Call Me Woman

by Ellen Kuzwayo, Nadine Gordimer (Preface), Bessie Head (Foreword)

The autobiography of a 72-year-old black South African Woman who has seen and been a part of her country's political history for the last fifty years. Winner of South Africa's CNS Literary Award (1987). "Among that small group of books that have entered into my consciousness and changed my frame of reference."-- San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: Nonfiction, South Africa, Biography, History, Africa, Autobiography, African Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (29 June 1914 – 19 April 2006) was a women's rights activist and politician in South Africa. She was president of the African National Congress Youth League in the 1960s. In 1994 she was elected to the first post-apartheid South African Parliament. Her autobiography, Call Me Woman (1985), won the CNA Prize.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible. I got it from a bookshop in Durban and have been reading it over the course of the last few weeks. I loved it straight from the beginning because the author outlines how apartheid specifically affected black women in South Africa. She talked about the troubles she’s had to deal with as a black woman, the problems that affected the entire black community, and the work that she and other black women were doing to fill in the too-large gaps that the government purposefully left. I’ve read a few history books and articles about SA that have all been really good but I didn’t have this perspective in so much detail before and it’d actually been something I was looking for. I’m glad I found this book.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This remarkable autobiography refuses to focus only on the author. It draws on the unrecorded history of a whole people. In telling her own personal and political story over 70 years, Ellen Kuzwayo speaks for, and with, the women among whom she lives and works. Their courage and dignity remain a source of wonder. The book is recorded history from an angle that most historians ignore. And therefor important.

[Jayne Bauling]

This was written while apartheid was still in force - it was published in 1985. The words pulse with raw pain, anger and frustration.

I wish all those who bleat about 'putting the past behind us' and how it's 'time to move on' - always the beneficiaries of apartheid - would read this and learn that it is impossible to pack the past away so easily.

It should also be required reading for those who claim that no land was ever stolen.

[Gabrielle Dubois · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cholofelo ga e tlhabise ditlhong."
"There is no shame in hoping."

Ellen Kuzwayo, a black South African woman, was born in 1914 and died in 2006 in South Africa. All her life, she worked and asked for the women of her country (and the men):
Rights for black women equal to those of black men and white women and men,
School for little girls,
Access to any higher education,
Access to any professions,
Decent hygiene, etc...
Raised in the Christian religion, she was a believer and derived her strength from her faith and the words of her grandparents, grandmother and mother. She had a happy childhood, but very traumatic experiences in adulthood, accompanied by happiness too, because she never, ever gave up. Her autobiography, Call Me Woman, was published in 1985 when the main laws of apartheid were still in force and she was 71 years old.

On the one hand, Ellen Kuzwayo explains the history of South Africa, from the African tribes of origin to Apartheid, including Christian missionaries. These mixtures of cultures, or rather these brutal cuts from one world to another, are analyzed by the author with foresight and without any hatred. Each culture has its own flaws and qualities. Ellen would only have liked everyone to take the best of the different cultures. But it never happens.
On the other hand, beyond the history of the country, she presents us the paths of black women, including her own. Because of unfair laws, men went to work in the mines, women remained alone in villages and countryside to support families.
Ellen dedicated her life to the black women of her country. Anonymous women, courageous, abused by the law, by black men themselves, imprisoned for a piece of bread stolen for their children or a demand for equal rights at least equal to those of black men; women imprisoned and abused even at the age of twelve, raped because they dare to create a club to support women, overwhelmed by burdens and work even though they are considered by law to be minors and need the signature of the son who is in their charge to obtain any official paper!

This book is necessary to understand the work that so many black women have done throughout the 20th century in South Africa to live, survive, educate their children in a world ruled by men and apartheid.

I knew very little about South Africa. To be honest, apart from Nelson Mandela, I couldn't have named one single person from this country!
And I'm reading this book, and IT PISSES ME OFF!
Once again, where are the women, in the newspapers, in the history books?
Where are Gladys,
Debra Nikiwe Matshoba,
Motena,
Phyllis Noluthando Mzaidume,
Matilda Papo,
Joyce Seroke,
Noniah Ramphomane,
Esther Seokelo,
Violet Sibusisiwe,
Winnie Motlalepule Monyatsi,
Minah Tembeka Soga,
Charlotte Manye Maxeke, who said: "You must kill the spirit of the self and not live above others, but with others. As you rise, raise others with you. Get rid of that awful beast lurking inside each of us, jealousy. Kill jealousy, and love your brothers and sisters."
Magdeline Sesedi,
Elisabeth Wolpert,
Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela,
Phyllis Noluthando,
Ann Magadzi,
Bertha Maboko…,
All these women and others have set up associations, created companies, built schools!
All these women and others have done everything they could to build a country instead of destroying it!
All these women and others have forged bonds of friendship and mutual aid between women and men instead of cracks of hatred!
Where are their names mentioned, but in few books written by other women and rather confidential?

"I will say it again and again throughout this book, the black woman has suffered from double discrimination for too long, as a woman and as a Black." But these women are resourceful in front of adversity. "Those who were considered by law to be minors turned out to be valiant heroines who fought against all odds for the love of their people."

This book is the book of a heroine: Ellen Kuzwayo, who survived an abusive husband, the separation from her first two sons when they were young, the house arrest of her son far away from her, her own imprisonment without motive or judgment; a woman who saw her black sisters suffer the worst treatments. Despite everything, Ellen has always kept an incredible hope; she has never let herself be overwhelmed by discouragement or hatred.

"Itsose Moea Wa Wa Me." "Awaken my soul." That's what Ellen Kuzwayo’s Call me Woman did to me.

[Wendy Coen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Kuzwayo's book was revelatory. I certainly did not have access to this socio-political information during my youth. Was shocked to discover just how ignorant the citizens of this country were kept in order to maintain a status of apartheid. Ellen's book has opened a door for a wealth of research and reading for me.

[Gage · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting perspective from a very driven and impactful woman during the apartheid regime in South Africa. The book takes on a stream of consciousness feel that can be challenging to read at times.

I am certainly glad that I persisted however.

[Che · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story has a natural flow to its plot. Reading it creates mental pictures of the events as well as the characters. Well narrated as only an african woman can. Love you Ellen.

[Agnes Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gives a good impression of the fight of the strong South African black women during apartheid, and you come to know of the initiatives and women behind them. I wish the book shared more of the systemic problems that faced all blacks in that time. But maybe that is on me for lacking knowledge on the subject. It made me want to learn more about the fight against apartheid in South Africa. And great to learn it through the eyes of Ellen Kuzwayo, a strong black woman in the heart of the action.
It was not the most catching story, especially due to the long mentions of a large range of women. And clearly not written for the plot. But still worth a read.

[Noxolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

KSKS

[Alisha Tait · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very insightful and so glad I read it

[Bongani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh atleast one book acknowledges the unsung heroes of the struggle, women. This is one book that South African girls and women should all read to draw inspiration and realize how great they truly are.

As for boys and men, it is inevitable that you are a changed man after reading this book.

[Zanele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that ushered me into reading, perhaps my favorite of all time.

[Alina Cristea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of a strong woman in a world of struggle and pain