You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock!
On 9 August 1956, over 20,000 women from across South Africa marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to demand an end to apartheid’s pass laws. Led by Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, they stood in silence for thirty minutes before declaring: ‘Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ imbokodo’ – ‘You strike a woman, you strike a rock.’
Francis BaardFrances Baard
Frances Baard is one of the many women to contribute towards building a nonracial trade union movement in South Africa. Now aged over 80, she lives in a remote part of the Northern Transvaal following banishment for her political activities.Born in 1901, she worked as a domestic servant and then a teacher and later became Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union, Port Elizabeth branch. She was active in trade union work throughout the 1950s and '60s. She frequently represented the food and canning workers on the Port Elizabeth Local Committee of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and attended SACTU Annual Conferences as their delegate. She was one of the few women on the SACTU National Executive.
Nkosazana Dlamini
While serving as the Vice-President of the South African Students' Organization (SASO), Nkosazana Dlamini was also an active underground member of the African National Congress. She left South Africa in September 1976, in the wake of the Soweto uprising, and has since completed her training as a medical doctor in exile. Nkosazana was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1949. She lived with her family in Durban, and attended primary school there. She went to high school at Amanzimtoti training college, and secured her B.Sc. in zoology at the University of Zululand.
Nkosazana Dlamini
Janub GoolJanub Gool
A founder member of the Unity Movement of South Africa, Janub "Jane" Gool has been active in the liberation struggle for over 45 years. She fled South Africa in 1963 after playing a leading role in struggles against the extension of apartheid to the Coloured community, and now lives in exile. Jane, her younger brother the late Dr. Goolam Gool, and I. B. Tabata, President of the Unity Movement, were founder members of the All-African Convention (AAC) in 1935. She became an executive member of the Anti-CAD (Coloured Affairs Department) Movement, a united front of mainly Coloured organizations formed to fight against the establishment of an apartheid institu-tion, the Coloured Affairs Department.
Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph is living evidence that the liberation struggle in South Africa knows no distinction in colour or race. It brings together women and men from all sectors of society and all parts of the country in the fight to topple the apartheid system. Despite her advanced age and ill-health, and despite having already spent 15 years of her life under severe restrictions, she was silenced for the fourth time by a banning order in 1980, at the age of 75.
Helen JosephI will never carry a pass, I will only carry one similar to Mrs Strijdom’s. She is a woman and I am too. There is no difference.
– Annie Silinga, a leader in the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW)
Annie Silinga
The UWC Robben Island Mayibuye Archives preserves photographs, pamphlets, and oral histories that capture the courage of these women and their central role in the liberation struggle. Today, 9 August is commemorated as Women’s Day and observed as a public holiday in South Africa, honouring their defiance and reminding us that the spirit of 1956 lives on in the fight for equality and justice.
