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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Christian Compounds for Girls': Church Hostels for African Women in Johannesburg, 1907-1970
Author:Gaitskell, Deborah
Year:1979
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:6
Issue:1
Period:October
Pages:44-69
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:housing
domestic workers
Religion and Witchcraft
History and Exploration
Women's Issues
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636771
Abstract:This article examines three hostels for African women which were established in Johannesburg by missionaries of the Anglican and Methodist Churches, and the American Board Mission. These hostels were, in a sense, attempts to set up Christian compounds for girls, centres of accommodation which would limit the free movement (especially at night) and supervise the employment of African females, most of whom were domestic servants. 'Recreation and health supervision' was a priority in Church hostels on moral and religious grounds, rather than for reasons of industrial efficiency. The moral purity and security was of intrinsic value in missionary eyes, though they also pointed out to whites whom they hoped to win over, the advantage of having healthy, decent female servants working in their homes and looking after their children. The hostels depended on voluntary applications. They evolved within a context of missionary thinking about the urbanization of African women which had, certainly up to the 1930s, a decided bias towards compulsion, so that their characterization as female Christian compounds is not altogether unwarranted. Notes, tab.
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