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Strike a woman; strike a rock

Women have quietly and with dignity fought for their freedom and for equal rights. On Women’s Day, their place in history is celebrated.

 

 

WHILE celebrating our freedom today, it is important to remember the past fights fought and the people who sacrificed their lives for a democratic rainbow nation.

 

Women's Day, observed each year on 9 August, is one such day, on which South Africans remember the brave souls who participated in the 1956 march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the apartheid pass laws being extended to black women.

 

These passes – the dompas – had to be carried by non-white people during the apartheid regime; other restrictions on women's movements were also proposed.

 

For many today, Women's Day may be just another holiday, but for those who participated in the demonstration in 1956, it is a day to be remembered with pride for the unity shown in the rejection of the government.

 

On that day, over 20 000 women of all races and ages, from all walks of life, together marched to Pretoria to deliver to the minister, JG Strijdom, a petition indicating their grievance at having their freedom restricted by the passes.

 

Organised by the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw), the march was led Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams and Lilian Ngoyi.

Memories

Amina Cachalia, a political activist who participated in the demonstration, speaks about the day with a broad smile and says for her it was, "a significant day and a day remembered every year and all year".

 

"It was a truly splendid day, weather wise not so great – it was a cold winter's morning," she says.

 

"We planned it [the protest] for quite a few months ahead. The executives of the Federation of South African Women took it upon themselves and organised this demonstration and march."

 

She recalls that the organisers faced many obstacles. As public gatherings were out of the question, it was decided that every women would get an individual petition as they arrived at the Union Buildings. These petitions were to indicate why the women were going to Pretoria.

 

Cachalia, who was heavily pregnant at the time, was advised by doctors not to march because of a heart condition. So instead she was taken by car to Pretoria early that morning. She recalls that she waited in the clock tower and then, suddenly, a burst of women came into view and walked to the amphitheatre, where they sat on the grass, silently wearing colourful blankets.

 

"It was a wonderful sight; it meant that the women were coming," she says.

Police

Uniformed policemen were dotted all over and after leaving the petitions at the door, on windowsills and in the passageway of the minister's empty office, Ngoyi said that the minister had run away, Cachalia says with a giggle.

 

Led by Ngoyi, the women then rose up and sang the anthem and Wathint'Abafazi Wathint'imbokodo, meaning "You strike a woman, you strike a rock".

 

The women stayed at the Union Buildings for about an hour or so and then were asked to disperse and slowly go back the same way they arrived, and with dignity they returned to where had come from.

 

"There were no police difficulty and there were no incidences of violence. Everything went off absolutely beautifully," Cachalia says.

Anti-pass campaign

The march was a culmination of several years of defiance and activism.

South African History Online explains: "In 1952, the Native Laws Amendment Act tightened influx control, making it an offence for any African (including women) to be in any urban area for more than 72 hours unless in possession of the necessary documentation. The only women who could live legally in the townships were the wives and unmarried daughters of the African men who were eligible for permanent residence."

 

In that same year, the Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents Act was passed. Under this Act, the many different documents black men had been required to carry were replaced by a single one – the reference book – that gave details of the holder's identity, employment, place of legal residence, payment of taxes and permission to be in the urban areas.

 

The Act further made it clear that black women for the first time would be required to carry reference books. This outraged women and posed a threat to their freedom of movement. It added fuel to their anti-pass campaign.

 

During one of the protests, Dora Tamana, a member of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) and later the founding member of Fedsaw, said: "We women will never carry these passes. This is something that touches my heart. I appeal you young Africans to come forward and fight. These passes make the road even narrower for us.

 

"We have seen unemployment, lack of accommodation and families broken because of passes. We have seen it with our men. Who will look after our children when we go to jail for a small technical offence – not having a pass?"

Defiance Campaign

In June 1952, a co-operative group known as the Defiance Campaign was employed to exert pressure on the government through radical tactics of defiance. Women were prominent in most of those incidents of defiance, noted South African History Online.

 

One of them was Fatima Meer, a former prisoner at the Women's Jail, an historic prison that now forms part of the Constitution Hill complex. Meer was arrested for her defiant behaviour along with Ngoyi, who later became president of the ANCWL and Fedsaw.

 

Two years later, Fedsaw was launched on 17 April 1954 in the Trades Hall on Rissik Street, in central Johannesburg. It was the first attempt at establishing a national, broad-based women's organisation. A group of 146 delegates, representing 230 000 women from all corners of the country, attended the inaugural conference to pledge their support.

 

Fedsaw aimed to bring South African women together to secure equal opportunities regardless of race and colour and to remove social, legal and economic disabilities.

 

According to South African History Online, a draft Women's Charter was presented by Hilda Bernstein and called for the enfranchisement of men and women of all races; for equality in employment opportunities; for equal pay for equal work; for rights in relation to property, marriage and children; and for the removal of all laws and customs that denied women such equality.

Freedom Charter

These demands were later incorporated into the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in Kliptown, Soweto on 25 and 26 June 1955.

 

In the run up to the Kliptown gathering, in August 1954, the Congress Alliance asked Fedsaw to help organise the Congress of the People and the women agreed. They successfully helped to organise local bodies and conferences, in 1955.

 

Their input gave women the opportunity to lobby for the incorporation of some of their demands into the Freedom Charter.

 

In September 1955, the issue of passes came to a head after the government announced that it would start issuing the reference books to black women from January 1956.

 

These empowered women rose to the challenge: passes threatened their basic rights of both freedom and family life. They held several protests, culminating in the mass march to Pretoria in August.

 

Already that year, the government had issued pass books to 1 429 black women. By September, 37 small centres had been visited and 23 000 pass books had been issued.
This resulted in another massive march to Pretoria. In commemoration of the bravery of these women, and in tribute to them, the country celebrates National Women's Day each year on 9 August.

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