AFRICAN GIRLS
Illegitimacy '•"Common”
Illegitimacy was common among native girls in South Africa. In fact, some tribes considered it necessary for a girl to have a baby before marriage to prove her fertility, said a South African visitor to Christchurch, Mrs F. A. Cotton, yesterday. Some single girls, however, were now taking the contraceptive pill. “My servant girl, who is 27, is not yet married and has three daughters, the eldest aged 12,” said Mrs Cotton, who comes from a mining area in the Orange Free State. “It is common for the girls to keep their babies for the first year. After that, the grandparents usually step in. Parents quite frequently, and happily, bring up their daughters’ children,” she said. In some areas, the lobola system was still in force! “Every parent of a daughter is entitled to a lobola—a sort of dowry or payment—from the man who wishes to marry their girl. In country areas, this payment is usually in the form of cattle,” Mrs Cotton said.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19690201.2.20.7
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 2
Word Count
168AFRICAN GIRLS Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 2
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