Private Transgressions: The Visual Voice of Zulu Women

Abstract

ulu society has always been largely patriarchal. Its women have been given minimal or marginal opportunity to air their views. Women have used visual and oral forms to express their feelings. Amongst other avenues of expression, dress is one means to communicate dissatisfaction with the social state of affairs. Within accepted cultural practice, it provides information about how women perceive themselves, each other, other people, as well as their role in society. The aim of this article is to explore how traditional dress in its cultural context is a means of expression and communication'. It draws on four years research and field work in the area I refer to as Camper-Ndwedwe, in KwaZulu-Natal, ie some areas of Ndwedwe and the Camperdown region. To a certain degree the discussion would be equally true of other areas in the region. The study was mostly qualitative and used questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations. The questionnaire was administered non-formally and verbally to most participants, whilst with less than 10 women it was collected in the written form. There was a lot of discussion when questions were posed to informants as some could not read or write. Questions explored the informants' marital status, age and the perceived purpose of traditional dress and its use as a means of 'social protest'. The study had a total 58 informants. Ethnic dress and ethnicity are intertwined. Although ethnicity and ethnic groups seem to have clear reference, they are also complex and emotionally loaded terms (Barnes and Eicher, 1995). I use the term ethnic as denoting the cultural traditions of a group of people. Ethnicity is a cultural category that is recognisable in lifestyle, race, language and clothing choices. As a description of physical attributes ethnicity is often used as a means to categorise people. Like gender, ethnicity is socially constructed. One of the tasks of feminist theories is to challenge such social constructions as they relate to gender relations. The meanings of 'feminism', a term that is used to describe women's attempts to challenge patriarchy and gender inequality, also require clarification in the context of this discussion as it is considered taboo by many African women. It is alleged that feminism has no relevance to African culture and that it leads women away from their families and responsibilities. Women's forums conscientising women about their rp-

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