By Kerrin Miller
Today is Women’s Day in South Africa. It celebrates the 9th August 1956 where 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to deliver petitions against Apartheid ‘pass’ laws. It’s the day that the women’s protest song Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo was first sung. It’s a day where women of all races, of all classes, some with babies on their backs, united in protest. It profoundly challenged the idea that a woman’s place was in the home. It profoundly challenged the idea of ‘women’s work’. Women, this march fiercely asserted, belong everywhere. Our work is to resist, to unite, to raise our voices, to stand firm, to protest, to petition, to protect human rights.
I stand deeply moved for the women who gathered that day – for their unity, for their power, their resolve.
I look back on the women went before me – my great grandmothers, my grandmothers, my mother. And I look at the women by my side – my friends, my colleagues, my sisters in law, my niece, my god daughter; and ahead to my daughters. And their daughters.
I know that the world and future we’re facing needs the full and equal participation of everyone.
Today I celebrate and acknowledge all who went before. And feel the responsibility of all who come after.
I invoke the resistance, unity, voices, firm resolve, protest, petition, protection of all our human rights.
