Changing Family Forms, Patterns and Emerging Challenges Within the South African Indian Diaspora

Abstract

The nature, durability and flexibility of the Indian family in South Africa has been shaped by events and circumstances within the context of a hostile social and political environment that pervaded South African society throughout colonialism and apartheid. Over the years the family structure adjusted and adapted to these conditions to ensure a distinct presence within the diverse South African landscape. This paper traces the evolution of the Indian family from a primarily single sex indentured labor system, to the extended/joint family form, and the transformation of the latter into the nuclear family system. It provides a longitudinal socio-historical analysis of factors spanning one hundred and fifty years of Indian family form and life leading to the formation of the nuclear family, emerging new family forms and challenges in post-democratic South Africa. The paper draws the attention of family study scholars to an analysis beyond the dual notion of extended/joint and nuclear family forms, and to emerging marriage and family patterns in the context of a rapidly changing South African society in the post-liberation era.