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Young Women and South Africa's Liberation Struggles After 1976. Rachel E. Johnson

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Young Women and South Africa's Liberation Struggles After 1976. Rachel E. Johnson MAKING HISTORY, GENDERING YOUTH: Young Women and South Africa's Liberation Struggles after 1976. Rachel E. Johnson Thesissubmitted for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) Departmentof History, University of Sheffield April 2010 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................4 6 SUMMARY ............................................................................................. ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................7 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................9 Nationalism I. History and ...................................................................................12 II. Silence 15 ........................................................................................................... How to history CHAPTER ONE: write a of youth? ......................... 19 Youth 20 I. Theorising .............................................................................................. Youth in SouthAfrica II. The Historiographyof ..............................................26 Archive 48 III. A Living .......................................................................................... CHAPTER TWO: The meanings of June 16th and the in South African histories gendering of youth ...................................54 56 I. The Nature of Newspapers .................................................................................. 1977-1986 II. June 16than episode within the struggle ................... in the 1987-1996 84 III. June 16thas the symbol of youth wider struggle .............. CHAPTER THREE: Real Absence and Symbolic Presence? Young women in political organisations ...........................................106 I. 1970s: Black Consciousness, the YWCA and a womanhood of tested steel. 110 2 II. 1980s: COSAS, youth groups and `women's participation for victory'..... 118 III. 1990s: the re-launch of the ANCYL, Agenda, and `a voice for young 134 women' ................................................................................ .............................. CHAPTER FOUR: Criminality, victimhood and youth 145 politicisation ......................................................................................... I. `These are schoolchildren not the African National Congress': the Soweto Council trial 147 Student's Representative sedition .................................................... II. `Freedom is indivisible. Silence betokens consent': the daybooks of the Detainee Committee 160 Parents' Support ................................................................................. III. `What were the girls up to? ' the Truth and Reconciliation Commission youth hearings 178 . ................................................................................................................ CHAPTER FIVE: Women's auto/biographies of the struggle, 195 1985-2007 ............................................................................................. I. 1980s: Motherism, the International Audience and Feminist Publishers....... 200 Breaking Silences Stretching Boundaries 217 II. 1990s: and ................................ III. 2000s: Tales of reconciliation and a heritage economy of oral history...... 229 241 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................. 249 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................... Sources 249 1. Primary .......................................................................................... Sources 256 2. Secondary ...................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS have I would like first to acknowledgethe supportand guidanceI receivedfrom my for supervisors. To Ian Phimister my thanks your patience, encouragement and good half humour not just during the three and years spent researching this PhD but also, before that, for inspiring my interest in South Africa during my undergraduate days and in To Marion in showing belief in my ability to continue academia. Wallace my thanks for for your enthusiasm for this project and the time and expertise you generously shared with me. To both, thank you for the patience you showed with my improvisational English language. approach to the grammar of the I could not have completedthis thesiswithout the generousBritish Library and University of Sheffield Concordat Scholarship. I also received additional funding from the Excellence Exchange Scheme and the Petrie Watson Award without which I could in South Africa. not have completed vital fieldwork My thanks to Wayne Dooling, who supervised me during my MA year at SOAS has interest when this project was in its infancy and who continued to show in my have discuss progress. I am grateful to all those who made time to meet and my work Mucha Musemwa, Andrew der with me including, Miles Larmer, van Vlies, Belinda Bozzoli, Karen Harris, Lauren Segal, Sarah Longair, and the attendees at the Imperial Sheffield University. and International Discussion Group at To the pioneers of the Discussion Group, Aldwin Roes, Andy Cohen and Paul Ashmore, and the 2007 cohort Laura Evans, Rory Pilossof and Lars Huening a big thank you for all your support, ideas and friendship. In that regard, special thanks also to Gary Rivett, Anna Gust, Uditi Sen, Aditya Sarkar, Esme Cleall and Julia Tilscher. Thank you to all those who read chapters for me including many of those already mentioned but also Laura Mcleod, Emily Manktelow, Paul Broughton, Stuart Coggins, 4 Ama McKenley-Ballantyne. Thanks to Jack Garfinkel for technical support. I am especially grateful to all those who provided me with a home in Sheffield when I embarked on my nomadic lifestyle, including Laura, Rory and Gary but especially Alice Dowell and Ed Woolley. Also, thank you to all those who made me welcome and comfortable on my researchtrips to South Africa. To Laura Evans and Elizabeth Fortin thank you for your companionshipthere. I owe a huge and un-payable debt to those women activists who spoke to me about their past and especially to Rebecca Musi; I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. I could not have completed this thesis without the support of all my friends and family. Thanks especially to Mum and Dad. Finally, to Jonathan Saha, who has read every word as I've written it and travelled with me all the way, thank you for everything. 5 SUMMARY This thesis is a study of youth, nationalism, silence, gender and history-making. It explores the study of a distinct `youth politics' after 1976 within histories of South Africa's liberation struggles. In particular it examines a narrative that has suggested youth politics became a masculine pursuit from the mid-1980s onwards. Within the historiographic narratives of youth politics young women often appear as a silent absence. However, it is argued that a project that aimed solely to fill in this historiographic gap would misunderstand the nature of young women's absence from struggle history. This thesis argues instead for a more complex understanding of liberation politics and the production of history as arenas for reifying, contesting and creating gender ideologies. The shifting subjectivities of young women are examined through an exploration of the politics of voice and silence in five connected contexts: the historiography of the struggle; commemorations of June 16th 1976; the public discussions of self-identified youth activists; the legal entanglements between the State and activists (trials, detention and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission); and black women's autobiographical projects. It is argued that the absence of young women from struggle histories is not just a banal twist in the historical record but rather an active, contested and ongoing process. 6 ABBREVIATIONS ANC African National Congress ANCYL African National Congress Youth League AWB Afrikaaner Weestandsbeweging AYCO Alexandra Youth Congress AZANYU Azanian National Youth Unity AZAPO Azanian People's Organisation AZASO Azanian Students' Organisation BC Black Consciousness CASE Community Agency for Social Enquiry CCAWUSA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union CODESA Convention for a Democratic South Africa COSAS Congress of South African Students COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions BMW Bonteheuwel Military Wing DPSC Detainee Parents' Support Committee FEDTRAW Federation of Transvaal Women GAWU Garment and Allied Workers' Union HRV Human Rights Violation IDAF International Defence and Aid Fund LYL Lenasia Youth League MK Umkhonto we Sizwe MUCCOR Ministers United for Christian Co-responsibility NCRC National Children's Rights Committee NF National Forum NOW Natal Women's Organisation NUSAS National Union of South African Students NYDCC National Youth Developmnt Co-ordinating Committee PAC Pan African Congress PEWO Port Elizabeth Women's Organisation SAAWU South African Allied Workers' Union SANSCO South African National Student's Congress SASM South African Students' Movement SASO South African Students' Organisation SAYCO South African Youth Congress SDU Self Defence Unit SOYCO Soweto Youth Congress SRC Students' Representative Council SSL Soweto Student's League SSRC Soweto Student's Representative Council TRC Truth and Reconcilitation Commission UDF United Democratic Front UWC United Women's Congress UWO United Women's Organisation VASCO Vaal Students' Congress 7 WAR Women Repression against . YWCA Young Women's
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