Understanding ukuthwala: Bride abduction in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile marriage rates in South Africa are exceptionally low, ukuthwala (‘abduction marriage,’ or ‘bride abduction’) appears to be increasing in some rural communities despite declining rates of marriage overall. Moreover, contemporary abductions seem to be increasingly characterised by gendered violence. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a rural Xhosa village, in this article I link the growing incidence and escalating violence of contemporary ukuthwala to the decline of the migrant labour system, and secondarily, to ideological transformations in desired forms of conjugal intimacy. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, I discuss contemporary forms of ukuthwala as an outcome of loss of security and status for older women, masculine economic marginalisation, and a growing conviction among young women that marriage should be premised on autonomous spousal choice. In so doing, I show connections between contemporary ukuthwala and broader issues of political economy, domesticity, and gendered and generational sociality. Situating ukuthwala within broader social, economic, and political contexts, as I do in this article, can offer a richer appreciation of the motivations and moral values that scaffold it, and can contribute to broader conversations about violence, social change, gendered and generational struggles in South Africa today.