This book, which examines the role of African women in the conversation on nationalism during South Africa’s era of segregation, excavates female voices and brings them to the provocative fore. From 1910 to 1948, African women contributed to political thought as editorialists, club organizers, poets, leaders, and activists who dared to challenge the country’s segregationist regime at a time when it was bent on consolidating White power. Daughters of Africa founder Cecilia Lillian Tshabalala and National Council of African Women President Mina Tembeka Soga feature in this work, which employs the artistic theory of “sampling” and decoloniality to highlight and showcase how these women and others among their cadre spoke truth to power through the fiery lines of their poetry, newspaper columns, thought-provoking speeches, organizational documents, personal testimonies, and musical compositions. It argues that these African women left behind a blueprint to grapple with and contest the political climate in which they lived under segregation, by highlighting the role and agency of African women intellectuals at Apartheid’s dawn.
Author(s): Dawne Y. Curry
Series: African Histories and Modernities
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 292
City: London
Acknowledgments
Contents
Acronyms
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Journey, the Genealogy, and the Historiography
Outline of the Book
Chapter 2: The Roots of Segregation, Apartheid’s Menacing Predecessor
The Roots of Segregation
Hertzog’s Bills
Chapter 3: Wake Up!: The Nation Must Be Saved
What Is the Nation?
The Call to Political Arms
Chapter 4: Activist Intellectuals and the Quest to Save the Nation
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
Adelaide Charles Dube nee Tantsi
Reuben Tholakele Caluza
Nontsizi Mgqwetho
Charlotte Mannya Maxeke
Sibusisiwe Violet Makanya
Josie Mpama/Palmer
Cecilia Lillian Tshabalala
Chapter 5: Travel Narratives of Globetrotting African Women
Before Entry: Ellis Island and the Politics of Welcome
Dispatches with and from an African Point of View
Charlotte Maxeke and Katie Mannya Descend on England
Josie Palmer/Mpama and the Russian Travelution
America, the Not So Beautiful
Nokutela Ndima Dube
Sibusisiwe Violet Makanya’s Cross-Country American Rounds
Matta, Hayford, and Massaquoi Take a Bite Out of the Big Apple
Mina Tembeka Soga: India and the Twenty-Four American City Tour
Chapter 6: Oral and Written Resolutions to Segregation and Transport
The Alexandra Health Committee
The Women’s Brigade
The Alexandra Women’s League
Dr. Alfred B. Xuma on Behalf of the African National Congress
The Johannesburg Section of the Fourth International
An Accounting of Segregation
Chapter 7: Daughters of Africa and the Politics of Religious and Literary Sampling
The Philosophy Behind a Movement of African Daughters
Sample 1: The Manyanos—The Structure of the Daughters’ Version of a Prayer Union
Sample 2: Choral Music and the Bible
Sample 3: The African Call and Response Pattern
Sampling 4: Phraseology of African American Men
Chapter 8: National Council of African Women and the Minutes of a Moral Agenda
Philosophy of Social Service
The Social Piano of the Black and White Keys of Interracial Collaboration
The Method of Soga’s Political Madness: The Moral of it All
Chapter 9: Conclusion: Blueprints for the Nation They Left Behind
Female-to-Female Comradeships
Cultivating the Soil/Inclusive Immersion
Afrofuturistic Models for Democratic Pan-Humanity
Omissions from the Blueprint
The Welcomes and the Send-offs of Legacy Makers
Send-offs
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Papers
Commission Reports
Secondary Sources
Theses and Dissertations
Online Sources
Index
