Profiles in Diversity: Women in the New South Africa

“Something to hold on to”

Four "Something to hold on to" Anonymous Voices from Ciskei CISKEI WAS ONE OF THE ten "homelands" established under apartheid. Not recognized by a single government outside ofSouth Mrica, this tiny pseudonation could not have existed without heavy government subsidies. Many inhabitants of Ciskei are pensioners who have retired from jobs in the industrial parts of South Africa, or wives and children of men who live and work elsewhere outside ofthe former homeland. The people are homogeneous: in ethnicity they are Xhosa; economically almost all, except for government employees and a few retirees, live on the edge of poyerty. Sanctions followed by deep recession created even more problems for Ciskei dwellers. Until recently, many youths growing up in Ciskei who might have been employed elsewhere remained--and few could find regular employment. Under the old government, in order to go to work in the urban centers, young people had be recruited. If there was no work, they were prohibited from drifting into the urban townships of Port Elizabeth, East London, or beyond. The change in government has been a mixed blessing to these young people. Now that they are able to freely move about the country, many have joined the masses of squatters who flood the cities and the townships, and whose camps ring even the smallest towns, especially in the Western Cape. Lacking skills, and because of the high unemployment rate in cities and towns, the young people from areas like Ciskei are often forced to beg, steal, or practice forms of intimidation in order to survive. Some youths, however, do obtain jobs-domestic or low-level janitorial-in Grahamstown or nearby King William Town, where they add to the already overburdened labor pool, meaning that when they are employed, they work for very low wages. A few entreprenurial young men have started taxi businesses, or serve as drivers for absentee owners. Some, especially very young boys, serve as shepherds for the goats and scrawny cattle that are sent out in the bush until such time as they 149 FOUR ANONYMOUS VOICES FROM CISKEI need to be sold or can provide a feast for the mostly poor families who continue to dwell in Ciskei. A paradox ofsorts developed when the architects ofapartheid drew Ciskei's borders . Fort Hare, the first college for blacks in southern Mrica, became incorporated within the "homeland." Then later, under the University College of Ft. Hare Act, passed in 1959, Fort Hare was designated for Xhosa speakers. This meant that by 1981 the mostly ANC leaning Xhosa found themselves attending college in a phantom country, where the rulers ruled only because oftheir sycophantic ties with the South African government. From 1990, when the ANC was legalized, Fort Hare became a considerable thorn in the side of the tyrannical leadership that governed the tiny homeland. Although much covert sympathy rested with the ANC, and with a return to South Africa, the older residents of Ciskei lived in fear of recrimination from the Ciskei leadership, including the paramilitary police force that often terrorized their villages. Even though their fears were baseless, the four women I spoke with in Ciskei preferred to remain anonymous. In addition, they did not want the names or location of their villages mentioned in print. They were, however, "trousered people," meaning they wore Western-style dresses but kept their heads bound in the typical Xhosa brightly colored cloth. The first interview was conducted at the home of a relatively well-offwomanmeaning she had food growing in a garden and lived in a proper house, not a traditional African hut. She was joined by a friend who lived in more modest circumstances but who, also, had arrived in Ciskei during the 1950s, when the removals got underway. The second interview occurred not far from the old capital , which features an assortment of administrative buildings that are partially ringed in by a new town of small bungalows. These houses were built for the bureaucrats and police who served the Ciskei government until it was disbanded. The young men who could go out generally returned to contract for lobola [bride price], and to marry before returning to their jobs. In some cases the marriages were forced on them by their families. They often resented the traditional wife, who was usually pregnant soon after the marriage. Once back in the townships, many of these men found "town" wives who produced children for them. A further complication to lobola is the old tradition of paying bride price in...