Reforming Bodies: Self-Governance, Anxiety, and Cape Colonial Architecture in South Africa, 1665–1860

Abstract

The conquest and colonization of South Africa, first by the Dutch and then by the British, resulted in the construction of Dutch-style houses expressing openness in gender and racial interactions, followed by British remodeling of houses, and the built environment in general, to increase gender and racial segregation. One impact of these changes in built form on the cultural context of the Western Cape has been struggle, on the part of the Dutch as well as the mixed-race groups evolving out of contact between slaves, indigenous groups, and the Dutch, with the liberal ideology of self-governance informing the spatial separation of public and private spheres. For the Dutch, this struggle resulted, in part, in the Great Trek (1830s and 1840s), a fleeing from the British into the interior of South Africa, as well as the Anglo-Boer Wars (1880–1881, 1899–1902), efforts by the Dutch to control areas of South Africa on their own terms. The mixed-race groups that remained in the Western Cape and Cape Town engaged in a sort of creative struggle with the racist and sexist contradictions at the heart of liberal humanism. One such response has been the creation of female-headed households and sustained participation of women in the public sphere of the workforce (Ridd 1981).