[DEBATE] : Zuma the proud polygamist, and me.

[Peter van Heusden]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 8:40 AM, Dominic Tweedie
> <dominic.tweedie at gmail.com> wrote:
>> How about general paliandry rights?
>>
>>  Under the SA Constitution, it may be that such rights, or equivalent,
>>  already exist, because if I am not mistaken there is a general
>>  stipulation that "he" can be read as "she" in any South African law,
>>  and vice versa.
> 
> Interesting.  Applying Raymond Williams' terminology, one might say
> that the SA Constitution incorporates residual ("traditionally"
> polygamous), dominant (heterosexually monogamous), and emergent
> (homosexual + implicitly polyandrous?) ideologies all at once!

Hi Yoshie

South African "family law" is quite interesting in this regard. See, for
instance, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act of 1998, which
replaced the (hideous) Black Administration Act of 1927, providing a
framework for polygamous marriages to be brought in line with the
Constitution. Its an interesting piece of law, and I understand that
there is a similar Bill being worked on with regards to Islamic
marriages (without all the hoopla that accompanied the Archbishop of
Cantebury's recent suggestion that elements of Muslim law be recognised
in the UK). The Customary Marriages Act is rather vague on some of its
definitions though - "“customary law” means the customs and usages
traditionally observed among the indigenous African peoples of South
Africa and which form part of the culture of those peoples;" - seems to
leave a lot to the imagination.

Beyond what the Constitution incorporates, I think its interesting
looking at these different strands (as you identify them) and
associating them with difference social forces... for instance, what
does the incorporation of "domestic partnerships" both for homosexuals
and living-together people say about the value system of the ANC? How
did such concerns end up on the ANC agenda while remaining conspicuously
absent from the agendas of other African nationalist movements? And what
does the future hold?

Peter
P.S. conceivably polyandry could fit in under the Customary Marriages
Act, you just need to get the correct "traditional authority" to bless
your union. ;)