Bread and honour: white working class women and Afrikaner Nationalism in the 1930s
- Authors: Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2000
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6205 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008575
- Description: Women have occupied a central place in the ideological formulations of nationalist movements. In particular, the figure of woman as mother recurs throughout the history of nationalist political mobilizations. In Afrikaner nationalism, this symbolic female identity takes the form of the volksmoeder (mother of the nation) icon, commonly assumed to describe a highly circumscribed set of women's social roles, created for women by men. The academic orthodoxy holds that middle-class Afrikaner women submitted to the volksmoeder ideology early on in the development of Afrikaner nationalism but that the working class Afrikaner women of the Garment Workers' Union (GWU) represented an enclave of resistance to dominant definitions of ethnic identity. They chose instead to ally themselves with militant, class-conscious trade unionism. This paper argues that Afrikaner women of different classes helped to shape the contours of the volksmoeder icon. Whilst middle class Afrikaner women questioned the idea that their social contribution should remain restricted to narrow familial and charitable concerns, prominent working class women laid claim to their own entitlement to the volksmoeder heritage. In doing so, the latter contributed to the popularization and reinterpretation of an ideology that was at this time seeking a wider audience. The paper argues that the incorporation of Afrikaner women into the socialist milieu of the GWU did not result in these women simply discarding the ethnic components of their identity. Rather their self-awareness as Afrikaner women with a recent rural past was grafted onto their new experience as urban factory workers. The way in which leading working class Afrikaner women articulated this potent combination of 'derived' and 'inherent' ideology cannot be excluded from the complex process whereby Afrikaner nationalism achieved success as a movement appealing to its imagined community across boundaries of class and gender.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
- Authors: Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2000
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6205 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008575
- Description: Women have occupied a central place in the ideological formulations of nationalist movements. In particular, the figure of woman as mother recurs throughout the history of nationalist political mobilizations. In Afrikaner nationalism, this symbolic female identity takes the form of the volksmoeder (mother of the nation) icon, commonly assumed to describe a highly circumscribed set of women's social roles, created for women by men. The academic orthodoxy holds that middle-class Afrikaner women submitted to the volksmoeder ideology early on in the development of Afrikaner nationalism but that the working class Afrikaner women of the Garment Workers' Union (GWU) represented an enclave of resistance to dominant definitions of ethnic identity. They chose instead to ally themselves with militant, class-conscious trade unionism. This paper argues that Afrikaner women of different classes helped to shape the contours of the volksmoeder icon. Whilst middle class Afrikaner women questioned the idea that their social contribution should remain restricted to narrow familial and charitable concerns, prominent working class women laid claim to their own entitlement to the volksmoeder heritage. In doing so, the latter contributed to the popularization and reinterpretation of an ideology that was at this time seeking a wider audience. The paper argues that the incorporation of Afrikaner women into the socialist milieu of the GWU did not result in these women simply discarding the ethnic components of their identity. Rather their self-awareness as Afrikaner women with a recent rural past was grafted onto their new experience as urban factory workers. The way in which leading working class Afrikaner women articulated this potent combination of 'derived' and 'inherent' ideology cannot be excluded from the complex process whereby Afrikaner nationalism achieved success as a movement appealing to its imagined community across boundaries of class and gender.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
Effect of water temperature on the biogeography of South African estuarine fishes associated with the subtropical/warm temperate subtraction zone
- Maree, R C, Booth, Anthony J, Whitfield, Alan K
- Authors: Maree, R C , Booth, Anthony J , Whitfield, Alan K
- Date: 2000
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7133 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011776
- Description: Estuarine biogeographical regions along the southeastern coast of South Africa were investigated in terms of fish distribution and abundance patterns, with particular emphasis on the role of water temperature in influencing these patterns. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted upon the ichthyofaunal assemblages to determine whether the location of the subtropical/warm temperate boundary corresponds to that proposed by Whitfield.(n1) Analyses included the distribution ranges of species associated with estuaries according to presence/absence data, cluster analysis of gill net catches in eight estuaries along the southeastern coast and the relative proportion of tropical to temperate marine species within these eight systems. Quantitative analysis indicated that the ichthyofaunal biogeographical regions are indeed a reflection of water temperature regimes and that the subtropical/warm temperate boundary is located between the Great Kei and Mbashe estuaries. A strong negative correlation was found between the number of temperate fish species and the mean of the minimum monthly temperatures recorded in the systems studied. Qualitative analysis revealed that a barrier appears to exist in the vicinity of the Swartkops estuary, which prevents the westward migration of tropical 'vagrants'. The influence of the Agulhas Current along the east coast and its divergence from the coastline in the Algoa Bay region, as well as upwelling phenomena on the southeast and south coasts are identified as major factors that influence marine and estuarine temperature regimes and therefore the ichythyofauna of this region.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2000
- Authors: Maree, R C , Booth, Anthony J , Whitfield, Alan K
- Date: 2000
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7133 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011776
- Description: Estuarine biogeographical regions along the southeastern coast of South Africa were investigated in terms of fish distribution and abundance patterns, with particular emphasis on the role of water temperature in influencing these patterns. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted upon the ichthyofaunal assemblages to determine whether the location of the subtropical/warm temperate boundary corresponds to that proposed by Whitfield.(n1) Analyses included the distribution ranges of species associated with estuaries according to presence/absence data, cluster analysis of gill net catches in eight estuaries along the southeastern coast and the relative proportion of tropical to temperate marine species within these eight systems. Quantitative analysis indicated that the ichthyofaunal biogeographical regions are indeed a reflection of water temperature regimes and that the subtropical/warm temperate boundary is located between the Great Kei and Mbashe estuaries. A strong negative correlation was found between the number of temperate fish species and the mean of the minimum monthly temperatures recorded in the systems studied. Qualitative analysis revealed that a barrier appears to exist in the vicinity of the Swartkops estuary, which prevents the westward migration of tropical 'vagrants'. The influence of the Agulhas Current along the east coast and its divergence from the coastline in the Algoa Bay region, as well as upwelling phenomena on the southeast and south coasts are identified as major factors that influence marine and estuarine temperature regimes and therefore the ichythyofauna of this region.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2000
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