'Mary and Annie resist': gender and resistance in South Africa 1900s–1950s. Issue 2 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hiralal, Kalpana
• Is Part Of: South Asian diaspora. Volume 10:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 138
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Women -- resistance -- Indian -- African -- South Africa; South Asian diaspora -- Periodicals; South Asians -- Foreign countries -- Periodicals; South Asians -- Ethnic identity -- Periodicals; South Asia -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; South Asia -- Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; 305.891405
• DOI: 10.1080/19438192.2018.1460917
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1943-8192

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper maps women's political resistance in South Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Its primary focus is on African and Indian women and how their differing social and economic realities shaped their political consciousness and shaped their activism against the colonial apartheid state. African women, both urban and rural, were confined to the reserves and subjected to pass laws. Indian women who arrived as indentured and free immigrants were exposed to labour tax and immigration controls. Whilst African and Indian women formed part of the oppressed majority, their resistance up until the 1950s was largely organised along racial lines. This paper highlights the complexity of gendered resistance and the dynamics of Indo-African race relations in South Africa's road to democracy, via archival sources and oral histories.