Strike a woman, strike a rock--remembering the Women's March.Picture what it must have been like--over 20,000 women of all ages and races from all across South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. marching together towards the Union Buildings The Union Buildings form the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa. The imposing buildings sit on Meintjies Kop and overlook Pretoria. in Pretoria. Though each marcher must have thought about the risk of arrest, they bravely came together on 9 August 1956 as a formidable force to protest against the pass laws Pass laws in South Africa were designed to segregate the population and were one of the dominant features of the country's apartheid system. Introduced in South Africa in 1923, they were designed to regulate movement of black Africans into urban areas. that proposed further restrictions on the movements of women. "The situation on the day was very electrifying e·lec·tri·fy tr.v. e·lec·tri·fied, e·lec·tri·fy·ing, e·lec·tri·fies 1. To produce electric charge on or in (a conductor). 2. a. as everybody was looking forward to a serious confrontation," marcher Amina Cachalia recalls. "As a young person at the time, the march was a learning curve for a journey that finally came to the election of the new democratic government." The Federation of South African Women organised the March, whose leaders delivered petitions to Prime Minister JG Strijdom's office within the Union Buildings. Women throughout the country had put their names to these petitions indicating their anger and frustration at having their freedom of movement restricted by the hated official passes. "We were all enthusiastic to get there and see this Boer baas and tell him that we are not going to carry those things (passes)," Dorothy Masenya recalls her attitude and the collective attitude of the marchers on the day. "We wanted to see whether we were going to be arrested, or where would they find a prison for this entire mob mob Australian vernacular for a group of sheep which stay together for an extended period. Also a name for a group of kangaroos. . You see that was the big idea ... if they arrest one we all walk in and there is no turning back. ... Nobody was arrested on that day." The women concluded their demonstration by singing freedom songs ... including a new song which became not only the anthem anthem [ultimately from antiphon], short nonliturgical choral composition used in Protestant services, usually accompanied and having an English text. The term is used in a broader sense for "national anthems" and for the Latin motets still used occasionally in of the march, but the credo of South African women: If you strike a woman, you strike a rock, you strike a boulder, you will be crushed. 9 August is now celebrated as Women's Day Women's Day may refer to:
South African History Online is working to capture and preserve information about these women, in particular those that took part in the 1956 March. We are developing a huge online resource of biographies, chronologies, essays and photographs of the women's political struggle and women's issues from 1900 until the present day. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Joni Light and Javu Baloyi are researchers with South African History Online. To read about the project visit www.sahistory.org.za This story was provided by the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service and has been shortened short·en v. short·ened, short·en·ing, short·ens v.tr. 1. To make short or shorter. 2. . |
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