“An African way of doing things”: reproducing gender and generation

Abstract

In this article I draw on ethnographic research conducted in the townships of Nyanga East and Khayelitsha, South Africa, to suggest a link between normative ideals about the relations between children and adults, normative practises around the care of children, and the high rates of early child bearing. I argue that the attempt to uphold these ideals is what creates fertile ground for the occurrence of a pregnancy during the teenage years. My investigation of the occurrence and management of teenage pregnancy draws attention to a marked and persistent discrepancy between normative ideals and practices. It suggests that the normative practices around the management of a teenage pregnancy and the care of children that have emerged contribute to the reproduction of a larger social system that allows for a pregnant teenager's successful moral transition to motherhood in the township.