FaSRU students awarded Distinctions for their theses

Jill Samukimba and Vayda Megannon were both awarded a distinction for their these. Jill’s thesis looked at the influence of inhlawulo on becoming and being a father amongst a sample of isiXhosa men. In her thesis, she argued that becoming a father is a process and she outlined the gendered consequences of the customary practice where specific social actors possess power over others at certain stages of the intlawulo process.  Vayda’s thesis examined the lived experience of inheritance for Muslim women in South Africa. In her thesis, she found that fairness and reciprocity serve as guiding principles of inheritance practices in middle class Muslim families around Cape Town. She argued that the findings indicate that to a large extent, on the micro level, the experiences of inheritance practices for Muslim women are in fact aligned with the principles of equality and diversity in the Constitution. However, these patterns of inheritance do occur in a context of gendered family practices. She therefore argued that the challenge arises from the informality of inheritance practices among middle class Muslim families in Cape Town, characteristically occurring in the private sphere. Weak legal protection for Muslim widows during instances of discriminatory inheritances practices is resultant of the lack of a transformative mandate in the public sphere.