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Forward to Freedom: Women and Apartheid in South Africa

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Forward to Freedom: Women and Apartheid in South Africa Forward to Freedom: Women and Apartheid in South Africa JULY, 1985-_._--,....-...- The ugly face of apartheid is once again on the front page ofU.S. newspap­ ers. It has been put there by the biggest crackdown by the South Africa regime since Soweto, and the subsequent wave ofprotests and arrests at embassies and on campuses across this country. At the same time, Reagan has continued to push his colaborationist policy of"con­ structive engagement." Reagan's ease with the racist South African regime comes as no surprise. Many of apar­ theid's features bear an uncanny resem­ blance to the history ofwomen of color in the U.S.-ofnative people kicked off their land, of slavery, and the abuse of migrant labor. Itis critical, now more than ever, that progressive women in the U.S. seize every opportunity to voice our opposi­ tion to apartheid. Itis up to us to educate ourselves and others about apartheid's deadly consequences for South African women, and stop the U.S. from banking on apartheid. APARTHEID: PERFECTING THE ART OF OPPRESSION Apartheid embodies the most vicious combination of race, class and sex op­ pression in the world. While South Afri­ can women suffer as members of the subordinate sex, their oppression is pri­ land was designated the property ofthe illld called "migrants" in their own marily determined by the "peculiar "white nation." The remaining 13%, t.bI country. institution" of apartheid. most barren land, was declared the As their lands were being taken over Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that "homelands"·· of the Africans, even by white settlers, African men were means "separate development." In real­ though they make up 72% ofthe popula­ press-ganged into an exploitative system ity, it stands for the subordination of tion. of migratory contract labor, frrst in the Blacks to whites. The racist system of In addition, Africans may not pur­ gold and diamond mines, then in other apartheid guarantees the most intense chase land in white areas nor remain industries. The laborofAfrican men and class exploitation for the Black majority. there without a permit. Indians and women is also the source of wealth for South Africa was built into the richest, Coloreds (people ofmixed ancestry) can *"Forward to freedom, security, equal rights most industrialized country on the Afri­ only live in segregated sections within and peace for all" is the slogan ofthe banned can continent by dragging the slave sys­ the white areas. Today, the 4.5 million Federation of South African Women. tem into the 20th Century. Forexample, whites can vote and have citizenship **The terms homelands, reserves and ban­ under the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, rights, while the 21 million Africans tustans are all apartheid terms and used 87% ofthe most fertile and mineral rich cannot vote, are treated as foreigners, interchangeably. "unproductive laborunits" bythe govern­ ment because their work in raising children and in subsistence does not produce profit. According to G.F. van L. Froneman, former Deputy Minister of Justice, Mines and Planning: "This African laborforce must not be burdened with superfluous appendages such as wives, children and dependants who could notprovide service . .. There are single African women who could be usefully employed in the White areas, and while there are white families who could not do without domestic help, the momentaBantu woman starts afamily, then she belongs in her homeland. " This slavemasters' vision ofthe role of African women has been systematically implemented by the apartheid regime on a nationwide basis since the late 1950s. At that time the pass law system was extended to women, resulting in the forced removal of millions from the white areas to the bantustans. The pass laws are pivotal to apar­ theid's control of the Black workforce. white Afrikaans-owned agribusiness. "SUPERFLUOUS All Africans over the age of 16 are On the backs ofAfrican workers, South APPENDAGES" required to be fmgerprinted and carry a Africa has become the largest food In the majority of societies, women pass book at all times, with a record of producer and food exporter on the shoulder the bulk ofchildrearing respon­ their bantustan identification, employ­ continent. European colonialists con­ sibilities. But, in South Africa, not only ment, permits to enter white ~as, tax structed the economies of the other is women's work in childrearing de­ and family status. Before the 19~s the countries in southern Africa, such as meaned, it is practically a crime to be a pass laws only applied to African men, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe and mother and have a family. Women are because African women's waged work Botswana, so that they would be depen- called "superfluous appendages" and was still peripheral atthattime. The pass laws were extended to African women in "I used to sit and think, and worry, about what would 1956 in order to force all women and children not employed as domestic ser­ happen to my children underapartheid ifI shoulddie­ vants to get out ofthe white areas. This that gave me the strength to fight. "-Annie Silinga. move provoked the most massive and dent on South African agriculture and industry. South Africa has distinguished itself by being the only advanced capitalist country in the world that pays the major­ ity of its workforce, Africans, less than starvation wages to survive. Thus, in 1981, while Africans made up 71 % of the workforce, they only took home 29.4% of the total wages. The high poverty rates among Black families (up to 62% of African families in Johannes­ burg) are the flip side of South Africa's ability to insure the highest rate ofprofit on the continent to corporate investors. The architects of apartheid did not rest content with shortchanging Black workers by not paying them enough to ~ support their families. Apartheid went ... further to physically separate African Since 1960, millions ofBlacks, mostly women and children, have beenforcibly removed families and banish women and children. from white areas to the bantustans. 2 • AAWO • July 1985 sustained resistance of South African WOMEN IN THE TOWNS women who have weaved their way women in the history of the apartheid through these hurdles can even apply for regime (see box on history of women's Apartheid has developed a maze of a permit to seek work from the district resistance). "Catch 22" type laws aimed at pre­ labor officer. Over a thousand people Since 1960, the South African gov­ venting African women from settling in per day are arrested for pass book ernment has removed 3.5 million Blacks the towns to form stable families. Sec­ violations. from white areas to areas designated for tion 10 of the Bantu Urban Areas Act Even those women lucky enough to Blacks. Atleast 1 million more Africans forbids Africans from staying in a white find work and stay in the towns still live have been forcibly relocated within the area for more than 72 hours without a on the edge of survival. Mrican women bantustans and a further 1.7 million are permit unless they can prove that they earn an average ofless than halfofwhat under threat ofremoval. As a result, by have lived there continuously since African men are paid, and only 8% of 1983 fewer than 10 million Africans, or birth; have worked there continuously white males' average earnings. Accord­ 46% of the Mrican population, still for one employer for at least 10 years or ing to Hilda Bernstein, in her excellent lived in the white areas while more than 11 million, or 54%, lived in the bantu­ stans. The majority of those moved out have been women, children and old people. Black children are the most "super­ fluous" to the regime. The government does not even keep mortality statistics for Africans. But, according to the Ned­ bank research group in South Africa, in 1980 the infant mortality rate per 1000 live births was 13 for whites, 24 for Indians, 62 for Coloreds and 90 for Mricans. In some rural areas, mortality rates for Africans are much higher with estimates of220 to 320per 1,000. Relief workers say that 2.9 million Black children under the age of 15 suffer from malnutrition. Some 35,000 to 50,000 children die each year from illnesses All Africans over the age of16 must carry their passbook at all times. related to diet deficiencies. The net result of these policies has been to close offalmost every avenue of lived there lawfully and continuously for book, "For their triumphs and for their economic survival open to African 15 years; are a wife, unmarried son or tears-Women in Apartheid South women, destroy the family and, literally, daughter under the age of18 ofsomeone Africa," cripple the lives of African children. In in the above categories; or have been "0fthe totalpopulation in the 'white' the words of Nomazizi Sokudela of the granted special permission to be in the urban areas, a much higherproportion ANC's Women's Section: "One ofthe area. (37%) are in paid employment (partly most burning issues for the women's Most women cannot meet the quali­ ofcourse as a result ofthe removal of struggle in South Africa has continued fications demanded by Section 10. For non-productiveAfricansfrom the urban to be the destruction of the African example, they may have left the area to areas). However, the majority ofthese family life through the vicious migrant visit relatives in other areas, gone to their (65%) are again servants, followed by labor system laws and the forced parents' house during childbirth, or smaller proportions of manufacturing removal and deportation ofmillions of taken their children outside ofthe areato (8%) and professional (7%) workers.
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