Governing Morality: Placing Gender and Sexuality in Migration

Abstract

In this chapter I reflect on the long history of the management of gender, sexuality and mobility in the making of the South African nation, tracing examples of how they intersect from early colonization through apartheid to the present day. Through revisiting this theoretical terrain I show how mobility, sexuality and gender are deeply intertwined and, moreover, the making of the state is closely connected to the management of the seemingly private sphere. To understand how the project of statecraft is accomplished, we have to unpack the ways in which intimate relationships are connected to broad political projects. Finally, I argue that the making of the nation in South Africa has always been a global process with strong investments from the global North.