‘Anginayo ngisho indibilishi!’ (I don't have a penny!): The gender politics of ‘Native Welfare’ in Durban, 1930–1939

Abstract

This paper examines how the Durban Bantu Child Welfare Society (DBCWS) came to be established by African women in Durban in the early years of public political activity by African women in Durban and its relationship to African women's welfare societies (the Durban Bantu Women's Society and the Daughters of Africa) also established in the 1930s. I consider kholwa (African, mission-educated) women's interaction with the local state and also with white liberal segregationists who were participating in a national turn towards the establishment of ‘Non-European’ child welfare societies in South Africa. The DBCWS began its work in the context of fierce opposition, particularly by kholwa women, to the promulgation of new pass law regulations aimed at controlling African women's movements into Durban. In inter-war Durban, ‘Native Welfare’ first referred to control of African male leisure time and focused primarily on migrant labourers. By the end of the 1930s the DBCWS worked with officials of the Durban Town Council (DTC) and with the Durban Children's Court. The state provided reluctant and limited assistance to impoverished African families, whilst also continuing to enforce the rule of segregation.