Africa NOW #110

Issued on 31st March, 2018 by Africa Japan Forum (AJF)«Contents»

pp.2-13
Special Topic: Women, Literature, and the Anti-apartheid Movement
The featured articles are based on keynote lectures and a Q&A session at a workshop titled “Women, literature, and theanti-apartheid movement.” which was held on 27 May 2017. Inspired by South African women’s struggle against apartheid,
women’s groups have come together as part of the anti-apartheid movement in Japan. Members of these groups have translated and published pamphlets and articles written by grassroots female writers from South Africa. In 1989, they invited
female activists from South Africa to Japan for Women’s Day events organized by the women’s groups. Sexism within the antiapartheid movement was highlighted through their activism. The speakers reflect on their own experiences of anti-apartheid
activism and discuss the possible roles that literature can play in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa.

“Introduction” by MAKINO Kumiko
p.2
p.3“Timeline: Women, Literature and the Anti-apartheid Movement” by MAKINO Kumiko
pp.4-6“Activities of Japan Anti-apartheid Women’s Committee 1985-1988” by SATAKE Junko
SATAKE was one of the founding members of the Japan Anti-apartheid Women’s Committee, which was set up in
Osaka in August 1985. She reflects on the events related to the establishment of the committee, including publication ofthe Japanese translation of a United Nations pamphlet titled “Women and Apartheid,” and her participation in an international conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in which she met South African female activists. She recalls gender issues she
experienced at the Anti-apartheid Asia Oceania Workshop organized by the Japan Anti-apartheid Committee ( JAAC) in1988. She also reflects on how she became interested in African literature when she was a university student and eventually became a scholar in the field.
pp.7-8

Nozomi“Running through the Campaign for South African Women’s Day in Japan” by KUBOTAKUBOTA reflects on several events she was involved in during 1989 as a member of JAAC Tokyo. In January, she attended ananti-apartheid conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, the theme of which was “internally displaced women and children.” In August,
she and other members of women’s groups in JAAC Tokyo involved in organizing Women’s Day events invited three South African
women to Japan. She also talks about sexism and frictions within liberation movements that she has faced while translating SouthAfrican literature.
pp.9-10 “The Leading Role of Women in the Anti-apartheid Movement” by TSUYAMA Naoko
TSUYAMA was a staff member at the Tokyo office of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1988 to 1992, after
which she became the representative of the South African office of the Japan International Volunteer Center ( JVC). Basedon her experience of meeting many grassroots female activists in South Africa, she argues that grassroots women played
leading roles in the anti-apartheid struggle, as well as in the democratization process.
pp.11-13 “Women’s Grassroots Struggle and Possibility of Literature”
This article is an excerpt from a Q&A session that followed the speeches of three speakers at the workshop. The main
discussion points were (1) the gap between the internationally acclaimed constitution and the reality of post-apartheid
South African society; (2) the connotation of “ordinary women,” an expression often used by anti-apartheid women’sgroups in Japan in the 1980s; and (3) gender-based and other violence within liberation movements. The possible rolethat literature can play in overcoming these bitter realities, including the problem of violence, and the nature of the relation between liberation movements and literature were also discussed.

“Support to a women’s cooperative in Central Madagascar - Field visit to a NGO Ambato FY”
by KAIDA Kiyomi

pp.14-16

Kaida specializing in “Gender and Development” visited Taindambo (Commune) in Central Madagascar. In this essay, shereports activities of a local women union and Ambato FY, a local NGO supporting them. The union does activities for protecting women’s rights, mutual ones for reducing financial burden for funeral services, and ones for opening a clinic there. Inaddition, she touches on SAKURAI Fumi, a Japanese female nurse, and presents her energetic involvement in those activities
ever since the foundation of Ambato .

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Book Review: “The First Gender & Development through real experience in thefield (originally, ‘Hajimeteno Jieenda to Kaihatsu - Genba no Jttsutaiken kara’ in Japanese)” byKATO(YAMAUCHI) Tamahi
pp.17-19

The review presents the contents of the book based on the interviews by three editors with specialists about eight areas
associated with “Gender & Development”. KATO(YAMAUCHI) picks up impressive events and problems in the field ofdevelopment from each interview, and points out what types of problems or issues development and gender have from thecontents of the discussion among six specialists including editors.

“Participated in a workshop for reading the materials of FAO” by KATO(YAMAUCHI) Tamahi
p.19
KATO participated in a workshop for reading reports of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In this essay, she reports what she learned regarding the current situation or problems of food and agriculture in Africa.
“On the spot in Africa; Cameroon - Letter from Yaoundé no.3” by DOTE Kanae
pp.20-22
This is the third in a serial essay written by DOTE who has worked as a staff member at a NGO called Institut Panafricain
pour le Développement (IPD) in Yaounde Cameroon since 2013. In this essay, she talks about how to take a share-ride taxi
and bike which she always use for a transportation, how drivers and passengers are doing, Cameroonians’ evaluation of Paul
Biya at 83 who has been President of Cameroon for 36 years since 1982 while the Presidential election is expected in 2018,
and the like.
“Cameroon in the news” by Editor of “Africa NOW”
p.23
It covers the summary of four pieces of news delivered by Amnesty International, The Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), or the like, highlighting the current situation where demonstrators against the compulsory introduction of French to schools and courts in the English-speaking area are arrested or detained, and how refugees
in Cameroon are.
pp.24-27

on Africa”“Protest against a Diet member Kozo Yamamoto’s ‘black thing’ remark looking down

Kozo Yamamoto, a LDP Lower House member, said at the seminar organized by Asahiko Mihara in the same camp on Nov.
27th in 2017, “What’s making you like so black things?”, referring to support activities in relation to Mihara’s exchanges withAfrican countries. These pages in the article carries an open letter sent to Yamamoto by young people and children participating in African Kids Club hosted by Africa Japan Forum), the statement by the members interested of Japan Association for
African Studies demanding that Yamamoto should reflect on his racist remark on Africa seriously, and a newspaper article
reporting the open letter by African Kids Club.
Back cover2

Postscript (‘Hitotsu no musubime to shite’ in Japanese) and record of activities

Africa NOW 110

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