‘Now Is the Time!’ The Importance of International Spaces for Women’s Activism within the ANC, 1960–1976

Emma Elinor Lundin

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2019, vol. 45, issue 2, 323-340

Abstract: This article charts ANC women’s feminist struggles in the early exile era, 1960–1976, and how the experience of exile reoriented their approach to anti-apartheid struggles and feminism. It discusses the political events and hierarchies that affected the position of ANC women within the organisation, and how international spaces helped shape their activism. I argue that although women in the ANC made progress under the influence of strong leaders in exile, the situation in South Africa and the ANC’s rigid patriarchal culture meant that women’s fight for political equality was far from successful in this period, both within the apartheid state and the liberation movement itself. Using the experiences of ANC women based in Sweden alongside better-known stories from the ANC headquarters in Dar es Salaam and Lusaka, the article shows that the international connections that women in exile made at this time – throughout Africa, across continents and on the international diplomatic scene – and their exposure to second-wave feminism and black pride had a direct impact on their mobilisation and ability to organise, allowing them to build strength for the late apartheid era.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03057070.2019.1605738 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cjssxx:v:45:y:2019:i:2:p:323-340

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cjss20

DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2019.1605738

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Southern African Studies is currently edited by Ralph Smith

More articles in Journal of Southern African Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().