Solidarity at Times of Family Conflict: Resisting Inequality in Black South African Families

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Family Conflict and Dissolution

Abstract

Inequalities amongst different family relations are particularly evident at a time of transition, such as divorce, the death of a family member or the marriage of a second wife in polygamous marriages. Legal reform, notably, The Recognition of Customary Marriage Act 120 of 1998, was an attempt to improve the inequalities that exist in customary marriages in South Africa. The Act aimed to improve the position of women in customary marriages through provisions which purport to create equitable marriage relationships between spouses. Drawing from over 70 interviews with rural-based black South African women who had experienced a polygamous marriage, divorce or intestate succession issue, this paper examines the co-existence of negative and positive experiences between women within kin groups whose relationships are on-going and are characterised by both solidarity and conflict. The findings show that at a time of transition women in family relationships experience considerable hardship, whilst seeking and offering some solidarity with the same family members they are in conflict with. This paper throws light on how paradoxically values such as equality and respect, now supported by legislation, may find their least purchase in families, even when those values, and in particular Ubuntu, are being practiced in the wider kin group. This paper concludes that the intricacies of oppressive yet tight kin relationships, amongst low-income rural based women, demonstrate the workings of unequal power relationships sustained by family life.

Author

• Elena Moore, University of Cape Town