Lovestruck? Gender-based violence and the materiality of intimacy in the rural Eastern Cape

Drawing on an archive of approximately 300 ethnographic entries, as well as the author’s long-term fieldwork in the rural Eastern Cape, this article explores and theorises a connection between intimacy, materiality and gender-based violence (GBV) in the region. It takes up a current anthropological and Southern Africanist analytical interest in intimacy, exploring how violence can, within the region’s social, political, cultural and economic context of the contemporary rural Eastern Cape, be perceived and experienced by rural women as not incompatible with and, in cases, even an element of intimacy between partners. Through analysis of women’s narratives, it also builds on literature on provider love and the materiality of intimacy to explain why and how GBV in the context of intimate relationships appears advantageous, even desirable, to at least some women because of the material and interpersonal benefits that accrue when violent intimate partners feel remorse in the aftermath of violence. The article contributes towards a nuanced understanding of what is at stake for rural women in violent relationships, and of why GBV is so pervasive in the region. Such insights are important for violence-prevention.