against chiefs qualifies this criticism (Ndulo 1981).…”

‘Sharing my bed with the enemy’: Wives and violent husbands in post-colonial Swaziland

“…Customary law as constructed in the colonial period nourished violence against women as it entrenched the ideology of male superiority (McClendon 1995). It emphasised the rights and authority of males and elders while it simultaneously emphasised the powerlessness of women and children.…”