“Face of Fertility: Migrant isiXhosa-speaking Women's Reproductive Experiences and Agency in the Cape 1950-1989”
This thesis focuses on the reproductive experiences and agency of a group of isiXhosa-speaking migrants in the Cape from the 1950s to the 1980s. It examines why they decided to use contraceptive methods provided at state health facilities from 1960-1989, when they had been raised in a cultural context where a woman's reproductive capacity (fertility) was highly prized. While there have been influential quantitative demographic studies documenting the decline in fertility in this period, more qualitative, oral history studies are needed to describe African migrant women's reproductive decision-making in relation to how many children they chose to have and which points in their lives to have them. The study is based on twenty in-depth interviews conducted in isiXhosa with women who migrated between rural areas in the Transkei and Ciskei and towns and cities in the Cape. Three main findings emerged from the research. Firstly, the women all emphasised the maintenance of virginity prior to marriage was a norm that was inculcated in them during their adolescence in the rural areas. Fertility within the context of marriage was normative. Secondly, after many of these women moved to urban areas such as Cape Town, Queenstown and Kimberley, they learnt about contraceptive methods and their decision-making was also influenced by their precarious incomes and status as migrants in an apartheid context. Thirdly, a further issue explored is the extent to which the women viewed apartheid oppression as having influenced their reproductive decision-making. Many of the women argued that their use of contraceptives was not influenced by apartheid oppression, despite the fact that they experienced it with particular intensity in Cape Town and other urban areas discussed. Instead they emphasized the importance of ukuthwala in their sexual and reproductive lives. Ultimately, the study adds to our understanding of African women migrants' reproductive experiences.
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