‘Money breaks blood ties’: chiefs' courts and the transition from lineage debt to commercial debt in Sipolilo district

Abstract

In Sipolilo District, the penetration of capitalist social relations was first felt through interactions with storekeepers. The Native Commissioner's court, and shortly thereafter the Chiefs’ courts, assisted the spread of the concept of commercial debt, and deeply affected the form and structure of roora marriages. The article starts with the dramatic surge in commercial debt cases, and the subsequent equally dramatic increase in non‐commercial debt cases (largely in matrimonial disputes), in the Native Commissioner's court in the 1950s. By tracing developments in civil disputes, the dynamics of the district's moral economy are illuminated. The reasons for the increase in each field of law are examined. It is argued that the surge in non‐commercial cases echoed the upsurge in commercial debt cases. This echo was not confined to the economic sphere, but spread to the spheres of law and social norms. The article concludes that the struggle to control the courts was of importance to wider social relations within the colonial state.