Welcome to the home page of Marcia Marais.
About
me:
I am a student at the University of the Western Cape
in Cape Town, South Africa. This is where I did my undergraduate studies, and an Honours degree in English Literature. I am
currently enrolled in the Honours programme, in the Women's and Gender Studies Department which is a year-degree
course.
UWC, Cape Town
Cape Town, Africa The
city of Cape Town
My research interests include coloured identity and representations of colouredness in a post-colonial
context. When I speak of 'coloured', I refer to a racial grouping, of slave origins, a people who
are defined as being neither black, nor white - somewhere inbetween. Since slaves were imported into the Cape in
order to provide cheap labour for the infant colonial economy, this is still where most coloured people are concentrated.
Cape Town is a city of contrasts, with both beautiful beaches, magnificent mountains, picture-perfect
winelands and wealthy suburbs, juxtaposed with squalid shanty towns that are
the euphemistically named 'informal settlements' of the poor, largely hidden from view by razor wire
fences that keep the unwelcome in.
While the city provides labour, it means that while men are away working in the city, women are left to
take care of the young, the sick and the elderly, creating women-headed
households and leaving single mothers to eek out an existence in impoverished conditions. The importance of
women's organisations that are able to provide services and fulfil the
basic needs of these most vulnerable members of society, is clear.
