Behind Closed Doors in White South Africa: Incest Survivors Tell Their Stories

210 Pages·1997·12.25 MB·English

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN WHITE SOUTH AFRICA
Also by Diana E. H. Russell
AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY: The Evidence of Harm
AGAINST SADOMASOCHISM: A Radical Feminist Analysis (with
Ruth Linden, Darlene Pagano, Susan Leigh Star)
CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN: The Proceedings of the International
Tribunal (with Nicole Van de Wen)
EXPOSING NUCLEAR PHALLACIES
FEMICIDE: The Politics of Woman Killing (with Jill Radford)
INCESTUOUS ABUSE: Its Long-Term Effects
LIVES OF COURAGE: Women for a New South Africa
MAKING VIOLENCE SEXY: Feminist Views on Pornography
RAPE IN MARRIAGE
REBELLION, REVOLUTION, AND ARMED FORCE: A Comparative
Study of Fifteen Countries with Special Emphasis on Cuba and South
Africa
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: Rape, Child Sexual Abuse and Workplace
Harassment
THE POLITICS OF RAPE: The Victim's Perspective
THE SECRET TRAUMA: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women
Behind Closed Doors in
White South Africa
Incest Survivors Tell Their Stories
Diana E. H. Russell
Professor Emerita in Sociology
Mills College
Oakland
California
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
9£
© Diana E. H. Russell 1997
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1997 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 0-333-64232-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 0-333-64233-3 (paperback)
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Published in the United States of America by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-17374-1 clothbound
ISBN 0-312-17375-X paperback
To the incest survivors who were willing to share their pain
and their triumphs with me and the reading public. May their
courage and honesty be the help to others that they hoped for.
S~ .^ZIMBABWE'
\
BOTSWANA
Walvis Bay
MOZAMBIQUE
TRANSVAAL
NAMIBIA
.Pretoria
Johannesburg
I SWAZILAND
\
,Welkom Newcastle
( ORANGE
/ FREE STATE /* \ NATAL
• Bloemfontein \ Stanger
SOUTH AFRICA CLESOTHO/ #Pietermaritzburg
\ ^\ /Durban
KTC
Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean
Clanwilliam
Leeu-Gamkalike
GROOT, KAROO East London
Wellington Prince Albert 200 kilometres
Cape Town Port Elizabeth
200 miles
Contents
List of Tables and Figure viii
Acknowledgements ix
Map of South Africa xi
About the Author xii
Glossary and Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction: Opening the Door in White South Africa 1
2 Tt Felt So Good to Stab My Father': Nida Webber's Story 13
3 'Kill Me, Rather': Elsa Foster's Story 36
4 There's a Sign on My Forehead Saying, "Abuse Me!'":
Marie Malan's Story 60
5 The Making of a Whore: Lara Newman's Story 90
6 The Divine Right of the Father: Elsabe Groenewald' s Story 118
7 Conclusion: Paternal Despotism in Private and Public Life 151
Appendix: Tables Russell's Sample of Incest Survivors 170
Notes 173
References 177
Index 181
vn
List of Tables and Figure
Tables
A-l Information on Sample of Incest Survivors, by Ethnicity 170
A-2 Information on Incest Perpetrators and Their Abuse,
by Ethnicity 171
Figure
3.1 Family Tree - Elsa Foster and Marie Malan 39
vin
Acknowledgements
A very special thanks to Marcel Londt for her tremendous assistance in
obtaining volunteers for this research, to Laurette Roos for her help in
encouraging survivors to volunteer, to Charlene Thompson for her excellent
transcriptions, to Kathleen Faller for reading an earlier version of the manu
script and offering useful suggestions, and to Mary Armour, Karla Huebner,
Janja Lalich, Erica Lutz and Gayle Pitman for their editorial assistance.
I am also very grateful to Kenneth Carstens for checking my facts on
South Africa and for evaluating the accuracy and reasonableness of my
statements about the people and politics in that country. My debt to Judith
Herman for her invaluable work on father-daughter incest is demonstrated
by the many times I quote her (with permission) throughout this volume.
The fact that her book Father-Daughter Incest was published in 1981 in
no way diminishes its contemporary pertinence to this subject matter.
A heartfelt thanks to Jalna Hanmer for putting me in touch with Jo
Campling, a Consultant Editor at Macmillan, and to Jo Campling and
Annabelle Buckley for their roles in deciding to offer me a contract for
this book. Knowing that it will be distributed throughout the world is
extremely gratifying.
I want to express my appreciation to the following people for assisting
me with this project in a variety of ways: Joanne Becker, Claudia
Davidson, Michael Hughes, Moira Maconachie, Anne Mayne and Esther
Rothblum. I would also like to acknowledge the Co-operative Research
Programme on Marriage and Family Life at the Human Sciences Research
Council in South Africa for their partial funding of the research on which
this book is based.
Last but not least, I want to thank all the incest survivors who volun
teered to be interviewed for this study. I was, and am, profoundly moved
by their willingness to trust and open up to me with the most astonishing
honesty, and for their willingness to share their experiences with me and
the readers of whatever publications have, and will, come out of this
research. I must apologise in advance to any survivor(s) who may feel
uncomfortable or critical of my attempt to place their experiences in the
context of an examination of the relationship between racist and sexist
politics in South Africa. This was not my original intention, and it was
therefore not what I conveyed to them when they agreed to participate in
this project. Hence, they bear no responsibility for any offence that may be
caused by my analysis.
IX