The Black Sash, Vol. 34, No. 2

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Page 1 of 53 Alternative title The Black SashThe Black Sash Author/Creator The Black Sash (Cape Town) Publisher The Black Sash (Cape Town) Date 1991-09 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language Afrikaans, English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1991 Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA) Relation The Black Sash (1956-1969); continued by Sash (1969-1994) Rights By kind permission of Black Sash. Format extent 51 page(s) (length/size)

Page 2 of 53 Volume 34 Number 2 September 1991WOMEN AND GENDERRACISM AND SEXISM: AN UNHOLY ALLIANCEIN QUEST OF OUR OWN VOICESPERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN IN:THE ECONOMY - THE NATAL CONFLICT - EASTERN EUROPE

Page 3 of 53 SASH Septemher 1991Volume 34 Number 2 September 1991SASHcontentsAbove: Marietta du Plooy dressed tore-enact the the TrekBelow: A Moutse resident in Ndebeledress4editorial5not at home: in questof our own voicesDorothy Driver on difficulties facingSouth African women9racism and sexism:an unholy allianceRhoda Kadalie makes theconnections12Towards an allianceof womenReports on a movement towardsunity by Carol Smith and ShaunaWestcott2815 women in the natalwhither women's conflictrights in the black Women support the war efforts,sash? finds Fidela FoucheAsking the question closer to home.Tessa Graaff collects the answers16what's missing fromequal-opportunityprogrammes?Linda Human looks behind the labels18what do the numberssay?A guide to women in the economyby Debbie Budlender and CarlaSutherland20human-rightsorganisations inperiods of transitionMarina Ottaway builds a case fromAfrican experience21liberating praxis andthe black sashExtracts from Denise Ackermann'sstudy on the Black Sash29women's power,men's authorityFidela Fouche examinesgender-relation theories in SouthAfrican contexts

Page 4 of 53 International Network:29letters from easterneuropeBronwyn Brady writes home31Olga Havel: citizen,womanAn interview33prague women on mymindReflections on leaving37demanding a placeunder the kgotla treeTradition's trap and challenge39the hidden burdenThe effects of detention on thewomen left behind41reviews44letters45news-stripHusband and wife, threatened withremoval, on a fame south of JohannesburgPhotographer and Black Sash memberGill de Vlieg wearing a label wordedSexism & Racism have the same rootLNSASH magazineSASH magazine is the official journal ofthe Black Sash. It is published threetimes a year under a system of rotatingeditors. While editorials and editorialpolicy adhere broadly to the policies ofthe Btack Sash, the views and opinionsexpressed in other material do not nec-essarily reflect the opinions of theBlack Sash.All political comment in this issue,except where otherwise stated, is bySarah-Anne Raynham, Birga Thomasand Shauna Westcott, 5 Long Street,7700 Mowbray.The contents of this magazine areprotected by copyright. Application forpermission to reproduce may be ob-tained from the Black Sash, 5 LongStreet, 7700 Mowbray; telephone(021) 685 3513, facsimile (021) 6857510. In the USA permission should besought from the Fund for Free Expres-sion, 485 Fifth Avenue, NewYork/NY,0017-6104.Published by the Black Sash, 5 LongStreet, 7700 MowbrayPrinted by Clyson Printers (Pty) LtdDesktop publishing by birga thomasSA ISSN 0030-4843Subscriptions5 Long Street, 7700 Mowbray, SouthAfrica. Local Subscriptions per year(postage included):South Africa: R15,00External subscriptions per year (air-mail postage):Botswana, Malawi, Zambia andZimbabwe. R30,00UK and Europe: R37,00United States and Canada: R45,00Australia andNewZealand: R50,WNB: If making payment from outsideSouth Africa please add R10,00 tocover bank charges (cheque payable to`The Black Sash').Black Sash OfficesHeadquarters: 5 Long Street,7700 Mowbray, South AfricaTelephone: (021) 685-3513Fax: (021)685-7510

Page 5 of 53 EDITORIAL COMMITTEECoordinating editorSarah-Anne RaynhamEditors for this issueSarah-Anne Raynhambirga thomasShauna WestcottProofreading, layout and designSally AndersonTessa GraaffSarah-Anne RaynhamEsther Sherbirga thomasReviews editorNancy GordonArchive and distributionAnn MoldanLou ShawRegional representatives:AlbanyGlenda MorganBorderMarietjie MyburgCape EasternCathy HicksJohannesburgPat TuckerNatal CoastalAnn ColvinNatal MidlandsJenny ClarencePretoriaIsie PretoriusSouthern CapeGaby Coetzee-AndrewCartoons in this' ssueGus FergusonPenny van SitterteditorialIt is four years since SASH devoted an issue to a focus on women (August 1987).In that time the political environment has been shaken both locally and interna-tionally. There have been shifts in political attitudes that only the reckless wouldhave predicted. Yet our focus on women and gender in this issue is picking up moreor less where we left off four years ago. We find ourselves still in the position ofhaving to make a case for a feminist approach. Essentially this approach rests onan acknowledgement that social attitudes, economic practices and existing legisla-tion combine to place profound limitations on the options open to women. The samecomplex combination of attitude and practice imposes different but significantlimitations on men.At a time when our society stands poised to be reshaped in constitutionalnegotiations, the feminist enterprise - aimed not at promoting sectional advantagesfor women but rather at transforming social relations - gains a particular urgency.While the ground has shifted under us it has also been turned for a new season'swork. The agreement reached at the 1990 national conference, that the Black Sashwould address the question `How will this affect women?' in all the areas of itswork, has made it possible for members to develop a changing consciousness ininstitutional and personal contexts.We believe that this shift, towards increasing sensitivity to the political im-plications of skewed gender relations, should continue. We believe that it isnecessary to acknowledge that organisational work for equitable gender relationsis an essential part of the broad human-rights thrust embedded in Black Sashactivities. Far from diluting its traditional commitments, such work will deepen andstrengthen them.Our social position as white women places us in a position of tension and strangeopportunity. We are part of the problem, by `belonging' to the oppressor group inour society, and yet we also suffer oppression. This situates us uniquely to exert acreative influence - if we are able to reach a constructive understanding about theneed and means to transform gender relations.Authors in this issue go some way towards making this possible. We encourageyou to explore what might be unfamiliar but illuminating territory in preparationfor the tasks that lie ahead.

Page 6 of 53 In n a statement regarding the position ofwomen in a future South Africa, which willcome to bear on the relation between `woman'and `family', Albie relation has said that `thebasic right underlying all other rights is the rightof women to speak in their own voices, the rightto determine their own priorities and strategiesand the right to make their concerns felt'. Thissounds like an aim whose realisation would en-tail liberation, but in fact a profound difficultystarts here, which proceeds from the anxietythat one's `own' voice is not necessarily readilyavailable to a woman pushed and patted intoshape not only by varieties of patriarchal decreebut also by a set of rigidly enforced politicaland ideological polarisations.How, to spell out the problem, does oneknow when women are speaking in their `own'voices rather than speaking from assigned sub-ject-positions?In the contemporary reading of democracy,the ability to make a mark on a ballot paper istaken as a sign that one is speaking in one'sown voice. And so of course it must be, forthere is no politically decent alternative. Yet itis still the case, as trade unionist ConnieSeptember says, that `in elections you often see=her men for the positions. Indiscussions, women listen to the men ratherthan participate in debates.'Political articulation has been male-domi-nated because of an intricate combination ofmany women's double role as working womenand mothers/wives, and their conventional re-luctance to question this difficulty, coupled, ofcourse, with sharp resistance from men topolitical participation by women. Even in pre-dominantly female trade unions such as theSouth African Textile and Clothing Workers'Union (Sactwu), women shop-stewards some-times have to fight at home with their husbandsfor the right to assume a political role (theSactwu legal department has had to deal with anumber of divorces arising out of these differ-ences).Some women trade unionists talk abouthaving to take up their conventional domesticduties as if they had no other role in the world.In a recent interview, Boitumelo Mofokengnotes that politically vocal women are redefinedby domesticity: `Outside, we stand up onplatforms, but at home, some of us go back totypical African tradition, we are submissive,passive, non-existent. I cannot relate to myhusband or my brother the way I do to othermen out there.'not at homin quest ofour own voicesThis is an edited extract from a paper by DorothyDriver titled `The ANC Constitutional Guidelinesin Process: A feminist reading', forthcoming in aRavan Press publication entitled`Putting Women on the Agenda'.The major theme explored here is the difficultyfacing women attempting to find their own voicesamong the compulsions of patriarchal structures.Another is the tension between the Westernfeminist view of the family as a site of struggleand the South African feminist view of the familyas a site of resistance against apartheid.Dorothy Driver0E3

Page 7 of 53 ... oneachievesvoice ...at the pointwhen onerecognisesthe ways inwhich onehas beensubordinatedby a politicalsystemBoitumeloMofokeng, below,notes thatpolitically vocalwomen areredifined bydomesticity:`Outside we standup on platforms,but at home,some of us goback to typicalAfricantradition ...'However, it is not easy to speak openly aboutsuch things. First of all, as a spokesperson forthe Federation of Transvaal Women said, `inSouth Africa there is a sensitivity in the area ofasserting our rights for the emancipation ofwomen because it forces us to challenge age-oldcustoms which many women themselvesrespect'. Secondly, as Boitumelo Mofokeng hassaid: `I can best describe the struggle of blackwomen against their husbands as an internalone: against male domination, male exploita-tion. But to stand up on a platform - it would belike hanging your dirty linen in public.'Thirdly, along with transgressing conven-tional codes of behaviour, open discussion ofdomestic strife is also felt to signal one'sparticipation in the process of humiliation en-gendered within racism: men have a hardenough time without women adding their partic-ular attack. Thus, black women who speak outagainst male domination are readily labelled`white'.This is expressed in the following way by awoman cited in Criticism and Ideology: SecondAfrican Writers' Conference, edited by KirstenHolt Peterson: `In South Africa the question ofWestern feminism encroaching into the mindsof the African women is a very, very sensitivequestion, particularly for the African man.Anytime you ask him to do something, to goand fetch the child today, or something like thathe says: "Look, you are already a feminist. Youare a white woman and a feminist." It is thrownin your face in the same way in which commu-nist is thrown into the face of the blacks inSouth Africa.' Apartheid's oppositional catego-ries - black versus white - are taken up asweapons by those eager to fuel anxieties thatfeminism causes, rather than results from, divi-sion.Under such conditions, then, by what processmay such women come tospeak in their own voices?Feminist critics have ar-gued that one achievesvoice - or attains subjectiv-ity as an individual - at thepoint where one recognisesthe ways in which one hasbeen subordinated by a po-litical system, and thusmade to fit a political cate-gory at odds with one'sown experience of and as-pirations in the world. Inthe South African context,the individual subject is or-ganised by means of cate-gories of race, class, genderand age, each of which actsas a potential means of sub-ordination or marginalisa-tion. It is important torecognise that these are not experienced sepa-rately from one another; as different axes, theyintersect in their constitutive capacities.For instance, just to speak of gender andrace, a black woman's experience of racism isoften different from a black man's, to the extentthat the experience of sexism intertwines with,and adjusts, the experience of racism. Similarly,a black woman's experience of sexism is differ-ent from a white woman's. This means thatone's subjectivity, in so far as it is an articula-tion of one's social construction, is differentdepending upon one's particular race, class andgender position. Black men do not inhabit thesame subject position as black women; nor, bythe same token, do white women. Hence theimportance of including issues of race and classin any feminist struggle.When Emma Mashinini offers an obliquejustification for identifying herself with a blackSouth African working class rather than womenin general, she is in fact clearing a space for theexpression of problems unique to black work-ing-class women. In Strikes have followed meall my Life, she writes: `White mothers in thiscountry do not have to suffer anxiety over whatwe call breadline problems. Breadline problemsare questions of who will care for the childrenwhen their mother goes to work.'Black women - mothers, in this case -experience a peculiar combination of racial andgender oppression: they go to work rather thanstay at home because the fathers of theirchildren are poorly paid; they cannot afford topay home-help; they do not have easy access tocreches; they cannot expect their husbands toshare child-rearing duties.Yet Christine Qunta, writing in Women inSouthern Africa, negates the intersections ofrace, class and gender when she says, `I take theview that we are Africans before we arewomen.' For her, and others who make thischoice, race and gender exist as separate cate-gories by which the subject is constructed,parallel rather than intersecting. That the axis ofrace often or generally takes experiential prior-ity over the axis of gender should not bedisputed, but what should be addressed is theway the experience of racism is used to occlude,rathen than complicate, the experience of sex-ism.In the case of black women, as Qunta'scomment reveals, political necessity seems tooffer a choice: between being `black' and`feminist', between being aware of one's socialposition as `black' on the one hand and`woman' on the other. Any call for a nationalstruggle that excludes gender subordination, aswell as the greater emphasis in the ANC'sconstitutional guidelines on reparations to dowith race rather than gender, helps produce theself-denying choice being identified here. It alsohelps propagate the erroneous and politically

Page 8 of 53 problematic notion that feminism is exotic toAfrica.Nevertheless, it must be said that the asser-tion of subjectivity on the part of a black SouthAfrican woman will often require her assertionof difference from the selfhood that has beenconstructed for her by a white, middle-classfeminism. If one or other form of patriarchy(black or white, urban or rural) functions as thedominating order against which a black SouthAfrican woman wishes to define herself, so toocan Western feminism be seen as part of adominating order or symbolic system againstwhich self-assertion needs to be voiced.In other words, it is not just with reference toracist and patriarchal structures that Trinh T.Minh-ha writes in Women, Native, Other: Writ-ing, posteoloniality and feminism: `You whounderstand the dehumanisation of forced re-moval-relocation-re-education-redefinition, thehumiliation of having to falsify your own realityyour voice - you know. And often cannot say it.You try and keep on trying to unsay it, for ifyou don't, they will not fail to fill in the blankson your behalf, and you will be said.'Still, it seems crucial, as the existence of thispaper suggests, that whatever contributions(white) feminist academics may be able to makeshould not be refused out of hand.Feminist theory is not monolithically`Western' but is continually being formulated indebate between `third world' and `first world',or `east' and `west', striving to break down thebinary thinking on which systems of oppressionand exploitation subsist. At the same time itrecognises the historical complicity of whiteSouth African women with imperial power, andwhat Gayatri SP ivak, in her book In OtherWorlds, calls the `epistemic violence' perpe-trated by Western/white feminism's systems of`information retrieval' and of classification, theterm `third world woman' being the primeexample.One possible contribution this theory-in-the-making can offer to the discussion of gender inSouth Africa is to encourage debate on theWest's `epistemic violence'. The aim would beto approach with greater sensitivity and honestythe question of the subjectivity of women inSouth Africa, looking at the intertwining cate-gories of race, class and gender (as well as age,marital status, and whatever others are felt to beimportant), a debate which should, finally,make it possible to speak of the black SouthAfrican family not only as a site of resistanceagainst the strategies of apartheid and capitalistexploitation, but also as a site of struggle forwomen against patriarchal domination.Discussion about the family conventionallydraws on two separate discourses: feministdiscourse (which addresses the family as a siteof struggle) and nationalist discourse (whichaddresses the family as a structure at risk underapartheid and its aftermath). This essay suggeststhat an overriding problem exists when blackSouth African women feel they have to choosebetween one or the other discourse in terms ofwhich to represent themselves: `we areAfricans' or `we are women'. In either case, onepart of oneself is silenced - in the first case,one's status as a black woman with a differentset of experiences from black men, and in thesecond, one's status as a black woman with adifferent set of experiences from white orWestern women.What is needed is a different discourse, interms of which a different subject position isconstructed, so that women may articulatethemselves as, non-contradictorily, blackwomen, while at the =e time recognising thateven this composite pt will need, some-time, to open itself to scrutiny.It is of course true that many women may notfeel themselves to be divided in the way beingsuggested: I am talking about the public articu-lation of self, and about the discourse whichmakes this articulation possible. If the discus-sion is to be about emancipation for women,and women's voices, it must be the argument ofthis paper that women's voices cannot emergeas their `own' without interrogating the variousstructures by which they have been defined.This is why the ANC position on the familyposes a problem for women. The family is asignifying system par excellence, for it defines`men' and `women' in specific ways. Womenbecome seen as wives, mothers or daughters,whereas men are readily seen simply as men.(The relative positions assigned to men andwomen are universal ones, while the precisecontent to these positions is historically andculturally specific.)The structure of the family depends onwomen being simultaneously subordinated andidealised as mothers, and on a forced separationbetween the social/public/economic and pri-vate/domestic spheres. Men `naturally' straddlethe two spheres, but women must dash franti-cally from one to the other, pretending, all thewhile, that they are really `domestic'.While the social construction of womenstarts with the family, women continue to beproduced in one or other signifying system(newspaper reports, films, novels, letters to`agony columns', political pamphlets and soon), in terms of their apparently fundamentallydomestic nature. The ANC constitutional guide-lines itself constitutes a signifying system; itsclause on the family threatens by its verypresence to restore the division between thedomestic and the social that women in fact arechallenging, and to reinsert `woman' in asignifying system which centres on the familyand its conventionally gendered positions. Ifwomen's voices are to emerge as their `own',through questioning the structures that define[The ANC's]clause on thefamilythreatens byits verypresence torestore thedivisionbetween thedomestic andthe soicalthat womenin fact arechallenging ...

Page 9 of 53 ... how farwere we fromindependence... at a recentANC rally ...when NelsonMandela,Alfred N.- o,Joe Slovo andother menwereintroduced tothe audienceas 'comrade',while RuthMompati wascalled'.other'?Ruth Mompati,below, hasdefined the roleof a freedomfighter inmotherly terms:`Not only is she asoldier, she isalso a mother ...'them, the elevation of the family in politicaldiscourse needs questioning too. The continuingpolitical enforcement of a link between womenand the family militates against that interroga-tive process.So, whatever adjustments need to be made inthe guidelines to the position of women need tobe made without protecting that primary contextwithin which `woman' has been socially de-fined. This does not mean that the family will orshould dissolve; simply that the rights of menand women should be legislated for withoutrecalling and dignifying the social institution bywhich the sociologically irrelevant fact of `sex'has been transformed, and distorted, into`gender'. The risk of entrenching or restoringpatriarchal structures is simply too high.People have argued, as for example has RuthMompati, that as women and men fight side byside in the struggle, men `begin to lose sight ofthe fact that we are women'. After indepen-dence, they will not be able to turn round andsay, `Now you are a woman.' But how far werewe from independence, one wonders, at a recentANC rally in Mitchell's Plain, when NelsonMandela, Alfred Nzo, Joe Slovo and other menwere introduced to the audience as `comrade',while Ruth Mompati was called `mother'?People have also argued that materialchanges to women's conditions will usher intheir emancipation. But material changes, al-though they are crucial to people's everydaysurvival and well-being, and ultimately topower relations between groups once separatedby race and class distinctions, do not adjust therelative positions of women and men, as long asdiscourse (not only political discourse and .;,galdiscourse, but also the discourse of everydaylife and the media) continues to define `man'and `woman' as socially significant distinctions(rather than neutral in the manner of, say,black-haired versus brown-haired people). Material changes do not shiftexisting social structuresand processes of significa-tion.Nevertheless, on thetopic of processes of sig-nification, it should benoted that black South Af-rican women's discoursehas defined the concept of`mother' in such a waythat it is forcefully distin-guished from the meaningconventionally held inBritish and American cul-ture.I am not talking about,say, Ruth Mompati's defi-nition of the role of amfreedom fighter in moth-erly terms: `Not only isshe a soldier, she is also a mother - she bringssoldiers into the world, she looks after thesesoldiers, she receives these soldiers, she isresponsible for their maintenance and theirwelfare.' This definition maintains a distinctionbetween soldier and mother, and keeps themother in the caretaking role that regulates heractivities and stance throughout social anddomestic life.I am talking instead about a tendency inrecent writing by black South African women,one of whose particularly significant contribu-tions has been to define the mother as an active,angry, political figure, in sharp contrast to thepatriarchal representations of the mother handeddown through a Western, Christian tradition. Inother words, recent black writing has helpedproduce a shift in contemporary discourse,whereas the European tradition of femininity -however widely it may diverge from actual,individual behaviour - still dominates conven-tional thinking for many white men and women.Tapping into this new thinking, over the lastfew years Shell has placed an advertisement(for petrol and service stations, presumably) inthe Weekly Mail and South which masqueradesas an advertisement for human rights -'Every-one must enjoy human rights' - and figures theideal of human rights by means of an image ofmother-and-child which contradicts the standardChristian iconography of the Madonna-and-child.While Shell's child sleeps peacefully,swathed against the mother's back, the motherlooks determinedly into the future, lookingaway from the child and thus signifying herselfas (cognitive and political) subject indepen-dently from the world of mother-and-child.Although this advertisement inhabits a worldwhich still places the burden of responsibilityon the mother, and although the conjuncture ofa human rights issue and capitalist advertising isa particularly unpalatable one, the representa-tion of the mother as a figure not bound to herchild in the meekness of self-sacrifice but as afigure both there and elsewhere, in both thedomestic and the social, the private and thepolitical, offers to South African feminism apotent figure for change, and a welcome relieffrom the representation of women handed downthrough a Western tradition.Yet, while this difference is recognised andcelebrated, it must in turn be opened to scrutinyfor the part it plays in positing the familial,however defined, as women's fundamental andoriginal sphere. 0Dorothy Driver- lectures in the Department ofEnglish at the University of Cape Town, and isa member of the Black Sash Cape Western re-gion.

Page 10 of 53 A few months before Namibia gained inde-pendence, a Swapo mass rally was held inRehoboth. As usual, the meeting started with arevolutionary exchange of slogans betweenchairperson and audience. This is how it went:Speaker: A vote for Swapo ...Audience: ... is a vote for democracy!Speaker: A vote for Swapo ...Audience: ... is a vote for freedom!Speaker: A vote for Swapo ...Audience: ... is a vote for equal rights!Speaker: A vote for Swapo ...Audience: ... is a vote for women's rights!A macho voice rose above the audience,shouting: `Not a fuck! Now you're going toofar!'This is the issue I wish to address here. Whydon't people in general and in the liberationmovement in particular give a `fuck' aboutwomen's rights?The struggle for a non-racial democracy inSouth Africa has focused primarily on theabolition of apartheid. It s only recently that`non-sexist' has been coniidered an importantadjunct to this slogan. This does not mean thatthere has been a concomitant change in attitudeand consciousness with regard to women'srights. Many feel that gender discrimination issecondary, and that racial discrimination ismore abhorrent, and hence in more urgent needof abolition.Unless we see these two systems as equallyevil and interlocking, the abolition of apartheidwill merely mean that a white patriarchalgovernment will be replaced by a black patriar-chal one. And this is certainly not the vision I,as an ANC Women's League member, have fora new South Africa.I think it is important to draw parallelsbetween racism and sexism to show how bothsystems have contributed to the dehumanisationof men and women in society; and to show whywe need to work together to transform oursociety into a truly non-racial non-sexist demo-cratic South Africa.The similarities between racial and sexualdiscrimination emerge when one looks afresh atcertain basic questions which clarify the natureof this unholy alliance:1 What is discrimination based on race/sex?2 What is the opposition to these forms ofoppression called?3 How has this opposition been controlled?4 What are the forms these controls take?Human-rights lawyer John Dugard definesracial discrimination as `any distinction, exclu-sion, restriction or preference based on race,colour, descent or ethnic origin which has thepurpose or effect of nullifying or impairing therecognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equalfooting, of human rights and fundamental free-doms in the political, economic, social, culturalor any other field of public life'.racism and sexism:an unholy allianceBlack Sash members need little persuasion aboutthe dehumanising aspects of racial discrimination.However, the equally destructive aspects of sexistsystems are less easily recognised. Rhoda Kadaliemakes the connections between racism and sexismand argues that the struggle for women'sliberation must not be diluted by rationalisationsof its `secondary' importance.Apartheid has been resisted most vehementlysince 1948 precisely because it has had theeffect of damaging, `nullifying' and `impairing'the humanity of the majority of the people inSouth Africa. Moreover, on a structural level,black people have been denied basic humanrights through racial discrimination on threeinterrelated levels, as Dugard points out:`a) ... unequal allocation of basic rights in thepolitical, economic, social or cultural field onthe grounds of a person's race, colour, descentor ethnic origin.`b) Less favourable treatment of a person onthe ground of [his] race in respect of theprovision of services, facilities and employ-ment.`c) Segregation or separation which engen-ders a feeling of inferiority or humiliationamong members of a racial group subjected tosuch separation.'When we substitute sex for race in Dugard'sdefinition we get a system equally detrimentalto society, namely, sexism - defined by PaulaRothenberg in Racism and Sexism: An inte-grated study as `any attitude, action or in-stitutionalised structure which subordinates aperson or group because of their sex'. Throughsexism women have been the recipients ofunequal resources in the political, social, andeconomic fields; they have been treated lessfavourably in the provision of services, facilitiesand employment; they have been made to feelinferior and not fully human, while men areidentified as the norm.Betty Reardon, quoted by Rothenberg, de-fines sexism as a `belief system based on theassumption that the physical differences be-tween males and females are so significant thatthey should determine virtually all social andeconomic roles of men and women. It holds thatnot just their reproductive functions are deter-mined by sex, but that sex is the factor that rulesRhoda Kadalie

Page 11 of 53 1 0 SASH September 1991... all menbenefit fromoppressingwomen, in thesame waythat allwhites benefitfrom theoppression ofblacks.their entire lives, all their functions in societyand the economy, and their relation to the stateand all public institutions and especially to eachother. Sexism is manifest in all forms ofbehaviour, from subtle gestures and language toexploitation and oppression, and in all humaninstitutions from the family to the multinationalcorporation.'Why is it that when sexism, a system whichdiscriminates against half of the world's popula-tion, is fought with equal militancy as wasapartheid, women are branded as sexually frus-trated, divisive, unhappy, spinsters and the like?1Why is it that the struggle against apartheid isseen as a more worthy and justified cause thanis the struggle for women's liberation? Why isthe `F-word' resisted even by women who havemore to gain by it than without it? The reason isthat feminism, unlike national liberation, isconcerned not only with the removal of allforms of inequality, domination and oppressionthrough the creation of a more just social andeconomic order, but alsowith the achievement ofwomen's equality, dignityand freedom of choicethrough women's power tocontrol their own bodies andlives inside and outside thehome.This latter aspect has al-ways been treated as sec-ondary because theoppressor is identified as ex-isting within and among us.The activist as oppressor istoo close for comfort. Femi-nism has been dismissed notonly by men in the strugglebut also by many activistwomen who have for a longtime blamed apartheid for robbing their men oftheir dignity and masculinity. Hence, the aboli-tion of apartheid has meant for a long time therestoration of male pride, dignity and masculin-ity to black men.This partly explains the tendency within thedemocratic movement to see the liberation ofwomen as being secondary to, and contingentupon, national liberation. In addition, blackwomen have tended to say that it is easier forwhite women to fight against sexism becausethey do not have to fight for a roof over theirheads, or for a living wage, or for the right tolive with their husbands, or to save theirchildren from starvation, and so on.However, black women in democratic or-ganisations have recently come to realise thatthey have much to lose in ignoring the contribu-tions feminists have made. They are beginningto accept that only by engaging creatively withissues feminists are raising will they becomeempowered to deal with the different forms ofiL{omrad S~ecrefary a oK , and S dodi even.mind. Comrad tpama , bu} Im no+ yo;n9 fopu} up with ~C~omrada ~cshwashr ! ~~male domination they are experiencing in thehome, the workplace, the church and in politicalorganisations.Women have also begun to realise that manypost-independent countries have not grantedwomen the equality they have fought for formany years alongside men in the liberationstruggle. Now that a post-apartheid South Af-rica is a not-too-distant reality, women inpolitical organisations have increasingly had toconfront men publicly about their chauvinism,their lack of respect, and often about their totaldisregard for women.I am reminded of a recent experience I hadwhile doing a workshop with a group of blackstudents at Khanya College on `Racism andSexism'. There was complete unanimity amongthem on the issue of racism in South Africa.When parallels were drawn with sexism, how-ever, the hostility between the men and womentook seconds to emerge.Some of the responses from the men soundedlike echoes from Nazi Ger-many. Without batting aneyelid some male studentswere giving biologically re-ductionist reasons for the jus-tification of sexism.Comments such as:women have smallerbrains than men;their maternal instinctsare biologically based,hence it is their duty tolook after children;god ordained women tobe inferior;women want to be beatenas a show of love fromtheir men;were unashamedly flungabout in the classroom.Of course, when women tried to point outthat a lot of racist behaviour was premised onsimilar biological assumptions, such as:blacks have smaller brains;it is in their genes to be servants;blacks belong in the homelands;god ordained blacks to be inferior;blacks love to be oppressed;all hell broke loose, to say the least.Similar reactions were forthcoming fromsome first-year white male students at theUniversity of Cape Town who insisted thatif apartheid goes, the analogy between rac-ism and sexism will hold no water - forget-ting that racism predated and will post-dateapartheid!Women are biologically weaker and henceare incapable of top executive jobs.Women want to be oppressed and ask for it.Why is the struggle against sexism moredifficult than the struggle against racism? Be-

Page 12 of 53 cause all men benefit from oppressing women,in the same way that all whites benefit from theoppression of blacks. To quote Albie Sachs -patriarchy is the only truly non-racial institutionin South Africa, and it is not in the interests ofmen to share their power for this would under-mine the authority they have enjoyed for centu-ries.Equality with women means that men giveup their own centrality and power base. Butmen will not easily relinquish these because, asKate Millet points out, `it is men who occupythe institutions of power, the military, theindustry, technology, political office, universi-ties, etc. So that it is very difficult for them tocomprehend the world of the ruled, the under-dog, the oppressed.'Equality with women means that men giveup their privileges in the same way whites willbe required to give up some of their privileges.The system of male domination has a verydefinite material basis which is derived fromwomen having to be respon-sible for the housework, thebearing and rearing of chil-dren and for servicing theneeds of men. In addition,men benefit from havingwomen relegated to inferiorpositions in the labour mar-ket.Although men themselvesare divided hierarchically ac-cording to class, race or eth-nic group, they unite in theirshared relationship of domi-nance over women. What ismore, they depend on eachother to maintain this domi-nation, and it is in the institution of marriage that men best exercise control.This control is essentially of three kinds:1 Men control women's labour power in vari-ous ways. Men are usually given first pref-erence for certain types of jobs; women'swork is usually paid at lower rates than formen; women are often also regarded as theshock absorbers of the economy in thatwhen labour is needed in an economic cri-sis, women are as easily recruited as theyare made redundant during times of reces-sion.2 Men control the sexuality of women. Inmarriage this control becomes more ex-plicit in that women are required not onlyto service the needs of men, but also to beresponsible for child-bearing, child-rearingand housework.3 Men control women through violence. Thiscontrol is manifested in many ways: sexualabuse, domestic violence, battery, rape andoften murder.This power to control women is embedded inIv dust c{rscwarad Iva g tand tread, I'va 6oansocial structures such as the state, religion,culture and education. That is why feminism issuch a formidable task, because it compelswomen to deal with the various and specificways in which they are controlled and kept insubordination by men.Feminists believe that the following mea-sures are necessary to end the subordination ofwomen:1 the abolition of the sexual division of lab-our;2 the sharing of the burden of domestic lab-our and child-care by parents, the familyand society;3 the removal of all kinds of institutionalisedforms of discrimination;4 the attainment of political equality;5 the establishment of freedom of choiceover child-bearing;6 the adoption of adequate measures againstmale violence and control over women.In all of these areas women are subordinateddifferently in different socie-ties, across the race, class,ethnic and cultural divides;the responses of men arealso different across thesedivides. Be that as it may,male domination is a univer-sal phenomenon and there-fore needs to be opposed onall levels.But why is it difficult tooppose male domination?Because, unlike other re-lationships between the op-pressor and the oppressed,the relationship betweenmen and women is oftenbased on the concept oflove, which complicates the politics of therelationship and makes it difficult to object tomale domination. This notion of romantic loveis embedded in the politics of domination, andsubordination is made more tolerable if exer-cised under the guise of love.The exploitation of women is often precededby `romantic' statements like `if you love me,you will iron my clothes, cook my food, havemy children, lay down your life, be my slave',et cetera. These are the foundations upon whichexploitative male-female relationships arebased.`Love,' says Shulamith Firestone, `is the rawfuel of the male cultural machine. Blinded bylove, women give up their resources for theirmen.'Yes, love does cover a multitude of sins! Umind of mc, o-a1rw_ out o~ i{ .,Rhoda Kadalie lectures in anthropology at theUniversity of the Western Cape.... unlikeotherrelationshipsbetween theoppressorand theoppressed,therelationshipbetween menand women isoften basedon theconcept oflove, whichcomplicatesthe politics oftherelationship ...

Page 13 of 53 12 SASH S~temher 1991Dare I hope, dare I dream in sister-hood?' was the question askedby African National Congress (ANC)activist Gertrude Fester in a poem dur-ing the first session of the `Building aWomen's Alliance Conference' heldat the University of the Western Cape(UWC) early in July.The poem was one of a number of,cultural items' interposed betweenbrief introductions from spokesper-sons of the 22 organisations whichsent delegates to the conference. The`items' were as diverse as the or-ganisations represented - rangingfrom the Azanian People's Organisa-tion (Azapo) and the South AfricanCommunist Party (SACP) to the Busi-ness and Professional Women's Asso-ciation and the Volks Kerk of Africa-and as warmly received.Warmth was a keynote of the con-ference, despite or perhaps because ofthe weather outside, both literal andmetaphorical. It was freezing cold andraining solidly except - and this wasinterpreted by some as a happy omen- when delegates had to processthrough the elements to other build-ings for lunch or meetings in smallgroups.On the metaphorical front, a low-pressure area had moved in fromDurban, in the wake of the ANC'srejection of the Women's League de-mand that women should have a 30 percent representation on the NationalExecutive Committee.Expectations had been high, inview of support at branch and regionallevel, that the ANC would give sub-stance to its declarations on paper infavour of non-sexism. The let-downwas enormous and Women's Leaguedelegates to the alliance conference.were angry.`Maybe our strongest allies will bethe Women's Alliance. Maybe to-gether we can be strong,' their spokes-person said, while another thought thefunniest thing she had heard for a longtime was `one man, one bullet', a playon the Pan Africanist Congress slogan.In an hilarious sketch about theLeft to right: delegates from NAMDA,Die Volkskerk and AZAPO. A strikingdiversity of women agreed on the needto focus on women's rights andwomen's issues, and not to duplicatethe work of other politicalorganisations.towards an allianceof womenIn pockets across South Africa there is work-in-progresstowards creating the basis of a future national structureuniting women's organisations. A regional conference inthe Western Cape was one site of such activity. TwoBlack Sash representatives record their impressionshere. Carol Smith, member of the organising committee,took the pictures, and Shauna Westcott, a delegate tothe conference, captures the flavour of the event in text.

Page 14 of 53 early years of the ANC, one memberof the Cape Town central branch of themovement noted that the Women'sCharter was drawn up before the Free-dom Charter. `That's probably wherethey got all their ideas,' the other re-marked - which nearly brought thehouse down.Some felt, however, that the ANCdecision might have served a purposein helping to unite women in an under-standing of what we are up against.Napoleon declaring that `women arenothing but machines for producingchildren'; Johnson opining that `na-ture has given women so much powerthat the law has wisely given themvery little'; Mandela lamenting on hisrelease from prison that `it is not a nicefeeling for a man to see his familystruggling, without security, withoutthe dignity of the head of the familyaround'; and the ANC conference de-cision on women all declare the an-cient and continuing aim of thepatriarchy: the maintenance of maledominance.But feminist theory was not the pur-pose of the Women's Alliance confer-ence. If warmth was a keynote, so wastolerance; the quest was for a basis foruniting women. So if the congress-af-filiated delegates deployed`amandlas' and `vivas' with restraintand humour, so the Women's Bureaudelegate said mildly. `I'm afraid wehave a rather conservative imagewhich we are trying to break,' and thedelegate for the Methodist Women'sAuxiliary spoke of their aims in termsof `consolidating the power of loverather than the love of power'.The main work of the conferencetook place in seven commissions onSaturday afternoon: labour and theeconomy, health and welfare, govern-ment and political power, families andchildren, education, violence againstwomen, and legal and constitutionalissues. The aim was not to make policybut to arrive at recommendationswhich delegates could take back totheir organisations for discussion.Among the more striking recom-mendations was one from the commis-Top: discussion in a commissionsession.Middle: two pictures showing audienceresponses during plenary sessions.Bottom, left to right: delegates fromthe Black Sash, the Domestic Workers'Union and the SACP.

Page 15 of 53 sion on violence against women that`the Scriptures which show women inan inferior light should be rewritten bywomen'; and one from the commis-sion on legal and constitutional issuesthat there should be an annual awardfor the government department thatdoes the most to promote non-sexism.Recommendations from the com-mission on families and children in-cluded that `housework should beshared by men and women - if not, itshould be valued and paid for'; thatsingle women, lesbians and gay menshould be allowed to adopt children;and that women should have the rightto choose contraception and abortion.The commission on labour and theeconomy called for pre-school facili-ties in all communities and workpla-ces; recommended `a state programmeto encourage involvement of both par-ents in child care', and suggested `re-duced hours of work to create jobs forthose without work'.The commission on health and wel-fare recommended that the currentpractice of removing children fromhomes where they are the victims ofabuse should be substituted by the re-moval of the perpetrators of abuse.They also recommended that `all cul-tural and religious practices that areoppressive to women should be re-searched and changed'.These were a few of the more radi-cal proposals emanating from thecommissions. The overall import ofthe recommendations was summed upat the end of the conference in a pressstatement to which all delegatesagreed (and which most reporters mis-quoted) :`The conference agreed that it isvital to build a Women's Alliance towork for the emancipation of women,and to unite organisations around thisgoal. The alliance will work for legaland constitutional changes to protectwomen against discrimination and ex-ploitation. It will work to educate andempower women to take their rightfulplace in society. It will campaign tochange sexist attitudes among menand women.'The statement reflects a consensusamong delegates that the allianceshould focus on issues that unitewomen. A rider was added during theconference in terms of a recommenda-tion that contentious issues should beaired and discussed in regular allianceforums. Another important area ofagreement was the recommendationthat the alliance should lobby for gov-ernment adoption of the United Na-tions Charter on Eliminating all Formsof Discrimination against Women,and that the alliance should campaignfor a Women's Charter and for an endto violence against women.Hard times lie ahead for the alli-ance, not least the difficulty of extend-ing a regional initiative into a nationalstructure. One suggestion was that thisprocess should be facilitated by or-ganisations with national structures,like Black Sash and the Women'sLeague. This could be a constructivepath, if the Western Cape experienceof work in the Fedsaw alliance is typ-ical.Launched in 1987, Fedsaw in-volved representatives from a numberof organisations notably the UnitedWomen's Congress (UWCO), theBlack Sash and Rape Crisis in jointcampaigns, festivals, marches, andother initiatives aimed at puttingwomen's issues on the politicalagenda. This long, low-key processculminated in the decision to dissolveFedsaw in the interests of building abroader alliance. However, it was thehard work and experience of thewomen involved in Fedsaw that re-sulted in the Alliance conference andit is their spirit that will be crucial tosuccess in the process of building analliance.But we also have a secret `culturalweapon', forged in centuries of havingto make do and having to make lightof things that are bitter.A hint of its nature gleams from thefollowing exchange which took placewhile a long line of delegates trailedacross the campus in quest of unlockedrooms to meet in: `What a pandemo-nium for stalwarts to stand in the cold!'-What an underminement!' was thereply.Dare we dream of sisterhood? Darewe not? And is it a matter either ofdaring or dreaming?Shauna Westcott is a freelancejournalist and a member of theBlack Sash Cape Western region.

Page 16 of 53 AN INVITATION TO DISCUSSIONwhither women's rightsin the black sash?Tessa Graaff expected to hear widely divergent opinions when shequestioned some members about the Black Sash's role regardingwomen's rights. There was a glimmer of contentiousness in theseresponses but the full-scale debate still lies ahead.Clearly, there is.. consensuswithin the Black Sash on devel-oping a focus on women's rights. Themagazine committee felt that it wouldbe interesting to canvass a range ofopinions on women's issues in thehope that it might generate debatewithin the organisation. We ap-proached a number of Cape Westernmembers to set the ball rolling andasked them a single question: `Whatshould the role of the Black Sash be onwomen's rights, in the wider contextof human rights?' The following re-sponses were received.An important aspect of Black Sashwork is its diversity. One of theareas of concern is women's rights,both as a concern standing on its ownright and as part of the general BlackSash commitment to human rights. Itis significant that a number of BlackSash members are concentrating theirenergies on working for women'srights. Black Sash advice offices havealready committed themselves tolooking at the concerns of women, par-ticularly, in all aspects of their work.Whether we conscientise ourselves,and the wider public, throughwomen's rights, human rights, racialoppression or other issues, what mat-ters is our increasing awareness, theimportance of process and the need forpraxis We must act to bring aboutconditions in South Africa that wewould like to see.'Black Sash aims include "the con-stitutional recognition and protec-tion by law of human rights andliberties for all". "All" means thatwomen and men shall enjoy equalhuman rights, as laid down in theUnited Nations and other declarationsthat are now recognised in interna-tional law.If the Black Sash adheres to itsaims, it is bound to championwomen's rights. It would be inexplica-ble, except as a reflection of middle-class complacency, if the oldest, bestinformed and educated group ofwomen in the field of human rights didnot do so.The Black Sash should networkwith women's-rights groups nation-ally and internationally. We shouldaim to empower oppressed women inall sectors to discover their own voice.In so doing, our methods and styleshould reflect women's special capac-ity for warmth, nurturing and concernfor others. Our attitudes should helpmen to appreciate that the Black Sashis not anti-male, but anti-domination,and that in respecting women's rightsand sharing their burdens, men canonly advance alongside women to-wards full humanness.'L The Black Sash was formed to fightfor the rights of all South Africans- particularly freedom of movement,speech, ownership of land and prop-erty, freedom to choose the educationof the parents' choice, etc. I feet thatin taking up women's rights specific-ally the Black Sash is in danger ofbecoming a feminist organisationworking for its own rights, instead ofthose of everyone including specific-ally black women's rights.Knowing that women are the equal,if not the superior of men I feel that itis quite unnecessary to concentrate onwomen's rights - rather encourage allSouth Africans to realise, and fight fortheir human rights. The Black Sash hastaught us women what our rights are,as people, not as women, and now wemust educate everyone, male and fe-male, black and white how to be a fullperson realising their full potential.Feminism is a very selfish, introspec-tive, self-centred cult-there should beno place for it in the Black Sash.'I believe that it is essential for theBlack Sash to look at human rightsin terms of gender. We have a long andproud history of fighting racism inSouth Africa - but in the transforma-tion to a more just society it is import-ant to address sexism as we11. As is thecase with racism, so also where dis-crimination and oppression is based ongender, the dignity and humanity ofboth the oppressor and the oppressedare impaired. Feminism as I under-stand it is a philosophy of liberationthat aims at a society in which bothmen and women are free from all op-pression.Worldwide, the experience hasbeen that in order to address system-atic and structural discriminationagainst women, a general commitmentto human rights may not be enough.That is why, some thirty years after theUnited Nations Declaration of HumanRights, the world body accepted a billof rights for women: the Conventionon the Elimination of Discriminationagainst Women.'The Black Sash should approach allits work in a gender-sensitive way.Women's rights, their position in soci-ety, and similar aspects ought to beemphasised in the framework of ourhuman-rights concerns.'I do not think that enough haschanged in the country for us to beable to afford to stop being a politicalpressure group. I am not happy withthe emphasis on women's issues be-cause I think it can too easily distractour energies from the main battlefront.Basically, although I agree with whatthe women's group stands for, that isnot what I joined the Black Sash to"do "_,

Page 17 of 53 what's missing fromequal-opportunity programmes?The route beyondtokenism in employmentpractices is not withoutpitfalls. Linda Humandescribes models ofadvancement for thosesuffering the effects ofdiscrimination andoppression. She proposesthat advancement in theworkplace requirescorrespondingtransformations in theworld of management.Linda HumanThe terms `black and femaleadvancement', `affirmativeaction' and `managing diversity' arelabels employed, somewhat euphe-mistically, to describe the process bymeans of which blacks and women(primarily white women) are providedwith the opportunity to participatefully in the organisations and societiesin which they work and live. Behindthese terms, however, lie a number ofissues which cause many people agreat deal of discomfort. Such terms orlabels are designed to cloud these is-sues.For example, when we talk `blackor female advancement' to what extentdoes this, when taken to its logicalconclusion, imply `black or femalecontrol'? And what is meant by`black' and `female'? In practice, ithas meant `black men' and `whitewomen', hence offering `blackwomen' little advantage or opportu-nity.Does affirmative action lead to to-kenism and a lowering of standards?Do people really believe that, in man-aging diversity, no culture is inher-entlysuperior to another? These aresensitive but important questionswhich do not go away when we changethe label attached to attempts to ad-vance other than white males. Whatwe have to do is to sift through theselabels and issues, so that we under-stand what it is that we are doing,before we commit ourselves to makingour programmes work.It would appear that in the past, inboth the United States and South Af-rica, the development of black peopleand women was conceptualised sim-ply in terms of putting knowledge andskills into the so-called disadvantagedand then expecting them to function ina white male world which remainedfundamentally unchanged. In some in-stances this view persists today. Theimplicit assumptions of this `black andfemale advancement' model were thatblacks and women currently do nothave the wherewithal to succeed in thepublic sector spheres such as businessand government other than in low sta-tus, menial or service roles.Therefore, to change this, differentstrategies were proposed to allowblacks and women entrance to man-agement and decision-making struc-tures within the public sector. The planwas to develop education and trainingprogrammes aimed at blacks andwomen and then to place them intoexisting organisational structures. If,despite training, they still failed to per-form satisfactorily, the assumptionwas that they were lazy, stupid or in-nately unable to deal with the demandsof the public sector. I would disagreewholeheartedly with this position.White male managementOur experience in South Africa tells usthat to conceptualise developmentsimply in terms of education and train-ing of blacks and women is simplisticin the extreme. This is not to say thatsuch programmes are not important.They are. Equally important, however,are the expectations, prejudices andpeople-management skills of whitemale managers. The attitudes of whitemale management toward the devel-opment of blacks and women impactssignificantly, and generally nega-tively, on their performance in theworkplace.A better way to conceptualise theprocess of development is to use thepsychological success model of devel-opment. This model hinges on match-ing what is required of an individualwith their skills and talents. It alsorequires an environment which pro-vides constructive ongoing supportand feedback to enhance self-confi-dence and job performance.In other words, the process of de-velopment is a process of setting real-istic goals and moderate risk-taking inline with individual strengths andweaknesses (not those assigned togroups of people). This process hasbeen retarded in South Africa. Racist

Page 18 of 53 and sexist attitudes have impacted onboth the expectations people have ofthemselves and the expectations ofthem held by white male management.Such negative expectations and ste-reotyping of people impede the pro-cess of development. They have aprofound bearing on levels of self-confidence and on the opportunitiesafforded to certain groups.What managers believeDevelopment is a process involv-ing a complex interaction between theindividual's perceived ability, his orher motivation and the way s/he ismanaged. If the person is managedbadly, either because the manager ispoorly skilled, or is not held account-able for the development of people, ormost importantly, if the manager be-lieves that blacks and women are in-trinsically less capable than whitemen, it is highly unlikely that the sub-ordinate will succeed.Unless this latter point is addressed,equal opportunity programmes will in-evitably fail. Telling white male man-agers that all races, sexes and culturesare equal, and that they should respectdiversity, is not enough. If we do notaddress their negative expectations,most fundamentally their belief thatblacks and women are less capable,and highlight for them the effect ofthese expectations, real change willnot be possible.In the United States, the new movein enabling participation is called`managing diversity'. This stresses theneed to regard all cultures as equal andto accept cultural diversity. In theSouth African context, such a conceptneeds to be regarded with caution.A reinforcement of cultural differ-ences would be problematic in SouthAfrica. While there are a number ofreasons for arguing this, the most im-portant is that apartheid has created orreinforced an `us' and `them' syn-drome, with black culture lookeddown upon as inappropriate to thebusiness world. We have also seen aproliferation of `black advancement'programmes based on the understand-ing that blacks as a group have certaindeficiencies which will need to beovercome before they function effec-tively in the business world.These activities have reinforced thestereotype concerning black un-derperformance and have also rein-forced the tendency to judge people onthe basis of group stereotypes insteadof on the basis of individual capabili-ties, strengths and weaknesses. Whileit is important to have an informedunderstanding of and respect for cul-tural diversity in South Africa, thisshould not preclude assessments of in-dividuals on the basis of their ownstrengths and weaknesses. To movetoo quickly to the less threatening pro-cess of `managing diversity', ratherthan first instituting affirmative actionor positive discrimination, wouldleave some fundamental issues un-addressed.In South Africa, we cannot glossover the existence of pervasive racismand sexism. These issues must be tack-led, however uncomfortable the pro-cess might be. They must be counteredat a broad political and social level.This will involve structural changes,such as abolishing discriminatory leg-islation. But racism and sexism mustalso be seen as the prejudiced actionsand attitudes of individuals.Factors affecting opportunitiesTo summarise: in South Africa, aselsewhere, factors such as educationand background affect the opportuni-ties of many black people and womento obtain meaningful work. Further,however, a second set of factors im-pact on their development if they arelucky enough to gain entry into thepublic sector in a meaningful manner.These factors include an inferior orless relevant education, stereotypicalnegative expectations and their mar-ginal position both in the broader soci-ety and in the workplace.Racism and sexism can lead to aninternalised negative expectancy onthe part of white male managerswhich, in turn, can lead to demotiva-tion, a reluctance to try hard, a with-drawal from competitive situations,and the feeling that `I haven't got whatit takes' on the part of black or womenemployees. This ultimately reinforcesthe notions of negative expectancy.The `internalisation of inferiority'is not a `black' or `female' phenome-non. Rather, it is a downward psycho-logical process propelled by negativeexpectations which erode the personalself-concept and self-confidence ofthe individual. This process can beaccelerated when persons are ap-pointed to inappropriate positions onthe basis of tokenism rather than merit.Transforming institutionsThe argument that abolishingapartheid legislation will not ensuresocial justice is neither new nor pro-found. This is only the starting point,albeit an essential one. It is only whenthe institutions and organisations thatmake up the public sector are trans-formed from the exclusive domain ofwhite men, to ones in which all peoplecan participate equally, that we willhave succeeded in this aim. Under-standing that this transformationmeans more than simply replacingwhite men with blacks and women, isan equally essential part of the devel-opmental process.Linda Human is professor at theCentre for African Managementin the Graduate School ofBusiness, University of CapeTown, and a member of the BlackSash, Cape Western region.

Page 19 of 53 what do the numbers say?Debbie Budlender and Carla Sutherland provide a guide toreading four statistical graphs which reveal aspects of women'seconomic status in South Africa.When one looks at the statistics, women lose out on virtually every indicator related to well-being.What is even more disturbing is that the discriminatory effects compound each other, ratherthan being merely additive. So the cumulative effects of race, class, gender and region put Africanwomen at the bottom of the pile in education, the economy, politics, the family and virtually everyother aspect of society.We have chosen a few graphs illustrating examples of measures affecting women's economic well-being, which is an area affecting their life-chances in many other spheres of their existence.Percentage babies born out of wedlock in SouthAfrica (1980) and in Cape Town (1988)Women have to support others as well as them-selves. In 1980 over half the `coloured' childrenborn in South Africa and more than four out often African children were born to single mothers.A more recent figure for Cape Town puts thenumber of African children born to single moth-ers at nearly seven out of ten. In the graph oppo-site, the pattern is shown as percentages ofchildren born out of wedlock.excluding TBVC areasIt is clear that the majority of South Africanwomen need to support themselves economically.Even those with male partners are usually unableto support themselves and their families on thelow income which these men earn. But manywomen cannot rely on income from partners. Thegraph opposite shows clearly that fewer than halfof adult African women and just over half of`coloured' women were married in 1985. The per-centage of female-headed households is almostcertainly higher than this as many married couplesare not living together.Marital status of adult women (1985)White Coloured Indian African Never Married Divorced WidowedMarriedLiving Together

Page 20 of 53 Gender composition at different levels ofeducationDespite their need, women's capacity to earn de-cent money is severely constrained. One factor af-fecting earnings is the level of education. Thediscrepancy between black and white educationallevels is well known. The differences between thegenders is less publicised. The graph reflectinggender composition shows that there is little differ-ence in the number of men and women who havematric level. However, at the tertiary level thereare slightly more women than men with diplomas -chiefly diplomas in the low-paying professions ofnursing and teaching - and many more men thanwomen with the first and post-graduate degreesproviding access to better-paying jobs.75%50%25%o% Men Womenexcluding TBVC areasWomen and men in different jobsWithin the economy women predominate in cer-tain sectors and industries such as clothing, textilesand services, where wages are generally lowerthan those in male-dominated spheres. Withineach sector and industry, women predominate inthe lower-paid and less pleasant jobs. The finalgraph shows the division of the male and femaleAfrican workforce in artisan, semi-skilled, un-skilled and menial posts. Over the last twentyyears both men and women have tended to moveout of the unskilled category of work. But whilemen have moved up into semi-skilled categories,women have moved down into menial jobs.loo80so4020owomen menartisan semi-skilled unskilled menialWe cannot generalise about women. Not allwomen are African. Not all women areworking class. Not.all women are rural. Not allwomen are single, with children, illiterate, and in alow-paying job. What the indicators do say, is thatfor almost all women there are very many frontson which they can demand more equal access tothe `goodies', both for themselves individually andfor women as a whole.This guide is extracted from a 50-page booklet Womenand the Economy by Debbie Budlender. It costs R4,00and is available from CASE offices, or by post by writingto:20 Alfred Street, 7925 ObservatoryorP.O. Box 32882, 2017 Braamfonwin

Page 21 of 53 Human-rightsorganisations inperiods of transitionMarina Ottaway reflects on the experiences of human-rights organisations in periods of transition in Africa,and identifies areas of concern for similar organisationsduring the South African transition.uman-rights organisations inSouth Africa have probably en-tered one of the most difficult periodsin their history. While freer to operatethan in the past, they face a very diffi-cult problem in redefining their role inview of the changing situation. Theexperience of other African countriespoints to some of the problems boundto arise in a period of transition.Human-rights organisations deal-ing with African countries respondedvery slowly to the changes broughtabout by independence. One interest-ing - and discouraging - example wasoffered by Algeria. The Algerian war,which lasted from 1954 to 1962, pro-duced widespread human-rights viola-tions, particularly in the form oftorture of political prisoners and sus-pects by the French army. This gaverise to considerable protest in Franceand other European countries; innu-merable meetings and demonstrationswere held, manifestos issued andbooks produced highlighting the hor-rors of torture in Algeria. Soon afterthe country became independent, thefirst rumours circulated about the useof torture by the new government -using not only the same methods, butthe same apparatus left behind by theFrench paratroopers. The groups thathad denounced torture before indepen-dence were slow to react.The main problem was not doublestandards, but disbelief - how couldthe tortured become the torturer soquickly? When too much evidencepiled up to be dismissed, the newnessof the country and the lack of experi-ence of officials were seen as extenu-ating circumstances. And in any case,how could liberal organisations turnagainst a movement that had con-ducted a just struggle for so manyyears? So the torture continued. Per-haps it could not have been stoppedeven by strong denunciations. But wewill never know, because early on no-body tried.It is tempting to write off the exam-ple of Algeria as the result of inexpe-rience. In 1962, liberals were allconvinced that the end of colonialismmeant the beginning of democracy.But after fifteen years of single-partyregimes and military coups d' etataround Africa nobody harbours suchan illusion.Nevertheless, when Mozambiquefinally became independent in 1975,human-rights groups were again reluc-tant to face up to the evidence that oncein power FRELIMO was becomingguilty of human-rights violations. Itwas easier to believe that political dis-sidents were being `re-educated' thanto accept that they were being held inconcentration camps. By denouncingrrelimo, furthermore, one would appearto side with the South African govern-ment. As a result, few attempts weremade to arrive at an accurate picture ofwhat was happening to human rightsin Mozambique until fairly recently.Several lessons can be derived fromthese examples. First, all organisationsneed a watchdog. There may be goodguys and bad guys, but even good guyswill not stay good for long if there areno checks on them. Ahmed Ben Bellawas not Emperor Bokassa. SamoraMachel was not Id' Amin. But human-rights violations occurred in abun-dance. What keeps democraticcountries respectful of human rightsand democratic process is not an ab-stract commitment to ideals, but theexistence of watchdog institutions.Even in countries with a long demo-cratic tradition the government needsconstant watching, as Nixon'sWatergate scandal proved in theUnited States.In the abstract, these lessons areobvious and easy to accept. In practicethey are not, and this is why we see thesame mistakes being repeated in coun-try after country: human-rights or-ganisations which were quick todenounce violations by the old regime,and even took considerable risks indoing so, cannot bring themselves todenounce the misdeeds of the new re-gime until quite late in the game. Thereare many reasons for this.It is very difficult, psychologically,to accept the evidence that the groupone supported earlier is guilty of trans-gressions, and even more difficult tosay so aloud. It is much easier to wait,to make excuses, especially when therumours are not confirmed, and theyare read as being the propaganda of theopposition or disinformation spreadby security agencies with their ownagenda.Psychologically, it is also very dif-ficult to run the risk of being perceivedas part of the reactionary opposition.Who wants to be in that camp, afterall? This is not purely a psychologicalproblem. Political organisations op-posed to a certain group will use allmeans at their disposal, and an honest,careful study of human-rights abusescan be turned into a weapon used notto protect human beings but to furtheran abhorrent political cause. There areno easy answers here.A third problem is the swiftness ofthe transition. No matter how manyyears or decades it took to put an endto the old system, the end alwayscomes very quickly. One day an or-ganisation is the opposition, the nextday it is the government or part of it.One day it is the group that defendsindividuals against the government,the next day it has turned into the gov-ernment against whom individualsneed defending. By turning its atten-tion too strongly to the misdeeds ofwhat is still an opposition group, ahuman-rights organisation can con-tribute to delaying the transition. Bywaiting too long, it can contribute tothe establishment of a pattern of viola-tions that becomes very difficult toend, as happened in Algeria and Mo-zambique.Organisations in South Africa willundoubtedly face all these problemssoon, but they may be better equippedto handle them. First, there are well-

Page 22 of 53 established, competent human-rightsgroups in South Africa itself. This wasinitially not true inmost African coun-tries. Second, there is more informa-tion about problems encountered inother transitions where the victimsturned into offenders, where the or-ganisations that fought against oppres-sion turned into oppressors. Thisshould make it easier to accept that itcan happen here, too, and that it isnecessary to be on guard. Finally, avery active international network ofhuman-rights organisations is now inplace-organisations such as AmnestyInternational and Africa Watch cansupplement the efforts of internal or-ganisations, possibly providing thegreater psychological detachment thatis the luxury of outsiders.But there are also some facets of theSouth African situation that may com-plicate the transition. The most strik-ing appears to be a tradition of dualmembership in political organisationsand a lack of sensitivity to the problemof conflict of interests arising from it.Democratic Party members join theAfrican National Congress (ANC),while others talk of joining the Na-tional Party. The ANC and the SouthAfrican Communist Party (SACP) aretotally interlocked, providing an end-less topic of discussion for politicalcolumnists, but contributing nothingto political clarity. Journalists join thepolitical parties about which they haveto report professionally. Civic-associ-ation leaders join the ANC while pro-claiming the need for independentcivics. And members of human-rightsgroups join organisations that needmonitoring for possible violations. Inall these cases, the assumption appearsto prevail that a person can com-partmentalise oneself, acting in onecapacity one day and in another thenext. This is a dangerous illusion thatdistracts attention from the inevitableconflict of interests arising from dualmembership.The structural problems built intothe transition process are difficultenough and do not need to be compli-cated by adding a conflict betweendefending human rights and furtheringthe goals of a specific party. Bothhuman-rights organisations and polit-ical parties have a crucial role to playin a democratic country. Being activein one is not a superior form of civilcommitment to being active in theother. But as South Africa finally ap-proaches the end of apartheid, the illu-sion that the two roles are compatiblecan facilitate the repetition of the Al-gerian or Mozambican experience. LJMarina Ottaway is the author ofmany books and articles dealingwith independence politics ofAfrican countries, includingAlgeria and Mozambique.independent monitoring group establishedThe Black Sash Transvaal region initiates a working alliance inresponse tothe violence.On Thursday, 11 April 1991,representatives from varioushuman-rights groups, churches, andnon-governmental organisations,came together to discuss a co-or-dinated response to the violence. Theinitiative came from the Black Sashand was born out of a general con-cern and a need to act in some man-ner which would assist in bringingabout peace. Information on whatdifferent groups were already doing,was shared and groups discussedtheir different responses to the vio-lence up until that date. Whatemerged was that efforts at monitor-ing, research and relief, were takingplace; that there was a general lackof person-power which was affect-ing each organisation's ability tomake a positive contribution to mon-itoring; that duplication was takingplace and that there was a need forco-ordination between the groups.Those present agreed to establisha working group whose main long-term aim would be to bring an end tothe violence and whose interim aimswould be to monitor, facilitate dis-cussion (especially at the time of cri-ses), and collect information. Reliefwork and publicity and informationdissemination were two other im-portant areas of work also identified.The ultimate objective of the alli-ance is to establish a culture in whichpeace and justice is a right -- a cultureof human and civil rights which in-cludes the right to peace, toleranceand democracy. This will be donethrough example and in the mannerin which all parties are treated alike.All communication emanating fromthe group will take this into consid-eration. In these efforts the groupwill reject oppressive peace, i.e.peace which is brought aboutthrough massive state repression in-volving states of emergency andother repressive measures.A 24-hour telephone-monitoringservice which is staffed by volun-teers is already operative and fieldmonitoring is being phased in. Thegroup is also in the process of settingup an office and developing the re-sources it believes are needed for itto operate effectively.To ensure that the objectives ofPeace Action are understood andutilised, a liaison committee was setup to meet with political parties, thepolice, unions, and civics. Most ofthese meetings have taken place andthe group has received a positive re-sponse.The Black Sash Transvaal regionhas a subcommittee working on thisissue and it meets regularly. Apartfrom attending regular plenary meet-ings of Peace Action, Black Sashmembers also serve on its subcom-mittees. One of these, publicity andinformation (also known as themedia committee), is being con-vened by the Black Sash. To date,energies have gone into the estab-lishment of the actual structures andmonitoring service. Black Sashhopes tow to assist in creating acampaign which will give the groupan identity and promote peace on abroader level. 0Laura Pollecut

Page 23 of 53 liberating praxisandthe black sashTwo interests prompted Denise Ackermannto do her doctoral research on the Black Sash:one, her interest in women's commitment tosocial justice; the other, her theologicalconcern with praxis, the continuous processof actionlreflection.In these edited extracts from her thesis, sheoutlines her feminist Christian perspectivebefore evaluating the Black Sash's praxis inthese terms. This article only hints at thecomplexity both of the thesis' themes and ofthe challenge posed to the Black Sash.belong to that category of women which re-fuses to accept a split between being a Chris-tian and a feminist, despite the fact thatChristian praxis and feminism are often irrecon-cilable. Allowing such a split would be to ac-knowledge a dualism in my existence whichwould be damaging both to my faith and to mypersonhood. It would also mean allowing patri-archal norms to define my reality. I cannotleave my feminist awareness at the door of thechurch or the theological faculty and becomeonly a Christian woman or only a theologian. Iam both all the time.The topic of my research arose from thesituation of interrelated oppressions in SouthAfrica. Our country is rightly infamous for theperpetuation of racial (and consequently alsoclass) discrimination. At the same time, how-ever, sexist oppression has been practised at alllevels of our society.The need for a liberating praxis in oursociety is obvious. But who is involved in apraxis that is liberating and what is being done?My search for it within religious institutionsproved disheartening, and as I believe that thecommunity of faith can and should be addressedby the actions of those `outside the camp', mysearch shifted to the Black Sash.This raised important questions. What isliberating praxis viewed from a feminist theo-logical perspective? Why has the Black Sash,largely a group of white middle-class women,pursued a vision of social justice in practicalterms for over 35 years? What are the actions ofthe Black Sash communicating and to whom?This article will barely touch on the theologi-cal themes of my thesis and will confine itself tomy research on the Black Sash. However,research can be a glib exercise unless onementions the inherent tensions found through it.Feminist liberation theology emerges from acritical consciousness that acknowledges thesocial contradictions that shape both our per-sonal lives and our collective existence. As awhite middle-class woman this must lead me toacknowledge my place in my context as beingat the same time both oppressed and belongingto the oppressors by virtue of my whiteness.This situation produces its own tensions.There is also an inherent tension in a femi-nist stance that values the liberation of allpeople and yet needs to address women'soppression specifically. There is further a ten-sion between the emphasis on the particularityof my context in South African society and theinclusive, holistic and liberating impulse offeminist theology. As a white woman I yearnfor the liberation of all women and all people inthis country. Yet, I know I cannot speak onbehalf of anyone other than what I would termmy, own constituency, namely other white mid-dle-class women. Nonetheless, I believe thatthere are places where white and black women

Page 24 of 53 will be able to celebrate liberation together as crossed barriers to join with blackwe find common bonds in our shared oppres- women against oppressive legisla-sion and praxis and in our longing for justice, tion. It did, however, mark a turn- For many white womenlove, equality and peace. ing point in the political awareness .., being part of theThe route taken towards analysing Black of certain white women. powerful privilegedSash praxis thus begins by taking women's According to its constitution,experiences as a point of departure. It's clear, the Black Sash pursues its aims by minority ... meansthough, that our life contexts cannot be viewed `non-violent and peaceful' means. acknowledging our placein isolation. The personal is political, and the This resolve has characterised its in the complexity of thepolitical personal. While we cannot escape actions throughout its history. The South African situationsocial contradictions, the challenge is to lay question is what this means inclaim to women's experience in our context. practice. and our complicity inOne may well ask `which women, which There are a variety of ways in oppression.context and what experience'? Women every- which the Black Sash sets aboutwhere are separated by race, class and economic achieving the aims it has set itselfstatus. In South Africa, the separation of people of promoting justice and humanhas achieved an institutional depth and breadth rights and of furthering political education. Thewhich is agonisingly unique. Women's place is organisation enables by running advice offices,determined from birth by race, sex and eco- protests, learns and informs through a variety ofnomic class. For many white women, this publications. Today it would, in my view, bemeans being part of the powerful privileged valid to add `monitors' and `trains' to this list.minority, both politically and economically. Yet The Black Sash also forms alliances in thewe suffer sexist discrimination. For most black form of working relationships with a number ofwomen, it= race, sex and class oppression, like-minded bodies. It does so in the belief thatwhich relegates them to a context of total by adding its voice to others, increased pressurediscrimination and oppression. can be brought to bear for non-violent funda-For white feminists this means acknowledg- mental structural change in South Africa.ing our place in the complexity of the South The above activities form the working basisAfrican situation and our complicity in oppres- of what I have called Black Sash praxis.sion. For instance, the racist exploitation and My research focused on the following ques-domination of multi-ethnic women by white tions: What is the Black Sash communicating?women is a well-documented example of such What are values, views, goals? Whatcomplicity. views on h=it y underlie Black Sash praxis?Lack of insight and understanding of white What does the fact that they are a group ofwomen's role in the oppression of black women women communicate? Does the Black Sashstill enables those of us who may not be overtly offer a model for liberating praxis?racist to cling to our hegemony of theory and I interviewed different groups of Black Sashpractice, often expressed in the phrase `but of members in four phases of research. Some ofcourse we want the black women to join us'. the early research findings were that critical,Understanding our complicity is, however, only pivotal, involved and essential praxis constitutesthe first step. The next step is to engage in the essence of the Black Sash.active struggle to end racist and classist domi- Human rights appear to be the central valuenation. system that both motivates Black Sash praxisIn this process we acknowledge that our role and provides the vision towards which it isis one of support and not of leadership, of working. This is in accord with theidentification and not prescription. False notions aims of the Black Sash as spelt outof sisterhood based on faulty analysis and in its constitution.cliched notions of bonding need to be rejected. The term `praxis' can justifiablyThe intersecting of class and race in South be used as there is a measure ofAfrica is a complex issue. Afro-American Bell reflection taking place. However,Hooks clarifies the further links with sexist there is a tension in the organisa-oppression. `Sexist oppression is of primary tion between an overt feministimportance not because it is the basis of all praxis and what is understood as aother oppression, but because it is the practice human-rights praxis. Among someof domination most people experience, whether members interviewed there wastheir role be that of discriminator or discrimi- confusion and even a measure ofnated against, exploiter or exploited ... Racism fear as to the real meaning andis fundamentally a feminist issue because it is relevance of a feminist stance.interconnected with sexist oppression. In the Not all respondents understoodWest, the philosophical foundations of racist that human rights are also aboutand sexist ideology are similar.' women's rights. Despite this ten-The founding of the Black Sash can hardly sion, a significant number ofbe seen as an event in which white women women interviewed want to main-

Page 25 of 53 tain the present character of the National Conference recorded the agreementThe reality of women's Black Sash as an organisation of that the question `how will this affect women?'oppression by men ... `0-n only and are in favour of would be posed in connection with all Blackthe furthering of women's rights. Sash endeavours. This represents a first andseems to lie at the core Despite its human-rights stance, important step towards addressing women'sof reasons articulated by there are inherent contradictions in issues as part of the Black Sash's agenda.members of the Black the Black Sash in regard to its Another fact that emerged in my researchSash for the exclusion of composition: members' experience was that women in the Black Sash find theirof a situation is rooted in a particu- membership of the organisation affirming tomen from their lar culture and tradition very dif- themselves. This is expressed in a number oforganisation. ferent from that operating in some ways as empowering, challenging, educativeAfrikaans circles. and growthful. Does this mean that their experi-Reaching out to the Afrikaans- ence of the Black Sash as affirming, is linked tospeaking section of the white com- the fact that it consists of women only? Oncemunity was raised as a concern by again the spectre of exclusivity appears.a number of those interviewed. Perceived stum- Men as victims of apartheid benefit from thebling-blocks had to do with language, ideologi- Black Sash's human-rights praxis. They are,cal difficulties and general misperceptions. An however, excluded from sharing fully in thatAfrikaans-speaking member recounts how upset praxis and, therefore, arguably from an activityher mother was at her membership of what she which may be as affirming to them as it is toviewed as a terrorist organisation. `My kind, women. Fears expressed by respondents aboutplant hulle nie ook bomme nieT Another men `taking over' are directed at white middle-comment was: `Ek begin nou glo dat Sash hulle class males who are clearly members of theeiesoonige Engelse gees wil behou.' oppressor group.In my interview with members, conscientisa- Most women interviewed were suspicious oftion surfaced in two guises. In the first, many the motives and behaviour patterns of men. Therespondents described how moral outrage and reality of women's oppression by men surfacedanger and a growing awareness of injustice in the research and seems to lie at the core ofbecame a process of conscientisation, leading to reasons articulated by members of the Blackthe desire for change. This is experienced as a Sash for the exclusion of men from theirprime motivation in their membership of the organisation.Black Sash. Commitment, as a step following Another problematic concept for the Blackconscientisation, is clearly detected in the dedi- Sash is the question of solidarity. How cancation of Black Sash members to the organisa- privileged middle-class whites authenticallytion and its goals. show solidarity with oppressed black people? ItSecondly, once the link between women and involves struggle, risk and commitment. In thispoverty was pointed out, respondents over- respect, I met with moving acts of solidarity onwhelmingly affirmed the Black Sash's need to the part of individual members of the Blackbe involved with women's issues. Sash. However, it is doubtful whether the BlackA press statement issued after the 1990 Sash as an organisation can be said to be inkey Soo, bsic,f (-.t-/)i"!Ilcr/ir>~,/1')i a /Crl kc_,,, /cr~.s r+""cd byLYeszi~e,~~cka~r"tr2rngpr:definitionsCon.scientisatior 111eC11tC 'tnal:il,`a corl,;ciou" and cu!I, Ior ; ,,cttl;al 'I, !I, in all tlresetrial sllhc~c.;.c)pFre:~>ed \\ hich Ir=acl, to the clrCiIV i(tl cllalrand the ,c~arch tc)r:, 11"rlnation ;lltcl c\ Ilolcite". 11 Feminist lib" aCIt4C'1\~. >t'2:IC11 Ii)r eyt,tlllt\~ Ill i~c-il`',loll`> SC~ I~tll1'C.`,.C'I-tll!-ch~; \\l-lid, Iltl\,c ;tll()\\cd ;\cnttelt iit alFemh6-l iti u;~Al here 11) ctttt a coirli11il- c'\cr\ (e; r_1 ,ts !t!!I ritcin(,er~ It,- kept tlt,~ir Irt17cn Crrmt ali that c)p- cratic)n ctf all o,cnll.~il ~ula aril Inrn. ;utd tit::ftrcs>es ii`. Fellldcte, rt,t1 tmlt~Iii ttn\ site- tran,l:)rmirl`~ c}I rcli~~icxi, :;i;uclure~. t'Iti;citic S"roup, race or rltt5; of \\c7rl:en, neither means that nlal~ Iricrtir'hi", should no Ion,':, -do", i; pr,ilulte Lri\-ii-e for ~~on-, occr ntcn. 17c h"'lti ~unrnati\~ in dht"' mHIML,ltcc)I7;~~ >It is a!~cntt tt ditt~:rci,t 101, "I'll, rt r;tdir'ail\ \\orth. l ltitnatcl\. Ir!rtini,t lil-:e! dii'il tl"olc"=\tl"CtIIiI()fn1:.CI Iil'rtiplCtl\"C U'111CIL CI!,e.,~tl()I1.S 0111" I; C'1t11CCrnCCI \\Till 71tClt ti ~_:)IlFll'tii('.It l,(llll `,~`.;~)ci,ll, ctiltLtr;l!. tu)litic;l; :uui rvli~~icxls 1rtditiclnr; is!vr.

Page 26 of 53 solidarity at all times with those who areoppressed. Its very white middle-class andprivileged character militates against such un-constrained solidarity.This leads in turn to the basic anthropology(views on humanity) at work in the Black Sash.There is no one view of humanity. Membersexhibit a diversity of views on what it means tobe human in their descriptions of how they viewthe praxis of the Black Sash. The anger andmoral outrage at what is being done to peopleunder apartheid legislation strongly suggests ananthropology that values the dignity and worthof people. To what extent, however, does arelational anthropology function in the BlackSash - those transformative understandingswhich want not only a newly integrated self, buta newly integrated social order?Relational views in the Black SashClearly, the Black Sash's concern with ahuman-rights ethos in which the desire for jus-tice is central, reflects the opposite of an alien-ated and apathetic stance. Clearly too, its standagainst racism further emphasises an awarenessof relationality. However, the sexually exclu-sive nature of the organisation does raise theissue of exclusivity which is incompatible witha relational view of humanity.Within the organisation itself there appearsto be a high degree of relationality. The re-peated affirmation by many members of closefriendship, of bonding and sisterhood, affirmthis view.A number of questions are pertinent in thisregard. Firstly, how much is this `internal'relationality an expression of women's needs?Secondly, what does the resistance to feminism,the women's group and, in some instances,lesbian lifestyles, say about thekind of relationality sought or ex-pressed in the Black Sash? Therecent interest in and concern forthe environment emanating fromthe women's group in Cape Townis a further step towards relational-ity.Finally, is the relationalitywhich functions to a fairly highdegree among members in theorganisation a relationality of thelike-minded with regard to cultureandlanguage?This raises the issue ofAfrikaans-speaking women. It isarguably easier to express concern for yourneighbour who is either like you or who is farless privileged than you are, than to expressrelationality towards those who differ culturallyyet belong to the same class and oppressorgroup as you do. Stereotypes about Afrikanersare dangerous and the Black Sash will need toexamine its own prejudices in this regard.Liberating praxis cannot afford to be discrimi-natory.On the other hand, and in retrospect, theorganisation is far less homogeneous than ap-peared at the outset of my research. It is ameasure of the relationality among membersthat a variety of different opinions, politicalpersuasions, beliefs and ways of being aretolerated and accepted.The Black Sash places a high premium oninforming through communication. In the per-ceptions of those spoken to, informing asunrestricted communication and liberatingpraxis go together. To know is to do and,conversely, to do is to know.The Black Sash values the free and unre-Stereoptypes aboutAfrikaners aredangerous and the BlackSash will need toexamine its ownprejudices in this regard.Liberating praxis cannotafford to bediscriminatory.I.iberativn sinrhly Ir,~al~, 'tc) I,:; ~r~;~'. !'hc,;:~,of uv vaorkin<` vvitlriv a lewini,t hcr,l>ec:tiae he_liele till, raanot hr Iocah-l )a ithin a particu-l~r cla or ~a-()tit).Liberating pr-i, I, the on-ow'a,~ain,l ola}vlc~;,ive Strricill w, t!l;a ex!}luit pcu-I'll and roh thcln of bail humarlilv. tl aimsat rer,, .~i, di-rcr(ei! to-tad, thi, Loa!. Kelatiolrtlity is 111,ol,r),it, of Aici,;Mctt. .I find Illv~:elt yur,tionio~~ tlt:,se vho ,ec tlunerd ,ar inciintliicrn Ior teiu(icnlvlily n, lic=~. uliarto ";nl'ICI" fhe !,lei tlr;ii en ttVrtict!latenccd coal1l ,intl,ly ,icnl from !hrir cxi,trtlti_rln~

Page 27 of 53 stricted exchange of views and help to alleviate some of the fears expressed byinformation, and its committed members.Th only valid teason for stand over the years against cen- I do agree with one respondent who felt thatan autonomous women's sorship testifies to this commit- the Black Sash is far more feminist than it caresorganisation to ment. Freedom of speech as a to acknowledge. The question of men whoconstitute itself as such basic human right is both a re- support feminist principles, however, remains ais to fight for women's spected ideal and operational niggling question for the Black Sash.within the Black Sash. There is a need for the Black Sash to involverights against sexism. To return to the problematic itself in more thorough social analysis. SuchThe notion of feminist nature of exclusivity in the Black analysis must engage critically with theseparatism as an Sash referred to previously, sev- organisation's own nature and aim in the Southeral points need to be noted. Its African context. The challenge to the Blackinterim strategy and an `whiteness' is inherently part of its Sash is to examine its tendency to exclusivity.expression of affirmative history. Linguistic and cultural The interdependence of individuals, of com-action is necessary and factors also present barriers to the munities, of society and of humanity with theself-evident. participation of Afrikaans-speak- environment, means that our interests in sur-ing women, who again may find vival, and consequently our rights as well, arethe praxis too radical! interdependent. Moreover, an honest critique ofThe middle-class character of one's social and economic status informed bythe Black Sash is again partly due good social analysis, enables one to understandto its historical development, not unconnected better not only one's own experience, but alsoto its `whiteness'. There is, however, evidence to locate this experience within the dialectic ofthat members, in recent times, have become oppressor and oppressed in the South Africanmore sensitive to the issues raised by class context. Lastly, a more profound analysis ofdistinctions, largely due to challenges posed by human rights and women's rights in particular,younger members within the organisation. will help the Black Sash to direct its liberatingThe English-speaking nature of the organisa- praxis in the uncertain times ahead.tion was not so evident at its inception and is to At present it appears that the profile of thebe regretted; it is to be hoped that change will Black Sash is changing and that the organisa-take place in this regard. tion is in a state of flux. Since more members ofThe real problem lies in the insistence of the the Black Sash are working women than everBlack Sash since the outset on remaining an before, the structures of the Black Sash and itsall-women's organisation, while at the same methods of working are being challenged totime claiming to be a human-rights organisa- accommodate the needs of these women.tion. From a feminist perspective these two In conclusion, the central concern of thepoints of view are incompatible. The only valid Black Sash with praxis directed towards justice,reason for an autonomous women's organisa- freedom, equality and sharing stands as itstion to constitute itself as such is to fight for monument over a period of 35 years. Whateverwomen's rights against sexism. The notion of constraints its own history has placed on itsfeminist separatism as an interim strategy and composition and development, whatever labelsan expression of affirmative action is necessary and baggage it has carried and whatever incon-and self-evident. sistencies in regard to its concepts of humanThe Black Sash has as yet not aligned itself rights are apparent, its deeds speak louder. Itwith the above perspective as an explicit aim. Itwould seem that the connection between humanrights and women's rights has not yet been fullyunderstood. Considerable ambivalence is shownwith regard to realising the implications ofliberating praxis by women for women.What is clear is that more members of theBlack Sash call themselves `feminist' than hadbeen anticipated. However, there is a measureof resistance against the Black Sash coming tobe seen as a feminist organisation. This isthought to detract from its human-rights thrust..Feminism as the commitment to the praxsfor the liberation of women from all thatoppresses us is not distinct from human rights.The tendency to rank and stratify human rightshas resulted in women's rights not receiving theattention due to them. An increased understand-ing in the Black Sash about what the term`feminism' actually implies in practice maySilent protest standin 1955, thefounding year ofthe Black Sash;four women standin symbolic vigiloutside theRaadsaalBloemfontein,marking theannouncement ofthe dissolution ofthe senate. TheAfrikaans wording `on Black Sashes isa reminder that theEnglish-speakingnature of theorganisation wasnot so evident at itsinception.

Page 28 of 53 has communicated what a press commentatordescribed as `a quality of humane practicalitythat makes it a model for any human-rightsorganisation'.Theologically speaking, the praxis of theBlack Sash is consonant in a number of respectswith the implementation of the values of the`Kingdom of God'. It is justice-centred and itspraxis involves caring for one's neighbour in atangible way. Its actions are directed towardsfreedom, equality and dignity for all in ourcontext. The ideals of peace and wholeness arepresent in the organisation's hopes for thefuture.Liberating praxis involves dedication andrisk, both of which are present in the BlackSash. The belief that human rights are worthworking and risking for because they hold thepromise of a better future for all in this country,holds in tension both the `already' and the `notyet' reminiscent of the `Kingdom of God'. TheBlack Sash communicates liberating praxis.A challenge to women and the churchThe Black Sash's praxis challenges white mid-dle-class women, and indeed all middle-classwomen. It provides an effective answer to theperennial question: `But what can we do?' Toblack women who are less privileged, it mayhopefully have communicated something abouta human-rights ethos which cares about justiceand equality for all people. To white women ofconscience, it has communicated that praxis forfreedom is a convincing way to begin to over-come the actuality of being an oppressor.I have critiqued the Black Sash for itsinconsistency in wanting to remain both anall-women's organisation and a human-rightsorganisation, but in the light of what might betermed its `latent' feminism, it is justifiable toassume that it is open to a feminist analysis. Interms of such analysis, it is communicating thepossibility of solidarity and sister-hood as one of the fruits of liberat-ing praxis.Given the great differences be-tween women's experiences in ourcontext, some feminists aretempted to discard the idea ofsisterhood as a political reality.Thus the women of the BlackSash, in fact all women, are chal-lenged to analyse their situationsof oppression and to ask whetherthere is not greater effectiveness inthe struggle for equality and jus-tice in a bonding together in sister-hood. The growing interest withinthe Black Sash as regardswomen's issues augurs well forthe development of the notion ofsisterhood.I would suggest that such bonding needs tobe based on a commitment to a feministliberating praxis. The Black Sash has come along way towards demonstrating what womencan do when they bond together for a politicalaim. Even if its agenda does not move further ina feminist direction, it will already have servedas a model for women seeking solidarity.I believe that the praxis of the Black Sashcommunicates something to all churches inSouth Africa. Communicative praxis is a dialec-tical event. Christian actions are formed, in-formed, corrected and challenged by the actionsof people `outside the camp' which are inher-ently compatible with the values of the 'King-dom of God'.The single-minded application of a human-rights praxis by the Black Sash mirrors some-thing of the quest for justice based on valuesthat embody caring for one's neighbour. Theirrecord in the struggle for liberation is one whichthe church might well envy. Their presentengagement is one which the church couldemulate.The fact that this concrete struggle for justiceexpressed in liberating praxis is carried out by agroup of women, may be a more difficult messagefor the church to decipher. It challenges themale-dominated hierarchies of the church toexamine their own paucity of praxis.The skills, dedication, quality of leadershipand originality of praxis of the Black Sash makea mockery of the stereotyped views of womenwhich still permeate church thinking.Whatever constraints[the Black Sash's]history has placed on itscomposition anddevelopment, whateverlabels and baggage ithas carried andwhatever inconsistenciesin regard to its conceptsof human rights areapparent, its deeds speaklouder.Denise Ackermann is a theologian and seniorlecturer at the University of the Western Cape.She joined the Cape Western region of theBlack Sash after completing her research.

Page 29 of 53 T he concept of women as vic-tlms would seem to be empiri-cally substantiated especially inperiods of crisis such as we havewith the Natal conflict. A consulta-tion of monitoring records yields adismal, gory and heart-rending cat-alogue of items like: `woman (54)attacked and stabbed to death by agroup of people'; `comradesstabbed to death a 70-year-oldwoman'; `60-year-old woman burntto death when petrol was thrownover her by a group', `14-year-oldgirl abducted; body found with stabwounds'; `two women were killedinside their house'.It is especially the very youngand the very old women who havebeen victims. Young women's edu-cation has been interrupted. Theyhave been vulnerable to rape. In-deed, rape is so commonplace in thetownships that it is seldom reported.Not only do youths rape the womenof the opposition but, as happens inall wars, the cult of machismo flour-ishes; there is general brutalisation,and young women are objects ofpleasure and contempt.Understandably, there are manysingle mothers. Of the many oldwomen in displacee camps, whohave lost their homes and all of theirpossessions, some have the respon-sibility of looking after the youngfamilies of dead sons or daughters.But Debbie Bonnin rightly in-sists, in a draft of a paper entitled`Women in the War in Natal', thatthe women have not been merelyvictims but also agents who havecontributed to the war dynamic.While not active perpetrators theyhave been a powerful force in thewar even if only by keeping thingsgoing at home.Bonnin quotes Wendy Anneckein her listing of various new taskswomen have taken on: searching formissing relatives; protecting sonsand relatives in hiding; defendingtheir homes and possessions; look-ing after the injured and, if neces-sary, taking them to hospital.Bonnin further speaks ofwomen's boldness in defying thebans on funerals or vigils and indefying police orders, for examplein order to attend to a wounded com-rade. She notes that women havemore leeway than men in verballywomen inthe natalconflictWomen are not only victims of theNatal conflict, writes Fidela Fouche,but also agents who use theirconsiderable power within thepatriarchal framework to.further thewar dynamic. However, she alsodiscerns the faint beginnings of achallenge to these values.Woman's Day rally, August 1989,Edenvale, Pi etermaritzburgabusing the police (is this becauseeven the police have deeply in-grained inhibitions which make itunlikely that they will mete out thesame degree of violence to womenas to men?).Further, women on both UnitedDemocratic Front/African NationalCongress (UDF/ANC) and Inkathasides have been known to cheer andululate to encourage their men tojoin battle. The women - largelymiddle-aged women - who havebeen agents rather than victims,have found themselves empoweredby the conflict situation, havingtaken on responsibilities and devel-oped capacities which in more tran-quil times might have lain dormant.While young women are largelyvictims of the war, some - a roughlyestimated one in 20 - young ANCwomen are pro-actively involvedwith Umkbonto we Sizwe and withorganisations like the Congress ofSouth African Students (Cosas).The women of Inkatha, it seems, aremore exclusively engaged in purelysupportive roles. It has been claimedthat such cohesiveness as remains inthe war-afflicted societies is ascrib-able to the strength of the women.Bonnin says that the high numberof marches and protests in thePietermaritzburg area - she lists 21- suggests a very high level of or-ganisation amongst the women. Butthese have wrongly been termedpeace marches, she claims. Al-though the ultimate aim might bepeace, each of the marches has hada specific goal - usually a protestagainst police activity - which isonly one in a long list which needsto be met in order to bring aboutpeace.In applying Posel's categories ofpower and authority, Bonn` that none of the women'smarches and protests challengemen's authority. The women, how-ever assertive and defiant, retaintheir feminine gender roles and donot transgress into the realm of mas-culine gender roles.Bonnin observes that, far fromchallenging male authority, thewomen tend to make their com-plaints through the powerful men oftheir community. Their tendencyboth to exploit and simultaneouslysubmit to their men is shown also bythe fact that at least some of themarches were led by a man.And yet there have beenwomen's peace rallies. On these oc-casions, with women calling forpeace, there is a tacit note of resis-tance to the war waged by men. Waris a patriarchal value and womenrallying for an end to war are assert-ing their own values against those ofpatriarchy.Possibly we can discern here thebeginnings of a feminist conscious-ness which calls not only for equal-ity but also questions patriarchalvalues. Marxist and socialist femi-nism can help us recognise and en-courage the dialectic between black- and other - women's profoundlyconditioned subservience to patriar-chy and their assumption and devel-opment of their own powers untilthey are able to challenge patriar-chal authority. a

Page 30 of 53 Women taking the initiative: Pauline Stanford and Jabu Ngidi, NUMSA organiser and shop-steward respectively, addressing a Women's Day rally.Nl0CWomen's power, men's authorityFidela Fouche examines the claim that the urban Zulu woman'ssituation can be regarded as a special case from a gender perspective.She argues that all women are prey to the tension between theory andpractice as they struggle to extend women's power beyond theconstraints of men's authority.In her paper `Women's powers,men's authority: Rethinkingpatriarchy' presented at the GenderConference (30 January to 2 February1991) in Durban, Deborah Poselpoints to what she sees as a contradic-tion between the growing socio-eco-nomic, social and politicalindependence of urban Africanwomen and their continued wide-spread acceptance of patriarchalnorms. There are many female-headedhouseholds, many women choose toavoid marriage, and women often takethe initiative in organising marchesand protests. Yet patriarchal ideologycontinues to be deeply entrenched.Posel quotes C. Campbell's observa-tion that although men `tend to play amore marginal role in family life thantheir wives ... township ideology stillholds fast to the notion that men shouldtake the lead in family decision-making'.Posel believes that explaining this`dialectic between female resistance toand acquiescence in theirsubordination' is central to an under-standing of gender relations in SouthAfrica. She questions whether ortho-dox notions of patriarchy can go far inmaking sense of the empirical contra-diction and argues that the existingbody of feminist theory is `unable topenetrate this enigma'.Both structural marxist feministsand radical feminists see male domi-nation as a monolithic relationship inwhich women are wholly the victims`... women's responses to patri-archal norms [are] a mix ofacceptance and rejection,compliance and rebellion'of oppressive gender relations. Nei-ther accords women powers of theirown and neither would therefore beable to account for the contradictionbetween African women's thoroughsocialisation into patriarchal values,and their simultaneous economic, so-cial and political independence.The theoretical problem remains ofhow to account for `women's re-sponses to patriarchal norms as a mixof acceptance and rejection, compli-ance and rebellion'.Posel discusses a further kind ofmarxist thinking - socialist feminism -which rejects the determinism of struc-turalist marxism and has the concept of`struggle' take over from `structure' asthe principal analytical tool. She agreeswith Belinda Bozzoli's recognition thatthere is no single pattern of struggle butrather a `patchwork quilt' of patriar-chies, a variety of kinds of patriarchalrelation patterns.

Page 31 of 53 Posel concedes that Bozzoli's argu-ment is an important advance on thestructuralist marxist and radical femi-nist alternatives, but still does not seeit as making sense of urban Africanwomen's simultaneous submission topatriarchal norms in some respects andtheir rejection of these norms in otherrespects. She concludes that the radi-cal feminist, structuralist marxist andsocialist humanist feminist theories donot provide the theoretical tools neces-sary to explore the `contradictory' na-ture ofurban African gender relations.Pose l accepts Bozzoli's `crucialpoint' that gender relations are rootedin struggles in which both men andwomen se power and she pro-to=ceeds op her own distinctionbetween `different types of power andhow these differences shape relationsbetween men and women'.It is by distinguishing between`power' and `authority' that Poselseeks to make the contradiction sheobserves in Zulu women's thought andbehaviour understandable. In patriar-chal society men have authority:women have power.Power `can be loosely understoodas the capacity of an individual orgroup to further their interests in theface of actual or potential resistancefrom others. Authority is a particulartype of power: it is power which islegitimised in terms of the hegemonicideology of the society in question -power which is therefore defined bythe law, dominant media and other keysocialising institutions, as right andjust ... authority is power which is pub-licly and formally represented aslegitimate' and which is `grounded (insome degree) of consent on the part ofthe subject of that authority'.Men monopolise authorityIn patriarchal societies men monopo-lise authority over what are consideredto be `important' issues while womenare granted the power to decide on less`important' matters like choosing theirchildren's clothes. Men's authorityboth enables and constrains women'spowers, and in exercising their powerswomen prop up men's authority.Women, for example, often achievetheir aims, possibly by resorting tosubterfuges, but without challengingmen's authority.Pose, identifies two different typesof struggle: struggle in which womenseek to extend their powers withoutchallenging men's authority, andstruggle in which they contest men'sauthority. In the first case we havestruggle within the patriarchal frame-work, in the second a rejection of pa-triarchalnorms. Posel concludes thatperhaps there is no contradiction inblack urban women's situation, andthat black women as bearers of powerwho do not contest patriarchal author-ity may be acting consistently.Posel's distinction between author-ity and power gives us a conceptualscheme which helps illuminate blackSouth African women's relationship... The power-authority model,while elucidating black women'ssituation in South Africa, isequally applicable to the rela-tions between men and womenelsewhere in the world.to patriarchy. In the South African lib-eration struggle, as in other strugglesagainst colonial oppression, women insupporting their men have harnessedtheir powers to a struggle in whichthey identified with their men's liber-ation rather than their own.Admittedly black women will ben-efit from national liberation. Their en-franchisement will be a great steptowards freedom from racial oppres-sion. But it will not free them frompatriarchal oppression. Their powerwill remain largely contained bymen's authority.But I think that the power-authoritymodel, while elucidating blackwomen's situation in South Africa, isequally applicable to the relations be-tween men and women elsewhere inthe world. The case of Zulu womenshould not need special elucidation, asPd suggest.7= elsewhere exercise theirpower without necessarily antagonis-tically confronting patriarchal author-ity. It is especially understandable thatthere should be some tension betweena theoretically =position on patri-archy and a succumbing to it in prac-tice; an open defiance of oppressivepatriarchal structures at a politicallevel but a subservience at a personallevel to the authority of male employ-ers, husbands, lovers; a tendency toplacate rather than defy.Even in countries where feministconsciousness is highly developed,women will to some degree - inadver-tently or deliberately - exercise theirpowers within the framework of patri-archal authority. The potency of gen-der socialisation is such - it operatesat so profoundly unconscious a level -that resistance will, almost inevitably,be inconsistent especially in a societywhere there is not yet a consistent fem-inist programme.`Contradictions' forge bonds`Contradictions' in urban African re-lations seem to me scarcely`enigmatic': indeed inconsistency andambivalence are common features ofhuman thought and behaviour, men'sand women's. Although `white' femi-nism has seemed, to black women in-volved in the struggle againstoppression along with their men, to bea luxury they could not afford in theface of the more immediate pressingneeds for political liberation, rapportis possible.The `contradictions', far from set-ting urban black women apart in acategory distinct from women else-where in the world should help to forgea bond. All women have been sub-jected to gender-stereotyping; femi-nist women have resisted thissubjection but not necessarily withcomplete success.Further, just as the power-authorityschema elucidates women's relation-ship to patriarchy not only in blackSouth African society, but every-where, so to claim that existing West-ern feminist theory cannot elucidategender relations here is misleading.Not only is it strategically more im-portant now for black and whitewomen to become aware of what theyhave in common rather than of whatdistinguishes them from each other,but historical differences are in fact farfrom insuperable.Radical and marxist feminists inviewing women as wholly or primarilyvictims of oppressive gender relationsare to a great extent right. But so are theliberal and socialist feminists who rec-ognise that women are also agents.Fidela Fouche teachesphilosophy at the University ofNatal, Pietermaritzburg, and isco-chairperson of the Black SashNatal Midlands region.

Page 32 of 53 lettersfrom eastern europeBronwyn Brady, Black Sash member and ex f eldworkerin Grahamstown, kept a record of her impressions duringan extended working visit to eastern Europe.These extracts from her letters fall into three parts. In thefirst she draws parallels between eastern European andSouth African experiences from her base in Praguewhere she is pictured above. The second on page 33records an interview with Olga Havel, subsequentlycensored. In the final extract the interview is cast into anew perspective as a `minor pawn' in a system of powerplays. All are drawn together in her closing reflectionson the position of women in Czechoslovakia (seep. 35).erlin was a good place to starteastern Europe in earnest. Thetwo worlds, east and west, are side byside, and still quite distinct from oneanother, and you are continually con-fronted by the contrast, rather than re-lying on memory. The first thing tonotice is how much like South AfricaBerlin feels. The air is full of an all toofamiliar tension, and it was quite un-nerving being thrown back into it. Peo-ple and ideas are automaticallyradicalised in the -west. Capitalism isenormously aggressive.On one point all Germans seem tobe in agreement, and that is that unifi-cation came too fast. I haven't metanyone who says that there shouldn'tbe a united Germany, but easternersfeel that they have been bought out bya system they do not necessarily want,and westerners feel that there ought tohave been a referendum on both sidesbefore anything else.The housing crisis in Germany isbeing vigorously addressed. The stateis raising massive pre-fabricated con-crete apartment blocks, not much pret-tier than the ones `the communists' putup after the war, and horribly reminis-cent of similar developments in En-gland that are now being demolished.The people's option is to squat. In theeast, there is ._ ' much a shortage ofhousing as a superfluity of bureau-cracy, and people will often find anempty flat, find out the rent number,and move in.For older people in eastern Ger-many,change is something of a night-mare. Life-savings and pensions weredevalued overnight as the currencieswere balanced. The ownership ofmany buildings is now in dispute, andpeople are facing eviction andhomelessness. Prices have gone upand salaries have not. Unemploymentis growing as uneconomical enter-prises are shut down. The massivewest German social-welfare system isbeing extended to the east, but I don'tthink that charity was the object of therevolution. When I left Dresden totravel to Prague, people were queue -ing at pharmacies because west Ger-man manufacturers had refused to selltheir products more cheaply in theeast, and there was an estimated sup-ply of two weeks' worth of medicinesleft.PragueNow that I am living right in the centreof Prague, I am getting more of a feel-ing of what it is like to be an ordinaryperson in Czechoslovakia. It is not asexpensive as one might think. Ourbuilding is old, and not in a great stateof repair, but it is still state-owned andwe pay state prices which have not yetgone up. Some flats nearby, though,are just a room with running water. Myfriend Anna speaks darkly of the gyp-sies who live in the building, and whomake it worse than it already is.To my alarm, even the best Czechsare instinctively racist, and the gypsy`problem' provokes intense debate.Mostly the racism is part of a genuinesense of the otherness of black people.For a long time here you never saw anyforeigners at all, unless they were eastGermans, and you certainly never sawany black people. I was in the theatrea couple of nights ago, and a group ofblack Americans came in to see theshow. It was a mime, done by a groupof French clowns, so there were a lotof children in the audience, and moth-ers were pointing the Americans out totheir kids and explaining that therewere people in the world who weren'twhite.

Page 33 of 53 I live comfortably on my salary asa second-language English teacher,but it must be nightmarish trying toprovide for more than one person on asalary of this size. Marie, who is mar-ried, says that food for a family of threefor a month costs one basic salary.Therefore, to survive, every adult hasto work. And now with the onset ofprivatisation and retrenchment, peopleare beginning to experience real hard-ship. Disgruntled people often say, `Itwas better under the communists.' Idon't know about better, but I am surethat it was easier. Freedom is not aneasy thing to deal with.Prague is becoming for me a sym-bol of the national mood. Above all, itis a city of contrast. It is exceptionallybeautiful, and very ugly. It is recklesswith hilarity and sunk in gloom. It isquiet orderly symmetry, and loud cha-otic discord. These things are evidentin the physical make-up of the city,and even more evident in the people.And in the people you feel morekeenly the mixture of desperation andcourage that seems to underlie theseextremes.In his first national address in No-vember 1989, Vaclac Havel spoke ofCzechoslovakia as a house in need ofrenovation. In 1990 he said that it hadbecome clear on close inspection thatthe house was not a house at all, but aruin, and was going to have to be com-pletelyrebuilt. This massive recon-struction is testing to the limit theimagination, courage and enduranceof a nation all but spiritually ex-hausted.In his 1978 essay The Power of thePower.1ess Havel examined the natureof dissent within the east-bloc coun-tries. He concluded that the solutionfor a posttotalitarian state is not theadoption of democracy. What isneeded `is the rehabilitation of valueslike trust, openness, responsibility,solidarity, love'. This sounds almostnaive until one notices the degree towhich the opposite of those values isinherent in this society. So I haverealised how radical, in fact, his ap-proach is And how difficult. And Ican't help thinking of home, and thedesperate juggling of systems and pos-sibilities going on, perhaps to the ex-clusion of the welfare of theindividuals who lie at the heart of it all.Of course there are exceptions.There is a vibrant community of peo-ple attached to the university and to thetheatres and art world who are full ofall those things - trust, openness, re-sponsibility and love - and who exer-cise them in their daily lives. Anna,Rudolf and Vladimir, for instance,who have adopted me with such easeand generosity, who take time out oftheir lives to guide me through themaze of bureaucracy and form-fillingassociated with registering to live inPrague, who take me to the theatre andto movies; and Andrew, who has a car,and who plots weekend excursions tocastles and mountains, and Iva whowent to work in Germany and left meher skis.The environment - natural andpoliticalVladimir is a landscape architect, whohas just been made responsible for anawful industrial area of Prague. Hismost recent problem centres on abuilding near a factory which emitsby-products from a process involvingchrome. The walls of the building arestained bright yellow, and residentshave complained that this is nothealthy. Now Vladimir is involved inanalysing samples of plaster from thebuilding, and thinking of ways to getthe factory to clean up its act. Storieslike this are common.There is a real fear among people ofenvironmental hazards. Both Iva andAnna, who are 23 and 24 years old,think that it is probably too late tocontemplate having children. Theyhave both lived in and around Pragueall their lives, and feel that they havenow absorbed too many teratogens tomake the risk (of congenital malfor-mations) worthwhile.And in between the politicking,protesting and worrying, we continueto breathe the air and drink the water-or at least the beer that is made fromthe water. One of the things that isoften discussed over the beer is therevolution. For many people it still hasa ring of unreality to it. They can'tbelieve that it really happened. Othersare sceptical about gracing it with thename `revolution'.Apart from the extremists, how-ever, I don't think that there is any-body who would wish the revolutionundone. The first thing people will tellyou they are glad of is the chance totravel. A friend spent half her savingson books. She says that the best thingabout the new order is being able tochoose, being able to take personalresponsibility for her life again.For people like the foreign minis-ter, Dienzbeer, it means release frommanual labour as a stoker, and thechance to take his rightful place as aleader in society. For people likeAnna, who studied law and felt unableto practise it under the old regime, itmeans that she can finally do what sheis best qualified to do. There has beenan unleashing of human potential thatis very exciting. I hope that the samething will happen at home.But while some potential has beenunleashed, there is not enough exper-tise to go round, and there is a kind ofnational unease at the presence of somany ex-communists in the currentgovernment. There is, however, noother way, power having been soclosely concentrated in so few handsfor so long.So far, from his neutral position aspresident, Havel is doing an extraordi-nary job steering through a very emo-tional issue. Even he, however, ishaving trouble containing the potentialwitch-hunt for the estimated 10 000spies and informers of the previousregime, many of whom still hold pub-lic positions. They are at the momentbeing strongly urged to resign volun-tarily.Bringing cheer to our TV screenslast night was the Miss Czechoslova-kia competition. It had me in fits ofrage and despair, pe=e and every-one else took a perverse pleasure inearnestly totting up the scores and de-bating the merits of the contestants justto annoy me.Apart from the feminist angle itseemed= programme designed toshow tht of the west. The cheapglitz, the big prize sponsorship fromthe casinos that have sprung up in thecities - one had the feeling that hover-ing just around the edges was a bur-geoning pornography industry. Onedid not have the feeling that hoveringaround the edges behind them was awomen's movement. It sent me off tobed thinking again about the problemsof `freedom from' and `freedom to'.0

Page 34 of 53 Seprnzher /991 SASH 33Olga Havel or Havlova, to usethe correct Czech designa-tion, is =e d to be a difficult,cold wwho has little pa-tience with the press and who suf-fers fools not at all. She is alsosomething of an enigma, sur-rounded by rumour. It was thuswith some trepidation that I foundmyself ringing her doorbell on afine March afternoon.A young man led us upstairswhere lana Novotna, my transla-tor friend, was required to produceher identity document. We weretold that we were being `cleared',and we waited in a large entrancehall. This flat was once home tothe Have, s, but they were per-suaded to live at Prague Castle byanxious security officials. Nowthere are piles of cardboard boxestottering dangerously, a wheel-chair, a glimpse of a computer-filled inner room, posters ofunderground musicians and folksingers, and a large terracotta urnwith the names of Havel's playspainted on it, and a ribbon inCzechoslovakian colours tiedaround it with a rakish bow.It is from this flat that Havlovanow runs the Olga Havel Founda-tion, or Vybor Dobre Vule(VDV), literally translated as theGoodwill Organisation. It is es-sentially a humanitarian organisa-tion which aims to help theestimated one million people inthe Federation of Czechoslovakiawho are physically and mentallyhandicapped, old, or for other reasonsunable to care for themselves.The organisation consists ofHavlova, ten other committee mem-bers, and about one hundred volun-teers. They have an enormous task. Inthe words of the foundation's policystatement: `Hitherto, long-term socialpolicy has put them into isolation,pushed them out of our sight into insti-tutions and institutes, where often thebasic conditions for dignified life,nursing staff, and proper equipmentare missing. We have all become usedto separating the helpless, afflicted andold from the healthy and young.'This small group of people is work-ing against what Havlova has else-where referred to as the destruction ofsociety. Immorality, she says, was aCzechoslovakia's `first lady' Olga Havelresponds to Bronwyn Brady's questionsabout women. There is an unspokensecond story too ...Olga Havel:citizen, womanway of life, and now it is necessary totry to undo the attitude that equates`good' with `stupid'. This intention toinfluence society and its current think-ing lies at the heart of the VDV.But I wanted to talk to Havlova notso much about VDV as about womenin Czechoslovakia. The word`feminist' is defined in Czechoslova-kia much the way that Virginia Woolfdefined it in Three Guineas: `... a vi-cious and corrupt word that has donemuch harm in its day and is nowobsolete'. Unlike Woolf, however,women here do n=on on to assert thatthey suffer fundamental injustice onthe grounds of their sex.International Women's Day passedwithout a murmur. It is, it seems, asso-ciated with communist rule and is re-membered chiefly as a day free fromwork on which men went out to thepub and came home reeling.Havlova herself, from the little thatcan be gathered about her life, haslived with fierce independence,working in the theatre and as a tramdriver, and keeping clear of thepublicity surrounding her husband.As you will see, however, my at-tempt to discuss women met withshort shrift.When Havlova appeared shewas so unlike the image I had con-jured that I could only stumblethrough an inappropriate greeting.She is a tiny woman, slim andgraceful, with a cloud of =b hairaround her head. She ur-gundy velvet trousers and wasbrisk and energetic. The nails onher right hand are battered, and ittakes a while to realise that the topsof the four fingers on her left handare missing.What happened? I don't know.I was firmly instructed not to askany personal questions, and it isobvious from the steely grey eyesthat this is not an injunction to bedisregarded. We settled at the endof an extremely long table, shewith her dog at her knee and hercigarettes to hand, I with my ques-tions.What do you think that women'srole ought to be in Czechoslova-kia at this time?I don't like questions aboutwomen very much because I thinkthat in the first place everyone is acitizen, and after that a women or aman. That is my opinion.Do you not think that women as cit-izens have different attitudes andresponses to situations?Well, I don't know. I don't want itto sound banal. I simply think thatwomen's point of view, men's point ofview ... Women should, of course, playa more prominent role in events, but itdepends on whether women are inter-ested in doing something or not. Thata woman should do something for thesole reason that she is a woman is, Ithink, really restricting. And the`women's question' in general as well.Take the example of motherhood. Awoman as a mother usually has a dif-ferent relationship with her children

Page 35 of 53 from that they have with their father.But the man should have the samerelationship with the children. Some-times this really works. The man ispresent when the woman gives birth tothe child, and so on, so knows what itis like. 1 think that men should partic-ipatemore in the rearing of children.I know that Czechoslovakia hassome excellent legislation protectingthe rights of women. But in realitythere is a wide discrepancy betweenthe ideals of the law and what hap-pens in practice.Yes, that's true.You have strong views on commu-nal and social responsibility. Butwith VDV you have shouldered anenormous task.Yes, but I want to say that it is notonly my work. I try to involve as manypeople as possible. The experiencewith [drawing up] Charter 77 showedthat it is good when more people getinvolved. After the revolution, manyorganisations were founded by handi-capped people themselves. Before therevolution there was an ineffective or-ganisation, The Union of Handi-capped People. But now thehandicapped themselves, or the par-ents of handicapped children, havetaken the initiative, and we co-operatewith those organisations.In South Africa it is often arguedthat the state has long abrogated itssocial responsibility to the majorityof its citizens, and that it should nowaccept that responsibility. Privateorganisations should not do whatthe state ought to do. Has anyoneever confronted you with this argu-ment?Now we are all in the same boat.We are creating a new state, in oppo-sition to the previous totalitarian sys-tem, so we are in a bit of a differentposition. I hope that the issue of wel-fare will be addressed by legislation,but I know that even in well-developedcountries, charity organisations playan important role because no state hasever been rich enough to solve all itsproblems. For example, money isgiven to the army. The recent war inthe Persian Gulf has played into thehands of those who say it is necessaryto modernise the army. It is a viciouscircle. Although the military industryprovides jobs, and it gives jobs to thou-sands of people, it is a closed circle.And I would like to add, for example,that a public poll recently showed thathalf the population think it is better tohave a higher living standard and anunhealthy environment than to have alower standard of living but to im-prove the environment. It was almostfifty-fifty. People want money andwill be. the consequences; and per-haps not them but their children. It is avery strange phenomenon, and goes toshow that it is necessary to explainover and over that health is more im-portant than money.How much disability do you see thatis a direct result of environmentalinfluences?The worst situation is in northernBohemia, and in the Ostrava region.Here women are directly affected.And of course there are problems inSlovakia as well. The situation is re-ally alarming.Particularly what sorts of problemsdo women experience?Their reproductive organs, espe-cially, are damaged, and they have noopportunity to have healthy children.You have said that VDV should playa watchdog role in parliament,keeping an eye on legislation, espe-cially economic legislation. What isyour opinion of current economicreforms?(Olga Havel subsequently refusedto allow the publication of this re-sponse.)You have spoken of a need to estab-lish advice centres for people. Howis this work progressing?There are already some centres likethat, and there are people who want toestablish more. Many specialists areinvolved in this work, but of course theprocess is very slow. For instance,public opinion is against people whoare addicted to drugs. Many people seeaddicts not as ill people, but as crimi-nals.A growing problem in Prague ishomelessness. What are your opin-ions on this?As far as I know, the Salvation=takes care of homeless people inour country. It is a Dutch group whichruns a soup kitchen every night onPrague's main station.(This was an edited response and sowas not subject to further questions.)[ __ _ _the story behind the interviewBr(..... it 13r~~~h ,s r ~~t c, m,,~nucX 011( her inter, ic, t,'i111 ()l,1~1u11,r(orda,rt hn~lottntllv 'Ii'ahftt,inted ~ti it l,tI i ll w, i t, Ict ntt t-at tt~~I n ~ au ~ ~w t~.Iworc cut. 1-fault-,v

Page 36 of 53 prague women on my mindIn closing reflections from London, Bronwyn Brady focuses on the position ofwomen in Czechoslovakia.My departure from Prague was alot more precipitous than I - oranyone else - anticipated. I fell foul ofthe rapidly-changing legislation, andafter haunting the local police stationfor two weeks, the authorities decidedthat the best they could do for me wasa week's exit visa ...! Anna was asappalled at the suddenness of my de-parture as I was, and she and Rudolfand Vladimir feasted me royally. AndI cooked them boboetie and yellowrice! They saw me off at the airportwith tears, and a shirt that readsPrague on my mind. And that's verymuch where it is. The experience ofliving there has been enormouslyvaluable, and I have yet to assimi-late it fully.Prague confirmed my commit-ment to feminism as a way of lifewhich is a middle way between thetwo dictatorial, patriarchal systemsof capitalism and socialism. It alsobrought home to me forcibly thatthe worst thing about poverty is thespiritual deprivation you suffer, orare made to suffer. It is quite possi-ble to survive on very little, and to livea life of quality, as long as you haveself-respect and a sense of worth, andaccess to a=u nity who can giveyou these or help you buildthem. It is this community that hasbeen broken in eastern Europe. Aspeople have been disallowed and de-prived of responsibility for their lives,a massive spiritual corruption has setin, and this is part of what makeseastern Europe so vulnerable to ex-ploitation by the west.I landed in London right as the G7summit started, and my head is spin-ning as I find myself plunged into thewealth of argument and thinking thatis available to me here - and to thelevel of which I have become unused.London also provides a useful van-tage point for reflecting back on theposition of women in Czechoslovakia.The two things from which womensuffer most in Czechoslovakia are theeconomy and the environment. Undersocialism it was a crime not to have ajob, and women were allowed two orthree years to be at home with theirinfant children. Now it is an economicnecessity to have a job. So, contrary totheir western sisters, most women inthe east would like the opportunity tostay at home. This is also becausewomen are expected to shoulder thefull burden of child-care and homemanagement, along with a job, andmost of them are perpetually ex-hausted.Society remains profoundly patri-archal, and in discussions with mywomen friends and students, it wasvery seldom that any of them wouldcriticise their men. Men's work is stillseen as inherently more valuable andimportant than women's work, andhousework and childcare are definitelynot men's work.Legislation has played into thePrague confirmed my commitment tofeminism as a way of life which is middleway between the two dictatorial,patriarchal systems of capitalism andsocialism. It also brought home to meforcibly that the worst thing about povertyis the spiritual deprivation you suffer, orare made to suffer.hands of this societal system. Womenare marvelously protected under exist-ing laws in Czechoslovakia: they areequal to men in all respects. Unfortu-nately, there has never been any kindof monitoring group to check on theapplication of that legislation, and sowomen have never been paid the sameas men, or treated the same as men, andthey have had to do twice the work. Aninteresting piece of legislation is infamily law, which makes men andwomen equally (of course) re-sponsible for the maintenanceof children. This has led to thesituation where women aretaken to court and jailed ontheir husband's evidence forfailing to support their chil-dren.Environmentally, womensuffer from the exposure oftheir bodies to teratogens,which often means that theycannot have children or thatthey risk having deformedchildren. And it means thatwomen often have care of children who are ill as a direct result of theenvironment. One of the most fright-ening things I heard was the proposalby environment minister Vavrousekmade during the debate on the firstmajor environmental legislationpassed in CSFR since the revolution.It deals with the disposal of waste, andhe was discussing additional legisla-tion about breast-feeding and PCBs(polychlorinated biphenyls). Theseare present to such an extent in meatand dairy products in Czechoslovakiathat he suggested a new test for moth-ers, which would indicate to themwhether or not it was safe for them tobreast-feed their babies.There is now a plethora of women's

Page 37 of 53 organisations in Czechoslovakia, al-though most of them are attached toparticular political parties, and are defacto catering committees. Othergroups organise very much aroundwomen-as-mothers-and-wives. Onegroup, whose name belies them com-pletely, is the Prague Mothers. Theyare women who have organisedaround the environment, and they areextremely vocal in challenging localgovernment and industry on their en-vironmental performance. The socialwork department at Charles Univer-sity is in the process of establishing awomen's studies course, but for mostpeople the notion of `women'sorganisation' or `feminism' still impl-ies women who wish to do withoutmen, without children ... all the stereo-types you can think of.Women are represented in parlia-ment, both federal and republican, butsorely under-represented. And all threeparliaments being as overworked as theyare, issues that are perceived as`women's' are pushed to the backbur-ner. And on the whole women deputiesare part of the system, operating in pa-triarchal ways, and playing the powergames of politicians. I discovered even-tually that my interview with OlgaHavel was the victim of one such power-monger. It transpired that Havel had noteven heard of the incidents around it, andnever saw the subsequent letters I sent toher challenging the censorship. It all fit-ted into a series of inter-organisationpower-plays, and my interview was aminor pawn ...!The situation is, of course, muchmore complex than I have represented:much as women in South Africa whoare oppressed have special copingmechanisms and have a separate cul-ture from men, so Czech women copewith their oppression by exercisingsolidarity with one another in a sepa-rate culture, which, in Czech anyway,is reflected in the language. Womenhave a slightly different vocabularyfrom men, and definitely differenttones and speech rhythms. They arestrong and vibrant and valiant, andtaught me a great deal.Home is still very much in mythoughts, but more and more I empath-ise with Virginia Woolf's statement inThree Guineas that `as a woman, Ihave no country. As a woman I wantno country. As a woman my country isthe whole world.'demanding a placeunder the kgotia treeThe Transvaal Rural Action Committee has beendocumenting the position of rural women in thewestern, northern and south-eastern Transvaal.TRAC' s report gives voice to this `silenced majority'.Although African women in ruralareas have borne the burden offamily responsibility and labour sincethe introduction of the migrant andwage labour systems, there has notbeen a concomitant increase in theirpower and status within the home andin society in general. In the words of awoman from Driefontein: `It [awoman's position] is very bad, awoman cannot own anything at home.She is the one who is looking afterthose things all the time. She is the onewho is taking all the responsibility athome. Men, they only come from timeto time. So women are the ones whomust own the things at home. Even ifit is not like that, it must be equal forboth.'Indifference to women's better-ment is illustrated by the lack of con-sultation by husbands on domesticissues; by denial of access to land forgardens or crops by chiefs; and by thehostility of village elders to projectsinitiated by women to alleviate theirburdens - for example, sharedchildcare and income-generating pro-jects.Access to landThe greatest problem facing ruralwomen is their lack of legitimate ac-cess to land. Traditional systems ofland tenure enabled families to claimland from the greater community, andgranted the male head of the house-hold certain powers in community de-cision-making.The breakdown of traditionalhousehold and community organisa-tion has left women in an invidiousposition. Their assumption ofresponsibilty for land management hasnot resulted in any formal status indecision-making. They are merelyperceived to be operating on behalf oftheir husbands and not in their ownpersonal capacities.Women interviewed are primarilyinvolved in three types of land owner-ship and occupation:1) Freehold land. access to landpurchased with title deeds, by individ-uals or collectives, prior to the restric-tive land laws of 1913 and 1936, hasnot necessarily meant greater securityas many have had to battle with thegovernment to resist black spot re-moval to various `homelands'. How-ever,, freehold has entailed somebenets. Legal title to the land, deter-mined by property law, tech-nically guarantees occupation and,within this law, rules of inheritanceapply. Women married under SouthAfrican law are able to inherit landowned by their husbands and acquirefull legal rights to the land.However, most marriages are stillenacted under African customary lawwhich does not entitle women to in-heritance. Women are consideredminors throughout their lives. Withouta will stipulating otherwise, the sons

Page 38 of 53 Braklaagte woman speaking at a kgotla. Her bearing illustrates a striking contradictionto traditional norms. Shifts in the attitudes of rural women are increasingly beingbrought about by the struggle around land issues and emerging forms of organisation(see `Rural women's movement', page 4g).of the landowner will inherit the land.Thus, =husband's husband's death a womancan become homeless. If she is al-lowed to remain on the homestead, amale relative will represent her familyand interests in the community, andshe will be subordinate to him.Women in rural communities areslowly challenging their powerless-ness in freehold tenure. Some inter-viewees with rights to land stated thatthey intended to leave the land to bothmale and female offspring.2) Trust lands: under this form ofland tenure, the South African orhomeland government controls theland. For individuals, there is far lesssecurity of tenure. Chiefs allocate theland. Women are especially vulnera-ble as they have no rights to land underthe regulations governing these areas.A woman living on trust land said: `Anunmarried woman is not allowed tohave a site. If she has children, she'llhave to wait until her elder son is ofage to get an I.D. and have a site tobuild a house registered in her son'sname ... I think it is really disgusting.A single mother is not allowed to havea site to build a house for her children... We don't approve of it because ifyou're not married it is not your fault.Marriage is God's gift.'Although some chiefs allocate sitesfor old or unmarried women out ofsympathy, this is at their own discre-tion. Upon their husbands' death,

Page 39 of 53 many widows are left homeless astheir sons evict them.3) Rural townships: the regulationsgoverning land allocation in theseareas are the same as those in urbantownships which are administered bya black local authority.Access to powerUntil recently, unmarried womenwere not eligible for housing sites.Women were forced to produce mar-riage certificates in order to get on tothe waiting list for a home. if the malehead of household died, his wife wasliable for eviction. As a woman fromHuhudi put it, `... the governmentwould kick you out of the house be-cause you are just yourself in thehouse, you haven't got a man, and theysay you can't afford to pay rent'.In traditional African society awoman's role is defined in terms of herhusband, their children, and his fam-ily. Men are assumed to be the thinkersand the decision-makers in all spheresof society.In traditional African society... men are assumed to be thethinkers and thedecision-makers in all spheres... Increasingly women arebecoming dissatisfied with thisexploitation ... women demandtheir dignity back - it wasremoved by their ownhusbands.Increasingly, women are becomingdissatisfied with this exploitation. Awoman from Mogopa said: `It is wellknown that men get their dignity fromtheir wives - this should be a two-wayprocess. Women should also be givenrecognition as important people in thecommunity. Women demand theirdignity back - it was removed by theirown husbands.'`The community's decision-mak-ing body is the kgotla, which com-prises male family representativeselected by extended family networks.'The kgotla advises the chief regardingallocation of land, resolves petty dis-putes and metes out punishments foroffences. A woman is not allowed toattend kgotla meetings unless called togive `evidence' at a disciplinary hear-ing. Even then, she may only speakwhen asked to do so, and must addressthe kgotla on her knees as a sign ofrespect for the men.Although serious crises of forcedremoval or incorporation have broughtthe voice and actions of women to theforefront of their communities' re-sponses to these situations, this has notshifted the traditional power struc-tures. In the trust lands, thegovernment's regulations have en-trenched the chiefs' power, thus reduc-ing the flexibility of a system whichmight otherwise adapt organically.Many women spoke of their urgentneed for greater material security andaccess to power. Young women oughtto have independent access to land. Alack of land may force a woman tomarry, and remain with a man despitebeing abused. While a `goodmarriage' remains the highest expec-tation mothers have for their daugh-ters, they are deeply concerned aboutthe vulnerability of married women inthe event of desertion by or death of ahusband.There is a complex inter-relationship be-tween access to land, political and do-mestic power, and rural women'sself-esteem. Access to land is an import-ant factor in this power equation.Women who have legally recognisedrights to land are able to assert somedegree of power at a local political, aswell as domestic level. However, tradi-tionalvalue systems still dictate bothmen and women's consciousness aboutthemselves and their roles: `... Ruralwomen think that their opinions aren'tany good. The way their husbands treatthem, they think they are nothing. Sothey have nothing to say ... it's hard forpeople to break that down.'Women articulate clear demandsfor change, beginning with an im-provement in the quality of their livesthrough the provision of better water,lighting, childcare, education andhealth facilities.They desire a marital contractwhich gives them power within therelationship and the household.Women, whether married or divorced,widowed or single, need political rec-ognition in their own right. Withintheir families, women's right to ahome should be legally sanctioned.Women want equal representation onlocal political power structures such asthe kgotla. Women must gain power inorder to encourage the participation ofother women in the political process.They accept the existence of chieftain-ship, but recommend that chiefs en-courage and support women'sorganisations.Lack of security in relation to landinhibits their ability to assert them-selves, both in the domestic and in thepolitical sphere. Women state un-equivocally that entitlement to landshould be independent of their rela-tionship with men.The futureRural women's access to land andpower has been noticeably absent inthe debate surrounding land issues,and in the recent government WhitePaper on land reform. Once again, theneeds and aspirations of women arebeing subsumed in the broader (and tosome, more important) political andcommunal issues of the land question.Women must be part of the processof policy formation, and their needsmust be reflected in the content of newgovernment policy. A priority for po-Women must be part of theprocess of policy formation.We must ensure that ruralwomen's concerns are heardin order to guarantee agender-sensitive policy whichincludes and reflects theiractual needs and aspirations.litical and development organisationsis to promote democratic, representa-tive women's structures, especially inthe rural areas. We must ensure thatrural women's concerns are heard inorder to guarantee a gender-sensitivepolicy which includes and reflectstheir 'actual= and aspirations.As a woman from Huhudi said:`They [rural women] are the women ofSouth Africa, they are waiting to seewhat will happen in a new South Af-rica. They wish to reach the new SouthAfrica. Then they would like to hearthe voices of the women in the newSouth African law.'

Page 40 of 53 the hidden burdenSue Middleton, Julia Segar, Rosemary Smith and GlendaMorgan participated in an Albany region project whichrevealed the impact of the detention of activists on thewomen left behind. Their record of this project brings theexperiences of a particular group of women into view.,twee, 25 000 and 40 000 SohavuthAfricans are estimated to ebeen detained during the second Stateof Emergency, declared on 12 June1986. In the Eastern Cape - an areathat has come to be characterised bypoverty and economic depression - itis estimated that 1 200 had been de-tained by the end of January 1988.During these large-scale detentionsthe Albany Black Sash, together withthe Grahamstown Dependants' Con-ference (DC) (a working division ofthe South African Council ofChurches), was involved in monitor-ing and debriefing 200 ex-detainees.This included documentation of thecircumstances of detention, diet andhealth care in prison, and the psycho-logical effects of detention.The women left behindThrough this debriefing work it be-came clear that it was important tolook at the coping strategies that peo-ple used both inside and outsideprison. It also became evident that theburden of coping often fell on to theshoulders of women. While there werea few women detainees, the vast ma-jority of activists detained were male.It is perhaps an index of women's sub-ordination in South African politicsthat the majority of activists are men.We aimed to shift the focus fromthe detainees to those women whowere left behind. We hoped to address,in some small way, the problem artic-ulated by Cheryll Walker: `the ab-sence from the historical record ofwomen's voices, most pronounced inthe case of black women. This weightsresearch towards organisations, eventsand individual lives that are docu-mented, and creates a bias towardsinstitutions with records ... [or] majoreruptions or disturbances, and the ex-perience of middle-class literatewomen. In the case of the great massof women, documentary silence maybe erroneously equated with historicalpassivity or, even worse, with histori-cal insignificance, so that women sim-ply disappear from our view of thepast.'This project was a group effort, un-dertaken by members of the AlbanyBlack Sash. After drawing up an inter-view schedule, we embarked upon aprocess of consultation with commu-nities from which the intervieweeswere drawn. This took about twomonths. Our final sample consisted of24 women living in Grahamstown,Bedford, Adelaide, and Fort Beaufort.The common denominator amongthe women was that they bore a majorburden of responsibility and stresswhen their kin were detained.Financial hardshipsMost of our interviewees confirmedthat detention had brought extra finan-cial hardships because of the removalof a breadwinner or contributor tohousehold income. Furthermore, de-tention brought a number of hiddencosts - many of which are not quanti-fiable.In many instances, children had tobe taken out of school as the familycould not afford the fees and relatedexpenses. Many women tried unsuc-cessfully to Td',, ~s,,- not surprisinggiven the desperate state of the econ-omy in the Eastern Cape. Financialhardships were felt even more acutelyby those in the smaller rural towns.Several families were faced with theloss of their houses as they struggledto pay for rent and services. Otheraccounts also fell into arrears:`He [the detainee] helped a lot withmoney, food and clothes - it was seri-ous when we lost him. I couldn't payrent. By that stage I was out of workso the girls had to stop school. Theynever got standard 10. Even now weare still out of work. When he wasdetained he got three months' pay.Nothing after that.'A less obvious cost borne by rela-tives of detainees was the food, cloth-ing and pocket money taken to thosein prison. Visitors to the jailed detain-ees felt guilty if they were unable totake parcels to them - some infor-mants did not visit their loved onesbecause they had nothing to take tothem. Other women opened accountsat clothing stores in order to purchaseitems for those detained, and were stillpaying off the debts at the time of ourinterviews.Mention must be made of the roleof the DC in mitigating these suffer-ings. Many reported receiving finan-cial aid from DC, includingtransportation to and from the jails.These trips in minibuses had a positivepsychological aspect in that relativesshared their sorrows, and sang andprayed together.The financial burdens did not nec-essarily disappear when detaineeswere released. Aside from the problemof unemployment, medical problems

Page 41 of 53 and their associated costs -both mate-rial and emotional - had to be shoul-dered by the families of the returningprisoners.Emotional burdensWhile it is to be expected that the phys-ical and mental scars of detention remainwith the ex-detainee, little attention hasbeen paid to the emotional sufferings ofthe women left behind. For manywomen, the detention of their loved onesbrought added responsibilities in theform of support for children and grand-children, keeping families together, anddealing with authorities ranging frompolice to lawyers, prison warders to storemanagers.Most women said that children be-came more difficult, common re-sponses being loss of appetite,over-dependency and clinging, reluc-tance to play, a desire to stay indoors,and fear of or increased agression to-wards the police.For most women, family caremeant hiding their true feelings and,above all, not giving the detainee anycause for anxiety during visits. Al-though most suffered from anxiety andstress themselves, they endeavouredto hide these feelings in public. Badnews at home and family problemswere not discussed with detainees:`I kept a cheerful face and hid prob-lems. I inspired the DC Kombi passen-gers with hymns and prayers so theywould not weep and upset the detain-ees.,'I pretended I was happy. I wasalways worried but I didn't want [thedetainee] to worry about me.'Anxiety was clearly exacerbated bythe police harassment experienced bya number of women. This ranged fromrepeated pre-dawn house searches, todifficulties in getting permits for jailvisits, to inquiries as to whether thedetainee was free when s/he was stillincarcerated.A feature of detention during thisperiod was the regularity with whichdetainees were moved from one jail toanother. All but two of the detaineeswe learnt about spent time in morethan one jail and almost half were im-prisoned in three different jails. Oftenrelatives had difficulty in finding outwhere detainees were being kept. Ha-rassment also took the form of with-holding this sort of information, ordeliberately misleading individuals asto the whereabouts of their relatives.Visits varied in frequency - formost they were permitted twice amonth. Half the women said they haddifficulty getting permits and manyhad to wait several weeks. Women inBedford said they were told that per-mits were only available in Grahams-town, which involved them inexpensive journeys, whileGrahamstonians often had to makeseveral trips to Port Elizabeth to getpermits.On the whole, jail visits appear tohave been traumatic episodes in them-selves. The physical condition of de-tainees usually gave rise to anxiety andthe fact that physical contact was notallowed was particularly painful.Most of our interviewees said thatcorrespondence with detainees waspossible, but difficulties arose fromthe delays in receiving mail and thehigh level of illiteracy or semi-literacyamongst the women. Although the de-tainees would write letters which thewomen could have read to them, theythemselves could not reply. Enclo-sures such as cards and photographswere usually not passed on to detain-ees. The long delays in receiving let-ters added to anxiety and in manyinstances caused practical problemswhen detainees made requests unbe-known to their relatives.After the releaseMost ex-detainees that we learnt aboutsuffered from sleeping problems, de-pression, and mood swings, and manydrank heavily. All seem to have expe-riencedsome form of post-detentiontrauma which has placed further bur-dens on the family.Women faced with this moodinessand nervousness responded by`nursing' them, or trying to joke themout of theirpoor spirits. Many reportedthat they themselves felt depressedand frightened, and two reported thattheir relationship with the ex-detaineehad broken down entirely.On a more positive note, many ofthe women felt that the situation hadobliged them to face enormous diffi-culties and they would be betterequipped to cope with crises in thefuture. They felt stronger and moreself-confident, having been obliged todeal with officialdom - getting per-mits, negotiating accounts, seeinglawyers - in a way that they had neverdone before. These responsibilitieshad led to personal growth.Destabilised communitiesThe women we interviewed are un-doubtedly strong and many have comethrough the detentions toughened bytheir experiences. However, it becameobvious to us that detention is not onlyan assault on the individual and his/herpolitical organisation, but alsodestabilises whole communities bycrippling families and personal rela-tionships. Although some counsellinghas been provided for the ex-detain-ees, little provision has been made forthose women who shared some of themental torture of detention, and who inmany instances still bear the emotionaland material responsibility for individ-uals and families affected by deten-tion.The small-town scenario is particu-larly grim. Even more than in largecentres, women were isolated, im-poverished, and cut off from informa-tion. In places like Fort Beaufort,Adelaide and Bedford, access to per-mits, lawyers, and to the jails them-selves was exceptionally difficult andcostly.In addition, it seems that families ofdetainees in small towns were some-times abandoned and ostracised byfearful friends and relatives. There is atendency when discussing small ruraltowns to romanticise notions of soli-darityand community, but it is import-ant not to take them for granted.Women and their families in thosetowns often appear to have been themost isolated.For people in this situation, thechurch has been an undeniable sourceof support and solace. This is an im-portant point in view of the fact thathalf of the interviewees were notthemselves involved in political or-ganisations - and, if anything, the de-tention experience discouraged themfrom joining such organisations.While the dark days of the State ofEmergency are now behind us, crisisand repression are unfortunately notyet over. We feel that the informationpresented here gives some insight intothe multi-faceted face of repressionand the ways in which individualshave coped. We hope too that this ma-terial both highlights the vulnerabilityof women and affirms their strength.

Page 42 of 53 REVIEWSDeath by Decree: SouthAfrica and the DeathPenaltycompiled by Theron,Sloth-Nielsen and Corder(Society.for the Abolition of theDeath Penalty and Institute ofCriminology, University of CapeTown, 1991; 46 pages)A ccordi"g to the preface, thisbooklet `attempts to providefacts and points of view about thedeath penalty, both generally and withparticular reference to South Africa.The intention is to stimulate informeddebate about the use of the death pen-alty, while not denying that it is anemotive issue.'It complements and brings up todate the Black Sash's 1989 researchproject, Inside South Africa's DeathFactory, and should be extremely use-ful as a text for study and discussionby people without legal training,equipping them to argue for abolition.It considers the moral and practicalaspects of capital punishment, thequestion of its deterrent capacity andits irreversibility. It outlines the Crim-inal Law Amendment Act (1990),gives facts and figures for South Af-rica and other countries, poses and an-swers a number of queries, but skirts1the difficult question of alternative`ultimate' punishment. There are ex-cellent quotations, notably from (out-sider) Justice John Didcott, and from(insiders) Breyten Breytenbach, HughLewin, and Jeremy Cronin.All this is so good that it seemsungenerous to carp, but there areblemishes. One is the unfortunate styleemployed in the `User's Guide' andthe glossary, which is embarrassinglyreminiscent of the Department of Ed-ucation and Training or the Depart-ment of Public Works. Moreover, theglossary, though full, contains someslipshod definitions.Despite minor flaws, however, thisis a booklet all abolitionists (lay orlegal) should have on their shelves,ready for reference or for lending.As Coretta Scott King, widow ofMartin Luther King, notes in thisbooklet: `An evil deed is not redeemedby an evil deed of retaliation. Justiceis never advanced in the taking ofhuman life. Morality is never upheldby legalised murder.'Nancy Gordon(Cape Western region)Working for Justice:The role of para-legalsin South Africa(Legal Education Action Projectand Black Sash, 1991)T he rise of advice offices and para-legals in the last decade has beenone of the significant contributions toincreasing access to the legal system.Black Sash and LEAP played aleading role in the training of many ofthese para-legals. Often working in ex-tremely difficult circumstances duringthe state of emergency, para-legalsmanaged, frequently at great personalloss, to provide advice, and access tojustice to many members of their com-munity who are correctly described inthe foreword to this book as not feelingpart of the legal system.The lifting of the state of emer-gency allowed an opportunity for thework of para-legals to be assessed andtheir future to be debated. This book isa result of the conference organised inJuly 1990 by LEAP and the Black Sashto start that assessment.It is a valuable contribution to thedebate on access to the legal system.Pennell Maduna, a member of the Af-rican National Congress Departmentof Legal and Constitutional Affairs,points out in his opening address re-printed in the book that `the issue ofjustice is at the very heart of thestruggle' waged against the `apartheidmonster'.The first half of the book providesmany arenas where para-legals cancontribute to that struggle for justice.Papers reprinted from the conferencedraw on differing experiences in dif-ferentsouthern African countries.Amy Tsanga points out that para-legals emerged for the first time inZimbabwe only after liberation. Clem-ent Daniels points out that in his re-cently independent Namibiapara-legals predated independence.As a result, the para-legals in the twocountries appear to have very differentrelationships with the state.The South African experiencesscattered through the book show SouthAfrican para-legals emerging in peri-ods of extreme repression having anantagonistic relationship with the stateauthorities. Unfortunately, no articlein the book draws any conclusionsfrom these different histories, butvaluable insight for future training isprovided by the collation of the differ-ent experiences in one collection.The second half of the book pro-vides useful resource material. It setsout goals and discussion topics forpara-legals working in different areas,for example advice offices, tradeunions, universities and law firms. Italso contains an update in an extensivecontact list which para-legals workinganywhere would find extremely use-ful.The book ends with a promise of anupdated para-legal manual due to bepublished in the later half of 1991.Together with this book, the manualcould provide the necessary fuel toensure that in future all will feel partof the legal system.Steve Kahanovitz(Legal Resources Centre)

Page 43 of 53 REVIEWSBlack Sash - Thebeginning of a bridge inSouth AfricaKathryn Spink (Methuen,London,1991)eviewing a book about ourselvesRis difficult. One starts with awhole lot of resentments - `that iswrong'; `that is not what we are like';,it =not like that'.One instant turn-off for me is thesub-title `The beginning of a bridge inSouth Africa'. The bridge idea is partof the whole concept of group identi-ties which we have always rejected butI suppose it is a concept well under-stood in the `civilised' West and wemust put up with the needs of the pub-lishers to sell the book.Having said that, it is a very goodbook and I hope members of the BlackSash will read it. It tells our history inrelation to the issues of justice we havebeen concerned about and it is frankand honest about some of the mostdifficult debates we have had aboutaffiliation, violence, universal fran-chise, et cetera.In the first chapter Kathryn Spinksays: `... perhaps the most pertinentquestion of all was whether it was war-riors or peacemakers that were mostneeded, and how well an organisationof just over 2 000 qualified for eitherrole'.She says we have had a long tradi-tion of fighting for human rights andasks whether our sympathy for the suf-fering victims of injustice, of the`structural violence' of the apartheidstate, has so entrenched us in a positionof opposition to the Nationalist gov-ernment that a less confrontationalrole for the future will not be feasible.I was asked to read and review thisbook in the first week of July 1991 -the week after so many of the billsrepealing apartheid legislation weresigned by the state president and be-came law.I do not feel less confrontationalthan I did last week. The repeal of theland acts and the Group Areas Actleaves 87 per cent of the land in thehands of the small white minority.Only those who are wealthy will ben-efit from the deracialisation of theland.Seven million people in South Af-rica are without adequate shelter-andwe define `adequate shelter' as thebasic minimum of security of tenure,shelter from the elements, privacy andaffordability - no more than that.BLACK SASH'The Beginning of a Bridgein South AfricarortevrortrortoARC; H B 1 S 11Ot' M S.011) T UT t1Only one in ten new entrants to thejob market will be able to find employ-ment in the formal sector; the unem-ployment rate is running at 40 per cent,66 per cent of the black population ofSouth Africa is under the age of 27 andhave had no meaningful education.The Population Registration ActRepeal Bill is the shortest and mostsimple piece of legislation I ever re-member in my years with the BlackSash. It repeals race classification butthen decrees that `anything done interms thereof shall for the purposes ofthe provisions of any Act, remain inforce as if the repeal had not takenplace'.Well, that means the continuationof the `own affairs' system of govern-ment we protested about in 1983/84with all its ongoing inequalities andgross injustices.Apartheid is not dead and most ofus will not live long enough to unveilits tombstone.I remain confrontational. These areall issues of justice and there is greatdanger in the demand that we acceptconfessions of guilt, whether couchedin religious terms or in the secularconfession that `apartheid is an exper-iment which failed'.There are huge issues of restitution,restoration and reparation which wehave to address.Spink spent many days and monthswith us. She reminds us of our historyand of the history of this country dur-ing the past 36 years.I do not always find myself inagreement with her conclusions buther book is a most important one. It ishonest and careful and accurate. Wecan learn a good deal from those wholook at us from outside and we need tothank the author for the new insightsshe has given us.It is good for us to be put under themicroscope of a dispassionate ob-server but there are miles to go beforewe sleep. aSheena Duncan (Black Sash adviceoffices co-ordinator and member ofthe National Executive)A Harvest ofDiscontent: The landquestion in South AfricaMike de Klerk (ed.) (Idasa: CapeTown, 1991; 274 pages)The land question is likely to provethe most difficult issue confront-ing any democratic government in thefuture South Africa, for the long andcomplex processes of land disposses-sion that stretch back to the beginningsof European settlement in South Af-rica, lie at the heart of the South Afri-can dilemma. The myriad problems ofpoverty and lack of resources that faceblack people today grew directly outof those processes.Yet in the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries black peopleproved incontrovertibly, as recent re-search has amply testified, that theycould be skilled, adaptive and compet-itive commercial farmers, despite con-siderable obstacles. Indeed, during theearly years of the mineral revolution,much of the commercial farming un-dertaken on white-owned farms wasperformed by black tenants; hence therecently repealed 1913 Land Act,which sought to segregate land owner-ship and also to prohibit independent

Page 44 of 53 REVIEWSblack farming on white-owned land.The act, with several later laws, hasled to massive forced dispossessionand displacement. Merely repealingthe laws clearly does not mend themassive social and economic damagedone to black people.Aware of the need to address theseissues as a matter of urgency, a prolif-eration of agencies has been seeking toaddress our somewhat inadequate un-derstanding of the complex realities onthe ground. With more resources thanmost, the Institute for a DemocraticAlternative in South Africa was quickinto the field, organising a workshopon the subject in March 1990. Theresulting publication, comprisingtwelve of the chapters presented therewith an introduction by Mike de Klerkof the University of Cape Town'sSchool of Economics, reveals starklythe dimensions of the task of recon-struction that lies ahead.First, we are introduced to the eco-logical dimensions of the problem bybotanist Richard Cowling. There arefour papers on questions of land own-ership and tenure, ranging across land-holding systems in African and`white' areas. The maze of legal issuesis introduced in two chapters by law-yers. Finally, five chapters deal withproduction options for the future, cov-ering development and upliftment pol-icies, and alternative ways ofreforming landholding and the or-ganisation of production (such as co-operative organisation).The range of disciplines and fieldsof expertise amongst the contributorsshows how multi-faceted the problemsare. The mass of issues raised cannotbe fully considered in a review; butthose wishing to develop an informedperspective on this core question forthe future should read the book.Tim Keegan(Department of History,University of the Western Cape)States of terror:Death squads ordevelopment?(Catholic Institute for Inter-national Relations, London, 1989)Throughout the Third World,grassroots social and economicdevelopment projects firmly based inthe community are a threat to the po-litical status quo. Not only do theybring material benefits, they also em-power working people politically. Inthis sense they are truly revolutionary.This,collection of case studiesshows how conservative governmentshave reacted violently to crush suchpopular movements in South Africa,the Philippines, Central America andHaiti. The South African chapters arewritten by Peter Harris and Mark Phil-lips. Harris's section describes howthe regime's crisis of legitimacy hasled to the use of `black on black' vio-lence, which he illustrates by refer-ence to the actions of Inkatha,warlords and police in the Natal war.Phillips refers to the Crossroads`burnout' of 1986, `the largest, mostrapid and most violent single forcedremoval in South African history',conducted by vigilantes with policecollusion. Phillips sees `violentstability', based on vigilante action, asan essential part of apparent reformwhich is a mixture of material im-provement and authoritarian control.In the Philippines a succession ofvigilante groups have maintainedclose links with the military and therich and powerful. The governmentclaims their growth is spontaneous butthere is considerable evidence offorced recruitment. Other echoes ofthe South African situation are the useof `indigenous weapons' and the vio-lent retribution meted out to those whotry to use the law against vigilantes. Asin South Africa, the church is often atarget where it stands up for peopleresisting evictions and the destructionof community projects.This book is well produced andreadable. It is based on a conferenceheld in London in 1988 and this mightexplain why it is unbalanced geo-graphically. For instance, chapters onMozambique and Sri Lanka wouldhave increased the possibility of com-parisons. This is compensated by areport on the conference panel discus-sion,which included the South Afri-can political commentator Mzala.Two important trends emerge fromthe book. Firstly, it highlights com-mon factors behind death squad activ-ities in the six countries described.Low-intensity conflict (LIC), winninghearts and minds (WHAM), nationalsecurity, and fanatical anti-commu-nism appear in each case. So, too, doshadowy forces promoting capitalismand conservative politics. The possi-ble influence of the Central Intelli-gence Agency (CIA) is mentioned, butnot developed.Secondly, the panel discussionhighlights the vulnerability of the poorto material bribery and manipulationby powerful vested interests: vigilan-tes are usually poor people them-selves. Ultimately, when faced bycrises of legitimacy, governmentshave privatised terror for economicand political reasons. Liberationmovements are rightly criticised forneglecting the popular organisationand education necessary to countervigilante violence. Too often it has ledto the diversion of development aid forrehabilitation, while conservative ele-ments have used their resources to im-plement counter-development.Christopher Merrett(associate member)

Page 45 of 53 44 SASH Ser)tentber 1991LETTERSa route to corporate analysisMargaret Nash, Claremont, responds to the National Conference issue:Congratulations on the NationalConference issue of SASH. Itmakes lively and informative readingand confirms the ability of the BlackSash to be directly involved withapartheid's victims (advice office cli-ents, rural communities, squatter set-tlements) and produce hard data on thebasis of such involvement. That is areal strength.Conspicuously lacking, however,is the element of corporate analysis,interpretation and evaluation. For ex-ample, the section on `violence holdscentre stage' cries out for corporateassessment, however tentative andprovisional, of 1) the responsibility ofthe state and 2) the role of the BlackSash - briefly commented on by RosBush in the closing paragraph.Maybe the six conference state-mentsreferred to on page 42 supplythe `sense of the whole'. If so, whywere they not included in the maga-zine? If not, are we to conclude that inthe face of so many contradictions andso much disinformation, the BlackSash is content to leave interpretationand guidance to the media controlledby the same old firms -Apartheid(Pty) Unltd, now Reform Inc. undermanaging director F. W. de Klerk, andthe JSE Big Five?1 do not say the Black Sash shouldbe telling members and others what tothink. But we do live in a period ofconfusion in which all of us are strug-gling to read between the lines anddiscern what is going on beneath thesurface. National conference providedsome of the needed data. It seeminglydid not provide much sense of sharedinsight arising from reflection and de-bate on the data.Can the Black Sash move beyondprotest and alleviation into realhuman-rights action with fellow SouthAfricans for development and trans-formation towards the fruits of justice,peace and democracy in our 'tree-logo'? I believe it can, but only if weengage in the 'do -look -thin k-pl an'cycle depicted in the diagram below.0The conference statements did notsupply the `sense of the whole'. Asstatements they did not have thestatus of resolutions and wereomitted due to space constraints.(editors)Adapted from Training for Transformation (vol. 1, p. 60) by Anne Hope and Sally Timmelan apology for the nuclear establishment?Mike Kantey of Earthlife Africa (Cape Town) responds to `The case.fornuclear energy' by Andrew Kenny (SASH, January 1991):have been asked by variousbranches throughout the region towrite to you expressing our concernregarding your feature on the joys ofnuclear power. Our concerns may beexpressed as follows:1 Nuclear power is inherently dan-gerous, as the holocaust of Cher-nobyl has shown.2 Nuclear power is heavily con-sumptive of both energy andmoney, as is demonstrated by thecollapse of the British industry inthe face of privatisation.3 There never has been, and cannever be, a permanent solution tothe urgent problem of high-levelwaste disposal.4 The history of nuclear-power pro-duction is intimately and inextri-cably tied up with the productionof nuclear weapons.5 The centralised production ofelectricity is not conducive to en-ergy equity.6 Uranium is a finite resource anddoes not promote sustainable de-velopment.We therefore dismiss everythingthat Kenny has written in his article.We consider his writings an apologyfor the nuclear establishment and anintegral part of their renewed cam-paign to win back public opinion afterthe holocaust of Chernobyl.Speaking personally, I find itdeeply disturbing that an organisationof such lasting integrity as the BlackSash can fall victim to such a cheapshot on the part of the nuclear estab-lishment. I have always thought that itwas cognizant of shifting debateswithin the international women'smovement for world peace and justice.Within that vibrant tradition has comethe most militant opposition to nuclearpower and nuclear destruction, as wit-nessed in the sustained protest atGreenham Common, the work ofLeonie Green Caldecott, the Hibakusamovement, and countless others.Is it not time for the Black Sash torejoin the global struggle and propa-gate the clear vision of a society with-out domination, exploitation or

Page 46 of 53 LETTERSviolence? Or will they remain subjectto masculine technology - includingthat of media manipulation?SASH aims to encourage stimulatingdebates (editors)wrongly sashedEleanor Mathews, Gillitts, writes:read the SASH magazine from coverto cover, and find it extremely in-formative. I want to point out thoughthat the little cartoon Sasher, shown inthe conference issue (May 1991), iswearing her sash over the wrongshoulder!Amanda Lowdemonstratesherindependenceat every turn!(editors)getting Amanda LowrightGus Ferguson writes:Amanda is, at the present, as youmay know organising a grass-roots coir and lace-making collectivein Male* in the Maldives.She is delighted with the latestSASH but is a bit miffed that her sur-name was given as Louw.I must point out in her defence (sheis as you know a bit too touchy) thatshe does love the coincidence thatAmanda Low is an anagram ofWomandla.Yours trulyGus FergusonAwomanensis toMs Amanda Low*FeMaleWe're thoroughly miffed atourselvesfor the slip. (editors)NEWS-STRIPMary Burton visits Banjul, The GambiaThe visit of several South Africans to the UNESCO Workshop on HumanRights Issues for a Post-Apartheid South Africa signified the opening ofthe door for South African human-rights organisations to the African Commis-sion on Human Rights in Banjul. Pictured at the workshop from 18 to 21 Juneare Mary Burton, Mahmond Ourabah (deputy director ILO), Marjorie Thorpe(UN Special Committee Against Apartheid) and Badawi El Sheikh Ibrahim Ali(member of the OAU African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights).Port Elizabeth volunteersThere have been heartening devel-opments in three areas of ourwork:1 Regular courses for voluntaryworkers are being held in theCape Eastern advice office. Run-ning for four Friday mornings,they aim to demystify the work ofthe office for new volunteers andincrease counselling skills andknowledge for the more experi-enced.Workers are made aware of howthe offices are a vital part of BlackSash and are asked to look at the`wider perspective' of the casesthey are involved with. Throughrole-plays and group discussiontrainees become part of solution-finding. Telephone techniquesand interviewing methods are ex-plored and specific problemsidentified and discussed.A need for an in-depth look atimproving the writing up of casehistories has been identified andthis was workshopped on 12 July.The need for volunteers is adver-tised on a regular basis in the free23Judy Chalmers(Cape Eastern)press, and we have been gratifiedand surprised by the responsefrom the public.Black Sash organised a stand tobring Children's Day to theawareness of the P.E. public on 1June. Many organisations wereinvited to participate and placardsbearing such slogans as Violencemaims children and Childrenneed peace lined busy Cape roadson that Saturday morning.Janet Cherry has been appointedas research worker for Black Sash(Eastern Cape). She will be put-ting her considerable researchskills to work analysing and iden-tifying trends in the vast amountof new and already existing infor-mation in our office. The BlackSash office is the only one of itskind in P.E. that has operatedsince 1985, and we feel her con-tribution will be extremely valu-able and make it more possible forus to focus on particular issues.U

Page 47 of 53 Northern Transvaal involvementsstay of executionon 18 June 1991 the capital pun-ishment working group orches-trated, together with a range of otherorganisations, a picket in front of theChancery of the Republic ofBophuthatswana. This was to call forthe commutation of the death senten-ces of Lucas Molekwa and AdamMashele, two prisoners in RooigrondPrison who were to be hanged the fol-lowing day.Isie Pretorius, and Marje lobson,were allowed inside the chancery topresent a plea to the ambassador's rep-resentative. We were very well re-ceived, and the representative bothpromised to pass the letter on to theBophuthatswana officials, and re-quested permission to thank those out-side who had expressed their concern.There was excitement when we foundout the two men were granted stays ofexecution. The action was carried outin conjunction with other efforts byLawyers of Human Rights, and wefollowed up our venture with letters topresident Mangope, various ambassa-dors in Cape Town and a press state-ment. ah , 1 .RO TSA BOFMEDI~,I?Y : --E "c .I: :, ...- -Black Sash members Marje Jobson and Isie Pretorius form part of a picket calling fordeath sentences to be commuted and for the abolition of the death penalty, in frontof the chancery in Bophuthatswana.new booklet ondomestic workrelationshipsPaid domestic work occursthroughout South Africa but thereare many workers and employers whodo not know their rights or how tosolve problems arising from this work.The Black Sash has produced a book-let to assist people in getting to knowtheir rights and to give ideas on how toaddress problems related to domesticwork.Written by Penny Geerdts,Masisebenzisane - Let its N~O7I to-gether is directed at workers and em-ployers in the hope that they will beencouraged to work together to maketheir relationship a beneficial one forboth sides. The booklet can be orderedthrough the Pretoria Advice Office,P.O. Box 9383, 0001 Pretoria at R6 perCOPY.indemnity for someUpington trialistshere were tears of joy and of dis-Tappointment when most (but notall) of the Upington trialists, peoplewho had become friends through visitsover the two years and a day that theyhad been on death row, received in-demnity and were allowed to walkfrom prison.Getting to know such sincere andgood people who had suffered somuch was a privilege. We have muchto thank them for.Isie Pretorius and Kerry Harris(Northern Transvaal region)

Page 48 of 53 Serge tuber 1991 SASH 47NEWS-STRIPnews from Natal Midlandsstand with a triple focusOn Saturday, 29 June, along withall other Black Sash regions, weheld a stand to mark the end of apart-heid legislation and, more im-portantly, to focus on the need forongoing protest against current dis-criminatory practices.Sixteen women gathered outsidethe city hall and divided into threegroups. The first acknowledged areasof South African life about which weneed no longer protest - group areas,population registration, pass laws andland acts. The second highlighted so-cial and political issues over whichthere remains great concern - segre-gated education, the Internal SecurityAct, homelessness and the existence ofbantustans - and the third called forsome solutions, including setting up anAlbany workshop on violence against womenB etween 13 and 20 April, CarlaSutherland, Cape Western mem-ber and researcher for the Committeeof Inquiry into Sexual Harassment atthe University of Cape Town, visitedthe Institute for Social and EconomicResearch (ISER) at Rhodes Univer-sity.Despite running numerous work-shops and seminars at the university,Carla found the time to give a talk tothe Albany Black Sash on women inthe economy, and to run a joint Blacklash-ANC Women's L=n work-shop on violence against . Thisinterim government, restitution ofland and a single education system.We realised afterwards that, unlikeother Black Sash regions who in manyways were reclaiming their public ter-rain, Natal Midlands, through the sup-port of a sympathetic magistrate, hasbeen standing every month during thepast few years.Our stand on 6 July focused onceagain on the plight of black pension-ers. It highlighted the present inequal-ity of pensions between differentracial groups and called for an end toapartheid in pension payments and theimmediate implementation of parity.Sixteen Black Sash members standingoutside the Pietermaritzburg city hallwas Albany's first joint venture withthe ANC Women's League and itproved to be a great success. Atten-dance was good, with the numbersequally divided between Black Sashand Women's League members.The workshop seems to have beenenjoyed by all and it generated a lot ofenthusiasm for more joint activities inthe future, specifically co-operation ina campaign on violence againstwomen.Sue Middleton and Glenda Morgan(Albany region)constitutional focus forwomen's groupM,-b,,, of the women's group,which is one of our most stim-ulating groups, agree that our currentproject `Women in the newconstitution' is an extremely excitingand rewarding one. We have brain-stormed around areas of life particu-larly pertinent to women - such ashealth, family, reproductive rights,and legal status - and we are nowexamining each in detail with a viewto the protection of women in futurelegislation. At the same time, we areencouraging other women to start sim-ilar projects by talking about the groupon every possible occasion. 0,fenny Clarence(Natal Midlands region)Trudy Thomas joinsnew Border committeeMedical pioneer Dr TrudyThomas is back in East Londonafter an absence of four years. Shetook up the post as principal medicalofficer at the Duncan Village DayHospital after completing a course incommunity health at the University ofCape Town.She was also elected co-chair of theBlack Sash Border region in June.Before Thomas left East London,she headed the community health de-partment at Cecilia Makiwane Hospi-tal in Mdantsane.In an interview with the Daily Dis-patch on her return, Thomas said thatin a future South Africa people wouldwant to know what the conditions ofhealth care would be. They have noillusions that it is going to be easy, shesaid, but they will fight for these thingsuntil they get what they consider ahuman deal.The rest of the Black Sash commit-tee in East London are: Jenni Horn(co-chair), Val Viljoen (treasurer),Mandy Jones and Janine Gould (sec-retary), Louise Childs (spokesperson),Marietjie Myburg (magazine repre-sentative), Sue Power, Nora Squires,Sally-Jane Murray. 0Marietjie Myburg (Border region)

Page 49 of 53 Obituary:Ruth CoplansRuth Coplans, Black Sashmember since early days,was latterly precluded frommuch Black Sash activity by herown and her husband's poorhealth. Nevertheless, she re-mained a staunch and generousmember whose warm personal-ity will live in the hearts of allwho knew her.Those of us who were on theCape Western regional councilwith Ruth in early Black Sashyears will remember especiallyher common sense and pungenthumour besides the trenchant in-sight and keen wit which went tothe root of problems, dissolvingdifficulties and enliveningdreary discussion.Ruth had a flair for hitting thenail on the head, often in a prac-tical manner. It was she who or-ganised a fund to keep the adviceoffice going, should it be banned(or closed). This money laterwent towards the Bail Fund, forthose awaiting trial.Her energy and courage in theface of poor health and her stead-fast belief in Black Sash aimswas shown by her participationin the protest stand in March1988 against the death sentenceimposed on the Sharpeville Six,when she and her sister, DesireeBerman, were among the 29 whowere arrested and spent the dayin Caledon Square.Although she was not able toattend many meetings it was ajoy always to meet Ruth at re-gional and national conferences,her interest and attention un-dimmed.We salute you, Ruth, and holdyour husband Carl, children Petaand Gregory, and your sisterDesiree in sympathetic thought.Bunty Aitchison(Cape Western region)changing experiences for a westerncourt monitorAs conventional court monitoring inCape Town has virtually ceased overthe past year I found myself monitor-ing `illegal gathering' cases involvingdemonstrating relatives and friends ofpolitical prisoners on Robben Islandand elsewhere.I am also the Black Sash represen-tative on the liaison committee of con-cerned organisations who haveco-ordinated their resources with thestaff of Dependent's Conference inpreparing Cowley House as a half-wayhome for released prisoners. Theyhave been given thorough medicalcheck-ups; optional psychologicalcounselling; financial support forclothing, emergencies and travel ar-rangements to ease their way home totheir families.Our Tuesday evening meetingshave long since turned into alternativeevents: welcoming sudden releasees atthe dockside; sharing in services ofthanksgiving at the chapel; demon-strating outside Somerset Hospital insympathy with hunger-strikers and ex-changing amandlas under their win-dow; or talking with re-united familiesand sharing some of their joy and painat welcome-home parties.Press conferences were held out-Top: A welcoming party for released prisoners at the dockside, Cape Town;below: outside Cowley House after press conference for releaseescapeside Cowley House after the initialmajor release of forty-one prisoners on16 and 19 April. As numbers of releas-ees dwindle, families are entertainingex-prisoners until they leave for theirown homes, and Cowley House re-mains the centre for advice and sup-port.However, political prisoners re-main incarcerated in prisons all overthe country. Black Sash members arenow focusing their support on visitingprisoners in Pollsmoor, each branchadopting two prisoners. Profiles of thecases of many of these have alreadybeen highlighted in the press.At a recent monitoring workshopwe honed our skills as active monitorsand instigated a media monitoring net-work among the branch membershipto watch over the following issues:land and housing, education, women,violence and political agendas, civicsand local government, police, courtsand legal process, legislation, healthand social welfare. The hope is that wewill be able to analyse trends and offerconstructive criticism where neces-sary.There is an ongoing need for ruralcourt monitoring. aAnne Greenwell (Cape Western region)

Page 50 of 53 rural women's movement takes offRural women from communities in theNorthern Cape and Transvaal havecome together to form a new ruralwomen's movement. It is open to alloppressed rural women who wish tojoin the struggle for women's rights.The intention is to reach all women inrural areas, and particularly womenliving on white farms.The organisation aims to create fo-rums for rural women to unite againstoppression; demand that women haveequal rights to land; encourage womento be self-reliant, independent and cre-ative; work towards women having asay in political matters at a nationallevel and in communities; bring ruraland urban women closer.It also advocates that womenshould have access to literacy, adulteducation and skills training to im-prove their lives, and finally, that ruralwomen need resources to developareas which would improve their dailylives.The movement has a formal consti-tution and an executive committeewho work in association with theTransvaal Rural Action Committee(Trac). They have embarked on a pro-gramme of local meetings in differentareas in which the role of the ruralwomen's movement will be discussedfurther and at which educative projectswill be initiated.Trac (Black Sash Transvaal region)Obituary: Elizabeth RoweE lizabeth R.- was a sound, solid citizen, which may not sound compli-mentary but is intended to be. She was totally reliable, totally committed,totally sincere, a straight-from-the-shoulder no-nonsense person.I am not sure whether or not she was a founder member, but was certainlyone of very long standing, and she remained dedicated to the Black Sash untilthe day she died. Her interest was the advice office, and for more years thanany of us can remember she worked there faithfully three days a week. Shenever failed to do anything she had undertaken, never absented herself for someflimsy reason, and treated her voluntary work in the advice office as a job whichwas her responsibility. No salary could have matched her dedication.Over the years she acquired a vast store of knowledge about the lawsaffecting black people, which she passed on to those around her. She ranworkshops, trained learner workers and volunteers, and the ongoing success ofthe Johannesburg advice office is largely due to her. Everybody in the officeloved her.But the Black Sash was not her only commitment. Just as tirelessly sheworked for the Thabison Clinic in Alexander and for her church. Her husbanddied many years ago, and she had two sons, one here and one in Australia. Toher family we extended our deepest sympathy. We will never cease to mournand miss Elizabeth who was indeed a very special lady. 1-1Joyce Harris (Transvaal region)active repressionmonitoring in DurbanT he Natal Coastal repression mon-itoring group has been extendingits operations by collecting more in-formation, doing more with it, and tell-ing more people about it. We havedeveloped a co-operative working re-lationship with other monitors, Idasa,and the Legal Resources Centre. Wealso are improving our relations withthe Inkatha Institute concerning thesharing of information.We followed up on unrest inDriefontein near Tongaat-heightenedby local police misconduct - by col-lecting more than 50 statements fromthe residents about the unrest, and thendemanding an immediate investiga-tion by the South African Police inDurban.In late June, 13 people were ar-rested on 22 charges, including mur-

Page 51 of 53 der, attempted murder, abduction andarson. Three of the accused were de-nied bail, on our and IDASA's request,to avoid further intimidation of thecommunity.Photographs taken by the unrestmonitor during a recent Inkatha marchin Tongaat - during which marcherscarried G3 rifles - were useful in ex-posing KwaZulu's handouts of G3 s toindunas and chiefs throughoutKwaZulu.The Unrest Bulletin is now printedfortnightly, and distributed to morethan 300 individuals and or-ganisations.Lena Slachmuijlder (Natal Coastalregion)back at theJohannesburg city hallriday, 28 June, coincidentally theanniversary of the Black Sash'shistoric vigil at the Union Buildings in1955, was the day the Transvaal regionof the Black Sash reclaimed the stepsof the Johannesburg city hall. This wasthe traditional protest ground fromwhich they had been exiled since 1962when all demonstrations there wereprohibited.Along with a couple of dozen newand fairly new Black Sash membersstood several indomitable members ofthe old guard, including former na-tional presidents Jean Sinclair andJoyce Harris.In the week in which president DeKlerk signed the bills that spelt the endof legislated apartheid-abolishing thePopulation Registration Act and theGroup Areas Act - the Black Sashtook the opportunity to look to thefuture and express its hopes that in thatfuture de facto apartheid too woulddie.In a statement handed out to pass-ers-by the Black Sash welcomed theabolition of race classification, theland acts, the Group Areas Act andother apartheid laws but pointed outthat apartheid was not dead as long asthe current system of governmentunder the current constitution per-sisted and as long as inequities in pen-sions, education, land allocation,housing, employment and health stilloN,-CIlC2ENSNlP1N_~NEUNTRYJu,rLANDLOCATIONThe Black Sash back on the city hall steps after 29 years during which alldemonstrations on or near the steps had been bannedexisted. The Internal Security Act stillprovided for detention without trial,freedom of expression was under-mined by the state's monopoly ofradio and television, and apartheid hadleft the country a legacy of politicalviolence.`The Black Sash calls upon the gov-ernment and those who have benefitedfrom apartheid to take urgent action toredress the evils that more than 40years of apartheid have wrought.`Apartheid will not be dead untilthere is social, political and economicjustice for all South Africa's citizens,'the statement read.Although the violent response thatcharacterised many of the city hallstands in the early days was absent,one link to the past was preserved-thearrival of policemen with a camera tophotograph the silent women. Andtrue to form, it was Jean Sinclair whochallenged their presence.Some things never change ... L~Pat Tucker (Transvaal region)0F

Page 52 of 53 Fairewe 14~y~e Har,itW hile we do have aims and objectives that guide and set the parameters toour work, the Black Sash is shaped by and really is it's members. It is theinterests, the passionately-held beliefs, the commitment and the energy of themembers that make up what the Black Sash was and is. For all of our 36 yearhistory, Joyce Harris has given so much of herself to the Black Sash, that she hasbecome a very important part of who we were and what we are.Joyce is a founder member of the Black Sash and has served the organisationin many capacities. For many years she has been a member of the TransvaalRegional Council, and has been Transvaal's regional chairperson, editor of SASHmagazine, chairperson of the Advice Office Trust, national vice-president and ournational president for four years from 1978 until 1981. In 1990 she was unani-mously elected honorary national life vice-president of the Black Sash as a tributeto someone who has spent the greater part of her life working for the organisationand the principles for which it stands.In the Black Sash we have =formidable and wonderful role-models. Joyceis one of them. She has many talents that have been important to us. Among themare her ability to analyse current events and politics clearly and incisively. Shehas an unswerving commitment to what she believes is right (and will always sayso, even if it is unpopular). Joyce has written prolifically on behalf of theorganisation with characteristic grace and style.It has always been comforting to know that when there is a tough letter to bewritten to the press or a challenging issue that needs to be thought through andwritten about, that Joyce is there, her talents and trusty, ancient old typewriter atthe ready.For these and many other reasons, Joyce will be sorely missed by us when sheand Nathan go to live in Canada later this year to be with their children andgrandchildren. Thank you Joyce and Nath. Go well.Jenny de TollyBarbara Hogan givesinsights into violenceon the WitwatersrandIn a talk delivered to the Black SashTransvaal, Barbara Hogan said thekind of violence people were having tocope with was of a banditry nature,similar to that associated with Renamoin Mozambique. The aim of the perpe-trators appeared to be to destroy thesocial fabric of community life.As secretary of the African Na-tional Congress (ANC) Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging region,she regularly faces a barrage of re-quests for help from those on the re-ceiving end of violence.Hogan said that people, wearingred headbands and attacking townshipresidents-not necessarily ANC mem-bers though the majority of them areperceived as ANC supporters - arecreating mass panic and fear in thehearts of township residents.Attacks on communities are gener-ally preceded by rumours and the pres-ence of bakkies off-loading weaponsin the area. Often this is followed byan Inkatha Freedom Party `peacerally' to which busloads of peoplefrom other areas are brought. Wildrumours then ensue and people startcreating barricades while they wait interror for the attack from this unknownforce.Groups targeted are often squattercamps or people living opposite hos-tels. On other occasions the attackersleave a meeting and pick on people atrandom. She cited the example of anold man who happened to be sitting ona chair outside his home when the at-tackers found him and hacked him topieces.Abductions are common and thishas been prevalent in Tokoza wherewomen have been abducted and takenback to the hostel.On the increase is a form of attackwhich is particularly difficult to reactto: massacres at taxi ranks and ontrains. This is reminiscent of theRenamo method of operation.Hogan said that attacks appeared tobe carried out by 'roving bandits', peo-ple who were obviously being movedabout the area, sometimes in hiredtrains, while trucks and vans carriedthe weaponry. This would seem to in-dicate that the attacks were part of asophisticated military operation.Hogan said the reaction of the po-lice varied from area to area and thatsome of those she dealt with were trulyenlightened. The police were oftenscared of raiding a hostel, althoughthey had been requested to do so, andsome members of the police are con-fused about what was going on andhow they should react.Hogan said she felt the battleshould not be seen as an ANC/Inkathabattle. She emphasised that the ANChad not embarked on a reactionarycampaign and is not the aggressor.She conceded that sometimes therewas a dislocation between the hosteldwellers and the community and thatthe alliance between the Inkatha Free-dom Party and the councillors was dis-turbing.Laura PollecuttTransvaal region)

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