Witzieshoek : women, cattle and rebellion

Abstract

This study focusses on the 1950 Witzieshoek rebellion from a gender perspective. It examines the context within which the rebellion occurred, spanning a period from 1930 to 1950 and looks at the impact of the rebellion on the state. The years leading up to the Witzieshoek rebellion were characterized by crisis as the government struggled to maintain authority over the African masses in general and African women in particular. Witzieshoek residents had to contend with growing deterioration of resources, migration and the implementation of a betterment programme. These had a differential impact on men and women in the reserve, leading to a loss of power in male authority structures and increasing autonomy for women. This fed into and moulded the development of a culture of resistance in the community which exploded in 1950 when the majority of the inhabitants revolted against the Native Affairs Department and the Trust. The Witzieshoek rebellion was a desperate bid to return to older and more familiar ways of organization which had been based on the productive and reproductive capacity of women. The men and women who rebelled were denouncing the organization of the community on Trust and Departmental terms. The response of the state to the rebellion was to appoint a Commission of Enquiry. The Commission, operating at a time when 'native' policy was being fiercely debated, was unable to offer the kind of solutions that Nationalist Party policy would eventually demand. Both the rebellion and the Commission of Enquiry failed to bring about any meaningful change to the conditions in Witzieshoek.