‘My Husband is No Husband to Me’: Divorce, Marriage and Gender Struggles in African Communities of Colonial Natal, 1869–1910

There is no published historical study devoted to an examination of divorce in Zulu chiefdoms and homesteads living under customary law. Using scholarship that analyses gender struggles in southern Africa, this article evaluates four decades of spousal conflict following the passage of the Natal Native Marriage Law 1 of 1869. The legislation made colonial authority an arbiter of nuptial negotiations and allowed couples to revoke their vows in court. Sparking popular protest and official unease, Law 1 of 1869 drew the ire of African men upset by government meddling in what they viewed as their private quarrels. Of less concern to husbands was that divorce disproportionately burdened women. During proceedings, estranged wives were called on to convey the pain they suffered, including domestic violence, toxic jealousy and witchcraft. Fearing disruption to patriarchal order, magistrates infrequently sided with female plaintiffs. Consequently, a mother who tried to leave her batterer – and the father of their children – could expect to endure injury and adversity. If lucky enough to be awarded a favourable verdict, ex-wives could not escape the stigma associated with their legal banishment from conjugal life.