Young Women against Apartheid: Gender, Youth and South Africa's Liberation Struggle

267 Pages·2021·5.48 MB·English

by  Emily Bridger

Emily Bridger shows us the creativity and the boldness with which young women
remade gender norms in order to become comrades. This is a groundbreaking
study of gender in the context of the struggle against apartheid.
Jonny Steinberg, University of Oxford
A pioneering exploration of young women’s militant anti-apartheid activism in
Soweto, in the difficult and critical period of the mid- to late-1980s. Through sen-
sitive analysis of oral histories, it sheds new light on two understudied questions
in South African historiography. Most urgently, this book asks: In a struggle led
publicly by young men, what roles did young women play? The author argues that
while young women were always a minority of comrades, their actions were inte-
gral to township struggles: they debated at COSAS meetings, enforced boycotts,
smuggled arms, recruited into the ANC underground, and punished criminals
and spies in their community. Young women’s activism was both similar to young
men’s activism, and marked by their gendered experiences of everyday life in
Soweto: young women used activism as a way to take leadership in student circles,
to get out of overprotective homes, and to protect themselves from sexual violence
on the streets. Thus the book also addresses a second question that scholars have
neglected: How did young women experience township life, in an era of States of
Emergency and multiple forms of political and personal violence? In my view, the
author’s contribution to our knowledge of female students’ experiences is particu-
larly significant, and timely amidst a new wave of student activism in South Africa
in which young women have played key roles. … original and compelling.
Meghan Healy-Clancy, Bridgewater State University
This study contributes another important element to the literature on the
anti-apartheid struggle, but does so in a highly distinctive manner. It tells the story
of the gender struggle within the political struggle – the story of those women
who became political activists and fought, often quite literally, on the frontline
in the townships. Based around a unique and quite remarkable collection of oral
histories, the voices of these young women dominate this text and give it immense
authority and authenticity. This is no artificial academic presentation of feminist
theory, but instead tells the gritty story of struggle in tooth and claw, through
personal and often highly emotional accounts of personal suffering, hardships, and
loss. … This is a truly important study.
David Anderson, University of Warwick
An important contribution to the study of gender and political resistance in South
Africa. Aside from raising the voices of often-forgotten women actors in the 1980s
struggles, it offers fresh insights into the lived experiences of politicised youth. …
an outstanding, textured, fascinating study.
Clive Glaser, University of the Witwatersrand

Young Women against Apartheid
Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation
Struggle
Emily Bridger
James Currey
is an imprint of
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB)
www.jamescurrey.com
and of
Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue
Rochester, NY 14620–2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
© Emily Bridger 2021
First published 2021
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Emily Bridger to be identified as the author of this work
has beenasserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988
ISBN 978-1-84701-263-0 (James Currey hardback)
ISBN 978-1-84701-273-9 (James Currey Africa-only paperback)
ISBN 978-1-80010-055-8 (James Currey ePDF)
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites
referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
Cover illustration: Detail from poster of 1984 COSAS march, silkscreen,
Johannesburg, 1992 (© Judy Ann Seidman)
Cover design: www.stay-creative.co.uk
For Heidi Pasques (1963–2017)
Who acted as a mother, sister, and great friend to me over the course of
researching this book.

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
Glossary xiii
Map of Soweto xiv
Introduction 1
1 African Girlhood under the Apartheid State 25
2 The School: Becoming a Female Comrade 48
3 The Home: Negotiating Family, Girlhood, and Politics 70
4 The Meeting: Contesting Gender and Creating a Movement 95
5 The Street: Gendering Collective Action and Political Violence 127
6 The Prison Cell: Gender, Trauma, and Resistance 163
7 The Interview: Reflecting on the Struggle 192
Conclusion 217
Bibliography 225
Index 243

Acknowledgements
This book’s greatest debt is to the former comrades of Soweto whose stories
are told within its pages. Without their help and support this research would
never have been possible. These men and women not only shared their detailed
and at times difficult memories with me, but also invited me into their homes
and treated me as a fellow comrade. Particular thanks go to Musa, Lucy, Flor-
ence, Makgane, and Daniel for all the hard work they put in to helping me
find interviewees and navigate Soweto over the course of my research.
This research was made possible by the financial support of multiple
organisations. I am extremely grateful to the University of Exeter’s College
of Humanities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada for funding the initial research for this book. Many thanks also go to
the Maple Leaf Trust and the generous support of their Canadian Centennial
Scholarship Fund. Travel to overseas conferences where I initially presented
some of this research was made possible by the Royal Historical Society and
the African Studies Association Women’s Caucus. Most recently, a UKRI
Future Leaders Fellowship has provided me with the time and funding to see
through the final stages of this project.
Two academic institutions have been foundational to the writing of this
book. I began this project in 2013 as a doctoral student at the University of
Exeter, the same institution to which I returned in 2017 to take up my first
academic position as a lecturer. Stacey Hynd has provided invaluable guidance
from the outset of this research, first as my supervisor and later as a wonderful
friend and colleague. No words can adequately express how grateful I am for
her support and encouragement. Martin Thomas has long acted as my unoffi-
cial mentor, always offering probing and insightful questions (many of which I
am still trying to answer). I would like to thank Exeter’s Centre of Imperial and
Global History for providing me with an intellectual home while I completed
this book. At Exeter I have also benefitted from the support and friend-
ship of wonderful colleagues. To Charmian Mansell, Josh Rhodes, Hannah
Charnock, Angela Muir, Anna Jackman, Fred Cooper, Michelle Webb, and
Tom Chadwick – thank you for making the PhD years not only bearable but
actually rather enjoyable. To James Davey, Beccy Williams, Gemma Clark,
Miguel Hernandez, Tawny Paul, Tim Reece, Gajendra Singh, and Richard
Ward, thank you for providing the office corridor chats and after-work pints
ix