P Jordan to launch Women in South African History book, 7 Dec

30 November 2006

Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Z Pallo Jordan, will launch a book that he
commissioned earlier this year as part of the commemoration of the 50th
Anniversary of the Women’s Anti-Pass March. The launch is being done during the
period of 16 of Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.
The struggle against the abuse of women and children has been a long one and it
behoves every one of us to observe our thoughts and deeds when we relate and
work with each other. Act against abuse.

“Women in South African History” is an original, challenging and engaging
volume which traces the roles, contribution and location of South African women
in different phases of our historical development. It starts from pre-colonial
period, looking at the role of chiefly women in political decision making and
governance, surfacing experiences of women as slaves in slavocratic South
Africa, Sara Baartman and moves to the troubled times of Nongqawuse and her
people and to women and gender in the South African War.

From these early periods, the book covers the entire twentieth century,
looking at generations of women in political struggles against apartheid. It
examines roles of women in the trade union movement and also covers issues of
women’s transition from rural to urban South Africa in the twentieth century
and the courageous anti-pass resistance campaigns. It looks at issues such as
women’s experience of working in political underground. It is hoped that
further academic essays will be written on this complex area. Covering the more
recent periods of the 1980s, the book revisits those earlier struggles and
examines the ways in which women assumed leadership roles in civic and
community organisations.

The current period is looked at through the eyes of women migrants and the
challenges of xenophobia and sexism that many African women migrants are
confronted with in their daily existence in places like the city of
Johannesburg. Today’s young women in the townships have a lot to celebrate;
they are the inheritors of freedom. However, the book shows the challenges of
HIV and AIDS, poverty and the impact of these on the choices and agency of
young African women in particular.

Coming at the end of the 50th anniversary of the women’s march to Pretoria,
the book is timely in its attempt to situate these struggles within a
historical context of an ever-evolving women’s quest for freedom and
emancipation. Using the phrase Basus’imbokodo, bawel’imilambo, they remove
boulders and cross rivers, the volume brings into clearer focus the
relationship between ongoing struggle, one that is not yet fully won and the
substantial movement that continues to take place. In this bold, courageous and
provocative volume we are challenged to engage fully not only with women’s
roles and location in history but also to ask questions about the very process
of writing history.

The Department of Arts and Culture and the Human Sciences Research Council
(HSRC) hope that this volume will stimulate public and deepen our understanding
of South African women’s role in history.

Media is invited to this launch

Date: 7 December 2006
Venue: Auditorium at HSRC, Pretorius Street (between Paul Kruger & Bosman
Streets), Pretoria
Time: 17h00 for 17h30

RSVP:
Arlene Grossberg
Tel: (012) 302 2811
E-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za

Enquiries:
Premi Appalraju
Cell: 082 903 6778
Andile Xaba
Cell: 082 377 6627

Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
30 November 2006