Women and South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Abstract

Credit for South Africa's liberation from the apartheid system of government under the National Party usually goes to forces within the country, especially the African National Congress under various leaders, from Oliver Tambo to Nelson Mandela. Also mentioned in the struggle for the abolition of the racist philosophy of government are the activities of independent, black-ruled countries in Africa and sympathetic nation-states, especially in Europe. Rarely highlighted are the activities of indigenous black women who operated within and outside the apartheid-ruled enclave. This chapter uses textual analysis to explore the political agitation of one such woman, Miriam Makeba, who used her music to communicate political messages that challenged the apartheid government. Makeba produced anti-apartheid songs and held performances that mobilized suppressed black South Africans to overthrow the internal colonialism imposed by the Afrikaner ruling elite. Now dead, Makeba lived to see an independent South Africa with Nelson Mandela as its first black president.