Genders and Generations Apart Labor Tenants and Customary Law in Segregation-Era South Africa, 1920s to 1940s

Subjects:

• Multicultural Studies » African Studies
• Law » Legal History
• Sociology » Social Work
• History » African History

Reviews:

• This is a substantial contribution to our understanding of the processes of the African homestead economy, labor tenant obligations obtaining within that social formation, and its dialogical relationship to urban employment in an era of social change resonating with issues of control, labour and tradition. This work makes a major contribution to the social history of Southern Africa during the inter-war years.
  —Atieno Odhiambo, Rice University .
• Lucid and Informative, [it] deepens our understanding of the historical links between industrialization and apartheid in South Africa through a detailed study of struggles between genders and generations in rural Natal during the 1920s and 1930s....McClendon makes skillful use of legal disputes over bridewealth and marriage to illuminate the consequences of drought, depression and racial discrimination for relations between men and women, parents and children within and between rural households.
  —Sara S. Berry, Department of History Johns Hopkins University
• At a time when "heritage" has become a fashionable mantra [McClendon's] caveat that much that passes as "tradition" is a colonial construct is of particular importance. His deft and incisive case study not only explores a crucial and under-studied period in the history of KwaZulu-Natal; it also illuminated the multifarious legacy of segregation and apartheid for contemporary South Africa.
  —Shula Marks, FBA Emeritus Professor of Southern African History, University of London

• Endorsement From Sara S. Berry
  Department of History
  Johns Hopkins University: Lucid and Informative, [it] deepens our understanding of the historical links between industrialization and apartheid in South Africa through a detailed study of struggles between genders and generations in rural Natal during the 1920s and 1930s....McClendon makes skillful use of legal disputes over bridewealth and marriage to illuminate the consequences of drought, depression and racial discrimination for relations between men and women, parents and children within and between rural households.
• Endorsement From Atieno Odhiambo
  Rice University: This is a substantial contribution to our understanding of the processes of the African homestead economy, labor tenant obligations obtaining within that social formation, and its dialogical relationship to urban employment in an era of social change resonating with issues of control, labour and tradition. This work makes a major contribution to the social history of Southern Africa during the inter-war years.
• Endorsement From Shula Marks FBA
  Emeritus Professor of Southern African History
  University of London: At a time when `heritage' has become a fashionable mantra [McClendon's] caveat that much that passes as `tradition' is a colonial construct is of particular importance. His deft and incisive case study not only explores a crucial and under-studied period in the history of KwaZulu-Natal; it also illuminated the multifarious legacy of segregation and apartheid for contemporary South Africa.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Glossary
• Introduction
• Gender and Generation in the Six-Month System through the 1930s
• Depression, Drought, and the "Drift of Natives": Crises of Control in the 1930s
• Kufanele Ukusebenza Isithupa: Fathers, Sons, and Bridewealth, 1927-1944
• Courting Tradition: Law, Sexuality, and the Control of Women, 1927-1944
• Conclusion
• Bibliography