Post-pandemic transformations in omakoti’s (young wives’) attitudes towards unpaid labour at ceremonies in the rural Eastern Cape: a new normal?

In the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa, ceremonies depend on the unpaid labour of young wives (omakoti). The expectation that omakoti will perform this work is connected to patriarchal and gerontocratic social norms. During the Covid-19 pandemic, ceremonies were banned temporarily. The impact that this had on omakoti’s unpaid labour was variable: those whose households adhered to lockdown policies enjoyed a respite from this work, while those whose households ignored the rules experienced more dangerous unpaid working conditions. In this article, we explore the impact of these pandemic-related changes, in omakoti’s working conditions at ceremonies, on their attitudes towards gendered unpaid labour expectations at rituals. We pay particular attention to how this impact was differentially experienced by uneducated rural wives (traditional omakoti) and so-called modern omakoti who struggle to balance paid work with unpaid domestic labour. We also explore the tactics that these subcategories of omakoti deployed to navigate the challenges of upholding gendered labour expectations. In so doing, we contribute to broader anthropological conversations about changing meanings and community-level negotiations about rural women’s unpaid labour under conditions of gerontocracy and patriarchy, about the impact of the pandemic on social life, and about the unintended impacts of South Africa’s Covid-19 policies.