Betty Molteno and the Creation of a South African Nineteenth-Century Lesbian Discourse

Abstract There are lacunae in South African scholarship regarding nineteenth-century lesbianism. To address this gap in part, this article examines the sexual identity of Elizabeth Maria (Betty) Molteno (1852–1927) and her two partners, Sarah Hall and Alice Greene. Molteno, the eldest child of the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (South Africa), J.C. Molteno, was a teacher, poet, vegetarian, anti-capitalist, and was involved in various political and humanitarian causes. This article specifically examines the lesbian discourse emerging from the letters and diaries written by Molteno and her partners, examining how, in the absence of a visible South African female homosexual discourse, they crafted their own language and understanding of their sexuality. I illustrate how Molteno, who was relatively voiceless regarding her sexual desire during her teenage years, gained voice and intoned agency in her writing while in a relationship with Sarah Hall, finally emerging as an authoritative partner in her thirty-year-long relationship with Alice Greene. Significant discursive practices emerged between Molteno and each of her partners. The nineteenth-century lesbian discourse they created mimicked in language and power dynamics the discourses configuring heterosexual relationships of the nineteenth century and borrowed from familial frameworks. Their relational experience of God while being with their partners became an important aspect of this discourse, while the mother/daughter trope employed by Molteno and Greene to define their early relationship illustrates their wish to locate their desire in familiar and familial female discursive frameworks.