Madumo

1. Urban migration and employment2. Kinship and Elders3. Witchcraft: Why is it increasing? How is it a

modern phenomenon?4. Christianity as an African religion: The Localization

of a Global Religion

Control of Black Urban Migration• Pass laws• Townships

Effects:• Residential segregation by race• Urban dwellers overwhelmingly male and young

(especially in the beginning)• Strong social ties between rural and urban areas– Why does Madumo need his rural kin?– How do they need him?

The Informal Economy

Madumo is 33 years old, has worked 3 months; how does he survive?

For women: shebeens (MaDudu), buying and plucking of chickens (MaMfete), making doilies (Madumo’s mother)

For men: security (watchmen), selling firecrackers on the street, selling drugs to prisoners, selling counterfeit money, selling used clothes

And of course: healing. And mooching off friends and family.

Soweto as multilinguistic, multiethnic

• Madumo’s ethnicity?• What languages does he speak?• His friend Mpho is? • Mr. Zondi’s ethnicity?• MaMfete’s ethnicity?• Lingua franca of Soweto is?• Translators common: ZCC, p. 171; Mogomotse’s funeral,

p. 190• The innovation caused by the interaction makes healers’

lives difficult: p. 188

Madumo’s family

• Patrilineal? Matrilineal? Bilateral?• Patrilocal? Matrilocal? Neolocal?• Brideprice? Dowry? Bride service?

Ancestors as (Deceased) Elders,Elders as Still-Living Ancestors

• The spiritual protection of Madumo’s mother, protecting them from father’s family

• The authority of “the granny” p. 210• Yet ambiguous: p. 83, p. 215• Significance of graves as place to

communicate with the ancestors, p. 237

South African police investigating Mandela grandson in grave dispute

July 2013