Edited by Linda Richter and Robert Morrell Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Compiled within the Child, Youth and Family Development Research Programme, Human Sciences Research Council Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za © 2006 Human Sciences Research Council First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-7969-2096-6 Cover by Farm Print management by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 4477 Fax: +27 (0) 21 701 7302 email: [email protected] www.oneworldbooks.com Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Distributed in Europe and the United Kingdom by Eurospan Distribution Services (EDS) 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8LU, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 0856 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7379 0609 email: [email protected] www.eurospanonline.com Distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group (IPG) Order Department, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA Call toll-free: (800) 888 4741 All other enquiries: +1 (312) 337 0747 Fax: +1 (312) 337 5985 email: [email protected] www.ipgbook.com Contents Preface v Acronyms and abbreviations vii Opening lines 1. Introduction 1 Robert Morrell and Linda Richter 2. Fathers, fatherhood and masculinity in South Africa 13 Robert Morrell 3. On being a father and poor in southern Africa today 26 Francis Wilson 4. The demographics of fatherhood in South Africa: an analysis of survey data, 1993–2002 38 Dorrit Posel and Richard Devey 5. The importance of fathering for children 53 Linda Richter Fatherhood in historical perspective 6. Migrancy, family dissolution and fatherhood 73 Mamphela Ramphele and Linda Richter 7. The state as non-biological ‘father’: exploring the experience of fathering in a South African state institution in the period 1950 to 1970 82 Azeem Badroodien Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za 8. Fathers without amandla: Zulu-speaking men and fatherhood 99 Mark Hunter 9. Men and children: changing constructions of fatherhood in Drum magazine, 1951 to 1965 108 Lindsay Clowes Representations and roles 10. The father in the mind 121 Graham Lindegger 11. Where have all the fathers gone? Media(ted) representations of fatherhood 132 Jeanne Prinsloo 12. Representations of fatherhood in black US film and how this relates to parenting in South Africa 147 Solani Ngobeni 13. Children’s views of fathers 155 Linda Richter and Wendy Smith 14. Fatherhood from an African cultural perspective 173 Desmond Lesejane 15. African traditions and the social, economic and moral dimensions of fatherhood 183 Nhlanhla Mkhize Being a father in South Africa today 16. Legal aspects of fatherhood in South Africa 201 Jacqui Gallinetti 17. Men, work and parenting 216 Alan Hosking 18. HIV/AIDS and the crisis of care for children 226 Chris Desmond and Cos Desmond 19. Absent fathers: why do men not feature in stories of families affected by HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal? 237 Philippe Denis and Radikobo Ntsimane 20. Being a father in a man’s world: the experience of goldmine workers 250 Marlize Rabe 21. Fathers don’t stand a chance: experiences of custody, access, and maintenance 265 Grace Khunou Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Local and international policies and programmes 22. The new gender platforms and fatherhood 281 Dean Peacock and Mbuyiselo Botha 23. The child’s right to shared parenting 293 Patrice Engle, Tom Beardshaw and Craig Loftin 24. Taking forward work with men in families 306 Tom Beardshaw Index 317 Preface What do we know about fathers in South Africa? What fatherhood roles should we be trying to encourage? These are some of the questions addressed in this, the first book to focus specifically on fathers and fatherhood in South Africa. The volume contributes to an emerging international literature on fathers, making the case, amongst others, for men to make a greater contribution to the wellbeing of children. One of the central challenges facing researchers working on this topic is to distinguish between fathers and fatherhood. Many people equate a father with the man who makes the biological contribution to the creation of the child. Around the world, though, the term father is used to refer to many people who take on the role of father with respect to children, families and the wider community. This is fatherhood. In this book we argue that biological fathers should be encouraged to be close to their children and responsibly take on the fatherhood role. However, other men need to, can and should do this when the biological father has died, has abandoned or fails to recognise his children. We also argue that children benefit from the love, care and attention of men and that fatherhood should be given greater social credibility. Fatherhood is understood in different and contested ways, which is why we have called this book, Baba. The term ‘baba’ is a polite form of address to an older African man. It suggests connectedness and a particular kind of protective and respectful relationship between a younger and older person. The content of the relationship is not specified. The biological relationship between baba and the person who is addressing him is also not defined. In this collection, authors examine fathers and fatherhood from many angles. In the Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za first section, some of the major conceptual and theoretical questions are posed and an attempt is made to map the field. Writers address the following questions: How does fatherhood feature in the way men understand masculinity? How many men are fathers in South Africa? How did apartheid affect fathers and patterns of fatherhood? What is the role of poverty in shaping fatherhood? How do experiences of fatherhood affect the parenting practices of South African men? What do children want from their fathers? In the second section, fathers and fatherhood are examined from an historical perspective. These chapters show how race and class shaped fatherhood in South Africa in the second half of the twentieth century. They show that understandings of fatherhood have changed over time. Men have struggled and sometimes failed to meet the expectations of fatherhood. Yet, some men have fulfilled their fatherly roles in surprising if contradictory ways. v PREFACE In the third section of the book, authors discuss the way in which fathers appear in the media. They show that men as fathers are often ignored or portrayed in narrow ways which inhibit alternative forms of fatherhood from emerging. The way in which the fatherhood role can be understood is discussed from different perspectives, which suggests that international perspectives should be blended with local understandings to promote fatherhood and create the opportunities to interact with children in caring ways accessible to all men. How do men experience fatherhood and what obstacles bar men from expanding their engagement with children? In the fourth section, contributors offer answers to this and related questions. They discuss the law, its intention and its effects. They show how men in different contexts are generating new ways of relating to children, but also show that the material context remains important in proscribing what is possible. In the final section, the book offers examples of local and international programmes that have been initiated to promote fatherhood and to work with fathers. This book demonstrates the centrality of fatherhood in the lives of men and in the experiences of children. It argues that fathers can make a major contribution to the health of South African society by caring for children and producing a new generation of South Africans for whom fathers will be significant by their presence rather than their absence. In becoming baba, South African men can also go a long way towards healing themselves. This book grew out of the Fatherhood Project, initiated in 2003 by the Child, Youth and Family Development Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council. The project was launched through a travelling exhibition of photographs, together with events organised by partner organisations in the project. The photographic exhibition, and a selection of posters drawn from it, continues to be shown around the country at conferences and other occasions at which the constructive involvement of men in the care and protection of children is promoted. Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za The exhibition consists of about 120 photographs which were selected from hundreds of images collected in various ways: professional photographers submitted prints; student photographers worked with us to capture men’s everyday interactions with children; and we gave disposable cameras to children aged 10–13, in Soweto, Johannesburg and in a rural area outside Durban so they could capture images of men in their lives who they considered to be fathers. Some of these photographs – are included on the section-divider pages of this book. We would like to thank all the photographers for allowing us to use their images. vi Acronyms and abbreviations ADAPT Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training ARV(s) anti-retroviral(s) ASSA Actuarial Society ofSouth Africa Bt20 Birth to Twenty CASE Community Agency for Social Enquiry