Colin Murray

Migrant labour and changing family structure in the rural periphery of Southern Africa

The author attempts to identify some problems concerning the analysis of contemporary family structures in Southern Africa. He then considers the empirical evidence relating to the structure of small communities and the family and suggests some new approaches to the study of the family in this region (ANNOTATION)

Review article: landlords, tenants and share‐croppers — agrarian change in regional perspective

William Beinart, Peter Delius and Stanley Trapido (eds.), Putting a Plough to the Ground: Accumulation and Dispossession in Rural South Africa 1850–1930 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986). Pp. xvi+458. £10.95 paperback only. (Available from Third World Publications, 151 Stratford Road, Birmingham B11 1RD.) Timothy J. Keegan, Rural Transformations in Industrialising South Africa: The Southern Highveld to 1914 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986; Basingstoke: Mac‐millan Press, 1987). Pp. xviii+302. R23.50 paperback/£29.50 hardback. A.F. Robertson, The Dynamics of Productive Relationships: African Share Contracts in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). Pp. xx+321. £25.00.

Sotho Fertility Symbolism

This paper deals with the traditional beliefs and mythical folklore of the Sotho-Tswana ethnic tribes of South Africa. Their ritual practices are predominantly concerned with the weather, the vicissitudes of the seasonal cycle, and, especially the rain-making powers of certain individuals. It is well known that rain, in all civilizations, is a symbol of fertility. Thus, adolescent girls and young women, as mediators of the association between water and fertility, can be relied upon to bring the clouds and torrential downpours. The characteristic Sesotho explanation that babies come from the river is clearly an allusion to the water of the womb, and the river is generally recognized as a methaphor of the womb. Also, the onset of menarche involves rituals having to do with the drawing and pouring of water, another clear allusion to the beginning of fertility.