Intergenerational Transmission of Intimate Partner Violence and Descendants of the Enslaved in Cape Town, South Africa

Intimate partner violence is a global challenge particularly in South Africa. Colonial legacies are often not included in related research, yet colonial violence and intimacy continue to shape the domestic and present conditions of slave-descendant families. Drawing from the work of South African feminist writer Pumla Gqola and American scholar Christina Sharpe, this article analyses contemporary levels of intimate partner violence among slave descendants in light of slave memory and intimacy in this case study of Cape Town, South Africa. Research conducted for this study explored the transmission of intergenerational violence with three generations of enslaved descendants within families of mixed racial origin. The findings indicate that intimate partner violence was one of the effects of the slavery – a trauma that was often intergenerationally transmitted through silencing. The article contributes to understanding intimate partner violence among descendants of the enslaved in a (post-) colonial context.