Claiming spaces, changing places: Political violence and women's protests in KwaZulu-Natal

This paper examines the connections between the public and the private sphe re through a case study of political protests by women in Mpumalanga Townsh ip, KwaZulu-Natal. The paper begins by reflecting on the public/private dic hotomy and argues that the concepts of public and private seem to suggest a rigid set of socio-spatial practices, as if particular places have fixed s ocial relationships and boundaries. It proposes a conceptual framework whic h focuses on the sites where women challenge the dominant power relations, rather than a simple public/private dichotomy; this conceptualization illum inates the reformulation of gender power relations across a variety of spac es. A key theoretical argument which is explored empirically is that challe nges to power relations in one space reformulate subjectivities and so impa ct on power relations in another site. The paper then goes on to examine ho w space was constructed in Mpumalanga township prior to the violence and th en the way in which political violence reconstructed this space (in particu lar, it focuses on the schools, the streets and domestic space). The paper then moves on to examine how women, through protests of different kinds, ch allenged the way in which these spaces and their accompanying gendered powe r relations had been reconstructed by the violence. The final section of th e paper examines whether and how gender relations in the household have cha nged as a result of these processes.