---
title: "Rethinking ukuthwala, the South African ‘bride abduction’ custom"
description: "Just over a decade ago in South Africa, a flurry of media reports surfaced about a customary practice known as ukuthwala. The reports described a rise in ukuthwala characterised by the kidnapping, assault and rape of young girls by older men, forcing them into customary marriages. Girls as young as 13 and 14 in the rural areas of provinces such as Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were affected by this violence. In some cases, the girls’ families accepted and arranged the marriages."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "CULTURE"
author: "Nyasha Karimakwenda"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/nyasha-karimakwenda/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-21-rethinking-ukuthwala-the-south-african-bride-abduction-custom/"
published: "2021-09-21T19:34:26"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 936
---

# Rethinking ukuthwala, the South African ‘bride abduction’ custom

> Just over a decade ago in South Africa, a flurry of media reports surfaced about a customary practice known as ukuthwala. The reports described a rise in ukuthwala characterised by the kidnapping, assault and rape of young girls by older men, forcing them into customary marriages. Girls as young as 13 and 14 in the rural areas of provinces such as Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were affected by this violence. In some cases, the girls’ families accepted and arranged the marriages.

By Nyasha Karimakwenda · Published 21 September 2021, 21:34 SAST

## Content

[*This story was first published in*The Conversation.](https://theconversation.com/rethinking-ukuthwala-the-south-african-bride-abduction-custom-165496)

*Ukuthwala* is a term in Nguni languages which has various meanings. It can refer to ways (including abduction) of making a customary marriage happen quickly. South Africa has a varied cultural make-up, and the term ‘customary’ is generally used to describe beliefs and traditions of groups that are ‘indigenous’ to the country. Customary marriages therefore are based on localised norms. As a route to customary marriage, multiple types of *ukuthwala* exist across the country, each with distinct names and elements.

The [reports](https://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-04-forcing-the-issue/) about violent *ukuthwala* cases provoked responses from different sectors of society. Government leaders organised meetings with affected communities. The [South African Law Reform Commission](https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp132-UkuthwalaRevised.pdf) did an extensive study. [Legal scholars](https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC51942) outlined the human rights implications of the practice. The ruling political party’s Women’s League [called](https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/ancwl-slams-ukuthwala-1796707) for *ukuthwala* to be abolished.

From the media and government reports, legal scholarship and case law, two general conclusions emerged during this period. The first was that non-consensual *ukuthwala* was a modern phenomenon. The second was that it was an abuse of tradition, not an authentic customary practice.

Through [my research](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/deconstructing-characterizations-of-rape-marriage-and-custom-in-south-africa-revisiting-the-multisectoral-campaign-against-ukuthwala/030D12337FA12BA87D2553E0ED2AF76D), based on interviews with women in the Eastern Cape and examinations of historical and recent sources, I have found that both of these conclusions about *ukuthwala* are oversimplifications. The reality is far more complex. Coercive *ukuthwala* has been practised for generations, and many have held the cruel acts accompanying *ukuthwala* as part of tradition.

The mainstream conclusions obscure the actual nature and extent of this form of gendered violence.

**Misconceptions**

The first misconception is that violent *ukuthwala* is a new phenomenon. Part of the misunderstanding stems from the fact that before 2009 only a [small body of academic research](https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/5564/Koyana_Indomitable%282007%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y) existed, and much of it concentrated on the romantic *ukuthwala* forms, akin to elopement. There are however sources that provide rich insights into past practices of violent *ukuthwala*. The historian [Elisabeth Thornberry](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/colonizing-consent/F26822B9351AC12F6E0F0BBFAECE34D2), for example, explored sexual crimes and customs in colonial-era Eastern Cape. An early legal ethnography was Jacobus van Tromp’s 1947 [work](https://www.worldcat.org/title/xhosa-law-of-persons-a-treatise-on-the-legal-principles-of-family-relations-among-the-amaxhosa/oclc/1017118500?referer=di&ht=edition) on Xhosa customs. Colonial and apartheid-era court cases also provide evidence of women seeking to escape abusive marriages.

Most importantly, older women are repositories of historical knowledge. I conducted my research in partnership with [Masimanyane](https://www.masimanyane.org.za/), an Eastern Cape-based women’s rights organisation. In my interviews women related their experiences of *ukuthwala*, rape and brutality during the 1970s. Staff of Masimanyane described how older women in affected communities had asked for counselling for the traumas they suffered decades ago.

Collectively these sources demonstrate that coercive *ukuthwala* is not of recent origin.

The second simplified conclusion about violent *ukuthwala* is that it is an inauthentic expression of custom. This assertion is most evident in the legal arena. In the 2015 decision [Jezile vs S](http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2015/31.html) the Western Cape High Court determined that features of traditional *ukuthwala* under customary law included:

- the consent of both the bride and groom
- a “pretend” abduction of the bride
- the strict prohibition of any sexual intercourse during the abduction.

The court labelled the forced form of *ukuthwala* as “aberrant”. In parallel, the South African Law Reform Commission [concluded](https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp132-ukutwala.pdf) that instances of forced *ukuthwala* were “illegal distortions” of the custom.

In my research I found that for many communities in rural parts of the Eastern Cape, coercive *ukuthwala* has been the standard according to customary practice. In my interviews with older survivors, they explained that what they endured in the *ukuthwala* process, such as abductions and rapes, was part of the custom where they lived. Their families took part in arranging the marriages and then refused to rescue them even after they were raped.

There is fortunately a growing body of scholarship that depicts the cultural acceptance of violent *ukuthwala*. This includes [research](https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.1080/02587203.2017.1303902) by legal scholars Lea Mwambene and Helen Kruuse done in Jezile’s community in the Eastern Cape following the court case, as well as in-depth [explorations](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057070.2014.896720?src=recsys) by [anthropologists](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23323256.2016.1248987).

In sum, my findings affirm that custom cannot be understood as formulaic or benign. How people live and the traditions they invest in are infinitely diverse. There cannot be an essential form of *ukuthwala*.

**Culture and violence**

The simplified understandings of *ukuthwala* that I have outlined have particular consequences. For one, the perception of violent *ukuthwala* as ‘new’ has concealed brutality against black women through the apartheid and colonial eras. This very significant form of familial violence against women in the past remains mostly unacknowledged, and the brutality of *ukuthwala* today stands without context.

Connected to this is the denial of the link between culture and violence. The strict outlook on *ukuthwala* hides the very close relationship between marriage processes and rape. This is a relationship that has existed across many cultures. For example, marital rape was only [criminalised](https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1993-133.pdf) in South Africa in the 1990s, undoing the marital rape exemption based on [Roman-Dutch and English laws](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-and-comparative-law-quarterly/article/abs/rape-in-marriage-developments-in-south-african-law/525DC5CD095C77A800C118AF5EF0B613). In other words, the customary acceptance of sexual violence of ukuthwala is not unique.

Unfortunately, rape in marriage remains under-researched and misunderstood. My research highlights how the institution of marriage continues to diminish women’s sexual autonomy. Coercive *ukuthwala* happens because families prize marriage and the power of husbands over the individual rights of women and girls. The marriage in effect nullifies a husband’s wrongdoing.

Research must incorporate the voices of women of all ages, question written resources, and create more balanced accounts to inform law and policy. Without this we only have a partial understanding of *ukuthwala* and the injustices that women and girls have long been subjected to. **DM/ML**

[Media](https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165496/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced)

*Nyasha Karimakwenda is a post-Doctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town.*