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Zenzele: African Women's Self-Help Organizations in South Africa, 1927–1998

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Catherine Higgs
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Abstract:

The Zenzele clubs of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, which date from the late 1920s, were founded by mission-educated African women who sought to improve the lives of rural African women by enhancing their subsistence farming and cooking skills and educating them about household cleanliness, basic child care, and health care. Unlike associations for African women in British colonial Africa, Zenzele clubs did not evolve into political organizations. In the white-run segregated and apartheid states that persisted through 1994, Zenzele women did not engage in direct political action; rather, they sought to unite African women across class and ethnic lines and focused their efforts on community development.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Les clubs Zenzele du cap oriental de l'Afrique du Sud datent des années 1920 lorsqu'ils ont été fondés par des Africaines éduquées par des missionnaires dont le but était d'améliorer la condition des femmes africaines en milieu rural en perfectionnant leurs compétences dans le domaine de l'agriculture de subsistance et de la cuisine, et en leur donnant une formation sur l'hygiène domestique, les rudiments de la puériculture et la santé. Contrairement aux associations pour Africaines au temps de l'Afrique coloniale britannique, les clubs Zensele ne se sont pas transformées en organisations politiques. Dans les états dominés par l'Apartheid et la ségrégation raciale, sous la domination blanche, qui ont persisté jusqu'en 1994, les femmes Zenzele ne se sont pas engagées directement dans l'activisme politique. Elles ont plutôt cherché à unifier les Africaines au-delà des barrières sociales et ethniques et ont concentré leurs efforts sur le développement des communautés.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 119 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2004

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