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CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO: YOUNG WOMEN AND MEN IN BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS COMMUNITY WORK, 1970s SOUTH AFRICA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2013

Leslie Hadfield
Leslie Hadfield*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
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Abstract

Young activists who took part in South Africa's Black Consciousness movement challenged the apartheid status quo with their bold calls for black psychological liberation. This article uses new evidence to elucidate the work these youthful activists did in health and economic projects in the rural Eastern Cape that, in part, upheld certain customs. The article also brings young professional women into the history of African youth, arguing that the involvement of professional black female activists changed the way activists and villagers perceived the abilities and roles of young black women.

Keywords

South Africapoliticsresistanceyouthwomen
Type
Popular Politics in the 1960s and 1970s
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 247 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

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15 Magaziner, The Law, ch. 2.

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20 Telephone interview with Asha Moodley, 3 Aug. 2012.

21 University of the Witwatersrand Historical Papers (UWHP), Johannesburg A2176, ‘Report of Leadership Training Seminar Edendale Lay Ecumenical Center’, Dec. 1971.

22 Telephone interview with Malusi Mpumlwana, 20 Dec. 2008.

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24 Woods, Biko, 89.

25 Interview with Thoko Mpumlwana, Pretoria, 24 July 2008.

26 Robert Sobukwe of the Pan Africanist Congress disapproved of their behavior, as reported in Biko, I Write, 172. See also Mafuna, B., ‘The impact of Steve Biko on my life’, in van Wyk, C. (ed.), We Write What We Like: Celebrating Steve Biko (Johannesburg, 2007), 82Google Scholar; and Noble ‘Doctors divided’, 246 and 283–4.

27 Interview with Novayi Jekwa, East London, 27 Mar. 2008.

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29 Of course, not all youth have the same characteristics, opportunities, experiences, or goals. See Dlamini, S. N., Youth and Identity Politics in South Africa, 1990–94 (Toronto, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi; P. M. Kagwanja, ‘Clash of generations?: youth identity, violence and the politics of transition in Kenya, 1997–2002’, in Abbink and van Kessel, Vanguard or Vandals, 81–109; and Seekings, Heroes or Villains?.

30 Magaziner, The Law, ch. 3.

31 Noble, ‘Doctors divided’, 122 and 125–9.

32 Franz Fanon, Kenneth Kaunda, Leopold Senghor, Julius Nyerere, and black American writers all were influential. See Magaziner, The Law, ch. 3; Pityana, Ramphele, Mpumlwana, and Wilson, Bounds of Possibility, 28–30, 146, 155, and 218.

33 Although she was a white liberal, SASO students decided to work with Anne Hope because she was schooled in Freire's methods. L. Hadfield, ‘Restoring human dignity and building self-reliance: youth, women, and churches and Black Consciousness community development, South Africa, 1969–1977’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Michigan State University, 2010), 66–78.

34 For more on funding, see Sellström, T., ‘Sweden and the Nordic countries: official solidarity and assistance from the West’, in South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET), The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 3, Part 1: International Solidarity (University of South Africa, 2008), 471–6Google Scholar; and Karis, T. and Gerhart, G. M., From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1990, Volume 5: Nadir and Resurgence, 1964–1979 (Bloomington, IN, 1997), 120–3Google Scholar.

35 Interview with Malusi Mpumlwana.

36 Noble, ‘Doctors divided’, 72–3; Magaziner, The Law, 21–5. Ramphele's parents were both teachers but a state loan allowed her to attend university. She lived on help from friends and ‘the hope that somehow the money problem would be resolved’. Ramphele, Across Boundaries, 47.

37 For more on the funding and running of these programs, see L. Hadfield, ‘Restoring human dignity’; and Hadfield, L., ‘Biko, Black Consciousness, and “the system” eZinyoka: oral history and Black Consciousness in practice in a rural Ciskei village’, South African Historical Journal, 62:1 (2010), 78–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 See Banks's, L.discussion of intercultural hybridization in ‘Beyond red and school: gender, tradition and identity in the rural Eastern Cape’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28:3 (2002), 631–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Some mission-educated elites lived in the villages where the BCP worked, but they were a minority.

39 See Mager, A. K., Gender and the Making of a South African Bantustan: A Social History of the Ciskei, 1945–1959 (Portsmouth, NH, 1999)Google Scholar; and , P. and Mayer, I., Townsmen or Tribesmen: Conservatism and the Process of Urbanization in a South African City (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar. In many places, women with more than one child gained a higher status that allowed them to obtain a house and land; mothers-in-law wielded power over daughters-in-law and younger women. Ideals taught by missionaries would have further tied womanhood to domestic responsibilities.

40 Mager, Gender, 128–9. The category of youth has long been an important category in many African societies, as G. T. Burgess argued in ‘Imagined generations: constructing youth in revolutionary Zanzibar’, in Abbink and van Kessel (eds.), Vanguard or Vandals, 55–78. Interviews with villagers indicate this was the case in Zinyoka and Njwaxa.

41 UWHP ‘Report of Leadership Training Seminar Edendale Lay Ecumenical Center’, Dec. 1971.

42 Hansen, D. D., The Life and Work of Benjamin Tyamzashe: A Contemporary Xhosa Composer, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Occasional Paper No. 11 (Grahamstown, 1968), 18Google Scholar.

43 The Mfengu-Rharhabe rivalry was important in Ciskei politics at the time, but did not play a large role in Njwaxa and Zinyoka; other tensions superseded it.

44 Aluka digital library (www.aluka.org), Karis-Gerhart Collection in Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa, BCP ‘1974 Report’, n.d.

45 Interview with Voti Samela.

46 Interview with Beauty Nongauza, King William's Town, 19 Nov. 2008.

47 Ramphele, Across Boundaries, 98–9.

48 See P. and I. Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen; and Banks, ‘Beyond red’.

49 This further applies to elite women. Ramphele's comments on how women who obtained a privileged acceptance in student politics would look down on other women. Ramphele, ‘The dynamics of gender’. See also I. Amadiume, Daughters of the Goddess, ch. 4.

50 Interview with Dina Mjondo, Zinyoka, 27 Aug. 2008.

51 Interview with Nosingile Sijama, Zinyoka, 17 Sept. 2008.

52 Mager, Gender, 133–6.

53 Interview with Thenjiwe Nondalana, Zinyoka, 27 Feb. 2008.

54 Interview with Nonzwakazi Dleb'usuku Zinyoka, 10 Apr. 2008.

55 Interview with Dina Mjondo.

56 Interview with Thoko Mpumlwana.

57 Thoko Mpumlwana, email correspondence with the author, 14 Sept. 2009.

58 Interview with Asha Moodley.

59 Interview with Thoko Mpumlwana.

60 Bhekizizwe Peterson asked where the black women were in literary production. Two of them were working on more academic and research–oriented projects, positions that seemed to be more acceptable for women. Peterson, B., ‘Culture, resistance and representation’, in SADET, The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 2: 1970–1980 (Pretoria, 2006), 161–85Google Scholar.

61 See her various articles in the journal; and Bonnin, D. et al. , ‘Editorial: celebrating 10 years’, Agenda, 13:34 (1997), 2–3Google Scholar.

62 Interview with Vuyo Mpumlwana, Mthatha, 3 Oct. 2008.

63 Ibid.

64 After a brief sojourn in the Transvaal, she ended up in Canada where she became a clinical psychologist.

65 She had moved to King William's Town to work at the Mount Coke hospital and to be near Biko who, though married to Nontsikelelo Mashalaba, had a relationship with Ramphele.

66 Ramphele, Across Boundaries, 95–6.

67 Chapman Palweni ran Zanempilo when Ramphele and Solombela were detained for four months in 1976. Sydney Moletsane replaced Solombela when he left in 1977.

68 Interview with Nohle Mohapi, Port Elizabeth, 30 Oct. 2008.

69 Ramphele, Across Boundaries, 104–5.

70 Ibid. 105; Ramphele, ‘The dynamics of gender’, 220; Mngxitama, Alexander, and Gibson, Biko Lives!, 280.

71 Interview with Nontobeko Moletsane, Amalinda, 12 Aug 2008.

72 Interview with Malusi Mpumlwana. On the gendered aspects of the medical profession and education, see Noble, ‘Doctors divided’, ch. 6.

73 Interview with Bennie Khoapa, Durban, 4 June 2008; Interview with Malusi Mpumlwana; and Interview with Thoko Mpumlwana.

74 Interview with Luyanda ka Msumza, Mdantsane, 2 Dec. 2008; Interview with Bennie Khoapa, Durban, 3 Nov. 2008; Interview with Sydney Moletsane, Port Shepstone, 4 Nov. 2008.

75 Interview with Sido Hlaula, King William's Town, 2 Dec. 2008.

76 Interview with Mziwoxolo Ndzengu, Zwelitsha, 15 Aug. 2008. Incidentally, Ndzengu met his wife at the clinic where she worked as a nurse.

77 Interview with Bennie Khoapa, 4 June 2008; Interview with Dina Mjondo.

78 Interview with Xoliswa Qodi Nqangweni, Bhisho, 23 Nov. 2008; Interview with Mziwoxolo Ndzengu.

79 Interview with Sido Hlaula.

80 Ramphele, ‘The dynamics of gender’, 221.

81 Interview with Malusi Mpumlwana.

82 As reported by Noliswe Mnyaka, cited in R. E. Johnson, ‘Making history, gendering youth: young women and South Africa's liberation struggles after 1976’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 2010), 109.

83 Magaziner, ‘Pieces of a (wo)man’, 58.

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