The Public Accounts of a ‘Private’ Act: Domestic Violence in the Eyes of Mamelodi, a South African Township

Authors

  • Mazibuko Nokuthula Caritus Department of Sociology College of Human Science University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Ikechukwu Umejesi UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE, EAST LONDON CAMPUS, SOUTH AFRICA.

https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2019.3307

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Abstract

Domestic violence against women is a serious social and public health problem facing women in South Africa and other countries. This social malaise in South Africa is often seen as “private” – committed within the home space, or “imperceptible” to the public. In other words, domestic violence is framed as a phenomenon that takes place exclusively behind the closed doors of the home. This study contends with this notion of “imperceptibility” in the domestic violence discourse. Using qualitative data from Mamelodi, a black township in Pretoria, South Africa, this paper argues that the notion of imperceptibility is reductionist and helps to perpetuate the act. The commission of domestic violence does not only take place in the privacy of the home; it is also committed in public, and it is visible to the community where it takes place.

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Author Biographies

Mazibuko Nokuthula Caritus, Department of Sociology College of Human Science University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA

Professor Mazibuko teaches in the department of sociology, University of South Africa (UNISA) main campus in Pretoria, South Africa. Her scholarly interests include gender studies, African feminism and emancipation in post-Apartheid South Africa. She has published widely in these areas.

Ikechukwu Umejesi, UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE, EAST LONDON CAMPUS, SOUTH AFRICA.

Professor Ikechukwu Umejesi teaches in the department of sociology, University of Fort Hare, East London Campus, South Africa. His research interest focuses on natural resource exploitation, state-community conflict, environmental risk, vulnerability and policy, and gender studies. He is a 2009 YSP Fellow of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg Austria.

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Published

2019-02-25

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Caritus, M. N., & Umejesi, I. (2019). The Public Accounts of a ‘Private’ Act: Domestic Violence in the Eyes of Mamelodi, a South African Township. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 8(1), 48–76. https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2019.3307

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