The Social Evil in the Cape Colony 1868-1902: Prostitution and the Contagious Diseases Acts

On the whole, apart from some legislation to control disorderly conduct in public, the authorities at the Cape did little to interfere with the practice of prostitution. They probably accepted that it was inevitable in a seaport town and provided a form of controlled release for the antisocial energies of unruly sailors. Nor, for the first half of the nineteenth century, did they show a pronounced inclination to impose their own values on the city’s labouring poor. However, a marked change occurred from about 1868 when prostitution in the colony became institutionalised, while a slightly later movement attempted the more radical task of prohibiting the social evel entirely. This article is an attempt to examine some of the forces which brought about this change of attitude in the Colony and in Cape Town in particular. Notes, tab.