Sex and Marriage, Children and Men

Abstract

Right across southern Africa the family is in a process of change. The old structures have been subject to pressures, both economic and ideological. The pre-colonial African family was never a static institution, it could, and did, respond to changing circumstances; but it was colonialism that brought about the major and lasting shifts which led to a worsening of women’s position. Legislators and mission schools attempted to impose their own ideas of what families should be. Their models were based on a belief that the western nuclear family was the best, or only, way to bring up children and most of them had little understanding of, or respect for, African society. Loss of land and imposition of taxes forced men to migrate in search of paid work, splitting families apart. Economic pressures and wars continue to enforce separation up to the present day.