Gendered livelihoods and social change in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This article employs gendered livelihoods analysis and participatory methods to examine the politics of development among small-scale rooibos tea farmers in a rural coloured area of southwestern South Africa. Differentiating between sources of conflict and cohesion, I discuss how communities navigated resource scarcity, unstable markets, and shifting relations. While patriarchal dynamics informed livelihoods, with males and elders enjoying greater access than females and young adults, women took advantage of relatively fluid female roles to enter into agriculture and commerce. In contrast, rigid male roles and unattainable expectations of manhood isolated men, engendering destructive behaviors among young men in particular. Communities maintained social cohesion through democratic arrangements, and a politics of identification enabled research participants to relate to differential interests. In addition to providing situated and relational insight into the identitarian aspects of rural development, participatory gendered livelihoods analysis offers a critical means for deconstructing power and decolonizing knowledge.

Keywords:

• Development
• gender
• identity
• postcolonial feminism
• social change
• South Africa

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to several project partners. These include my research team and the communities of Wupperthal as well as the Center for Fair & Alternative Trade (CFAT), the Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), and Sandra Kruger and Associates. I am also grateful to Pamela Moss and my three peer reviewers for their thoughtful assistance.