Gender and Racism

Teboho Maitse

Introduction

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'failure to observe human rights results in tyranny and oppression, which then compels victims to rebellion'(1). This declaration presupposes that apart from racial discrimination, societies do not practise other forms of discrimination such as those based on gender, age, disability, sexual preference and religion. Therefore, to discuss race and gender in South Africa it is imperative that we locate them firstly, within the historical realm: that is colonialism, apartheid and the political and ideological construction of the traditional African family. And secondly, in the present context of inter-personal and inter-racial relations. The historical context takes into account that we belong to different racial and ethnic (2) groupings as these shape our perceptions of 'self' and the 'othering' of others, whether they are male or female.

Therefore, discussion of 'race' should take into account the problematic nature of the term, along with others associated with it. Disputes on the topic are legion. It has long been recognized that races do not exist in any scientifically recognised meaningful sense, because the very idea of 'race' is a social construction, similar to that of gender. Nonetheless, in many societies people have often acted, and continue to act as if 'race' is a fixed objective category. These beliefs are reflected both in political discourse and at the level of popular ideas. (3) Consequently, common-sense understandings of 'race' have concentrated on such variables as skin colour, language and nationality.

This article focuses on South African history and how that manifests itself in the present racial and gendered discriminatory practices. We know that although African people were discriminated against as a race, and that African men were deemed inferior to white women, it is important to recognise that African women experienced a 'special type' of discrimination that was reserved solely for them, both as African people as well as 'possessions' of African men. The Apartheid governments controlled women's sexuality, albeit differently, for example:
it employed population control to keep the African population down. Women were often sterilised without their consent or knowledge; (4)
it conducted clinics that prescribed two dangerous contraceptives for African women, the Dalkon Shield and Depo Provera; (5)
it restricted abortion, but white women who wanted to have abortions went abroad whilst their African counterparts had to contend with backstreet abortions which exposed them to many forms of anger. (6)

The Ideological and Political Construction of the African Family

To distinguish between modernity and the continuity of old forms of African family life, it is necessary to give a brief historical background regarding the political and ideological transformation of the traditional African family. At a political level the discussion of the multifaceted construction of the African family raises awareness of the subordination, exploitation and the oppression of women, and it is only through such an analysis that the true meaning of the multi-layered oppression of women can be understood. Also it is at this level that we can comprehend how within African families, family equaled women, and how we have often failed to problematise gender and gendered relations. The association of women with family denies women their individual identity, for example at the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission a significant number of women related violence experienced by family members rather than their own experiences of violence. Similarly at an ideological level the analysis of the varied forms of the African family demonstrates how the political and ideological construction of the African family enabled men to perceive women as their possessions, because home was the only arena where they had authority. Finally, this level explains how the political and ideological transformation of the African family enabled African men to merge European and African cultural norms to defend their oppression and exploitation of women, and how for women the family became "the source of affirmation as well as their subordination". (7)

South Africa has always comprised of a number of ethnic groupings with different languages and variations in customs. The pre-apartheid African family was strongly patriarchal, with descent patrilineal. (8) In those days marriage arrangements differed between tribes. However, the advent of Christianity and industrialisation transformed the traditional organisation of the African family. Firstly, the church inculcated a family model based on monogamy with a male breadwinner, and the woman was both the lynchpin of the family and the man's subordinate. Secondly, industrialisation transformed this agrarian community, because men left their homesteads to seek employment in the mines. (9)

The African family was socially constructed and complex; it was neither static nor monolithic. The urban African family consisted of blood relatives, in-laws, the dead and anyone who shared the same cultural values, while the rural family adhered to what were considered traditional African customs. Family consisted of blood relatives, ancestors and in-laws, and family often lived in close proximity. Both urban and rural families demanded loyalty from the young and they all engaged in ancestral worship. Thus anything that disturbed that fellowship was considered evil, and there was a belief that nothing disturbed the dead more than an offence against family unity and loyalty.

Women and family life

Within the African community there is no individual affair, because everything has a moral and social reference, which means that the habit of corporate effort is but the other side of corporate ownership, and women fall into the latter category. Family life consisted of a web of codes that decided the position of women in the family and in society. These complex codes were also used to recommend and circumscribe women's behaviour in private and in public, albeit the reality that the organisation of the African family was consistently changed and maintained by forces outside itself, in the form of politics, economy and ideology. Firstly, politics and economy had an impact on the organisation of the family, through the migratory labour system and the influx control laws.

Economic and political developments interfered with the conjugal stability between African men and women; they intensified women's reproductive and productive duties. It is common knowledge that every time men came home for a vacation they expected their wives to conceive. Occasionally, if the woman did not conceive by the end of her husband's vacation, men were known to rent rooms in the township so that their wives could visit them to (uku thata isisu) be impregnated. Incomparable tolerance was practised towards men who started families in the urban areas. The tolerance that my society adopted towards men's inclination to have more than one woman entrenched and justified a gender-biased status quo that served men's interests only. Fidelity was only expected of women as men's property, because men wanted to ensure the 'purity' of their stock.

The policies of the apartheid system continued the destruction of the African traditional family through economic, political and social interventions. Inevitably, during the phase of struggle for national liberation the family assumed a dichotomous position: it became both a private and public institution. The family was on the one hand, a haven from the harsh brutalities of apartheid, and a site to inculcate and imbibe cultural values. Accordingly, women became transmitters and emblems of African cultural norms, while men assumed the position of custodians of that culture. (10) On the other hand, the family attained political significance; it became the basis of political mobilisation, and it was within the family that the next generation was taught about beliefs and obligatory customs for the continuation of the African race. Thus society not only maintained the existence of family, but also secured the continuity of the distinctive characteristics of Africanism.

Gender

Women have from time immemorial been victims of gender discrimination. However, it is important to point out that class, race, ethnicity and caste have an effect on how women experience gender discrimination differently because gender discrimination intersects with other forms of identity. In addition, this determines our vulnerability to racial discrimination. Thus racial discrimination is but one strand of intertwined different threads of discrimination in as much as women diverge in terms of how 'race', ethnicity, class, age, caste, sexuality and disability affect their experiences. Other factors, such as historical context and geographical location, also need to be part of the framework of the analysis of racism and gender.

In focusing on issues of race and gender, it is not my intention to suggest that I am referring to two separate systems of racism and patriarchy, which intertwine in some comprehensible and simple way. Nor do I argue that there can be a single framework of understanding how racial and gender dynamics interrelate, nor one theoretical formulation for comprehending racialised gendering. Rather it is the complexities and varieties of experiences and forms of oppression which are highlighted. This is done in an attempt to contest the one-dimensional and often 'innocuous' portrayal of the impact that 'races' have on each other.

Racism is often understood as prejudicial opinions about and behaviours towards members of racial, ethnic, cultural or religious groups which are considered to be inherently inferior to one's own. This often manifests itself through 'propositions' that support policies or beliefs that are to the disadvantage of some races as opposed to others, and to do so even in the face of evidence and argument that should appropriately lead to giving those propositions up. (11) Accordingly, racially prejudiced statements and practices are those that use people's racially attributed characteristics to justify discrimination and exclusion. A major problem in combating racism, however, is that it is not always easy to identify racist attitudes and practices. Not only are racist attitudes and practices often disguised under more benign notions, but also racism changes its character, forms and perpetrators according to the setting within which it operates. For example, the racism of the educated differs from that of the uneducated, in as much as the former is not necessarily conscious and does not directly originate from holding the 'other' as inherently inferior. Sometimes this 'otherness' generates excitement and fascination: the case in point here is the random testing of pregnant African women for the HIV virus.

But this fascination is often irrational, that is these professionals fail to associate with the 'other' individual on equal terms, and their relationship embodies some power relations that preclude equality. The inequality in relation to power, whatever that power might mean, complicates and obstructs interracial communication and relations. In other words, our 'otherness' prevents them from seeing us as individuals, as ourselves. It prevents them from understanding us and relating to us.

Social categories and HIV/AIDS

Research and data collection on the rate of HIV infection shapes our understanding about women, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Brief references to official figures and responses in the mass media about the 'facts' of HIV reinforce the perception that for the public HIV/AIDS has become a problem only for African women. And this is due to the increasing publicity about the results of the anonymous testing of pregnant women in antenatal clinics, who are often African.

The media, both electronic and print, often bombard us with warnings about the neglected tragedy of pregnant women with AIDS. However, we do not hear about women of other races who may be in a similar situation. Consequently, the major distinction commonly made between 'us' and 'them' is between those who don't and/or cannot be caught by the HIV virus and the 'others': that is those who are and/or will become infected with the virus. This dichotomy recurs in many contexts, yet there is evidence that gender and race does not offer any protection against infection. Nevertheless, the numbers currently infected, the hyperbole in the reporting and interpretations of statistics, have made it difficult to break the 'othering' of others, and this is not dissimilar to the views of the previous government which deemed us promiscuous.

Conclusion

Currently we talk of South Africa as a non-racial and non-sexist country, but the question is: what mechanisms have we put in place to deal with people's internalisation of inferiority and superiority? The setting up of a process of 'deprogramming' us as a nation cannot be overemphasised because the past often influences the future. To conclude the reconstruction of the African renaissance as well as the millennium plan have become buzzwords among the intelligentsia of South Africa. But where are the women, and most importantly, where are black women? Because these women have always been the backbone of the African nation and economy, albeit in an unofficial manner. Lastly, we need to question how the media constantly and unsolicitedly parade women who are infected with the HIV virus, because this objectifies women.

Notes:
(1) Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
(2) The identification of particular cultures as ways of life of identity which are based on a historical notion of origin or fate, whether mythical or "real". (Anthias, F. 1990)
(3) Solomos, J. 1989 Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain. London, MacMillan.
(4) Marcus, T. 1988 'The Woman's Question and National Liberation in South Africa'. In van Diepen, M. (ed.) The National Question in South Africa. London, Zed Books Ltd.
(5) Maitse, T. E. 1996 'The Past is the Present: Thoughts from the New South Africa'. In Bell, D. and Klein, R. (eds.) Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed. Australia, Spinifex.
(6) The Restrictive Abortion and Sterilisation Act of 1975, No. 2
(7) Hassim, S. 1993 'The Family, Motherhood and Zulu Nationalism'. The Politics of the Inkatha Women's Brigade.' Feminist Review, Number 43. Pages 1-25.
(8) Guy, D. J. 1992 'White Slavery, Citizenship and Nationality in Argentina'. In Parker, A., Russo, M., Sommer, D. and Yaeger, P. (eds.) Nationalism and Sexualities. New York, Routledge.
(9) Lodge, T. 1983 Black Politics in South Africa since 1945. Johannesburg, Raven Press.
(10) Anthias, F. and Yuval-Davis, N. (eds.) 1989 Woman-Nation-States. London, of MacMillan Press.
(11) Appiah, K. A. 1990 'Racism', in Goldberg, D. T. (ed.) Anatomy of Racism. Minneapolis, University of Minneapolis Press.

Tebogo Maite is a part-time commissioner in the South African Commission on Gender Equality. She holds a PhD from the University of Bradford in the U.K. This article is based on her presentation in the Lolapress International Feminist magazine seminar on 'Racism, Xenophobia and Gender' in the context of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 27-28 August 2001 Durban.

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