Few groups in Africa were affected more by colonialism than women. In the pre-colonial African village, a division of labor between men and women had existed in which women were responsible for planting, weeding, and harvesting in addition to food preparation and child care, while men cleared the land, built houses, herded cattle, and sometimes helped with field work. Such arrangements broke down in western Africa when cash-crop agriculture was introduced. Men took over the farming of cotton and cocoa, leaving the responsibility for growing food for domestic consumption exclusively to women. Worse disruption took place in southern and eastern Africa, where men left their villages for wage-paying jobs in mines or cities. This meant long absences of husbands from their families, greater work and domestic responsibilities for women, and frequently the breakdown of family life altogether.All these changes troubled the South African woman Charlotte Maxeke, the founder of the African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League, social worker, teacher, and leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born Charlotte Makgomo Manye in 1874, she received her primary and secondary education in South Africa; in her early twenties she toured England, Canada, and the United States with an African choir. She remained in the United States to study at Wilberforce College in Ohio, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree and met and married another South African, Reverend Marshall Maxeke. On her return to South Africa, she co-founded a secondary school with her husband and remained active in ANC and denominational affairs until her death in 1939.
In 1930 she presented her views on the plight of black women and families in a speech delivered to a rally attended by white and black Christian youth. You can read parts of the speech by clicking here.
After reading the speech, I would like you to consider and discuss the following: What, according to Maxeke, are the reasons for the Bantu exodus from the countryside to the cities. What special challenges and difficulties confront newly arrived blacks in urban areas? How do the problems of men and women in such circumstances differ? What seems to have been the effect of the changes Maxeke describes on children and young people? What solutions does Maxeke propose to solve the problems confronting African women and their families? Your thoughts…
19 comments:
This was really sad for the women. It made me want to slap the men who forgot about their wife and family because then went into the city for "better work" or "more money for the family." it seems something more like "more money for the man in the city because he does not need to care for his family, but that is not all the men. The women who were really desperate actually came in the city as well with all her children. Then when she couldn't fine her husband or a home because of the lack of a husband, she had to get a new one just to have a roof over her head. Apparently to me, the city did no good for the people of the Bantu Regions. I think the women had to suffer more then the men did because they mad more responsibility to do. The solution in the end was to give women and children houses and proper accommodations where they know they are safe.
Bantus are exiting the countryside because towns are the main industrian money place. The husbands travel to cities to find work to support their family but soon forget their responsibility, thus forcing their wives and children to have to come into the city to look for them. The South African Govt is making all unemployed carry a permit to be allowed in the city that has to be replaced every couple days (like 6 or 7) and after about the 3rd time of renewing your permit in a row, you are thrown in jail. Alot of women are being thrown in jail becaus emen are being hired over women and women have the children to bring up, so women try to find a way to work from home, which at this time doesn't really exist. Lots of women resort to "bringing crime into their and their children's life" to have enough money to live off of. Due to this the youth of this generation come into the worplace slightly corrupt. She claims the only way to stop this is to get women into the industrial workplace, where they belong.
The problem is very different for men and women. If a man cannot support his family he just leaves them and goes and finds work for himself. This leaves the women and the children in a lose-lose situation. The wife cannot buy a house without her husband and cannot get a job because she must support her children. This causes the Woman to feel as though they must go down a path of crime to be able to provide for their families, creating even more problems.
Okay these laws dont help create order they just cause more chaos and separation.. forcing the woman to be mared in order to obtain a roof over their and their children's heads is rediculous. it splits them apart from their original husband who, went to get income, and then leaves their children in an awkward position. it says they are uncared for and undisciplined. that's not even fair or right for them. They didnt have a choice and then now they are suferring mostly because of such laws. And that's only in the Black community. For the Whites, its a whole story in itelf. They are not only the ones creating absurd laws, they are making racial discrimination more and more prominant and pertinent in and to daily life. If a black south african doesnt have is pass he has to renew it well there's no jobs for him so he's imprisoned. and if he doesnt obtain a pass, well he's imprisoned. and then they wonder why women dont have their husbands when they come to the city..
I feel terrible about how the women wwere treated during this time. They were just regarded so the men could do what they want. That's what really got me
mr prill i cant view either of the documents (this post and the other)
it says
"might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."
hmm... not sure, it just opened for me here on my end...
The men might have had more responsibility than the women, but they abused it and never came back to help their families. The women were the ones doing everything they can to keep themselves and their kids alive. The children meet up with other street children while the mother's at work, and they learn to pickpocket and shoplift and be petty criminals. It just keeps going downhill.
it's awful the kind of treatment blacks were getting in regards to standard of living, especially the women. and the apartheid laws make something that's already bad worse. the women moving into cities though just reminded me of the nasty results of the industrial revolution.
the men in south Africa have to go and find jobs in the city and if they left their wife then they couldn't get a job. so they are stuck with no income and that is bad. so then they chose another opportunity and do crimes and that causes problems.
ey, mr. prill do we have to blog over spring break??
nope, enjoy your vacation
Well this creates a lot of problems for both men and women, if a man is not able to support is family, he can just leave and support himself. This kind of leaves the woman (and possibly chidlren) to fend for themselves which usually doesn't end well.
I hate how the men had to leave their families just to end up having better lives. It really put families, especially the wives and children of the men who left complicated and its a shame they have to go through that.
These Bantu men moved to a big city like Johannesburg because they want to experience and live the life of the wealties. Many men earn their wage, but the luxuries of cities lure them to spend all of it on useless things. Also, the children are uncared for so as they grow, they commit crimes. The women who move to the city also has to commit crime because she can not work(because of her children) but has to earn some money. Unfortunately, the men, when they work in the cities, tend to forget about his wife and children. The men, after a while, gets ignorant and corrupt in some ways, whereas the women keeps looking and searching for her husband. The only solution to this problem is to provide the women with proper accomodation.
According to Maxeke, the reason for the men leaving is not necessarily a bad idea or with bad intentions. They are going to find better work in the cities to support their families. However, when they get there, they are attracted to the luxuries of the city and do not leave. The men spend all the money that they worked so hard to earn and don't give it to their family. Then the women are forced to go track their husbands down but have trouble in the city. The children are taught all of the wrong things when they see their mother resorting to criminal activities to feed them every night.
Many of the men searching for profit moved into the cities in order to provide for their families outside of the city, but quite a few got caught up with the city life and abandoned their wife and children leaving them in a horrible position. The wife was to search for work or a new husband in the city with her children in order to simply put a roof over their heads. I can't believe that the men that moved into the city to start with completely dropped his family and did not even help them survive. It was so rough on the women of that time who had to be the caretaker and the provider.
uh... talk about womens' rights! i read that women were considered nothing without their husbands and it drove me insane. cities were pretty harsh places in africa. they still are... because most of the population is into subsistence farming or agriculture. i personally don't think it's quite right that the women are supposed to sacrifice the well being of their children for the lives of their children. i also the the 'European treatment of the Natives'. they think they're so high-and mighty just because they don't have female domestic servants. big whoop. they did before. and the african population might as well be enslaved because of the persecution and limitations they faced.
according to the author the people go to the cities to find new jobs for their families. the problem is that they don't use the money for their families they see the luxury and spend their money on that. the women on the other hand would be waiting in their little village for her husband but when he wouldn't come, she would set out to look for him and ways to take care of her family and kids. so all the burden is on the women's shoulder. and when she finally gets there, shes told she can't get a house or settle without her husband. that just make me so mad! then they have to compromise with other men in order to get a house and support their families! this is also messing up the bantu culture. because the women is stuck in between work and family she cannot properly take care of her children and her children dont recieve education or culture and they take a bad path to stay alive.
i actually feel bad for women once in my lif, the only reason i feel bad for them now is cuz they have to have our baby and i bet it hurts bad, but i feel bad for them then cuz the way that they were treated and how they were forgotten by there husbands that went into the city for work.. women had a lot to do for there family once there husbands left cuz sometimes they would lose there husband and have to take care of there families by themselves and i bet they had more reponsibilities than the men
Post a Comment