Inkcitha nzila nobomi obutsha (The release of the widow and life after mourning): Xhosa widows and citizenship

Jimlongo, Gcotyelwa Nomxolisi

Title: Inkcitha nzila nobomi obutsha (The release of the widow and life after mourning): Xhosa widows and citizenship
Creator: Jimlongo, Gcotyelwa Nomxolisi
Subject: Widows South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Women, Black South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Xhosa (African people) South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Widows Social conditions
Subject: Widowhood Psychological aspects South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Widowhood Economic aspects South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Widowhood Social aspects South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Mourning customs South Africa Eastern Cape
Subject: Feminist economics South Africa Eastern Cape
Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Date: 2021-10-29
Type: Master's theses
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192220
Identifier: vital:45206
Description: This study examines the everyday conceptions and navigations of citizenship by Xhosa widows. It examines widows’ own understandings and experiences of citizenship once the official mourning period, known amongst amaXhosa as ukuzila, has ended. The study draws from 14 interviews with Xhosa widows from the Amalinda, Tsholomnqa, Mdantsane, Magcumeni, KwaNonkcampa, and Dimbaza areas in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This thesis contextualises claims to widowhood in the context of democratic South Africa, and the various ways in which widowed women conceptualise their lives after ukuzila. While ukuzila itself is written about in the literature, the contentious claims to widowhood and the ways in which women come to make sense of their lives in the post-mourning period remains largely unexplored. Interviews were conducted with women who had undertaken customary and/or civil marriages, had divorced or separated from their partners, or had cohabited. They reveal that widowhood is tenuous and as such, remains contested and contestable. The study demonstrates that much of the claims to widowhood are made because of the undeniable labour that women perform during the partnerships, where they are the primary economic providers. The study shows that whether in the formal and informal sector, women have been central in building the economic livelihoods of their families. In the post-mourning period, the theme of ukuhlala (to stay) that is articulated by widows, shows that they choose to remain in their marital homes to protect what they have laboured for. The findings demonstrate that the key to ‘good’ widowhood is intricately linked to ‘good’ motherhood. For Xhosa widows, much of their decision-making, and livelihood strategies, rests on how they craft good livelihoods for their families. These include a negotiation of feminist economies with woman-centred networks, a reliance on spirituality, as well as negotiations for dignity and respect within the homestead through the protection and maintenance of what they have built over the years.
Description: Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
Format: computer
Format: online resource
Format: application/pdf
Format: 1 online resource (130 pages)
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies
Language: English
Rights: Jimlongo, Gcotyelwa Nomxolisi
Rights: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Rights: Open Access

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