ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the generational shifts in gendered relations and women’s negotiating power within families that are occurring in deeply rural KwaZulu-Natal. The site of study is Msinga, an area that is infamous for being the gun frontier of South Africa and having a deeply traditional culture marked by a belligerent masculinity. Yet, drawing on women’s stories, gathered as part of empirical data systematically collected over a period of 11 months by means of everyday journaling of what headmen do and observations of traditional courts at various levels in Msinga, the chapter tells a different story. It is one of an adaptive and pragmatic society that is generally responsive to contemporary socio-economic and constitutional demands. The question I ask here is whether, over time, the cumulative steps separately taken by women to resist their own oppression and achieve greater material and/or physical security are resulting in generational change concerning women’s negotiating power in and through their families. My argument is that, while progress is very gradual, this is indeed the case. Yet, while local progress is clearly underway, the institutions that most vehemently continue to stand in its way are those furthest removed from the women’s day-to-day lives.
