Susanne M. Klausen – författare

Abortion Under Apartheid examines the politics of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1990), when termination of pregnancy was criminalized. It analyzes the flourishing clandestine abortion industry, the prosecution of medical and "backstreet" abortionists, and the passage in 1975 of the country''s first statutory law on abortion. Susanne M. Klausen reveals how ideas about sexuality were fundamental to apartheid culture and shows that the authoritarian National Party government - alarmed by the spread of "permissiveness" in white society - attempted to regulate white women''s reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy.A major focus of the book is the battle over abortion that erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when doctors and feminists, inspired by international developments, called for liberalization of the colonial-era common law that criminalized abortion. The movement for legal reform spurred a variety of political, social, and religious groups to grapple with the meaning of abortion in the context of changing ideas about the traditional family and women''s place within it. Abortion Under Apartheid demonstrates that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Yet, although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young, unmarried white women reproductive control, black girls and women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects on a shocking scale.At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who-regardless of hostility from partners, elders, religious institutions, nationalist movements, conservative doctors and nurses, or the government-persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortions, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women''s right to control their capacity to bear children. This book conveys both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

Abortion Under Apartheid examines the politics of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1990), when termination of pregnancy was criminalized. It analyzes the flourishing clandestine abortion industry, the prosecution of medical and "backstreet" abortionists, and the passage in 1975 of the country's first statutory law on abortion. Susanne M. Klausen reveals how ideas about sexuality were fundamental to apartheid culture and shows that the authoritarian National Party government - alarmed by the spread of "permissiveness" in white society - attempted to regulate white women's reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy.A major focus of the book is the battle over abortion that erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when doctors and feminists, inspired by international developments, called for liberalization of the colonial-era common law that criminalized abortion. The movement for legal reform spurred a variety of political, social, and religious groups to grapple with the meaning of abortion in the context of changing ideas about the traditional family and women's place within it. Abortion Under Apartheid demonstrates that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Yet, although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young, unmarried white women reproductive control, black girls and women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects on a shocking scale.At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who-regardless of hostility from partners, elders, religious institutions, nationalist movements, conservative doctors and nurses, or the government-persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortions, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women's right to control their capacity to bear children. This book conveys both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

Under apartheid, the government of South Africa rigorously enforced the Immorality Act of 1950, which prohibited “illicit carnal intercourse” (extramarital sex) between heterosexual whites and Blacks. Seven years later, in 1957, the government also criminalized indications of interracial desire and attempts to have sex across the white-Black colour line. Doing so directly affected an astounding number of South Africans. Between 1950 and 1985, the year the government decriminalized interracial sex and desire, the police arrested tens of thousands of people, mainly white men and Black women, for transgressing the injunction to avoid interracial intimacy. The criminalization of interracial desire was widely discussed, debated, and condemned at the time, yet after the transition to liberal democracy in 1994 this tragic and sordid dimension of apartheid was largely forgotten by the post-apartheid government and public, and overlooked by historians.Criminal Desire counters the official, scholarly, and popular forgetting of this vicious history by offering the first historical monograph about the policing of illicit interracial sex between heterosexual whites and Blacks in twentieth-century South Africa. Author Susanne M. Klausen argues that sexuality was at the heart of the apartheid project, from its beginnings in 1948 when the Afrikaner National Party government sought to protect whites' mythical purity, to its unravelling in the 1980s when it tried to maintain power. Klausen demonstrates how the apartheid regime used laws about sex to simultaneously teach race and police heterosexual desire and examines the impact of sexual policing on South African individuals, society, and international relations. Based on a wide range of primary sources including interviews, diaries, novels, autobiographies, records of parliamentary debates, newspapers, court records, and documents in South African and British archives, Criminal Desire offers a significant contribution to the historiography of racialized sexuality, gender, intimacy, and punishment in Africa, and to our understanding of the profound and long-lasting harms of apartheid.

Under apartheid, the government of South Africa rigorously enforced the Immorality Act of 1950, which prohibited “illicit carnal intercourse” (extramarital sex) between heterosexual whites and Blacks. Seven years later, in 1957, the government also criminalized indications of interracial desire and attempts to have sex across the white-Black colour line. Doing so directly affected an astounding number of South Africans. Between 1950 and 1985, the year the government decriminalized interracial sex and desire, the police arrested tens of thousands of people, mainly white men and Black women, for transgressing the injunction to avoid interracial intimacy. The criminalization of interracial desire was widely discussed, debated, and condemned at the time, yet after the transition to liberal democracy in 1994 this tragic and sordid dimension of apartheid was largely forgotten by the post-apartheid government and public, and overlooked by historians.Criminal Desire counters the official, scholarly, and popular forgetting of this vicious history by offering the first historical monograph about the policing of illicit interracial sex between heterosexual whites and Blacks in twentieth-century South Africa. Author Susanne M. Klausen argues that sexuality was at the heart of the apartheid project, from its beginnings in 1948 when the Afrikaner National Party government sought to protect whites' mythical purity, to its unravelling in the 1980s when it tried to maintain power. Klausen demonstrates how the apartheid regime used laws about sex to simultaneously teach race and police heterosexual desire and examines the impact of sexual policing on South African individuals, society, and international relations. Based on a wide range of primary sources including interviews, diaries, novels, autobiographies, records of parliamentary debates, newspapers, court records, and documents in South African and British archives, Criminal Desire offers a significant contribution to the historiography of racialized sexuality, gender, intimacy, and punishment in Africa, and to our understanding of the profound and long-lasting harms of apartheid.

Abortion Under Apartheid examines the politics of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1990), when termination of pregnancy was criminalized. It analyzes the flourishing clandestine abortion industry, the prosecution of medical and "backstreet" abortionists, and the passage in 1975 of the country's first statutory law on abortion. Susanne M. Klausen reveals how ideas about sexuality were fundamental to apartheid culture and shows that the authoritarian National Party government -- alarmed by the spread of "permissiveness" in white society -- attempted to regulate white women's reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy.A major focus of the book is the battle over abortion that erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when doctors and feminists, inspired by international developments, called for liberalization of the colonial-era common law that criminalized abortion. The movement for legal reform spurred a variety of political, social, and religious groups to grapple with the meaning of abortion in the context of changing ideas about the traditional family and women's place within it. Abortion Under Apartheid demonstrates that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Yet, although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young, unmarried white women reproductive control, black girls and women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects on a shocking scale.At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who -- regardless of hostility from partners, elders, religious institutions, nationalist movements, conservative doctors and nurses, or the government -- persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortion, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women's right to control their capacity to bear children. This book conveys both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

Abortion Under Apartheid examines the politics of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1990), when termination of pregnancy was criminalized. It analyzes the flourishing clandestine abortion industry, the prosecution of medical and "backstreet" abortionists, and the passage in 1975 of the country''s first statutory law on abortion. Susanne M. Klausen reveals how ideas about sexuality were fundamental to apartheid culture and shows that the authoritarian National Party government - alarmed by the spread of "permissiveness" in white society - attempted to regulate white women''s reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy.A major focus of the book is the battle over abortion that erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when doctors and feminists, inspired by international developments, called for liberalization of the colonial-era common law that criminalized abortion. The movement for legal reform spurred a variety of political, social, and religious groups to grapple with the meaning of abortion in the context of changing ideas about the traditional family and women''s place within it. Abortion Under Apartheid demonstrates that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Yet, although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young, unmarried white women reproductive control, black girls and women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects on a shocking scale.At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who-regardless of hostility from partners, elders, religious institutions, nationalist movements, conservative doctors and nurses, or the government-persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortions, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women''s right to control their capacity to bear children. This book conveys both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

As the South African War reached its grueling end in 1902, colonial interests at the highest levels of the British Empire hand-picked teachers from across the Commonwealth to teach the thousands of Boer children living in concentration camps. Highly educated, hard working, and often opinionated, E. Maud Graham joined the Canadian contingent of forty teachers. Her eyewitness account reveals the complexity of relations and tensions at a controversial period in the histories of both Britain and South Africa. Graham presents a lively historical travel memoir, and the editors have provided rich political and historical context to her narrative in the Introduction and generous annotations. This is a rare primary source for experts in Colonial Studies, Women’s Studies, and Canadian, South African, and British Imperial History. Readers with an interest in the South African War will be intrigued by Graham’s observations on South African society at the end of the Victorian era.

A Canadian woman shares her story of traveling to South Africa to teach Boer children in concentration camps following the South African War.As the South African War reached its grueling end in 1902, colonial interests at the highest levels of the British Empire hand-picked teachers from across the Commonwealth to teach the thousands of Boer children living in concentration camps. Highly educated, hard working, and often opinionated, E. Maud Graham joined the Canadian contingent of forty teachers. Her eyewitness account reveals the complexity of relations and tensions at a controversial period in the histories of both Britain and South Africa. Graham presents a lively historical travel memoir, and the editors have provided rich political and historical context to her narrative in the Introduction and generous annotations. This is a rare primary source for experts in Colonial Studies, Women''s Studies, and Canadian, South African, and British Imperial History. Readers with an interest in the South African War will be intrigued by Graham''s observations on South African society at the end of the Victorian era."A fascinating perspective on the country. . . . Graham''s account will help others understand how the British and English-speaking Canadians in South Africa perceived Boers and native southern Africans at the turn of the twentieth century, and her descriptions reveal details about everyday life in South Africa at an important moment of transition.... Graham''s book represents the perspective of a well-embedded outsider reporting to far-removed readers, rather than that of a female teacher involved in international or imperial education." —Benjamin Bryce, Historical Studies in Education"Recommended for those who wish to learn more about South African history and early race relations or tensions. Graham''s opinionated writing will amuse and interest those researching women''s studies." —Amy L. Crofford, African Studies Quarterly, Volume 16