Women's Resistance to Apartheid

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph. Apartheid was an oppressively destructive system that influenced many lives, not only in South Africa, but also in many nearby provinces and countries. This influence occurred because apartheid was so morally wrong. It forced many men, women and children to be slaves in their own country. These people could not live their own lives. They were made to obey the laws of the white people with a nightmarish force that terrified all and killed thousands. Even those blacks that lived under apartheid lived in conditions that were more horrible than anything anyone could ever possibly imagine. They were forced into overcrowded cities whose pollution and poverty caused the death of many, made to work for wages that could barely keep one individual alive , let alone an entire family, and given no opportunity to better themselves through a decent education. These horrific conditions ultimately resulted in a struggle of resistance against the system by many individuals of South Africa. Surprisingly, this resistance was greatly influenced and aided by a very large group of women fighters . Even more surprising is the fact that this group of women consisted not only of black women but also white women. This article is available in The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol2/iss1/7 Women's Resistance to Apartheid By: Melinda Laber Apartheid was an oppressively destructive system that influenced many lives, not only in South Africa, but also in many nearby provinces and countries. This influence occurred because apartheid was so morally wrong. It forced many men, women and children to be slaves in their own country. These people could not live their own lives. They were made to obey the laws of the white people with a nightmarish force that terrified all and killed thousands. Even those blacks that lived under apartheid lived in conditions that were more horrible than anything anyone could ever possibly imagine. They were forced into overcrowded cities whose pollution and poverty caused the death of many, made to work for wages that could barely keep one individual alive, let alone an entire family, and given no opportunity to better themselves through a decent education. These horrific conditions ultimately resulted in a struggle of resistance against the system by many individuals of South Africa. Surprisingly, this resistance was greatly influenced and aided by a very large group of women fighters . Even more surprising is the fact that this group of women consisted not only of black women but also white women. Yet even though these white and black women were fighting against the same system, their resistance to apartheid differed in many ways. The foundation of this difference was their skin color, but the structure of this difference consisted of a variety of different things, including their way of living and their education. This difference, among many other things, also resulted in a list of very different individual examples of prominent leaders, whether they be for the group as a whole or for specific towns and societies. The lives of black women under apartheid differed a great deal from the lives of white women under apartheid. Ultimately, as a result of this difference, the black women's resistance to apartheid differed a great deal from the white women's resistance to apartheid. Before the 1920's and l 930's, black family life mainly took place on the farms. In the early l 900's the men on these farms often had two wives. These wives performed many essential tasks. They were a vital part of society because they were responsible for looking after the entire homestead, including taking care of the livestock, ploughing the fields and looking after the children. Even early on, many things changed in South Africa when apartheid came into effect. Through the short story, Nokulunga 's Wedding by Gcina Mhlope, one sees that during early times "woman had to marry whoever had enough money for lobola" (38). As a result of this policy, women were seen only as necessary objects in the pursuit of a caretaker for the home and family. When this pursuit was made the men could sing, "the bride is ours, the bride is ours, mother will never go to sleep without food, without food ... " (Mhlope 43). For the females, this horrible situation eventually led to a feeling of utter hopelessness and despair, a feeling that many more would experience for decades to come. As time went on, and apartheid became a stronger and stronger force, these homesteads and this type of life began to change drastically. Under this new system, men needed jobs to earn hard cash to pay for newly imposed heavy taxes. With these jobs, the men were forced to move to overcrowded cities and look for work or go to dirty, wet mines and suffer a constant fear of being killed. These moves to the city brought with them a gradual breakdown of the family. The men who worked in the mines were often gone for nine straight months, leaving no male role model for their children and no companion for their wives. Things were not very different for the families of those men that went to the cities. These men often became hard and unnatural because they were separated from their wives. One sees the influence 28 1 Laber: Women's Resistance to Apartheid Published by Fisher Digital Publications, 1999