‘Civilised domesticity’, race and European attempts to regulate African marriage practices in colonial Natal, 1868–1875

Autor: Jeremy Martens
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: The History of the Family. 14:340-355
ISSN: 1873-5398
1081-602X
DOI: 10.1016/j.hisfam.2009.08.005
Popis: This paper examines a controversy that erupted in the 1860s over attempts by European settlers in the colony of Natal to regulate African marriages. In 1869 the Natal government promulgated a law enabling the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal to regulate African marital customs. The regulations proclaimed under Law 1 of 1869 imposed a tax on every marriage contracted by Africans, restricted the practice of lobola (bridewealth) and required that brides publicly express their assent before an official witness for marriages to be valid. The implementation of these measures unleashed a storm of protest that eventually forced the government to abandon the marriage tax in 1875. Intriguingly, however, while there was African resistance to the law, it was principally the outrage of the colony's European settlers and missionaries that forced the government's hand. This paper explores the creation and implementation of Law 1 of 1869, the subsequent controversy and the abandonment of the marriage tax. In doing so it argu...
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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