Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy, and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983 (Social History of Africa

by Belinda Bozzoli

This evocative book tells of the lives and experiences of 22 black South African womenall born in the 1900sfrom one small town in the Western Transvaal. The women seem both ordinary and remarkable as we follow their lives through childhood and schooling, work in the city, marriage and family life, participation in urban resistance, and ultimate return to Phokeng by the 1980s. This book's originality and power lies in the central place it gives to the oral histories on which it is based. This richly textured study gives us a uniquely qualitative insight into the lives and world views of black South African women.

Genres: History, South Africa

Paperback

First published November 18, 1991

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nonfiction book about the experiences of women who lived through the tumultuous history of South Africa, including the rise of apartheid. What this book succeeds in showing was that these women were individuals who did not view themselves as identities, but as themselves.

Limiting the analysis to women from a specific town and ethnicity may have weakened the book’s analysis, but the narrower viewpoint offers an interesting glimpse into the history and culture of Phokeng, and the women are from all walks of life.

This book is an interesting and erudite analysis, even if it was complied from an outside perspective.