Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / Lona ngumsebenzi wocwaningo oluhlelwe ngokwezahluko eziyisihlanu. Ucwaningo olwenzelwe kulo msebenzi lumayelana nokubaluleka kwelobolo njengesiko lamaZulu. Isahluko sokuqala sethula ucwaningo jikelele ngokucwaningisisa izinjongo zocwaningo, intshisekelo yocwaningo, indlela yokuqhuba ucwaningo, imidiyo yocwaningo, abazohlomula kulolu cwaningo kanye nezingqinamba ucwaningo olungahle luhlangabezane nazo. Isahluko sesibili sethula ngokugcwele ukubaluleka kwesiko lokulobola, kwethulwa imibono yongoti abehlukene ngaleli siko nokubaluleka kwalo. Kubuye kwethulwa ngokuqhathanisa isiko lokulobola emandulo kanye nasesikhathini samanje. Kubuye kwabhekwa ngokujulile ukuthi ubani olobolayo nokuthi umuntu onjani olotsholwayo. Kuso lesi sahluko kubuye kwabhekwa ukuthi amanye ama-Afrika wona analo yini leli siko kanye nezizwe zaphesheya kwezilwandle. Isahluko sesithathu sethula imithetho yokuqhuba isiko lokulobola nezindlela okumele zilandelwe kuleli siko. Kuqalwe ngokuba kuchazwe ngokugcwele ukuthi kulotsholwa ngani. Kubuye kwavezwa ukuthi kulotsholwa kanjani. Zonke izinto eziphathelene nokulobola zichazwe ngokugcwele. Ngasekugcineni kwesahluko kuveziwe ukuthi umuntu ulotsholwa kangaki? Kuphi? Izithombe nazo ziveziwe ukucacisa ezinye izinto. Isahluko sesine sethula amanye amasiko ancikene nesiko lokulobola nezinto ezingaba nomthelela ongemuhle ongagcina ulifiphazile leli siko. Athintwe onke amasiko ancikene nesiko lokulobola. Ziveziwe nezinto eziyimikhuba uma kuqhutshwa leli siko. Ziveziwe izinto ezingalikhuthaza nalezo ezingalifiphaza leli siko. Isahluko sesihlanu simayelana nokuhlaziya nokuphothulwa kocwaningo. Siphethe izincomo nokusonga jikelele kocwaningo. Lesi sahluko sibophe saqinisa onke amafindo abesele elenga ocwaningweni sawabopha athula du.

Magister Artium - MA / The study argues that ukuthwala is an old cultural practice that had been practised in the past by Xhosa people and other tribes. Ukuthwala traditionally does not involve rape, force and underage girls. The media revealed misuse of the ukuthwala practice by men and what these men are doing is purely crime. Ukuthwala is a cultural practise that was used to abduct girls into marriage with the consent of the girl and the parents. In this case the cultural practice of ukuthwala is deemed as one of the factors preventing progress while oppressing the women and children involved as media and government have reported that ukuthwala has markedly resurged in an insidious form that is exploitative and violent (Karimakwenda,2005:340).

ABSTRACT This thesis investigates through theoretical analysis and imperative research, how Sepedi is represented on SABC, especially on SABC 2 in accordance to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Looking back Sepedi programming before democracy and after democracy, SABC has gone through a major transition. This thesis visits the transitions that SABC went through and how SABC is transforming to serve public interests. This essay will composed of empirical observations to depict whether these aims are in fact pursued and achieved.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / An indigenous cultural practice among the many ethnic groups of South Africa, lobola has changed immensely, especially in highly urbanised towns. It has also been the subject of several interpretations in academia, the media, and popular opinion. These have included ethnographic scholarship that focuses on its cultural significance and its centrality to reciprocal relationships between groups. Other academic and activist views criticize how lobola, as a form of bride wealth, instrumentalises women in patriarchal society. In addition, other interpretive strand acknowledges lobola's patriarchal impacts while also recognizing the agencies and choices of women who embrace it. The work demonstrates that women are neither consistent agents nor constant victims of lobola, but that they experience it in different ways. As a result, the study explores how young women‘s situated knowledge helps us understand lobola‘s complex and ambiguous meanings that might assist in comprehending the current connotations of lobola, which are presently complicated and confusing. The current study is concerned with mapping out and analysing the complexities of standpoint knowledge-making that is typically side-lined in the numerous scholarly and activist studies of lobola by selecting a diverse range of young women respondents as well as commentators in the public sphere.

<p>The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/<i>lobola</i> – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. </p><p>One finding of the study is that there are <i>explicit defining</i> discourses on <i>lobola </i>as well as more <i>implicitly </i>expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good <i>lobola</i>’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad <i>lobola</i>’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create <i>spaces for action</i> with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of <i>lobola</i> may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary <i>lobola</i> but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with <i>lobola</i>. Furthermore, explicit discourses on <i>lobola</i> are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on <i>lobola</i> in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide <i>discursive space</i> in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. </p><p>A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis. </p>

The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/lobola – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. One finding of the study is that there are explicit defining discourses on lobola as well as more implicitly expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good lobola’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad lobola’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create spaces for action with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of lobola may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary lobola but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with lobola. Furthermore, explicit discourses on lobola are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on lobola in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide discursive space in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis.

This study aimed to explore how gender is constructed, negotiated and enacted in the customary practice of lobolo. Lobolo, sometimes incorrectly referred to as bridewealth or dowry is a practice that centres around the transference of wealth from the groom or a groom’s family to the bride’s family towards the formalisation of marriage. Framed within an African-centred feminist approach I analyse, through narrative discursive analysis, how 27 men and women ages 27 -71, from Johannesburg and Cape Town account for gender and power dynamics in their narratives of participating in lobolo. The African-centred feminist approach I employ critically engages with historical as well as present-day reproductions of patriarchy, capitalism, heteronormativity and other mechanisms of exclusion that are perpetuated through the cultural practice of lobolo. I show how masculinities and femininities are constituted, negotiated and disputed in the narratives of men and women who have participated in lobolo. By employing an African-centered feminist approach I show how gendered dynamics within the practice are shaped by historical and contemporary social, political and economic factors which enable and constrain the exercise of power in various ways. By exploring lobolo through an African-centered feminist narrative approach I demonstrate how the process is more than simply a transference of wealth but rather a complex practice that is used as an apparatus to exercise and expand power in the different stages of the lobolo process. Within this African-centered feminist approach, I argue that lobolo functions to legitimise particular gender positions that can be adopted through marriage; but it can also be used to challenge and contest these roles. The findings of this study suggested that the different stages and process of lobolo reflect a gendered script, which determines the position that men and women are able to adopt, and that this script sets the parameters for the ways in which these roles may be enacted. I find also that the meanings and descriptions of lobolo are embedded within, and reproduce gendered identities but that these identities are not fixed but rather are constantly renegotiated. I conclude that lobolo is not only a custom for formalising marriages but also a tool used by men and women to perform a range of sometimes contradictory functions, including at times establishing and strengthening hegemonic masculinities and femininities but at other times challenging and dismantling these. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)

This research traces the developments in Europe that led to a rush for foreign missions i different parts of the world, with specific reference to South Africa. It describes the operations of the Swiss missionaries in South Africa from 1873 to 1975. This study also evaluates the motives for the evangelization of the African masses, and contradictions th existed in the relations that missionaries had with proselytes during the period under review. The sterling contributions of black evangelists in this period are demonstrated. It cannot be denied that the Swiss missionaries did a lot of good to the indigenous populac of South Africa-the importance of their services at Lemana Training Institution (1906) and Elim Hospital (1899) are indelibly inscribed in our historiography. They should also applauded for their response to the plight of the Shangaans, who had for reasons unkno to the researcher been by-passed by other missions during the "scramble for mission fields". But the missionaries also had their shortcomings, for instance their failure to ind the state to remove capital punishment from the statute books. They may nonetheless stil continue to be used by the present government of South Africa to assist in carrying the social transformation process forward. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (History of Education)

This research traces the developments in Europe that led to a rush for foreign missions i different parts of the world, with specific reference to South Africa. It describes the operations of the Swiss missionaries in South Africa from 1873 to 1975. This study also evaluates the motives for the evangelization of the African masses, and contradictions th existed in the relations that missionaries had with proselytes during the period under review. The sterling contributions of black evangelists in this period are demonstrated. It cannot be denied that the Swiss missionaries did a lot of good to the indigenous populac of South Africa-the importance of their services at Lemana Training Institution (1906) and Elim Hospital (1899) are indelibly inscribed in our historiography. They should also applauded for their response to the plight of the Shangaans, who had for reasons unkno to the researcher been by-passed by other missions during the "scramble for mission fields". But the missionaries also had their shortcomings, for instance their failure to ind the state to remove capital punishment from the statute books. They may nonetheless stil continue to be used by the present government of South Africa to assist in carrying the social transformation process forward. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (History of Education)