AUGUST 9: South African Women’s Day

AUGUST 9: South African Women’s Day

The history of South Africa is rich with examples of the determination of women to play their full part in the difficult struggle for liberation and freedom. On the basis of these struggles had arisen a very powerful women’s movement centred on the African National Congress Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women.

The famous campaigns in which our women played a great role … the White oppressor governments in South Africa never hesitated to employ maximum violence against women. In every massacre of Africans for which the white supremacists were guilty, women died. Many were the peaceful processions of women which were broken up by police batons.

The fighting in South Africa during the 1960s into the 1980s marked the end of the old phase in which our people were the invariable victims of government violence. We took up arms as a nation. The national revolutionary armed struggle became a people struggle which meant the total mobilisation of the entire oppressed people of South Africa and their democratic allies among the Whites.

That phase became a challenge to the great women’s movement in our country. Our women were called upon to join Umkhonto we Sizwe and to master the use of modern weaponry. They were ready to perform all the underground tasks of preparation for the armed struggle. Such a revolution was grim and bitter. We had lived long enough with the white oppressors to know that they were going to be ruthless in defence of their ill-gotten privileges. But there was no weakening or turning back.

The same courage of our women that was manifested in the big anti-pass campaigns of 1919, 1929 and 1956; in the peasant revolts of Zeerust, Sekhukhuniland, Pondoland and Natal; in the mighty demonstrations culminating in the memorable demonstration at the amphitheatre of the Union Buildings in 1956, were manifested in the guerrilla campaigns of the 1970s and the People’s War of the 1980s.

The women more than any other section of the oppressed peoples knew in full measure the meaning of national oppression and economic exploitation. The demands set out in the Freedom Charter bear poignant meaning for the women. The time had come for these demands to be fought for and won through a well-orchestrated revolutionary struggle.

It is on August 9 that we recall the exploits of our gallant women, not only in the past, under the conditions of fascist oppression, and today, as leaders of the new phase of national revolutionary struggle towards a national democratic society.

As the women of South Africa used to say: “Everything for the final battle! Forward to victory and freedom! Amandla! All Power to the People!”

Adapted from Blanche La Guma, “The Women of South Africa Say: Everything for the Final Battles!”, Sechaba, Vol. 2, No. 8, August 1968.

Castro Khwela
Good morning Sons and Daughters of the Working People!🙏🏾✊🏾👊🏾