Former minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini said the conference would give women space to forgive, and heal. Picture: ANA Archives
Cape Town - Female freedom fighters and activists shared their stories at a three-day conference hosted by various organisations including Ilitha Labantu, the African Women’s Independent Forum and UN Women with the aim to lift the voices and highlight the victories of women.
The first Annual Conference of Isisele Senyathi Hub on African Women’s History, under the theme “Mobilising African Women Memories through Collective and Collating Historical Knowledge” was held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus.
The conference was attended by representatives of civil society organisations, UN entities, government officials, historians, writers, poets and storytellers, grassroots women, scholars, academics, and researchers.
Former minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini said the conference would give women space to forgive, and heal.
“Remember we had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) but we never had the space to heal there.
So as we move, we move with all the baggage and we are a nation that has never been able to tell the real story of a South African to younger generations. Young people pick up stories here and there. We won’t be able to move forward without sitting down and understanding what we need (for) social cohesion.
“We all know that women played a very important role in the Struggle and we have revolutionaries that were fearless and fighters who were visionaries. Since inception, women were part of the Struggle,” said Dlamini.
Activist Nontuthuzelo Mali urged young women to engage themselves in politics and lead from the front on societal issues.
“I was at the forefront of disrupting classes when students were writing exams in November 1985 in Ashton while the country was on standstill fighting for freedom. There were men from Langeberg who were carrying sticks to beat up everyone who disrupted. I was later arrested.
The women of Cape Town marched to Parliament to demand my release and I was released. I was treated like a terrorist and it never crossed my mind that I would be treated as such because I knew terrorists as people who were dangerous who wanted to take our land,” said Mali.
Author of Liberating Women’s History: Theoretical and Grassroots Activism from Basotho Perspective, Mpho Lebesa, emphasised that women should play a vital role in society.
“Many women were never recognised in many things and it is only now we read books that we come to know them. Women had many children and they had to stay at home and basically they were immobile and resources were very limited.
They were the very first people who experienced poverty first hand because their role was to take care of their families.
Men had to take decisions on how many children they wanted and women were regarded as minors and were not even allowed to go to school. Women were not allowed to own land,” said Lebesa.
Cape Times