The Decline of Marriage in Namibia
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Julia Pauli The Decline of Marriage in Namibia Culture and Social Practice To my father Gerhard Pauli 1937-2017 Julia Pauli is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her main research interests are gender and kinship studies, transnational migration, and class formation processes. She has con- ducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico (since 1995) and Namibia (since 2003). For “Anthropology Southern Africa” she co-edited a special issue on continuity and change in Southern African marriages with Rijk van Dijk (2016/2017). Julia Pauli The Decline of Marriage in Namibia Kinship and Social Class in a Rural Community Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http:// dnb.d-nb.de This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (BY-SA) which means that the text may be remixed, build upon and be distributed, provided credit is given to the author and that copies or adaptations of the work are released under the same or similar license. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. First published 2019 by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld © Julia Pauli Cover layout: Maria Arndt, Bielefeld Cover illustration: »Just married«, © Michael Schnegg Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-4303-9 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-4303-3 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839443033 Printed on permanent acid-free text paper. Content List of tables | vii List of figures | viii Acknowledgements | ix Credits | xii Introduction | 15 Anna’s wedding | 15 Social class and class distinctions | 18 Theorizing African marriages | 25 The decline of marriage in Southern Africa | 38 Aims, limits and structure of the book | 42 PART I Fransfontein fieldwork | 47 Reflections on fieldwork with a family | 55 Studying marriage over time | 58 Lived experiences and historical events | 64 Generations and cohorts of Fransfontein women | 69 History through biography | 73 The older generation | 76 The middle generation | 85 The younger generation | 95 Postapartheid livelihoods | 99 Farming with a vision | 99 Living in Fransfontein | 101 Fransfontein class structures | 111 Sharing and caring | 118 PART II Contemporary Fransfontein marriages | 127 Defining marriage in Fransfontein | 129 An outline of contemporary Fransfontein marriages | 136 Marriage variations | 157 Marriage and the state | 161 From decline to distinction | 167 The decline of marriage in Fransfontein | 167 Explanations for the decline of marriage | 171 Sixty years of wedding practices | 175 Performing distinctions | 185 Why not a cheaper copy? | 189 PART III Forming families | 199 Entanglements of marriage and reproduction | 199 Fertility decline in Namibia | 205 Reproductive dynamics of married and unmarried women | 208 Becoming a woman and a mother | 211 Families with and without marriage | 220 Seventy years of forming families in Fransfontein | 223 Intimacy outside marriage | 227 Black cow marriages | 228 Intimacy and love in times of AIDS | 232 The making and unmaking of intimate relations | 237 Women staying single | 242 Between sex and sin | 247 Conclusion | 257 Reference list | 267 List of tables Table 1: Response rates in households and individual questionnaires | 61 Table 2: Overview of time-structuring concepts | 67 Table 3: Birth cohorts and generations of married and unmarried women | 70 Table 4: Occupation of 381 women by birth cohorts | 93 Table 5: Occupation, gender and consumption | 112 Table 6: Marital status of 361 men and 364 women | 132 Table 7: Strucure and content of the asking and marriage rituals | 137 Table 8: Percentage married and median age at marriage | 169 Table 9: Six Fransfontein marriages | 176 Table 10: The wedding’s ritual core – wedding garments through time | 181 Table 11: Optional wedding items – food and beverages through time | 182 Table 12: Male occupation at time of marriage, wedding items and age | 187 Table 13: Total fertility rates of 364 Fransfontein women | 206 Table 14: Cohabiting, marital and non-residential intimate relations | 230 Table 15: Percentage of out-of-wedlock births by marital status | 249 Table 16: Cohort analysis of out-of-wedlock births | 250 List of figures Figure 1: Map of Namibia with Fransfontein | 50 Figure 2: Fransfontein, southern Kunene region | 51 Figure 3: Working experiences on commercial farms | 78 Figure 4: Government house of a wealthy couple | 114 Figure 5: House built with local materials | 115 Figure 6: Location of male- and female-headed households in Fransfontein | 116 Figure 7: Asking for the bride at the !game-#gans | 140 Figure 8: Secluding the bride | 146 Figure 9: Hanging up the meat | 148 Figure 10: Putting fat from a cow's stomach on the bride's head | 149 Figure 11: A typical wedding picture | 151 Figure 12: The wedding reception | 154 Figure 13: Marking the end of the wedding | 156 Figure 14: Types of marriage of 139 couples | 158 Figure 15: Number of engagement guests for 52 weddings | 183 Figure 16: Age specific fertility rates for married and never-married women | 209 Figure 17: The key to fertility | 218 Figure 18: Types of intimate relations – local vs. national level | 229 Acknowledgements This book has grown into its present shape over more than fifteen years. I am deeply indebted to all the people who, with their care, generosity, support, insight, criticism, thoughtfulness and wit, have helped me throughout. First of all, I wish to thank the people of Fransfontein who made this research and book possible. They welcomed Michael, my husband and fellow anthropologist, our daughter, Liliana, and me into their homes and lives. In so many ways they helped us learn and understand. With incredible generosity they shared their time, food, stories, sorrows, joys and so much more with us. The term “assistant” does not do proper justice to the multiple ways in which Francois Dawids, Fiona Ilonga, Sara Jod, Titus Kaumunika, Valery Meyer, Jorries Seibeb, Emma /Uiras, Lydia /Uiras, Manda /Uiras and Otto /Uirab guided and helped us through the research. The collection of our ethnographic census data was also supported by Goldine !Ases, Alexia Gertze, Elly Gertze, Dina /Goagoses, Gid- eon/Goagoseb, Ivonne /Goagoses, Friederika Kana //Gowases, Rheinhardt Haraeb, Perpetina Jod, Hubert Kahono, Ferdinand /Nanubeb, Maria Philips and Brigitha Pietersen. I express my deep thanks for the dedication with which they supported us. When we arrived in Fransfontein for the first time in June 2003, we received gen- erous support from several local institutions. As these are public institutions, I acknowl- edge them by name: the leadership of the primary school, Ben Xamiseb and Charlotte Hanabes; the Swartbooi traditional authority and senior councilor Esegiel /Uirab; the local town clerk Nikey Saal; the local nurse Lischen /Khunuxas; and Damara traditional authorities Festus Aseb and Erika /Khunuxas. During later stays, Bisey /Uirab and Wilhencia /Uiras were so kind to let us stay in their house. Many thanks also to Tara DiTommaso for her support while we all lived in Fransfontein and for allowing me to use her photo of Fransfontein. With their consent, all Fransfonteiners who assisted the research in any way are mentioned by name. I also use the real names for official and historic figures, like x | The Decline of Marriage in Namibia politicians and traditional leaders. Yet, in order to protect the privacy of my interloc- utors, I am using pseudonyms for all other people from Fransfontein. In Windhoek, I want to thank several people and institutions who helped me at various stages of the project. Beatrice Sandelowsky has been a constant help and a great inspiration from the very start. Her work at the University Centre for Studies in Namibia (TUCSIN) has made a long-lasting impression on me. Similarly, the help of Christo Botha has been crucial for the success of the project. For their important sup- port and insights, I also want to thank Werner Hillebrecht from the National Ar- chives; the late Bennet Fuller; Philippe Talavera; Ndeyapo Nickanor; Ivy Maponga; the Legal Assistance Centre; the Khorixas Magistrate’s Court; and the church ar- chives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Republic of Namibia in Fransfon- tein, Khorixas and Outjo. The work for this book started while I was heading sub-project C10 of the inter- disciplinary special research project “Arid Climate, Adaptation and Cultural Innova- tion in Africa (ACACIA)”, based at the German universities of Cologne and Bonn. I thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German research foundation, DFG) for its financial support of the project. In 1999, Thomas Schweizer, admired teacher, mentor and my Doktorvater (doc- toral supervisor), passed away at the age of 49. His early death was a great loss for all students and colleagues at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. After Thomas’s comprehensive support and guidance during my PhD, my postdoctoral research started with more uncertainty and anxiety. I am thus deeply thankful to Michael Bollig, then head of ACACIA, for offering me the opportunity to become assistant professor at the Cologne institute and submit a proposal for a sub-project within the ACACIA program. Michael Bollig’s outstand- ing knowledge of anthropology and the Southern African region has guided me throughout the research and writing process. I also thank my ACACIA colleagues for welcoming me into their midst and supporting my project. During my Cologne years and also later in Hamburg, Hartmut Lang and Cornelia Limpricht provided much welcomed intellectual input and inspiration for which I am very thankful.