Rethinking ukuthwala, the South African ‘bride abduction’ custom

This story was first published in The Conversation.

Ukuthwala is a term in Nguni languages which has various meanings. It can refer to ways (including abduction) of making a customary marriage happen quickly. South Africa has a varied cultural make-up, and the term ‘customary’ is generally used to describe beliefs and traditions of groups that are ‘indigenous’ to the country. Customary marriages therefore are based on localised norms. As a route to customary marriage, multiple types of ukuthwala exist across the country, each with distinct names and elements.

The reports about violent ukuthwala cases provoked responses from different sectors of society. Government leaders organised meetings with affected communities. The South African Law Reform Commission did an extensive study. Legal scholars outlined the human rights implications of the practice. The ruling political party’s Women’s League called for ukuthwala to be abolished.

From the media and government reports, legal scholarship and case law, two general conclusions emerged during this period. The first was that non-consensual ukuthwala was a modern phenomenon. The second was that it was an abuse of tradition, not an authentic customary practice.

Through my research, based on interviews with women in the Eastern Cape and examinations of historical and recent sources, I have found that both of these conclusions about ukuthwala are oversimplifications. The reality is far more complex. Coercive ukuthwala has been practised for generations, and many have held the cruel acts accompanying ukuthwala as part of tradition.

The mainstream conclusions obscure the actual nature and extent of this form of gendered violence.

Misconceptions

The first misconception is that violent ukuthwala is a new phenomenon. Part of the misunderstanding stems from the fact that before 2009 only a small body of academic research existed, and much of it concentrated on the romantic ukuthwala forms, akin to elopement. There are however sources that provide rich insights into past practices of violent ukuthwala. The historian Elisabeth Thornberry, for example, explored sexual crimes and customs in colonial-era Eastern Cape. An early legal ethnography was Jacobus van Tromp’s 1947 work on Xhosa customs. Colonial and apartheid-era court cases also provide evidence of women seeking to escape abusive marriages.

Most importantly, older women are repositories of historical knowledge. I conducted my research in partnership with Masimanyane, an Eastern Cape-based women’s rights organisation. In my interviews women related their experiences of ukuthwala, rape and brutality during the 1970s. Staff of Masimanyane described how older women in affected communities had asked for counselling for the traumas they suffered decades ago.

Collectively these sources demonstrate that coercive ukuthwala is not of recent origin.

The second simplified conclusion about violent ukuthwala is that it is an inauthentic expression of custom. This assertion is most evident in the legal arena. In the 2015 decision Jezile vs S the Western Cape High Court determined that features of traditional ukuthwala under customary law included:

• the consent of both the bride and groom 


• a “pretend” abduction of the bride 


• the strict prohibition of any sexual intercourse during the abduction.