Tài liệu Growing up in the new South Africa doc

in the new South Africa

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CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE IN POST-APARTHEID CAPE TOWN

in the new South Africa

Rachel Bray • Imke Gooskens • Lauren Kahn • Sue Moses • Jeremy Seekings

Growing up Titles.indd 2 2010/02/26 1:46 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE IN POST-APARTHEID CAPE TOWN

in the new South Africa

Rachel Bray • Imke Gooskens • Lauren Kahn • Sue Moses • Jeremy Seekings

Growing up Titles.indd 2 2010/02/26 1:46 PM Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za

Published by HSRC Press

Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

www.hsrcpress.ac.za

First published 2010

ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2313-4

ISBN (pdf) 978-0-7969-2314-1

ISBN (e-pub) 978-0-7969-2315-8

© 2010 Human Sciences Research Council

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily

reflect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council (‘the Council’)

or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the authors. In quoting from this publication,

readers are advised to attribute the source of the information to the individual author concerned

and not to the Council.

Copyedited by Mark Ronan

Typeset by Baseline Publishing Services

Cover design by Michelle Staples

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v

Contents

Tables and figures vii

Preface ix

The Fish Hoek valley: Maps and photographs 1

1. Growing up in post-apartheid South Africa 21

2. Discourses and realities of family life 48

3. The familiar world of the neighbourhood 97

4. Segregated and integrated spaces: Mobility and identity beyond

the neighbourhood 135

5. The real worlds of public schooling 170

6. The social aspects of schooling: Navigating an educational career 203

7. Freedom, ‘fitting in’ and foreign territories: The world of friends,

dating and sex 253

8. The quiet violence of contemporary segregation in Cape Town 294

9. Conclusion 323

Notes 331

The authors 334

References 335

Index 350

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vii

Tables and figures

Table 1.1 Details of participants in ethnographic research 35

Table 1.2 Markers or indicators of the transitions to adulthood 40

Table 2.1 Whereabouts of (biological) mothers and fathers of children aged

0–13 in Cape Town (% of total) 51

Table 2.2 Whereabouts of (biological) mothers and fathers of adolescents aged

14–17 in Cape Town (% of total) 51

Table 2.3 Proportions of adolescents aged 14–17 who report spending time

with mother, father or both parents, according to parental

whereabouts (%) 82

Table 5.1 Distribution of test scores by neighbourhood income quintile

(16-year-olds) 176

Figure 1.1 Household incomes in the Valley 26

Figure 2.1 Family-based household types, adolescents aged 14–17 52

Figure 2.2 Proportion of children aged 0–13 in Cape Town co-resident with

parents, by race and household income 53

Figure 2.3 Proportion of life spent with parents, by race and income, adolescents

aged 14–17 54

Figure 2.4 Frequency that adolescents spend time with absent parents 81

Figure 3.1 Safety in the neighbourhood as reported by young people

aged 17–20 105

Figure 3.2 Perceptions of friendliness and helpfulness of neighbours 108

Figure 3.3 Participation in sports or religious or music/dancing groups among

adolescents aged 14–17 114

Figure 5.1 Matric candidates and results (1993–2006) 172

Figure 5.2 Grade attainment in the Valley (2001) 173

Figure 5.3 Test scores by current grade (2002) 174

Figure 5.4 Test scores by neighbourhood income (Cape Town, 2002) 175

Figure 6.1 Who in the family helps with homework? 214

Figure 6.2 Educational expectations of parents of adolescents aged 14–17, by

neighbourhood 217

Figure 6.3 Educational expectations of adolescents aged 14–17, by

neighbourhood 218

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viii

Figure 6.4 Educational expectations of adolescents aged 20–22, by

neighbourhood 218

Figure 6.5 Current educational reality of adolescents aged 20–22, by

neighbourhood 219

Figure 6.6 School attendance by age, Ocean View (%) 227

Figure 6.7 School attendance by age, Masiphumelele (%) 228

Figure 6.8 School attendance by age, Fish Hoek (%) 228

Figure 6.9 Reasons for not being enrolled in school, ages 15–17 231

Figure 6.10 Premature departure from school, by age and neighbourhood type 232

Figure 6.11 Study and work status, by age and neighbourhood type 243

Figure 7.1 Sexual activity and pregnancy among girls, Cape Town 258

Figure 7.2 Sexual activity and impregnation among boys, Cape Town 258

Figure 7.3 Sexual activity and pregnancy among girls, by type of neighbourhood

and age, Cape Town 259

Figure 7.4 Sexual activity and impregnation among boys, by type of

neighbourhood and age, Cape Town 260

Figure 7.5 Young women’s expected and actual ages of maternity

(2002–2005) 278

Figure 8.1 Control over life, by neighbourhood (17–20-year-olds, Cape Town) 297

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ix

Preface

This book is the product of a collaborative effort by researchers in the Centre for

Social Science Research (CSSR) at the University of Cape Town. It presents primarily

qualitative research, and has its origins in a perceived need to go beyond quantitative

research. The CSSR was established in 2001 with the goal of strengthening capacity

in quantitative social science. One of the CSSR’s major projects was the Cape Area

Panel Study (CAPS), for which a ‘panel’ of almost 5 000 adolescents across Cape

Town were interviewed repeatedly over several years as they grew into adulthood.

CAPS was a joint project of the CSSR and scholars at the University of Michigan,

and was co-directed by Jeremy Seekings (from the CSSR) and David Lam (from the

University of Michigan). The first wave of interviews was conducted in 2002, and

subsequent waves in 2003/04, 2005 and 2006. It soon became clear that progress

in understanding transitions into adulthood would require a combination of

qualitative and quantitative research, and so an ethnographic research project was

initiated within the CSSR in 2004 by Rachel Bray and Jeremy Seekings. Rachel Bray

led the ethnographic study and, with Imke Gooskens and Susan Moses, conducted

15 months of fieldwork in the Cape Town neighbourhoods of Masiphumelele, Fish

Hoek and Ocean View respectively. This qualitative research proceeded in parallel

to the successive waves of CAPS.

Analysis of the qualitative data from each neighbourhood was conducted both

individually and collaboratively by Imke, Rachel and Sue. Jeremy analysed the

quantitative data and participated in discussions about the qualitative research. Rachel

and Jeremy took responsibility for integrating material into composite chapters, with

Rachel taking primary responsibility for about two-thirds of the chapters and Jeremy

for one-third. Just about every chapter, however, includes substantial contributions

from Rachel, Sue, Imke and Jeremy. The one exception is Chapter 7, for which

Lauren Kahn was primarily responsible. Lauren had conducted fieldwork among

adolescent girls in the same neighbourhoods in Cape Town, focusing specifically on

their friendships and sexual relationships. She incorporated findings from her own

research and from the research by Rachel, Imke and Sue into a composite chapter.

Every chapter was discussed repeatedly in collective workshops, and read and reread

by each member of the team. Both Rachel and Jeremy restructured and rewrote

almost every chapter.

Some sections of the book have appeared in other forms. Sue, Imke and Lauren

drew on their analyses for their master’s dissertations (Gooskens 2006; Kahn 2008;

Moses 2005). Jeremy, Sue, Imke and Lauren contributed articles to a special issue

of Social Dynamics (32[1] 2006). Rachel and Imke co-wrote an article on the ethics

of conducting research with children in Anthropology Southern Africa (Bray &

Gooskens 2006). Rachel drew on this and further ethnographic work with mothers

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x

and young children to co-write work on childcare, poverty and HIV/AIDS with Rene

Brandt in, among others, the Journal of Children and Poverty (Bray & Brandt 2007).

Most of these papers – and others – were published as working papers in the CSSR

Working Paper Series.

Ariane de Lannoy, a PhD student in the CSSR, who is researching educational

decision-making among young people in Cape Town, provided particular input

to Chapter 6. Katherine Ensler, a visiting student from Princeton, assisted with

observational research in high schools in Fish Hoek and Masiphumelele.

This research was only possible because of the enthusiasm shown by many children

and adolescents in Fish Hoek, Ocean View and Masiphumelele, and by many of

their family members and neighbours. We are especially grateful to the six teenage

residents of the Valley who volunteered to join the team as young researchers:

Riccardo Herdien, Thandolwethu Mbi, Karen Painter, Samantha Peacocke, Zahir

Slarmie and Siyabulela White. All names used in the text are pseudonyms.

We were able to conduct research inside schools through the generous assistance of

the principals and teachers at Fish Hoek Primary, Middle and Senior High; Marine

Primary; Ocean View Secondary; Ukhanyo Primary; and Masiphumelele High. We

are also grateful to the Western Cape Education Department for their permission –

and especially to Dr Ronald Cornelissen. Staff and volunteers working in state

services, NGOs and churches welcomed us into their work environments or gave

their time for interviews or informal discussions. Nomatamsanqa Fani and Lindiwe

Mthembu-Salter provided invaluable research assistance and translation services.

The research presented in this book was funded largely by the CSSR. The funders

included the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, as part of its grant to establish the

CSSR, and the Ford Foundation, through a grant to the AIDS and Society Research

Unit (which is part of the CSSR) to support research that generates new forms of

knowledge. Sue Moses received a generous scholarship from the Potter Charitable

Trust, which also funded a workshop in early 2005. The major funder of CAPS was

the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, through grants

R01-HD39788 (research on ‘Families, Communities and Youth Outcomes in South

Africa’) and R01-HD045581 (research on ‘Family Support and Rapid Social Change

in South Africa’).

A number of academics provided important advice along the way, especially Andy

Dawes, Pamela Reynolds, Fiona Ross and Susan Levine, and our colleagues in the

CSSR who gave feedback on presentations in the CSSR seminar series.

This publication was supported with generous assistance from the University of Cape

Town and the South African Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in

Development (SANPAD).

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1

The Fish Hoek valley

The research for this book was conducted in the Fish Hoek valley, with the

participants in the study drawn from three of its major communities: Fish Hoek,

Ocean View and Masiphumelele. This section provides a visual introduction to the

area, as seen through the eyes of the young participants themselves. They took all

the photographs presented here, and drew all of the maps with the exception of Map

1 and Map 7.

Situated in the southern part of the Cape Peninsula, the Fish Hoek valley (referred

to as ‘the Valley’ throughout this book) originally consisted of a middle-class coastal

village, and farmlands. Under apartheid it was almost entirely a ‘white group area’

which meant that ‘non-white’ people were permitted to live in the area only if they

were employed as domestic workers or farm labourers.

In the 1960s Ocean View, a small working-class housing estate, was built in an

isolated area in the Valley to accommodate ‘coloured’ people who were forcibly

resettled there from other areas in the southern peninsula. The 1980s and 1990s

saw significant growth throughout the Valley. The existing villages of Fish Hoek,

Noordhoek and Kommetjie expanded, and new suburbs, such as Capri and San

Michel, were developed. By the early 1990s, approximately half the population,

occupying most of the Valley, was ‘white’ and just under half, confined to Ocean

View, was ‘coloured’. Masiphumelele was established in 1991 as a semi-formal

settlement for the small number of African people already living in the Valley, either

legally or illegally. By 2001, however, Masiphumelele, too, had grown to the point

where it accommodated almost 25 per cent of the population in the Valley.

Today, the Valley has become a suburban expansion of Cape Town, and the

population has doubled. There are many signs of post-apartheid change – almost

everyone throughout the Valley has access to electricity, basic sanitation, schools and

healthcare facilities. However, the spatial impress of apartheid remains: the majority

of the coloured and African residents live within the narrow confines of Ocean View

and Masiphumelele, whilst the richer, white residents live in the lush suburbs and

smallholdings that have developed across the area, from one coast to the other.

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2

Locating the Valley

Map 1 The Fish Hoek Valley

This map shows the three neighbourhoods researched (reading from left to right):

Ocean View, Masiphumelele and Fish Hoek, with the main arterial routes linking

them to Greater Cape Town in the north. The insert shows the position of the Valley

relative to Cape Town.

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3

Local neighbourhoods

Photo 1 Ocean View central

Ocean View has a handful of formal shops, including a small supermarket, butchery

and video-hire store, as well as informal shops operating out of people’s homes. The

only sports facilities are bare soccer fields. The young person who took Photo 2

makes quite clear the reason for the name of her neighbourhood.

Photo 2 Ocean View residential

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4

Photo 3 Masiphumelele central

Masiphumelele has only informal spaza shops run from shacks, roadside sellers and

shebeens (bars). Its soccer field is a patch of ground filled with rubble, which until

recently was covered with temporary classrooms for the high school. Although there

are some three-room brick homes recently built by the government, most people live

in small, informally built shacks like the one shown in Photo 4.

Photo 4 Masiphumelele residential

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5

Photo 5 Fish Hoek central

Fish Hoek has a wide range of supermarkets and shops; restaurants; an 80-year-old

department store; a well-stocked library; tennis courts and lush sports fields with

clubhouses. Quiet, tree-lined streets and solidly constructed homes characterise the

residential area.

Photo 6 Fish Hoek residential

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