‘Jezebels’, good girls and mine married quarters: Johannesburg, 1912
Date
1988-10
Authors
Eales, Kathy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Sixty thousand black men were employed in 1912 as domestic servants on
the Witwatersrand. Most white women disdained this 'Kaffir work' and
in Johannesburg, there were less than 5 000 black women. Thus black
men performed the tasks in white homes conventionally seen as women's
work. "When I realise the extent to which this dangerous practice is
carried, and the fewness of the complaints arising out of it," noted a
contemporary observer, "I only marvel at the honour and faithfulness of
the black man."
Yet, in that same year, Johannesburg was wracked by white hysteria following
two incidents of brutal rape of whits women by black men within
fourteen months. Black male sexuality became the focus among whites
of a more generalised fear of disorder, popularly termed 'the black
peril', and 'house-boys' were made the butt of public prurience. No
woman was deemed safe from their 'passions', and expectant fathers were
said to mutter, "Thank God it's a boy" when their wives gave birth to
sons. Clearly a safer - female - substitute was called for, yet most
employers were reluctant to draw on the small pool of black women
living in the city, whom they deemed unreliable and immoral. Consequently, many black women had difficulty finding formal paid employment
and turned to the trade in illicit liquor and sex to subsist.
This vindicated white employers' assumptions that black women were immoral
and perpetuated the dominance of black men in domestic service.
This chapter will explore these themes in more detail, and from there,
review both white and black attempts to set the terms on which black
women lived and worked in Johannesburg.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October, 1988
Keywords
Women, Black. South Africa. Johannesburg. Social conditions, Women, Black. Employment. South Africa. Johannesburg. History