Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Women’s Day on the 9th of August in South Africa and not on the 8th of March like every other UN member country in the world?
It is because this day is a solemn commemoration of the 9th of August 1956 when women rose up to participate in the historic national march against the pass laws.
Reminder: “pass laws” legislation in force during the Apartheid regime required every South African excepting the Whites to carry a document on them to prove that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’.
Flash back
(L to r) Rahima Moosa, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, and Sophie Williams led the march on Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.
The 9th of August 1956 was the culmination of months of hard work. The multiracial Federation of South African Women mobilized nationally to gather signatures for their petition against the hated pass laws. Members went from door to door to explain why it was so important to sign the petition and to get others to do likewise. Thousands of signatures were collected. All those who could make it, answered the rallying call and flocked to Pretoria on that day. They came by foot, taxi, bus, and train. The official count was 20 000, an historical high. They fell in behind the leaders of the procession, Rahima Moosa, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, and Sophie Williams, who marched, with dignity and resolve at the head of the huge, nervous gathering. Their faces were tense, their determination unshakable. They were in Pretoria personally to deliver the petitions to Prime Minister JG Strijdom’s office at the Union Buildings.
When you strike the women
The Women’s March reached its climax with the women singing freedom songs such as Nkosi sikeleli Afrika, but the song that became the anthem of the march was
“Wathint’ abafazi, Strijdom!”
wathint’ abafazi,
wathint’ imbokodo,
uza kufa!
When you strike the women,
you strike a rock,
you will be crushed [you will die]!
The march was a resounding success and South Africa recognised the bravery of these women who risked arrest, detention and banning by declaring the 9th of August National Women’s Day.
How did it all start?
Women’s Day celebrates how far women have come in society, politics and in economics and highlights how far they still need to go to achieve equality.
The International Women’s Day (IWD for short) originated in the labour movement to raise awareness of inequality in the workplace. In 1908,15 000 women took to the streets of New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote.
Then, Clara Zetkin, a communist activist and advocate for women’s rights, enflamed the 100 women from 17 countries attending a conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910. What we need, she said, was an International Women’s Day. The proposal won unanimous approval.
The movement grew internationally till, in 1975, the United Nations officially included it in the calendar of International Days.
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