Reproductive control in apartheid South Africa

Since its inception in 1974, the South African family planning programme ha s been widely believed to be linked with white fears of growing black numbe rs The programme has been repeatedly attacked by detractors as a programme of social and political control. Yet, in spite of the hostile environment, black women's use of services has steadily increased. Using historical and anthropological evidence, this paper delineates the links between the socia l and political context of racial domination and individual fertility behav iour. It is argued that the quantitative success of the family planning pro gramme is rooted in social and economic shifts conditioning reproductive au thority and fertility decision-making. State policies of racial segregation and influx control, ethnic 'homeland' politics, and labour migration of me n transformed opportunities and constraints for black women and men, and al tered local and household expectations of childbearing. Women came to manag e their own fertility as they increasingly found themselves in precarious s ocial and economic circumstances.