M.A. / Five years after the first democratic elections were held in South Africa and the "death" of Apartheid, it might be a good time to look back and ask questions about the impact of Apartheid on the black family. It is generally accepted that Apartheid had only negative consequences, This study does not doubt these negative consequences, but finds it important to investigate the ordinary black family's experience of Apartheid. Therefore this study focuses specifically on the black family and the influence of Apartheid thereon. For black South Africans, the period between 1948 and April 1994 ; was a time of discrimination and segregation on all levels of everyday life. Apartheid meant that your skincolour determined the place where you would live and which facilities would be available to you. During the rule of the Apartheidsregime, urbanisation of especially black people, took place at a fast rate. Black people moved to cities, mainly in search of a better future because of the poverty in the rural areas. Arriving in the city, black people were met with many difficulties. In terms of the Apartheid policy, black people were not seen as South African citizens and were not recognised as permanent residents of urban areas. Therefore no provisions were made for housing of black people. As a direct result of this, overpopulation of shacks soon took place and entire settlements turned into slums. Another result of Apartheid and urbanisation was labour migration. This meant that at first, mainly black men entered into employment in urban areas for prolonged periods of time while, out of necessity, leaving their families behind in rural areas. The aforementioned had a serious impact on the black family as a unit. The traditional black family characteristically has an extended family structure. This implies that a parent-child relationship extend and two or more generations live together as one unit. For the past thirty years, family structures across the world have been moving towards a nuclear family structure. In 1994, 59% of urban black people were still involved in an extended family structure. However a debate still rages whether the family is in fact changing to a nuclear family structure or not. For purposes of this study it is accepted that the black family is currently evolving away from an extended family structure and is constantly undergoing change toward a nuclear family structure. In order to ascertain the impact of Apartheid on the black family, this study sets out to answer the following three broad questions: The respondents were questioned at length about their perceptions of their childhood. These perceptions gave insight into the experience of everyday life of black people during Apartheid. The second question evolved around the respondents' perceptions of their relationship with their parents. Once again this gave insight into the dynamics of the black family and the influence of Apartheid thereon: Finally, the respondents were questioned about their personal experience of Apartheid in general. In order to answer the above-mentioned questions, a qualitative research method was followed: In-depth interviews were held with twenty respondents living in the Gauteng area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3187 |
| Date | 27 August 2012 |
| Creators | McClintock, Lynette |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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