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Women in Solitary: Inside the female resistance to apartheid
‘The freezing loneliness made one wish for death,’ journalist Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin said of solitary confinement. With seven other women, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was held for more than a year. This is the story of these heroic women, their refusal to testify in the ‘Trial of 22’ in 1969, their brutal detention and how they picked up their lives afterwards.
229 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 31, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 18, 2022
When we think of struggles of liberation, the first and only struggle that comes to mind is the political kind. You cannot separate the political from the person, from the gendered, from the sexual, and from the racial.
In this book, Shanthini Naidoo chronicles the journey of four women, Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, Rita Ndzanga, Shanthie Naidoo, and Nondwe Mankahla, who were arrested between April and May 1969, with other 18 suspected terrorist, political activists, or any other title the apartheid police could manufacture, on trumped-up charges, which couldn't and didn't stick in the court of the day even during those turbulent times.
Joyce, Rita, Shanthini, and Nondwe were awaiting trial prison at the same time and in the same Pretoria Central Prison as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and almost nothing was written about their experiences. Thank you Shanthini, not related to Shanthie Naidoo, for changing the focus of your Masters' thesis and validated, by giving a voice, to the harrowing and traumatic experiences of these four brave women, who even during grievous physical, mental, and emotional torture, starvation and despicable acts against their female bodies endured their arduous journeys towards South Africa's "Long Walk To Freedom".
Joyce was 23 years old with a breast-feeding baby when she was arrested, Rita and Nondwe were both 36 with toddlers who they had to leave in their mothers' care. Shanthie was 34, a young woman growing into herself. State violence is more than advancing the policies of the day, state violence is lifelong torture and mental anguish, a stealer of young people's dreams, and a huge force which not only destructs current families but turns the children left behind into anguished, untethered, and unrooted adults.
Shanthini Naidoo lets the four women tell their stories in their own voices. We know how we narrate stories as black people, and I loved how the four women were left to bring out their experiences in the Englishes which they understood and felt comfortable with. Once we care less about the Western palatability of our stories, not only does our narrating become richer, it also carries a level of communal spirituality.
All the four women expected to be arrested, they were political activists, and with the township whistleblowers at every corner, they understood the risks and accepted the consequences. What they didn't prepare for was the level of torture at the hands of Theunis J "Rooi Rus" Swanepoel. This man, although dead, hovers above the four women's mental states. They still suffer from nightmares, 50 years later, and his name still invokes anxiety attacks in most of them.
Women in Solitary is more than a chronological account of a single common event in these four women's lives whose paths would never have crossed had they not believed in an equal South Africa for all. This is not a story of four women who risked personal, though limited liberties, for a greater good for all mankind. This book is not about the role of women in the struggle for liberation, this is a story of the roles women assume in struggles of all forms of liberations. Joyce and Rita had to leave their children in their mothers' care for over two years, we do not hear of their fathers or their fathers' families rising to the occasion of raising them.
All four women speak about hunger. Constantly being hungry and the unpalatable food which they had no choice but to eat to keep their bodies going. It was no longer about nourishment but sustenance. When that failed, their bodies started shutting down. Their periods stopped completely which was traumatic to them, but more traumatic and shameful was their denial of sanitary pads. They had to bleed out on themselves without another change of clothes. Degradation of the worst kind. Solitary confinement is not only traumatic, it is gendered too.
Apartheid was designed to totally break down all black people, but the story of the national formation and the place of women in history has mostly been about male leaders and fighters and one or two women because of their proximity to political power and perceived political royalty.
Shanthini Naidoo included an essay on Winnie Mandela, though a lot has been written about her experiences in detention, whose inclusion placed her in her rightful moment in history. These four women had never met Winnie prior to their detention, but she was the driving force behind the fight to liberation when Nelson was incarcerated on Robben Island. Shanthini Naidoo's dedication to these women pushes the reader to consider her-story, to foreground the roles of women in national struggles. Women In Solitary joins "These Bones Shall Rise Again" and "The Ressurection of Winnie Mandela" in rejecting old dichotomies of a parochial sense of nation and belonging in order to reach beyond national boundaries.
I read this novel in conversation with other African writings dealing with state violence, condition of exile, and the immigrant experience - "Travellers", Helon Habila; "Sitting Pretty", Christi van der Westhuizen; "We, The Scarred", Mukoma wa Ngugi; "She Would Be King", Wayetu Moore; "We Need New Names", Noviolet Bulawayo; Emma Mashinin's "Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life"; "Miriam's Song: A Memoir" by Miriam Mathabane as told to Mark Mathabane and "Dreams, Betrayal and Hope", Mamphela Ramphela.
In this book, Shanthini Naidoo chronicles the journey of four women, Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, Rita Ndzanga, Shanthie Naidoo, and Nondwe Mankahla, who were arrested between April and May 1969, with other 18 suspected terrorist, political activists, or any other title the apartheid police could manufacture, on trumped-up charges, which couldn't and didn't stick in the court of the day even during those turbulent times.
Joyce, Rita, Shanthini, and Nondwe were awaiting trial prison at the same time and in the same Pretoria Central Prison as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and almost nothing was written about their experiences. Thank you Shanthini, not related to Shanthie Naidoo, for changing the focus of your Masters' thesis and validated, by giving a voice, to the harrowing and traumatic experiences of these four brave women, who even during grievous physical, mental, and emotional torture, starvation and despicable acts against their female bodies endured their arduous journeys towards South Africa's "Long Walk To Freedom".
Joyce was 23 years old with a breast-feeding baby when she was arrested, Rita and Nondwe were both 36 with toddlers who they had to leave in their mothers' care. Shanthie was 34, a young woman growing into herself. State violence is more than advancing the policies of the day, state violence is lifelong torture and mental anguish, a stealer of young people's dreams, and a huge force which not only destructs current families but turns the children left behind into anguished, untethered, and unrooted adults.
Shanthini Naidoo lets the four women tell their stories in their own voices. We know how we narrate stories as black people, and I loved how the four women were left to bring out their experiences in the Englishes which they understood and felt comfortable with. Once we care less about the Western palatability of our stories, not only does our narrating become richer, it also carries a level of communal spirituality.
All the four women expected to be arrested, they were political activists, and with the township whistleblowers at every corner, they understood the risks and accepted the consequences. What they didn't prepare for was the level of torture at the hands of Theunis J "Rooi Rus" Swanepoel. This man, although dead, hovers above the four women's mental states. They still suffer from nightmares, 50 years later, and his name still invokes anxiety attacks in most of them.
Women in Solitary is more than a chronological account of a single common event in these four women's lives whose paths would never have crossed had they not believed in an equal South Africa for all. This is not a story of four women who risked personal, though limited liberties, for a greater good for all mankind. This book is not about the role of women in the struggle for liberation, this is a story of the roles women assume in struggles of all forms of liberations. Joyce and Rita had to leave their children in their mothers' care for over two years, we do not hear of their fathers or their fathers' families rising to the occasion of raising them.
All four women speak about hunger. Constantly being hungry and the unpalatable food which they had no choice but to eat to keep their bodies going. It was no longer about nourishment but sustenance. When that failed, their bodies started shutting down. Their periods stopped completely which was traumatic to them, but more traumatic and shameful was their denial of sanitary pads. They had to bleed out on themselves without another change of clothes. Degradation of the worst kind. Solitary confinement is not only traumatic, it is gendered too.
Apartheid was designed to totally break down all black people, but the story of the national formation and the place of women in history has mostly been about male leaders and fighters and one or two women because of their proximity to political power and perceived political royalty.
Shanthini Naidoo included an essay on Winnie Mandela, though a lot has been written about her experiences in detention, whose inclusion placed her in her rightful moment in history. These four women had never met Winnie prior to their detention, but she was the driving force behind the fight to liberation when Nelson was incarcerated on Robben Island. Shanthini Naidoo's dedication to these women pushes the reader to consider her-story, to foreground the roles of women in national struggles. Women In Solitary joins "These Bones Shall Rise Again" and "The Ressurection of Winnie Mandela" in rejecting old dichotomies of a parochial sense of nation and belonging in order to reach beyond national boundaries.
I read this novel in conversation with other African writings dealing with state violence, condition of exile, and the immigrant experience - "Travellers", Helon Habila; "Sitting Pretty", Christi van der Westhuizen; "We, The Scarred", Mukoma wa Ngugi; "She Would Be King", Wayetu Moore; "We Need New Names", Noviolet Bulawayo; Emma Mashinin's "Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life"; "Miriam's Song: A Memoir" by Miriam Mathabane as told to Mark Mathabane and "Dreams, Betrayal and Hope", Mamphela Ramphela.
January 8, 2021
This beautifully written book pays testament to those who fought for the rights of marginalised women in South Africa. Naidoo brings us the incredible narratives of four women – Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, Shanthie Naidoo, Rita Ndzanga and Nondwe Mankahla – who experienced detention and torture in South Africa in the late 1960s in the face of a trial to convict leading anti-apartheid activists. This book tells their story and explores our history through their lens. It also reviews the struggle for freedom in South Africa and the role of the anti-apartheid movement in a refreshing, moving and memorable way.
A short description of the book:
“The freezing loneliness made one wish for death,’ journalist Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin said of solitary confinement. With seven other women, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was held for more than a year. This is the story of these heroic women, their refusal to testify in the ‘Trial of 22’ in 1969, their brutal detention and how they picked up their lives afterwards.”
Well worth a read!
A short description of the book:
“The freezing loneliness made one wish for death,’ journalist Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin said of solitary confinement. With seven other women, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was held for more than a year. This is the story of these heroic women, their refusal to testify in the ‘Trial of 22’ in 1969, their brutal detention and how they picked up their lives afterwards.”
Well worth a read!
October 28, 2021
A necessary retelling of our history. I appreciate the perspective of the struggle through these women's eyes. I am significantly enriched by this writing
January 25, 2024
Een boek dat eraan herinnert dat mannen en vrouwen vaak dezelfde strijd voeren, maar dat de mannen daarom vaker worden geloofd en herdacht.
Uitstekende vertaling door Tineke Jager.
Geen ontspannende bedlectuur. Wel een bewustmaker.
Een citaat:
Vijftig jaar na dato vraag ik Nondwe hoe ze denkt over haar bijdrage aan de strijd
"Mijn kinderen willen ook weten waarom ik niet bij de politici ben," zegt ze schouderophalend, "Toen we jong waren, waren we niet gelijk in dit land. (...) De jongeren weten niet hoe erg het vroeger was. Soms als ik zie dat er iets slecht gaat, denk ik: Waar heb ik het voor gedaan? Ik had wel dood kunnen zijn. Het is verdrietig omdat het ANC nu ineenstort. Al die mensen uit de jaren 80 en 90, die geven niet om de echte politiek. Ze zijn nooit gearresteerd, ze hebben nooit gevangen gezeten, in eenzame opsluiting. Er is geen discipline. Ze willen een huis. Ik heb moeten werken voor waar ik nu woon. Ik kreeg niet eens een huis van de overheid, omdat ik niet getrouwd was. Maar daar ben ik niet kwaad over. (...) Nu zijn we echt vrij.
Nondwe Mankhala
Uitstekende vertaling door Tineke Jager.
Geen ontspannende bedlectuur. Wel een bewustmaker.
Een citaat:
Vijftig jaar na dato vraag ik Nondwe hoe ze denkt over haar bijdrage aan de strijd
"Mijn kinderen willen ook weten waarom ik niet bij de politici ben," zegt ze schouderophalend, "Toen we jong waren, waren we niet gelijk in dit land. (...) De jongeren weten niet hoe erg het vroeger was. Soms als ik zie dat er iets slecht gaat, denk ik: Waar heb ik het voor gedaan? Ik had wel dood kunnen zijn. Het is verdrietig omdat het ANC nu ineenstort. Al die mensen uit de jaren 80 en 90, die geven niet om de echte politiek. Ze zijn nooit gearresteerd, ze hebben nooit gevangen gezeten, in eenzame opsluiting. Er is geen discipline. Ze willen een huis. Ik heb moeten werken voor waar ik nu woon. Ik kreeg niet eens een huis van de overheid, omdat ik niet getrouwd was. Maar daar ben ik niet kwaad over. (...) Nu zijn we echt vrij.
Nondwe Mankhala
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