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RACE AND GENDER IN THE NOVELS OF FOUR CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS

by

Anissa Talahite

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Submitted ⁱⁿ accordance with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D.

School of English The University of Leeds

September 1990

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RACE AND GENDER IN THE NOVELS OF FOUR CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS

by

Anissa Talahite

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Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D.

School of English The University of Leeds

September 1990

This thesis is dedicated to my late father Mr.

Bekhlouf Talahite and to my mother Mrs. Claude

Talahite .

I wish to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to the completion of this thesis. I would like to thank the Algerian Ministry for Higher Education for sponsoring my studies. I am also indebted to Mr Boukhari from the cultural section of the Algerian embassy for his help and assistance. I also thank the Geoffrey Spink Fund Group, the Africa Educational Trust and the Nancy Balfour Trust for their financial help.

I would like to express my gratitude _to Dr. David Richards in particular, for his ^{advice, support} and encouragement in supervising my research. I am also indebted to the late Mr. Arthur Ravenscroft for his valuable help in compiling bibliographies.

I would like to thank Liz Paget for offering technical advice and the staff of the Brotherton library, especially Mrs. Pat Shute for her help and patience.

Special thanks to Cornelia Al-Khaled, Annie Fatet,

Vicki Manus-Briault, Nontobeko Mofokeng, Irshad Motala,

and Pat Naidoo for offering their help and support when

these were most needed. Finally, I would like to say

thank you to my family, especially to my sister Nedjma,

for their encouragement.

This thesis examines the ways in which four women novelists from Southern Africa have approached the questions of race and gender and what textual forms they have developed. Chapter One sums ^up the recent history of South Africa and of its literature, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary period and on the context in which women's writing developed.

Chapter Two sets the theoretical framework of the study by linking the post-colonial theory of the

"other"

psychoanalytical approach to the construction of woman as "otherness" in Western tradition.

The last four chapters deal with the analysis of a number of selected texts by the writers who have been chosen for discussion. Chapter Three examines Doris Lessing's psychological exploration of the colonial woman's sense of disintegrating identity.

It pays attention particularly to how Lessing builds an analytical approach to the problems of woman's oppression, and to how this approach relates to the politics of race. In a similar perspective, Chapter Four examines how the novelist Bessie Head transgresses the barriers of her society by exploring the forbidden land of dreams, fantasies and myths. The emphasis is on how Bessie Head, as a black woman, creates a mode of expression where language and identity are central, and how this mode is relevant to the politics of liberation in South Africa. Chapter Five studies the textual strategies in Nadine Gordimer's late novels in an attempt to define the link between her textual ^practices and the collapse of white identity faced with the demands of the black majority. The thesis ends with a discussion on Miriam Tlali's novels, principally dealing with the ways in which they construct a black female voice. This last chapter examines how Tlali's plural narratives are informed by the social and cultural processes at work in her society and by her position as a black woman writing under apartheid.

in literature and the feminist

Page CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

General Historical Background II. Women's Protest in South Africa

III. A Survey of South African Literature IV. The Literature Written by Women

1 I .

21 28 51 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Critical Approach to Post-Colonial Literature

II. Feminist Approach I .

61 84 CHAPTER THREE: DORIS LESSING 108

The Grass Is Singing. . ..

II. "Children of Violence"..

110 I.

138 CHAPTER FOUR: BESSIE HEAD 168

I . ^Maru

II. A Question of Power..

170 193 CHAPTER FIVE: NADINE GORDIMER 221

A Guest of Honour II. The Conservationist 1 1 1. Burger's Daughter IV. July's people

A Sport of Nature

222 I .

231 239 249 V. 260

CHAPTER FIVE: MIRIAM TLALI 272 I . Muriel at Metropolitan II. Amandla

275 297 CONCLUSION 327

334

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER ONE:

INTRODUCTION

I. GENERAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is an overview of the history of South Africa and of its literature. The focus of this thesis is on South Africa, ^although some of the writers which are being discussed lived in and wrote about the neighbouring Southern African countries (Botswana, Zimbabwe) . Since the ^history of the region has been affected by the apartheid regime in South Africa and since it is the political developments there which will determine the future of the region, this study concentrates on South Africa primarily. This does not mean that what has been taking place in other parts of Southern Africa are insignificant events. Research on the literary histories of the different Southern African countries is an important area to be investigated;

however, this is outside the scope of this ^study.

The history of South Africa is complex and be reviewed in a few diverse, and cannot

paragraphs. Still, in order to understand the

present politics of South Africa, it is important to

go back to the beginning of the century and to the

origins of what is now known as ^apartheid. South

Africa has known various forms of oppression, from

British indirect rule to apartheid and multinational imperialism. The formation of the Union of South Africa brought the two Boer republics and the two British colonies together, after the Anglo-Boer war.

English and Dutch were made the official languages of the union. South Africa remained part of the British empire. Soon after the formation of the union, the government passed the Native Land Act of 1913, which dispossessed the black people of their land. By allowing blacks to own land only in the

"native reserves" (an early version of the present encouraged land the

day "Bantustans" ) , act

segregation. One million whites had access to more than 90% of the country, while four million Africans had to live on the remaining 7.3%. As Tom Lodge explains, "The Land Act of 1913 and complementary labour legislation were the legal tools employed to destroy a whole class of peasant producers, forcing them into already crowded reserves or driving them into new and arduous social relationships ...

Apartheid as an ideology was put forward by a group of Afrikaner intellectuals in the 1930s.

Influenced by the ideals of Afrikaner nationalism, by the theological tradition of the Dutch Reformed Churches, and by the Nazi pseudo-scientific theories of race, the apartheid doctrine lies in the belief that races should develop separately in order to fulfill themselves. Apartheid supporters condemned

Tom Lodge, Black Politics In South Africa Since 1945 (London 1983), ^p.2.

1 .

the mixing of races ^and cultures, which they saw as inevitably ending in corruption. This doctrine was in fact to hide a series of economic, social, legal and political restrictions which the National Party, elected into ^power in 1948, imposed on the black people .

The main restrictions are economic and legal.

First, the black population was compelled (often with the use of forced removals) to live on the most arid land where no resources are available and no industry, nor agriculture have developed. Therefore, black workers have to move to the industrial and mining centres to look for work. Providing the economy with a cheap source of labour, the system of migrant workers is also a means of controlling the labour force. The influx control laws were passed to forbid blacks from moving freely within the ^country by allocating them to specific areas and by forcing them to carry passes. Passes offenses are punishable by law, the offender having to pay a fine or go to prison .

The second major restraint is the vote. Blacks only allowed to vote for the local token so- are

"native

"ethnic" in the

called governments

remains reserves" . The central government

exclusively constituted of and voted by whites. In

1936, "coloured" people from the Cape, who previously

had the right to vote, saw their rights removed and

replaced with a vote on a ^separate roll for three

whites in the House of Assembly elected as Coloured

Representatives. Recently, the government have passed similar conventions for Indians and, later, Africans, which have been received with mass protest. "One man, one vote" remains the major claim of the opposition movements; the more recent campaigns of defiance against the white-only elections of September 1989 are a reminder of the importance and the urgency of this claim.

From its election into power in 1948 to the early sixties, the apartheid government put its ideas into legislative form. This period is often referred Beside the to as "baaskap" or white supremacy.

land, population movements and voting restrictions, a number of laws reinforcing segregation and control over the black masses were passed. The Prohibition Of Mixed Marriages Act was passed in 1949; the Immorality Act of 1950 followed and made inter¬

racial sexual relations a criminal offense. In 1949 the Population Registration Act, which divided the people along racial lines, was voted. The system of passes was tightened and was extended to women ^too.

The Group Area Act of 1950 divides the housing areas into "bantu", "white", "indian" and "coloured". To suppress the mounting opposition to the new legislation, in 1950, the government passed the Suppression of Communism Act, which outlawed not only the Communist Party but also other radical left-wing movements. The Native Resettlement Act of

J.D. Omer-Cooper, History Of Southern Africa (Portsmouth 1987), p.193.

2.

1956 made it possible for the government to rehouse blacks into segregated townships. The Native Labour Act of 1953 prohibits any strike under any circumstances. The Industrial Conciliation Act of 1956 extends the colour bar and the discrimination to industrial relations.

Segregation entered trade-unions and the various sphere of social, political and cultural life. In 1953, the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act was passed. Public transport, post-office entrances and other facilities became separate. In 1957, the State

Aided Institutions Act enforced segregation in libraries, places of entertainment, sport and health care. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 brought segregation to schools. Education for blacks became explicitly designed to prepare them for their subordinate roles in society; it was removed from the Department of Education and placed under the Department of Native Affairs. In 1957, universities became segregated.

Like white domination, resistance has also a long history in South Africa. The first union of Africans (Imbumba Yama Africa) was formed in the Eastern Cape as far back as 1880. The first African newspaper was published the same year. Mary Benson describes this period as follows:

Africans, from 1880, began to work within the modern frame and to think in terms of political rather than military action

Looking back, two contrary trends emerge -

Africans,

teachings of Victorian Christian missionaries,

influenced by the

humanitarians and

began to discover

already

themselves as part of mankind, while Afrikaners, anxious to preserve their small

"nation", and feeling themselves threatened, sought isolation from the rest of mankind.

Chief Makana, who led the Xhosa rebellion against the colonial army, was sent for life imprisonment to Robben Island in 1819, i.e. 145 years before Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.* As early as the late Nineteenth Century, black people organize themselves in various organizations to protest against the colour bar in parliament, in industry, in education and in administration. The South African Native National Congress (the forefather of the present A.N.C.) was formed in 1912 to protest against the exclusion of blacks from government and from legislative power. Dube and Platjee are among the many leaders who set up the foundations for what was to become the major political organization in the country. Unrest, strikes, protest against pass laws

repression

characterize the protest movements against white

increasing from the

and state

supremacy in the pre-war period.

in which many Africans The second world war

took part on the side of the British forces brought the hope of a better future and an equal society in South Africa. Instead of that, Africans saw the implementation of apartheid legislation and the tightening control of the state over the discontented black masses. Consequently, protest

Mary Benson, The Struggle For A Birth Right (London 1985), pp. 17-18 .

Ibid . , pp . 15 - ^{1 6 .}

Platjee as a politician and writer is discussed at length in the third section of this chapter.

3.

4.

5.

movements intensified their struggle by adopting a more political and a more radical approach to the problems of the country. The 1943 bus boycott in Alexandra township marked an important landmark in the rise of people's political consciousness and announced what was to become a radical and systematic resistance to white power. The late 1940s also marked the rise of African nationalism, as it is formulated by the A.N.C. Youth League's manifesto. The league rejected the more lenient attitudes of their predecessors by emphasizing the need for self-reliance for African people in order to achieve independence; their doctrines were largely influenced by the rise of African nationalism in West and East Africa.® ^During the years between 1950 and 1952, protest continued with strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience and non¬

cooperation with the state. The 1950s were also characterized by the wider participation of women in will be the struggle. Women's protest movements

discussed at a later stage, in our section on women's resistance.

In 1955, the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter. The Congress was made up of delegates democratically elected by the people who, came from all on the 25th and 26th of June ^1955,

over South Africa to the Kliptown gathering outside Johannesburg. There the delegates voiced the demands of the people, and the charter was drawn. Consisting

See Mary Benson, op . cit . , pp. 85-86.

6.

of 11 general principles under which a number of other points are stated, the Charter makes the claim of a non-racial ^democracy, of the sharing of the land and of the wealth of the country by its inhabitants irrespective of colour or race. It also discriminatory demands the removal of all

implementation

legislation, the of equal

opportunities in education, work for persons of all

races, the nationalization of the banks, of the

mines and of the heavy industry, and the

redistribution of land. The Congress had previously

collected the demands of the people by setting up

meetings, discussion ^{groups, study groups} and

reading groups organized by volunteers all over the

country, even in its most remote rural areas. This

period was characterized by an intense climate of

dialogue and of democratic ^debating. Notions such as

national identity, culture and human rights also

found a new meaning and new orientations; cultural

diversity was ^{emphasized along} with the unity and

the oneness of the South African people. The

implications of the Freedom Charter are

considerable, for it is a major landmark in the

political consciousness of the people. Politically,

it has also chartered the directions of the mass-

democratic movements until ^today. Its strength lies

in its broad outlook and in its relevance to all the

other political organizations in the country, such

as the trade union movement, the United Democratic

Front (UDF), and the religious movements.ÿ _Finally,

the charter's relevance to the women's movement is not the least considerable aspect of its history;

this point will be examined in our later discussion on women's political organizations.

The late fifties and early sixties are characterized by a fierce onslaught against the mass organizations. In December 1956 the government accused 156 political activists of high treason and of conspiracy by international communism against the South African state. All of them pleaded not guilty.

The "Treason Trial" lasted until 1960 when the accused were finally acquitted. It announced a decade of increasing repression and of brutal police intervention .

On the 21st March 1960 the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) launched an ^anti-pass campaign.

Formed in 1959, after separating from the ANC, the Pan-Africanist organization adopted

PAC a

nationalist approach to the South African struggle, emphasizing the necessity to have a black leadership in the democratic movements and objecting to the Freedom Charter's clause stating that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it black and white". In Sharpeville, their campaign ended in bloodshed with

For a comprehensive survey of the Freedom

Charter movement and of its implications in today's South Africa, see Raymond Suttner and Jeremy Cronin (ed.), 30 Years Of The Freedom Charter (Johannesburg 1986) . This compilation of historical documents, interviews and photographs is part of what a

quotation from the book names as "the struggle of memory against forgetting".

7 .

69 deaths and 180 people wounded, most shot in the caused widespread protest, back. The event

especially abroad. On the 30th March, a state of emergency was declared; more repression followed.

The ANC called again for protest against pass laws.

In April, the government declared the ANC and the PAC "unlawful organizations" and accused them of being "a serious threat to the safety of the voted by parliament;

public". The bill was

consequently, any person furthering the aims of these organizations became liable of imprisonment for up to ten years under the Suppression of Communism Act. As a consequence, ANC and PAC became underground organizations. Mass arrests, detentions and ^brutality followed.

In 1961, Nelson Mandela was freed from successive bans and elected leader of a National Action Council. After renewed demands for a National Convention to establish a union of all South Africans in a democratic ^state, the banned movements resorted to underground activity. Mandela and Sisulu

secretly toured the country to organize stay-at-home

campaigns. The response was general and almost

unanimous. However, as the state increasingly

resorted to brutality and repression, the ANC

decided to give up peaceful methods and to ^adopt the

armed struggle. In June 1961, the military wing of

the ANC, Umkonto Vie Sizwe (Spear Of Nation) was

established with the aim of sabotaging selected

installations, avoiding human losses. Similarly, ^PAC

formed Poqo (pure) , also a military section of the organization. After his secret tour of the African continent, Mandela was captured and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for having incited the stay-at- home campaigns and having left the country illegally .

In 1962, ^{the 90 days detention} without trial law was voted; furthermore, torture became legalized. In 1964 Mandela, Sisulu and others were brought to court in one of South Africa's major trial, known as the Rivonia trial. There, Mandela made a series of famous court statements; his address to the Court 8 _Repression from the dock is particularly memorable.

intensified with, in 1968, the reorganization and centralization ^of the security police around the Bureau Of State Security (BOSS) . In the meantime, the South African government tried to gain credit from the international community, who had previously condemned the harsh repression of political activity by the state, by revising its apartheid terminology.

Phrases such as "separate developments", "parallel streams", "self-governments" and "bantu homelands"

existing within a South African "commonwealth"

replaced the cruder apartheid racist vocabulary in an attempt to whitewash the government's image.

After the harsh repression of the 1960s and the apparent lull in political activities, South African politics experienced a revival with the birth of

For a transcript of Mandela's statements, see Nelson Mandela, The Struggle Is My Life (London 1978) .

8.

Black Consciousness and the resistance that followed. In the same tradition of the Africanists, the Black Consciousness movement emphasized self- reliance and introspection, with, however, a wider understanding of the term "black" to include

than Africans,

oppressed groups other and

acknowledging divergences and differences (notably class differences) within the category "black".

On the other hand, students' politics took shape in the early 1970s with the creation of SASO (South African Organization) , which, with other Students

educational and religious bodies, set up the Black People Convention (BPC) in 1972. These organizations followed the philosophy of Black Consciousness, promoting black communalism, launching literacy campaigns and health projects, encouraging artistic

liberation

creation, and emphasizing from

psychological and physical oppression.

The economic recession of the 1970s lead to a climate of unrest. The introduction of the Afrikaans language as a compulsory teaching medium in schools triggered the Soweto students' revolt of the 16th Representative June 1976. The Soweto Students

Council, formed on the 13th of June, planned a demonstration on the 16th. The latter ended in bloodshed; the 15 000 demonstrating children were met by brutal police force. At least 575 died and 2

For a more detailed discussion of Black

Consciousness and of its political consequences, see Tom Lodge 's Black Politics In South Africa Sinca 1945 (New York 1983), pp.321-356.

9.

(according to what Tom Lodge describes as 389

"highly conservative official estimates") wounded.

were

The Soweto uprising had considerable consequences for the further directions of black resistance in South Africa. ^It initiated a revival ^{of open} political discussion and of the Freedom Charter.

Organizations such as COSAS (Congress Of South African Students) and AZAPO ^(Azanian People examples of this political Organization) are

revival. Also, the trade union movement experienced a boost with the formation of the Federation Of South African Trade Union (FOSATU) . Despite its emphasis on factory issues and its lack of overt political aspirations, the trade union movement was characteristic for its ^high level of militancy.

Finally, the 1970s also marked the campaign of sabotage launched by Umkonto We Sizwe. The ANC military wing attacked industrial and military bases, avoiding civilian casualties. However, in August 1981, Oliver Tambo, the present leader of the ANC, made the statement that the ANC would in future chose as targets "officials of apartheid", and that there might be "combat situations" and civilian losses .

Resistance in the form of school, rent, housing

and transport boycotts and industrial unrest

continued in the 1980s. The umbrella organization,

UDF (United Democratic ^Front) , unified the different

10. Ibid., p.330.

democratic movements within South Africa: civic associations, trade unions, student bodies, youth groups, women's organizations, churches, mosques and sport clubs. The UDF based its actions around the claims made by these different groups (housing, education, factory floor demands) by acting as a co¬

ordinating body. It launched several campaigns and had widespread responses throughout the country. The year 1984 was particularly active, with the school boycott which lasted a whole academic year. A Saul vi 1 le /At teridge ville Youth Organization representative declared at a UDF rally in July 1984:

"We must be difficult to control. We must render the instruments of oppression difficult to work. We must escalate all forms of resistance. We must make

.,11 The protest was not only ourselves ungovernable.

confined to schools, but spread to workers and

communities. Miners' strikes, stay-away campaigns,

class boycotts, under the overall organization of

the UDF, intensified in the years 1984 and 1985. On

many occasions, apart from police intervention, the

South African army moved into the townships, leaving

a high number of deaths and injured, and making

arrests of UDF leaders accusing them of ANC

collaboration. Furthermore, the government-supported

Inkatha movement, promoting a racist view of Zulu

nationalism in line with the government's new policy

of "ethnic" separateness, created a situation of

11. Julie Frederikse, South Africa: A Different Kind

Of War, from Soweto to Pretoria (London 198 6), ^{p.17 8.}

violence in townships,

"black-on-black" the

especially between UDF supporters and Inkatha members. By the mid-1985, President Botha (South Africa's last president) declared a state of emergency in the country and imposed a blanket ban on media information.

Since then, although access to information has been limited, due to the ban, the South African political scene has been marked by more action from the democratic movements. In 1988, the government imposed a ban on a number of organizations, including the UDF. Despite the attempts by the state to intimidate protesters and, on the other hand,

"whitewash" its image internationally, the stay-at- home and defiance campaigns of the late 1980s have shown that the situation of unrest can only intensify in the future. To quote the words of the journalist Julie Frederikse:

If the government and its opponents agree on nothing else, it is that South Africa's future will be resolved through war

more importantly, that it will be a very different kind of war . . . ^{The weapons may}

often be guns and petrol bombs, but the South African people will also fight the government with strikes and meetings, songs and pamphlets. While there is wide agreement that South Africa is already in the early stages of a civil war, there is a great range of opinion as to the future course of this ^very different war. ²

and

Finally, before concluding this brief overview of South African history, it is important to assess the direct effect of apartheid on culture, and in particular on literature, of such prohibitions as

12. Julie Frederikse, op. cit . ^{, p.180.}

censorship laws, publishing restrictions ^and other constraints. The Publication And Entertainment Act of 1963 was addressed mainly to works offensive to moral and religious values. Yet, it was used as a weapon to ban books which were critical of apartheid. Apart from banning books in South Africa, the act also prevented the importation of some foreign works of literature . The act also inhibited writers and publishers by creating a climate of fear; as Andre Brink notes: "the climate of fear and suspicion created by the existence of a Censorship Act is often much more inhibiting than any action in terms of the law itself" . * ^{The new}

Publication Act of 1974 tightened the law on censorship, and also banned books in Afrikaans such as Brink's Kennis Van Die Aand.ÿÿ

The writers who have been the most affected by censorship are the generation of the 1960s, like La Guma, Mphalele, Brutus, but also more recent writers, like Miriam Tlali, whose books have been banned for years. They will be discussed at length in our next section. Because they were under banning orders, the works of these writers were not available either to their contemporaries or to the 13. The children's book Black beauty, for instance, was banned because suspected of being part of Black Consciousness propaganda.

14. Andre Brink, Mapmakers: Writing in ^a State Of Siege (London 1983), p.79.

15. The novel was then translated by the author himself and published abroad as ^Looking on Darkness (London 1974), where it received a good response.

Subsequently, the South African government, worried

about its international reputation, proceeded to

unban it .

next generation of writers. This is a direct consequence of censorship, which had serious effects on literature. However, the indirect effects of censorship are equally serious, although they are more difficult to assess. For instance, publishers do not want to risk publishing books with an overtly political message. Finally, other laws have contributed to censorship, such as the Custom Excise Act of 1955, which gives the authorities the right to embargo works of literature, the Riotous Assembly Act, which can declare books "undesirable" and ban them, and the Suppression Of Communism Act, which bans the works of "listed persons".

The South African government has recently been lenient on censorship in an attempt to gain more

popularity abroad, especially since Great Britain elected a new conservative ^government in 1979. It like many of Gordimer's, started to unban books,

Brink's and others. On the other hand, although it

inhibited the writer in ^his/her creative process, it

also contributed to bringing publicity to his/her

works. Censorship stimulated live poetry readings

and the performances of plays, before a ban is

imposed. Also, censorship has led Afrikaans

writers to write in English, thus, widening their

perspective, both in terms of audience and subject

matter. Nevertheless, the effect of censorship

should not be underestimated, for a large section of

16. Andre Brink, Mapmakers : Writing in a State of

Siege, op.cit . , p.252.

South African literature is still being silenced by legal (or other) restrictions, and writers such as the novelist Miriam Tlali are constantly harassed by the police as well as being censored.

Publishing in South Africa has had a fairly recent history. In 1853, J.C. Juta set up the first publishing house, located in Cape Town. The first work of literature was published in 1892 by Argus Printing And Publishing. Until the second world war, the most influential companies were the Central News Agency (CNA) , the Lovedale Press, which showed an early interest in black literature, although it also sometimes imposed restrictions on it.ÿ _Journalism

has also been an important channel for expression, especially for black writers. Some of them have made their reputation in both areas, such as Plaatje.

From the 1930s onwards, English-language newspapers appeared in great numbers.

The second world war brought about more self- reliance in publishing, since the opportunities abroad decreased. Local publishing houses were set up, like Howard Timmins, for example. This tendency intensified in the 1970s with the creation of Ravan Press, David Philip and AD. Donker. Also, the Series published by Heinemann African Writers

Educational Books contributed to promote local literature, in particular black writing. In the 17. See the following section of this chapter

discussing Plaatje's novel, Mhudi, which was largely

edited by the Lovedale Press when it first appeared

in 1930.

a new experience was launched with the 1980s,

creation of Skotaville. Named after the editor, pamphleter, compiler, community leader and General Secretary of the ANC, Skota, who died in 1936, Skotaville is a non-profit making publishing house, run by blacks, which encourages indigenous and non- established writers. However, it has encountered some financial difficulties, and funds have often to be raised from abroad. The publishing house, Seriti Sa Sechaba, is a new venture by black women launched in 1988; it has started to publish new writers first works.

Writers' associations and various debating groups provide a forum for intellectual debate and exchange, especially when those are constantly under the threat of fear and of censorship. The first association dates from 1824, when the South African Literary Society was created, with Thomas Pringle as secretary. In the 1880s, groups like the Lovedale Literary Society started showing interest in "the native question" and in the debate around contact between the cultures. In 1884, John Tengo Jabavu founded "Imvo Zabantsundu" as a platform for black intellectuals and poets and as a publishing place for some of the first black poetry in English. In S.G. Millin founded the South African branch 1910,

of the PEN Club with the aim of promoting local writing.

No new ^groups were formed ^except for a few short¬

lived ^literary societies in the late ^1960s, such as

The Paquino Society and the Artist And Writers Guild Of South Africa. In 1981, the Johannesburg PEN Centre dissolved after pressures from black members who had decided to resign after refusing to work in collaboration with white liberals. The African Writers Association (of South Africa) was created after the dissolution of PEN. There have also been a number of academic and educational institutions promoting English language and literature and administering awards and literary prizes. Finally, there has been, over the years, an increasing number of informal bodies, such as debating societies, creative writing workshops, reading groups and amateur theatre groups. For example, the novelist Miriam Tlali, who lives and writes in Soweto, holds writing workshops with young aspiring writers.

Together, they have compiled an anthology of writings on black women's daily experiences.

Lastly, before concluding this overview of the elements which have contributed to the cultural and literary life in South Africa, it is important to review briefly the existing periodicals and magazines. Literary journals, gazettes and reviews abound in the history of South African literature, although they were, on the whole, very short-lived.

Periodicals also contributed early to the tradition

of literary criticism, by publishing reviews of

books and articles. Among many others are the Cape

Of Good Hope Literary Gazette (1830), Voorslag

(1926; facsimile edition 1985) , Vandag (1947) and

Standpunte (1945) . In the 1950s, Drum Magazine played an important role by giving a voice to the emerging black writers of that period, who are often known the "drum generation". In the late 1950s and the as

early 1960s, other periodicals were created, such as The Purple Renoster (1956) , Africa South (1956) and Contrast (1961) . Also, poetry journals like Mew Coin Poetry, Ophir and Izwi appeared. It is also in the 19 60s that The Classic and the New Nation were

founded.*® Since then, the major development has been the publication of Staff rider (1978) by Ravan Press, a magazine which gives a voice ^{to the} new and emerging artists. Other publications appeared on the literary scene in the 1980s, such as Heresy (1979), Upstream (1983) and Frontline Books (1983) .

II. WOMEN'S PROTEST IN SOUTH AFRICA

Women's protest movements have had a relatively recent development in South African politics. Women came into the political foreground in the 1950s, with the implementation of the apartheid policies.

However, women's resistance can be traced as far

back as 1913 when 600 women marched to the Municipal

offices in Bloemfontein, where they deposited their

passes in an act of protest. Relating this event,

Mary Benson writes: "For the first time South Africa

witnessed passive resistance from the African

18. The Classic, founded in 1963, was dissolved and

replaced, in 1975, by The New Classic, which resumed

publication .

people. This action ^by African women took place at the time of the suffragettes' protests in England.”

This form of protest spread to other parts of the country; many women were jailed for having defied the pass laws.ÿ

However, it is only from the 1950s onwards, after the government had started implementing its pass laws policy for women, that the movement against passes intensified. In October 1955, women ^organized the first ^{large protest} march against the passes.

Organized by the Federation Of South African Women (which had been set up during the Freedom Charter movement) , the protest gathered 2000 women who marched to Pretoria. Protest spread out to Durban and Cape Town. However, in ^{1956, the government} began to force passes on women. Marches and pass burning by women followed in different parts of the country. Organizers were harassed, arrested or banned, notably Mrs. Ngoyi, who was arrested and imprisoned more than once during the campaigns. The largest demonstration was launched in August 1956, when twenty thousand women ^(ten times as ^many as in October 1955) marched to Pretoria, where Mrs. Lilian Ngoyi knocked at Mr. Strijdom's (Prime Minister) but only to be told that he was not there.

door,

This event is remembered in the history of South Africa as the victory of women over male and white

power. The women sang the ANC national anthem and an 19. Mary Benson, op. cit . , p.33.

20. The F SAW will be discussed at length later in

this chapter.

old Natal song adapted to the new situation:

"Strijdom, you have struck a rock once you have touched a woman", before dispersing . By the end of 1957, 1 200 women were arrested in the Johannesburg Fort, of whom 170 were with their babies.

Resistance was not limited to urban woman solely, although they have been the most active; women in the rural areas have also organized themselves around issues of increase in taxation, influx control and other restrictions on the rural population. Protest by rural women often lead to direct confrontation with the authorities, and many women were jailed. Tom Lodge records an instance of rural rebellion by women where the men joined in support of their fellow-protesters. This was in Harding in August 1959 when men marched to the jail, demanding the release of their wives who had been imprisoned after a protest against the Department of Bantu Administration.ÿ _{Men also joined women in}

anti-pass stay-at-home campaigns; in the Marico reserves, some protesters lost their lives during protests against the passes.

Confrontation between women and the authorities often took place in the townships, when the government imposed restrictions on home brewing.

Beer making is a traditional domestic function of women in Southern Africa and a main source of income for many of them. The imposition of ^brewing permits 21. See Mary Benson, op . cit . , pp. 184-185.

22. Tom ^{Lodge, op} . cit . , p.146.

23. Ibid. ^, p.149.

and the creation of beer halls by the state triggered protest from the women beer brewers. In Durban, in the year 1959, women attacked beer halls, destroyed government property and clashed with the police .

Women's movements in South Africa have a long history, especially in the form of self-help organizations, community-based groups and church councils. However, it is only in 1937 that women organized politically with the formation of the National Council of African Women (NCAW) as a branch of the All African Convention, an umbrella body bringing together all groups and organizations in the black community. Ellen Kuzwayo describes the council as "the first formidable black women's organization in South Africa" with the aim "to serve their race and to liberate themselves from the

discrimination

humiliation, and

shackles of

systematic psychological suppression by their own menfolk as well as by the state through its

regulations" .

legislation and administrative

However, one has to wait until 1948 to see the proper establishment of the ANC Women's League. 27

Before the 1950s, women's resistance was centred around informal popular movements, church-based associations and trade-union activities. Tom Lodge 24. Ibid., p.148.

25. For a detailed account of women's self-help organizations in South Africa, see Ellen Kuzwayo, Call Ma Woman (London 1985) .

26. Ibid., p.101.

27. Tom Lodge, op . cit . ^{, p.141.}

for example notes that "the communists drew African women into their ranks because many of the issues the cost of food, the right to brew they took up

beer, lodger permits were of fundamental importance to women in their domestic capacities".ÿ®

started to take part in political activities Women

with the defiance campaigns of the early 1950s. The Freedom Charter movement also contributed to the growing politicization of black women. On the 17 the "Women's charter" was adopted and April 1954,

the Federation of South African Women (FSAW) was

launched. In 1954, the Federation Of South African

Women was formed as ^part of the Freedom Charter

movement. The organization formulated its aims by

adopting the Women's Charter; it also compiled "the

women's demands for the Freedom Charter", a document

which was to be submitted to the Congress of the

People and, later, incorporated in the Freedom

Charter itself. The two documents call for better

health care, for free educational facilities for the

youth, for better homes and public services, for

better diet and controlled prices, for the right to

own land and to choose one's place to live, for the

abolition of passes, for the right to ^vote, for

equality in employment and equal pay and for equal

rights before the law. These demands apply to both

men and women; however, the document emphasizes some

specific concerns relative to women, such as

maternity leaves, birth control clinics, equal right

28. loc.cit.

with men in matters of property, marriage and child

custody, and the abolition of the colonial rule which considers African, coloured and Indian women as eternal minors, and prevents them from owning property, from entering into contract and from exercising guardianship over their children.

Amanda Kwadi, an executive member of the Federation of Transvaal Women, defines the women's

struggle in South Africa as follows:

We are waging a struggle different from that in the United States and Western Europe. Ours is for national liberation and the type of demands found in the Freedom Charter reflect this.

The vote is denied to black South Africans. That is so basic a right that it is taken for granted by Western European and United States feminists. Without the vote we do not control our own country, let alone have rights as women. That is why many of our demands are ones for which we struggle shoulder to shoulder with our menfolk.

Women's ^rights are on the agenda of the liberation movements, as most of them agree on the fact that women are the victims of a double oppression.

However, the latter have been reluctant to hand over their demands to the male politicians solely, and

organized into

have themselves separate

organizations. Cheryl Carolus, an executive ^member of the United Women's Organization and a UDF official, voices her distrust for the concern which certain liberation movements have shown for women's

rights. Although once a militant in Black Consciousness herself, she criticizes the latter for 29. Raymond Suttner and Jeremy Cronin (ed.),

op.cit . ^, p . 158 .