The Prevention of Mixed Marriages Act Number 55 of 1949 and the Immorality Act of 1957 were both abolished in 1985. After thirty years, it is interesting to see if it resulted in any impact on the outlook of the racial groups in South Africa.
Celebrities like Bryan Habana, JP Pietersen (Springbok rugby players) and Mmusi Maimane (DA leader) is seemingly happy in their mixed marriages, but for others, as poet Antjie Krog and politician, Tokyo Sexwale quickly ended in divorce.
A written report from the North West University in 2015 did show that there has been an increase in interracial unions. The study of Acheampong Yaw Amoateng, Professor of Sociology at the Mahikeng campus, shows that the increased mixed marriages of 1996 from a ratio of 303: 1 to 95: 1.
However, the statistics are very misleading – it takes all mixed marriages of all races into account. An analysis shows that Asians, Indians, coloreds, and blacks are responsible for most mixed marriages, while only a very slight increase of whites entered into mixed marriages.
The survey further demonstrates that in particular, higher education leads to mixed couples in those races, while other surveys indicate that whites consider a racially mixed marriage as “less intelligent and fortune seeking.”
This corresponds to a study in the US by Jennifer Bratter and Rosalind King in 2008. They found that interracial marriages have increased from 0.7% in 1970 to 3.9% in 2008 in the United States; but is also mainly between African American and other racial groups, not whites. The chances of a white woman / black man marriage ending in divorce within the first ten years is 200% more than white / white, and white / Asian’s divorce was at 59%.
Anne van der Walt and Peter Basson, clinical psychologists, did a study on the prevalence of mixed marriages.
The Social Status-Exchange Theory (SSET) asserts that potential partners are seen in terms of their resources and possibly personal gains in terms of socioeconomic position, racial status and physical attractiveness (Jacobson et al., 2004; Kalmijn & Van Tubergen, 2006; McFadden & Moore, 2001).
According to the SSET, a potential partner in an interracial relationship will consider the available resources of the other partner and engage in the interracial relationship based on the partner’s ability to meet a resource need (Yancey & Lewis, 2009). Thus, interracial relationships between white women and black men were thought to occur when white women of lower economic status exchanged for a higher social position, by virtue of being white, for a higher socioeconomic status and financial security, by marrying wealthy black men.
It is important to note that those who took part in the interviews with Van der Walt and Basson feel that the mixed marriage of both racial sides elicit resistance from families and acquaintances. It is because of this “discrimination” that communication of mixed couple is flawed and can lead to divorce. Where couples display cultural and discriminatory difficulties they can overcome with professional psychological help and make a success, said Van der Walt and Basson.
The irony is that the black race is more prone to lose their identity through intermarriage. The Afro-American (“nigger”) in the US has as much as 21% mixed blood from mainly Asian, “Hispanic”, and Indian and to a large extent they are estranged from the black African.
Contrary to all of this, the European (Westerner) from Caucasian descent had until today not surrendered any of his/her racial purity with all the implications and privileges thereto.
The South African studies have somewhat shown the same trend, although people like Heese says that the white Afrikaner has perhaps 7% “foreign blood” mainly from the Indian community and slaves from 360 years ago.
It’s actually a joke that the makeup of the Mixed Marriages 1949 Act, in the consequence, was thus not necessary to break up the white race in South Africa, it was simply to protect the black population’s identity as an African. HF Verwoerd, who emphasized that sociologist argument for the protection of black ethnicity, must be secretly laughing at the stupidity.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Front Nasionaal SA – blad
South Africa Today – South Africa News
