Ebook: Gender and the Making of a South African Bantustan: A Social History of the Ciskei, 1945-1959

Originally a discursive and administrative construction for political control by whites of sections of Xhosaland, the Ciskei came to be a site for an awakening political consciousness among the African population living within its boundaries. As Mager shows, the creation of the Ciskei was a dynamic gendered process, and attempts to establish boundaries for the Ciskei were also attempts to stabilize and satisfy particular needs and interests. By locating gender relations within overlapping domains of politics, space, and institutional arrangements, Mager joins insights from feminist theory with geography and gendered history to produce a compelling social history.