National Women's Day - August 9

Attended a public conversation with Dr. Phyllis Ntantala this evening. What drew me to this particular lecture was (nope not the usual endeavor to put off doing what I have to do until the last possible minute) the way in which it was advertised, using a paragraph from her autobiography:

“It was one evening at the Lincoln Center in New York. Pavarotti’s voice filled the auditorium with ‘Mama’, one of those arias he sings so well, and the audience, in appreciation, gave him a thunderous ovation. As he came back for yet another bow, my mind suddenly flashed back, and that other world to which I once belonged came into sharp focus – the bends of the Nqabarha River, the meadows, the animals, the simple country folk, the school kids pouring out of the school-gate at the end of the day. I saw them all, as I had seen them so many times in that far off time and place. I sat down, cupped my head in my hands and bowed my head, softly saying to myself: ‘How strange! Little do all these people know that while I am part of them at this particular moment, I am part of another world of which they know so little. I come from Gqubeni along the bends of the Nqabarha River. That’s where my roots are. That’s me!”
- Phyllis Ntantala, A Life’s Mosaic.

I figured that she must have something of value to say if she could shuttle between these two (and possibly more) worlds and retain a measure of sanity and perspective. That she is mother of the current Minister of Arts and Culture merely served to heighten my interest.

August 9 is my favorite public holiday, one of the entries under the “things I absolutely love about South Africa” column: Women’s day. For the past 4 women’s days I’ve celebrated in this country, I’ve generally received (from myself and from others) flowers, dinners, spa appointments… all because I happen to be female… so I’ve come to regard it as a day when men go out of their way to be gentle, and to wish every woman they encounter a ‘happy women’s day’. I had not, sadly, investigated the origins of this day, figuring that it was simply part of the SADC endeavor to have 30% female participation in parliament by 2005... especially 'cause I know Mozambique’s Women’s Day is 7th April, and Angola celebrates International Women’s Day (March 8) as a bonafide public holiday (while everyone else simply commemorates it).

August 9, 2006 will mark 50 years since the historic march of 20,000 women, on Pretoria to oppose the application of pass laws to women. The talk content should be posted here shortly. Dr. Ntantala gave the historic context background of the struggle, highlighting the earlier attempts to introduce passes for women which had been successfully thwarted. The 1956 protest was a symbolic win, with the pass laws implemented through bureaucracy and neatly in place by 1961. When they were repealed in 1987, it was a purely academic exercise because women had long left the homelands and moved in with their men/husbands in the single sex hostels of Soweto and other migrant communities, and in the family houses that had sprung up to satisfy demand. Take home message: Women were instrumental in the achievement of democracy, but still remain undervalued despite guarantees in the constitution.

What I took from this talk:

I met a woman I last saw in 1993, a year before she voted in Colombus, Ohio in her country’s first democratic elections.

It was awesome to watch a mother give a talk, and have her son (Minister Pallo Jordan) attend, and listen to her indirect and subtle criticism of the government he serves…

The talk ignited debate about public space and intellectual women, with someone asking why more women weren’t present in the public space (defined in this instance as TV, newspaper columns/commentaries, and radio)… inviting the rebuttal that a large number of female intellectuals in South Africa teach thousands of students a year… doesn’t that count as public space?

An audience member indicated she was “deeply disturbed” by the casual tossing about of the word “intellectual” without its meaning being clarified, and she was also uncomfortable with the dichotomization of ‘rural women’ and ‘intellectual women’… with someone else saying that the women’s agenda had been hijacked by the middle class agenda…

It was also good to note that Dr. Ntantala, unlike many ‘intellectuals’, was not shy in her praise for a woman I bow before, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, as a “brilliant woman with a keen mind, sharp tongue… and astute analysis of South Africa”. She also praised the independence of two other women, Epainette Mbeki and Ellen Kuzwayo who joined political parties in their own right, and not because they were following boyfriends/husbands.

It was interesting to hear the perspective of one who has been present every step of the way in the creation of today’s South Africa. I wonder what she and Ma’Mbeki think of their sons... These women are immersed in community projects… their sons are running the government that makes these community projects necessary… what kind of conversations do they have with the sons? What is their honest personal opinion of government and the way it’s run? And when they’re talking amongst themselves, do they mention “Thabo/Pallo was always a little bit …. and you can see evidence of this in his recent stand regarding …?”