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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Rethinking Customary Law on Bridewealth |
Authors: | Burman, Sandra Van der Werff, Nicolette |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | Social Dynamics |
Volume: | 19 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | Summer |
Pages: | 111-127 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | alimony bridewealth divorce Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Cultural Roles Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Marital Relations and Nuptiality |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533959308458554 |
Abstract: | In 1991 an article by Sandra Burman sketched the significant changes taking place in the structure of South African families, in particular the very high proportion of female-headed households in which many women were forced to provide for children out of meagre resources. In the article Burman suggested that the considerable funds involved in bridewealth payments be used instead to pay for the expenses of the children of marriages which broke up after bridewealth had been paid. She also proposed a possible scheme for doing this. Nicolette Van der Werff made a small pilot survey of reactions to Burman's suggestion among African students at the University of Cape Town and among African teachers and social workers in the Durban Metropolitan Area of Natal. A provisional conclusion is that the younger generation is much readier to accept the scheme than the older respondents. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |